A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1379

c5.1379

PRĀKRITA. The Prākrits are provincial dialects of the Sanskrit, exhibiting more or less deterioration from the original language; and they occupy an intermediate position between that language and the modern vernaculars of India, very similar to that of the Romance languages between the Latin and the modern languages of Europe. They resemble the European languages also in another respect: they have in them a small proportion of words which have not been affiliated on the original classical language, and are apparently remnants of a different tongue and an older race. The Prākṛits are chiefly known from the dramas in which kings and Brāhmans speak Sanskrit, while characters of inferior position speak in different Prākṛits. Sometimes these Prākṛit passages are so very debased that it hardly seems possible for them to be specimens of really spoken vernaculars. Such passages may perhaps be comic exaggerations of provincial peculiarities. The Prākṛits have received careful study, and the Prākṛita-prakāsa, a Grammar by Vararuchi, translated by Professor Cowell, was probably written about the beginning of the Christian era. See Kātyāyana.