Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, excluding Pali.
The oldest stage of Middle Indo-Aryan language is attested in the inscriptions of Ashoka (c. 260 BCE), as well as in the earliest forms of Pāli, the language of the Theravāda Buddhist canon. The most prominent form of Prakrit is Ardhamāgadhı̄, associated with the ancient kingdom of Magadha, in modern Bihar, and the subsequent Mauryan Empire. Mahāvīra, the 24th and last Tīrthaṅkara of Jainism, was born in Magadha, and the earliest Jain texts were composed in Ardhamāgadhı̄.
Etymology There are two major views concerning the way in which Sanskrit and Prakrit are related. One view holds that Prakrit was the speech of the common people, unadorned by grammar, and that prākṛta thus refers to vernacular usage, while Sanskrit was a co-existing but elevated register of the language. This is the usual explanation accepted by Western linguists. It also is one of several views noted, for example, by Nami Sadhu (11th century CE) in his commentary on Rudraṭa's Kāvyālaṅkāra (“Ornaments of Poetry”), a 9th-century treatise on poetics. In contrast, the view most commonly held by modern Prakrit grammarians holds that the Prakrit languages are vernaculars that descended from Sanskrit at a later date:
According to the Prākrṭa Prakāśa, an ancient Prakrit grammar, “Saṃskṛtam is the prakṛti (source) and the language that originates in, or comes from, that prakṛti, is therefore called prākṛtam.” Hemachandra (a grammarian of the 11th century who lived in Gujarat) in his grammar of Sanskrit and Prākrit named Siddha-Hema-Śabdanuśāsana, defines prākṛta’s origin to be sanskṛt: “prakṛtiḥ saṃskṛtam, tatrabhavaṃ tata āgataṃ vā prākṛtaṃ”[Sanskrit is the prakṛti (source) and Prākṛta is so called because it either ‘originates in’ or ‘comes from’ Sanskrit.] Another prākṛta grammarian, Mārkaṇḍeya, writes in his grammar Prākṛtasarvasva: “prakṛtiḥ saṃskṛtaṃ, tatrabhavaṃ prākṛtam ucyate” [Sanskrit is called the prakṛti (origin), and from there prākṛtam originates]. Dhanika, in his ‘Daśarūpakāvaloka’ commentary on Daśarūpaka (one of the most important treatises explaining the 10 types of Indian Drama), says: “prakṛter āgataṃ prākṛtam, prakṛtiḥ saṃskṛtam” [from the prakṛti (source) comes Prākṛtam, and that prakṛti is Sanskrit] Siṃhadevagaṇin while commenting on Vāgbhaṭālaṅkāra writes: “prakṛteḥ saṃskrtād āgataṃ prākṛtam” [from Sanskrit (which is the source, i.e. prakṛti) comes Prākṛta] The Prākṛtacandrikā (a grammar of Prākṛta) says: “prakṛtiḥ saṃskṛtaṃ, tatrabhavatvāt prākṛtaṃ smṛtam” [Sanskrit is the prakṛti, it is remembered that prākṛtam originates from that (prakṛti)] The Prākṛtaśabdapradīpikā of Narasiṃha says: “prakṛteḥ saṃskṛtāyāstu vikṛtiḥ prākṛtī matā” [Alterations/changes (vikṛti) of the original Sanskrit is known as Prākṛta] The Ṣaḍbhāṣācandrikā of Lakṣmīdhara says the same thing as the above: “prakṛteḥ saṃskṛtāyāstu vikṛtiḥ prākṛtī matā” [Alterations/changes (vikṛti) of the original Sanskrit is known as Prākṛta] Vāsudeva, in his Prākṛtasaṃjīvanī commentary on Rājaśekhara's Karpūramañjarī, says: “prākṛtasya tu sarvameva saṃskṛtaṃ yoniḥ” [Sanskrit is the mother of all Prākṛta] Nārāyaṇa, in his Rasika-sarvasva commentary on the Gītāgovindam of Jayadeva, says: “saṃskṛtāt prākṛtam iṣṭaṃ tato ’pabhraṃśabhāṣaṇam” [From Sanskrit is derived proper prākṛt, and from that is derived the corrupt-speech, i.e. apabhraṃśa] Śaṅkara, in his Rasacandrikā commentary on the Abhijñānaśākuntala (play by Kālidāsa), says something slightly different from the above: “saṃskṛtāt prākṛtam śreṣṭhaṃ tato ’pabhraṃśabhāṣaṇam” [From Sanskrit is derived best prākṛta, and from that is derived the corrupt-speech, i.e. apabhraṃśa]
The dictionary of Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899), and other modern authors, however, interpret the word in the opposite sense: “The most frequent meanings of the term , from which the word ‘prakrit’ is derived, are ‘original, natural, normal’ and the term is derived from , ‘making or placing before or at first, the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance.’”
Definition Modern scholars have used the term "Prakrit" to refer to two concepts:
Prakrit languages: a group of closely related literary languages the Prakrit language: one of the Prakrit languages, which alone was used as the primary language of entire poems
Some modern scholars include all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of 'Prakrits', while others emphasize the independent development of these languages, often separated from the history of Sanskrit by wide divisions of caste, religion, and geography.
The broadest definition uses the term "Prakrit" to describe any Middle Indo-Aryan language that deviates from Sanskrit in any manner. American scholar Andrew Ollett points out that this unsatisfactory definition makes "Prakrit" a cover term for languages that were not actually called Prakrit in ancient India, such as:
Ashokan Prakrit: the language of Ashoka's inscriptions the language of later inscriptions of India, labeled "Monumental Prakrit", "Lena Prakrit", or "Stupa dialect" the language of inscriptions of Sri Lanka, labeled "Sinhalese Prakrit" Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Gandhari, the language of birch-bark scrolls discovered in the region stretching from northwestern Pakistan to western China.
According to some scholars, such as German Indologists Richard Pischel and Oskar von Hinüber, the term "Prakrit" refers to a smaller set of languages that were used exclusively in literature:
Scenic Prakrits These languages are used exclusively in plays, as secondary languages Their names indicate regional association (e.g. Shauraseni, Magadhi, and Avanti), although these associations are mostly notional Primary Prakrits These languages are used as primary languages of literary classics such as Gaha Sattasai This includes the Maharashtri Prakrit or "Prakrit par excellence", which according to Dandin's Kavya-darsha, was prevalent in the Maharashtra region, and in which poems such as Ravana-vaho (or Setubandha) were composed.
According to Sanskrit and Prakrit scholar Shreyansh Kumar Jain Shastri and A. C. Woolner, the Ardhamāgadhı̄ (or simply Magadhi) Prakrit, which was used extensively to write the scriptures of Jainism, is often considered to be the definitive form of Prakrit, while others are considered variants of it. Prakrit grammarians would give the full grammar of Ardhamāgadhı̄ first, and then define the other grammars with relation to it. For this reason, courses teaching 'Prakrit' are often regarded as teaching Ardhamāgadhı̄.
Development of Prakrit from Old Indo-Aryan
The Prakrit and Pali languages developed from Old Indo-Aryan (OIA, e.g. Vedic Sanskrit, ca. 600 BCE) by a set of regular phonological transformations. This section summarizes the changes occurring between Vedic Sanskrit (ca. 600 BCE), Early Middle-Indo-Aryan (MIA) in Pali or Ashokan Prakrit (ca. 280 BCE), the dramatic regional Prakrits like Maharashtri Prakrit (ca. 200 CE), and finally the late Prakrit or Apabhramsha stage (ca. 900 CE).
Conservative features lost in Vedic Prakrit and Pali languages partially-preserve some conservative features of Proto-Indo-Aryan (PIA) lost in Vedic Sanskrit. Specifically:
PIA *kṣ, *gẓʰ merge to Vedic kṣ, but remain distinguished later as kh-, jh- initially and -kkh-, -jjh- medially. Compare PIA Hákṣi > Sanskrit akṣi > Prakrit akkhi "eye" with PIA gẓʰáranam > Vedic kṣaraṇam, later Sanskrit jharaṇam > Prakrit jharaṇa "falling". The distinction between PIE *r and *l survived in the "l-dialect" of Indo-Aryan, which went on to form the basis of Classical Sanskrit and Central MIA. The Northwestern Vedic dialect, perhaps under areal influence of Iranian, underwent an l > r shift alongside the same shift in Iranian. Thus, Vedic is part of the "r-dialect" of Indo-Aryan, though /l/ continues to exist as a relatively rarer phoneme in Vedic. Due to the prestige of the Vedic dialect, the r-dialect forms were often accepted into the dialect of Classical Sanskrit and later into Central MIA. More rarely, l is encountered in the later language for PIE *r. Compare PIE *rikh₂-é-ti > Sanskrit likhati > Prakrit lihadi, lihaï. The l-dialect (and cases of /l/ in Vedic) then possibly underwent Fortunatov's law, wherein pre-Sanskrit dentals *t, *tʰ, *d, *dʱ, *s, and *n underwent cerebralization after PIA *l, after which the *l was deleted. — PIA *ȷ́l̥tʰáram > Sanskrit jaṭhára "stomach, womb". Proponents of Fortunatov's law will separate this from the Middle Indo-Aryan rule in which a dental is cerebralized by a preceding rhotic. That later rule only affects plosives (and even then, it operates sporadically), while Fortunatov's law reliably operated in Old Indo-Aryan. It shifts s > ṣ (Proto-Indo-Iranian bʰā̆ls- > Sanskrit bhāṣ- "to speak"), while the distinction between s ~ ṣ ~ ś had already been lost by Middle Indo-Aryan. In Vedic and Pali dialects, PIA *ẓḍ > ḷ (ळ) /ɭ/ and*ẓḍʰ > ḷh (ळ्ह) /ɭʱ/. Elsewhere (and regularly in Classical Sanskrit), PIA *ẓḍ > ḍ (ड) /ɖ/ and*ẓḍʰ > ḍh (ढ) /ɖʱ/.
Early changes common to all Indo-Aryan languages The following changes are common to Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) and Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan (also known as Dardic).
The unpredictable pitch accent of Vedic was lost, resulting in the mora-timed isochrony of Pali. The pitch accent is sometimes used to explain some irregular consonant doubling (Vedic jitáḥ > Prakrit jitto "won") or differences between Marathi and neighboring languages, indicating that the Vedic accent may have converted to a stress accent (as with Ancient Greek) and persisted in the Maharashtri region. However, this topic is debated and in the case of the irregular consonant doubling there may be alternative explanations. Before a consonant, Vedic e /ɐj/ (ए) and o /ɐw/ (ओ) monophthongize to /eː/ and /oː/, respectively. In the same position, Vedic ai /ɑːj/ (ऐ) > /ɑj/ and au /ɑːw/ (औ) > /ɑw/. This pronunciation is already used in Classical Sanskrit, distinguishing it from Vedic. Loss of word-final consonants in a few ways: Sanskrit word-final plosives (only /k ʈ t̪ p/) are lost with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Based on the initial consonant of the following word, Vedic word-final visarga /h/ has the allophones , [ɸ], [ɾ], [x], [s], [ɕ], [ʂ], or [w]. Already in Classical Sanskrit, [ɸ] and [x] are not found. Later, Vedic -अः /ɐh/ becomes MIA -ओ /oː/ everywhere. Remaining word-final /h/ was entirely lost without a trace. Final nasals are lost with compensatory nasalization of the preceding vowel, indicated by the anusvara. Mishra and Bloch argue that word-final anusvara was realized as nasalization, but elsewhere anusvara was still pronounced as a nasal consonant. MIA monophthongization of /ɑj ɐjɐ ɐji ɐjoː ɐvi/ > /eː/. Similarly, /ɑw ɐʋɐ/ > /oː/, though occasionally /ɐʋɐ/ fails to reduce. — Sanskrit avarodhanam /ɐʋɐɾoːd̪ʱɐn̪ɐm/ > Ashokan olodhanaṃ /oːloːd̪ʱɐn̪ɐ̃/ "harem"