A History of Sanskrit Literature c4.40

c4.40

In the oldest period of Prākrit, that of the Pāli Açoka inscriptions and the early Buddhistic and Jain literature, two main dialects, the Western and the Eastern, may be distinguished. Between the beginning of our era and about 1000 A.D., mediæval Prākrit, which is still synthetic in character, is divided into four chief dialects. In the west we find *Apabhraṃça* ("decadent") in the valley of the Indus, and *Çaurasenī* in the Doab, with Mathurā as its centre. Subdivisions of the latter were *Gauṛjarī* (*Gujaratī*), *Avantī* (Western *Rājputānī*), and *Mahārāshṭrī* (Eastern *Rājputānī*). The Eastern Prākrit now appears as *Māgadhī*, the dialect of Magadha, now Behar, and *Ardha-Māgadhī* (Half-Māgadhī), with Benares as its centre. These mediæval Prākrits are important in connection with Sanskrit literature, as they are the vernaculars employed by the uneducated classes in the Sanskrit drama.