Prakrit
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Pra·krit
(prä'krĭt) 
n.
n.
- Any of the vernacular and literary Indic languages recorded from the third century B.C. to the fourth century A.D., as opposed to Sanskrit.
- Any of the modern Indic languages.
[Sanskrit prākṛtam, from neuter sing. of prākṛta-, natural, vulgar, vernacular : pra-, before, forward + karoti, he makes; see Sanskrit.]
Prakritic Pra·krit'ic adj.Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism:
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Prakrit
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Prakrit
Prakrit (prä'krĭt), any of a number of languages belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian). The Prakrits are usually classified as Middle Indic languages that followed the Old Indic stage of Sanskrit and Vedic but preceded the Modern Indic period. Some scholars, however, use the term Prakrit to include the Modern Indic vernaculars as well as those of the Middle Indic period-in short, to designate all Indic languages other than Sanskrit and Vedic. Other authorities say that the Modern Indic languages, which began to take form between 1000 and 1200, developed from the various medieval Prakrits. The oldest written records of the Prakrits are inscriptions of the 3d cent. B.C., but the languages were in use as vernaculars by the 6th cent. B.C. The Prakrits have been described as regional or vernacular dialects of classical Sanskrit. They were popular forms of speech, but a few of them developed into literary languages. Some estimates put the number of Prakrits at 38. In the ancient Indian drama, upper-class male (and sometimes female) characters use Sanskrit, while the characters (both male and female) of the lower classes speak various Prakrits. It can therefore be inferred that in this early period the Prakrits as popular forms of speech were used side by side with Sanskrit, the language of the priests and the nobility. Pali, a Middle Indic language that became the language of the Buddhists and their sacred literature, is considered a Prakrit by some scholars, though not by all. There are important phonetic and grammatical differences between the Old Indic and Middle Indic languages. For example, the Prakrits were much simpler grammatically than classical Sanskrit, having discarded the dual number for noun and verb, reduced the eight-case system of Sanskrit for the noun, and generally simplified the verb. On the whole, the vocabulary of Prakrit is of Old Indic origin.
Bibliography
See A. C. Woolner, Introduction to Prakrit (2d ed. 1928, repr. 1986).
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Prakrit
| Prakrit | |
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| Linguistic classification: | Indo-European
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| ISO 639-2 and 639-5: | pra |
Prakrit (also transliterated as Pracrit) (Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत, from pra-kṛti प्रकृति, Shauraseni:pāuda पाउद, Telugu:ప్రాకౄత, Maharashtri:pāua पाउअ) is the name for a group of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, derived from dialects of Old Indo-Aryan languages.[1][2]:p.3
Ardhamagadhi language ("half Magadhi"), an archaic form of Magadhi language which was used extensively to write Jain scriptures, is often considered to be the definitive form of Prakrit, while others are considered variants thereof. Prakrit grammarians would give the full grammar of Ardhamagadhi first, and then define the other grammars with relation to it. For this reason, courses teaching "Prakrit" is often regarded as teaching Ardhamagadhi.[3] Pali language (the liturgical Prakrit language of Theravada Buddhism) tends to be treated as a special exception from the variants of Ardhamagadhi language, as Classical Sanskrit grammars do not consider it as a Prakrit per se, presumably for sectarian rather than linguistic reasons. Other Prakrits are reported in old historical sources, but are no longer spoken (such as Paisaci).
Some modern scholars follow this classification by including all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated from the history of Sanskrit by wide divisions of caste, religion, and geography.[4] While Prakrits were originally seen as "lower" forms of language, the influence they had on Sanskrit, allowing it to be more easily used by the common people, as well as "Sankritization" of Prakrits gave Prakrits progressively higher cultural cachet.[5]
The word Prakrit itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious orthodoxy of Sanskrit. Alternatively, Prakrit can be taken to mean "derived from an original," which means evolved in natural way. Prakrit is foremost a native term, designating "vernaculars" as opposed to Sanskrit.
The Prakrits became literary languages, generally patronized by ancient Indian kings identified with the Kshatriya Varna of Hinduism, but were regarded as illegitimate by the orthodoxy. The earliest extant usage of Prakrit is the corpus of inscriptions of Emperor Asoka. Besides this, Prakrit appears in literature in the form of Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhists, Prakrit canon of the Jains, Prakrit grammars and in lyrics, plays and epics of the times.[6] The various Prakrit languages are associated with different patron dynasties, with different religions and different literary traditions, as well as different regions of the Indian subcontinent. Each Prakrit represents a distinct tradition of literature within the history of India.
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Etymology
According to the dictionary of Monier Monier-Williams, the most frequent meanings of the Sanskrit term prakṛta, from which the word "prakrit" is derived, are "original, natural, normal" and the term is derived from prakṛti, "making or placing before or at first, the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance". In linguistic terms, this is used in contrast with saṃskṛta, "refined". Traditionally, many[who?] have believed that the Prakrits are older than Sanskrit, and that it was from the Prakrits that Sanskrit was refined. However, from a comparative Indo-European point of view, Sanskrit (especially Vedic Sanskrit) is closer to reconstructed Proto-Indo-European than are the Prakrits, so that Sanskrit belongs to a linguistically earlier stage of history.
Some scholars[who?] restrict the use of the term "Prakrit" to the languages used by Hindu and Jain writers only; others[who?] include the Buddhist languages, such as Pali and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and the inscriptional Prakrits. Other Prakrits include the Gāndhārī, and Paisāci, which is known through grammarians' statements[citation needed]. The modern languages of Northern India developed from the Prakrits, after the intermediary stage of the Apabhramsa language.
Dramatic Prakrits
Dramatic Prakrits were those that were devised specifically for use in dramas and other literature. Whenever dialogue was written in a Prakrit, the reader would also be provided with a Sanskrit translation. None of these Prakrits came into being as vernaculars, but some ended up being used as such when Sanskrit fell out of favor.[7]
The phrase "Dramatic Prakrits" often refers to three most prominent of them: Sauraseni, Magadhi, and Maharashtri. However, there were a slew of other less commonly used Prakrits that also fall into this category. These include Pracya, Bahliki, Daksinatya, Sakari, Candali, Sabari, Abhiri, Dramili, and Odri. There was an astoundingly strict structure to the use of these different Prakrits in dramas. Characters each spoke a different Prakrit based on their role and background; for example, Dramili was the language of "forest-dwellers", Sauraseni was spoken by "the heroine and her female friends", and Avanti was spoken by "cheats and rogues".[8]
Maharashtri, the root of modern Marathi, is a particularly interesting case. Maharashtri was often used for poetry and as such, diverged from proper Sanskrit grammar mainly to fit the language to the meter of different styles of poetry. The new grammar stuck which leads to the unique flexibility of vowels lengths, amongst other anomalies, in Marathi.[9]
References
- National Institute of Prakrit Study And Research. Shravanabelagola Karnataka, India
- Banerjee, Satya Ranjan. The Eastern School of Prakrit Grammarians : a linguistic study. Calcutta: Vidyasagar Pustak Mandir, 1977.
- Daniels, Peter T., The World's Writing Systems. USA: Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Deshpande, Madhav, Sanskrit & Prakrit, sociolinguistic issues. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993.
- Pischel, R. Grammar of the Prakrit Languages. New York: Motilal Books, 1999.
- Woolner, Alfred C. Introduction to Prakrit, 2nd Edition. Lahore: Punjab University, 1928. Reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, India, 1999.
Notes
- ^ Daniels, pg. 377
- ^ Woolner, Alfred C. (1928). Introduction to Prakrit. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.,. pp. 235 pages. ISBN 81-208-0189-X, 9788120801899.
- ^ Woolner, pg. 6
- ^ Deshpande, pg. 33
- ^ Deshpande, pg. 35
- ^ Woolner, Alfred C. (1928). Introduction to Prakrit (2 (reprint) ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-81-208-0189-9. http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontopr00woolrich. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
- ^ Woolner, pg. v.
- ^ Banerjee, pg. 19-21
- ^ Deshpande, pg. 36-37
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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A Dictionary of Buddhism. Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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