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According to Sanskrit and Prakrit scholar Shreyansh Kumar Jain Shastri and A. C. Woolner, the Ardhamagadhi (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 ...
Prakrit languages, Middle Indo-Aryan languages known from inscriptions, literary works, and grammarians’ descriptions. Prakrit languages are related to Sanskrit but differ from and are contrasted with it in several ways.
- George Cardona
The term Prakrit is often homogeneously used to refer to its various dialects and sub-dialects; these dialects were employed for spoken and written communications, depending on factors such as geography, religious affiliation, motive of the speakers/writers and the genre employed by them.
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Ollett, Andrew. Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780520296220. [Available as a physical bo...Nitti-Dolci, Luigia. The Prākrita Grammarians. Delhi: MotilalBanarsidass, 1972. [Translated by Prabhākara Jha; the book was originally published in 1938.]Dundas, Paul. The Sattasaī and its Commentators. Turin: Pubblicazioni di «Indologica Taurinensia», 1985. [Available on Canvas.].Selby, Martha Ann. Grow Long, Blessed Night: Love Poems from Classical India.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.Pischel, Richard. A Grammar of the Prākrit Languages. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981. [Available from Internet Archive; I have also put a copy up on Canvas, as well as the comprehensive class="te...van den Bossche, Frank. A Reference Manual of Middle Prākrit Grammar: The Prākrits of the Dramas and the Jain Texts. Gent: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuid- en Oost-Azië, 1999. [Available on Can...von Hinüber, Oskar. Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001. Second revised edition. [Available on Canvas.]Sircar, D. C. Grammar of the Prakrit Language, based Mainly on Vararuchi, Hemachandra and Purushottama. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970 [second revised edition; first edition 1943]. [Available on...Sheth, Hargovind Das T. Pāia-sadda-mahaṇṇavō (Prākr̥ta-śabda-mahārṇavaḥ). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986. [A reprint of the second edition, published by the Prakrit Text Society in 1963. Availabl...
Jacobi, Hermann. Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Mâhârâshṭrî. Leipzig: Birzel, 1886. [Both a useful textbook, with selections from narrative literature accompanied by a glossary and a grammatical sketch...Woolner, Alfred. Introduction to Prakrit. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1917. [Available at Internet Archive.]Kulkarni, V. M. Prakrit Verses Cited in Sanskrit Works of Poetics. 2 vols. Delhi: Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology, 1988. [A truly important, but nevertheless difficult-to-use, resource, w...
The most prominent form of Prakrit is Ardhamāgadhı̄, associated with the ancient kingdom of Magadha, in modern Bihar, and the subsequent Mauryan Empire. Mahāvı̄ra, the founder of Jainism, was born in Magadha, and the earliest Jain texts were composed in Ardhamāgadhı̄.
How can we characterize Prakrit, as a language and as a literary tradition? The most straightforward answer might be to provide a systematic account of its dif-ferences from other languages, and specifically from Sanskrit. For Sanskrit and Prakrit are sister languages: we recognize one by contrast with the other. Prakrit
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These passages represent at least several centuries of reflection on Prakrit, as a language and as a literary tradition. Can we identify regularities in the way Prakrit is talked about? How do we account for them? What is the nature of Prakrit’s relationship with Sanskrit? Do they complement or contradict each other?
