Little is known about the "mysterious Pai~ici" except for the rather general, and often contradictory, rules laid down by the Prikrit grammarians. The few text fragments quoted by these authorities have been collected and discussed by Lacrte, Essai sur Gun. d.dhya et la B.rhatkathd (Paris, 1908), pp. 201 ft., and by Alfred Master, JRAS (1943), pp. 217 ft. Some additional specimens occurring in very artificial Jaina stavanas are of a rather late date and do not add to our knowledge, as these stanzas are based upon the Prikrit grammarians; cf. Dharmavardhana's S. a dbhd.sdnirmita-Par~vajinastavana (dating from circa 1200 A.D.) and Jinapadma's ~dntindthastavana (composed in the first half of the 14th century), which Schubring has published in the Festgabe Jacobi (1926), p. 89 ft.
However, Master, though stating that "No text exists written in Paiw (p. 231), inferred from the brief extracts from Uddyotana Dik.si.nyacihnasifi's Kuvalayamdld (A.D. 779) published by L. Bh. Gandhi in GOS, XXXVII, 1 that a more extensive Pai~ici fragment must occur in this work. In 1948 he was able to publish this "longest extract extant in Pai~ici" in BSOAS, XII, pp. 659-667. Although its value as a linguistic piece of evidence appeared to be but slight, as it is written in the traditional artificial Kivya style, yet it has some importance in that it shows what authors of the eighth century considered to be the linguistic characteristics of this literary dialect. For this reason it is desirable that the text should be established as exactly as possible. The following re-edition of the fragment, which is published at Mr. Master's instance, has much profited by the excellent reproduction of this passage in the oldest MS., which accompanies Master's article.
1 Apabhrarhrakavyatrayi, Three Apabhrariaga Works of Jinadattasfiri with commentaries (Baroda, 1927), Introduction.