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Prakrit

Group of languages of the 5th century BCE – 12th century CE

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Word for Prakrit Praakritee in the Mandsaur stone inscription of Yashodharman-Vishnuvardhana 532 CE
6th century CE engraver. inked impression and photograph by J.F. Fleet (1847 – 21 February 1917) in 1888 · Public domain

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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:

  1. 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.”
  2. 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.]
  3. 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].
  4. 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]
  5. Siṃhadevagaṇin while commenting on Vāgbhaṭālaṅkāra writes: “prakṛteḥ saṃskrtād āgataṃ prākṛtam” [from Sanskrit (which is the source, i.e. prakṛti) comes Prākṛta]
  6. 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)]
  7. The Prākṛtaśabdapradīpikā of Narasiṃha says: “prakṛteḥ saṃskṛtāyāstu vikṛtiḥ prākṛtī matā” [Alterations/changes (vikṛti) of the original Sanskrit is known as Prākṛta]
  8. 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]
  9. Vāsudeva, in his Prākṛtasaṃjīvanī commentary on Rājaśekhara's Karpūramañjarī, says: “prākṛtasya tu sarvameva saṃskṛtaṃ yoniḥ” [Sanskrit is the mother of all Prākṛta]
  10. 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]
  11. 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 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.’”

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