XXVI
•intricate constructions are to be traced therein. The ideas are easily intelligible. The forms of words are all -similar to the earlier dramas or the Puranas, Sabaraswamin has a lively style, though this presents a further stage in the downward progress. Now the philosophical style -sets in and continues to a degree of mischief which is now Jbeyond all reformation. Sankara represents the middle .stage. His explanations are aided by dialectic terminology. Involved construction and attributive qualification form the chief marring instruments. But his language is ^fluent and perspicuous, but not petrified as that of later writers. The last stage is reached in the works of the Naiyayikas. These latter hate the use of verbs. The -ablative singular and the indeclinable particles play a prominent part in their composition. Nouns are abstract -and even participles are rare. The style is one of solidified -formulae, rather of a varying discourse. Thus the end is that the movement which started with the simple sentence -and predicative construction has run up to a stage where the original character is entirely modified and the Sanskrit language has become a language of abstract nouns and •compound words,
This rapid deteribration in the style of scientific com-position had a corresponding influence on the language of literary writings. The earlier works of prose or poetry are simple, natural and suggestive; the later are complex, strained and unnatural Sri Harsha can never reflect Kalidasa, nor can Trivikrama compare with Dandin. The characteristics of this latter style are thus summarised :—*ces are short and such as one-would use in oral disputations. No tiring compounds, nain. This construction is facilitated by a