प्राकृत भाषा और उसकी बोलियाँ
What 'Prakrit' means
Two readings of one word
Its place — the Prakrits are Middle Indo-Aryan languages, sisters of Pali, standing between Old Indo-Aryan (Vedic and classical Sanskrit) and the modern languages:
| Stage | Examples |
|---|---|
| early Middle Indo-Aryan | Ashoka's inscriptions, Pali |
| middle | the literary Prakrits — Ardhamāgadhī, Śaurasenī, Mahārāṣṭrī, Māgadhī |
| late | Apabhraṃśa, the bridge to the modern languages |
One family, many dialects — 'Prakrit' is not a single language but a group, each named for the region it is associated with.
The trap: Pali is not one of the classical Prakrits named by the Sanskrit grammarians, but it belongs to the same Middle Indo-Aryan stage — options sometimes treat the two as unrelated.
प्राकृत भाषा और उसकी बोलियाँ
The literary Prakrits
| Prakrit | Region named | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Ardhamāgadhī ('half-Magadhi') | between Magadha and the west | the Śvetāmbara Jain canon; by tradition the language of Mahāvīra's teaching |
| Māgadhī | Magadha (south Bihar) | the speech of lower-status characters in Sanskrit drama |
| Śaurasenī | Śūrasena, the Mathura region | the prose of women and ordinary characters in Sanskrit drama; the Digambara Jain texts ('Jain Śaurasenī') |
| Mahārāṣṭrī | the Deccan | lyric and epic poetry, and the songs in Sanskrit drama; the poet-critic Daṇḍin called it the finest Prakrit |
| Paiśācī | uncertain, perhaps the north-west | Guṇāḍhya's Bṛhatkathā, now lost |
Literary, not simply spoken — these are the Prakrits as literature shaped them; they took their names from regions but were used across India by convention — Mahārāṣṭrī verse was written far from Maharashtra.
The trap: the Jain Śvetāmbara canon is in Ardhamāgadhī, while the Digambara texts are in Śaurasenī — the sect decides the dialect.
प्राकृत भाषा और उसकी बोलियाँ
Prakrit in Sanskrit drama
A convention of the stage — classical Sanskrit plays mix languages by character:
| Who speaks | Language |
|---|---|
| kings, Brahmins, ministers, men of learning | Sanskrit |
| women (even queens and heroines), children, servants, most ordinary people | Prakrit — prose usually in Śaurasenī, songs in Mahārāṣṭrī |
| low-status characters such as guards, fishermen and gamblers | often Māgadhī or other dialects |
| the vidūṣaka, the jester-companion of the hero — though a Brahmin | Prakrit |
Examples
What it tells us — the plays mirror a society in which Sanskrit was the language of power and learning, while Prakrit was the language of home and street; a reader of drama must read both.
The trap: the vidūṣaka is a Brahmin and yet speaks Prakrit — the rule follows role and status in the play, not caste alone.
प्राकृत भाषा और उसकी बोलियाँ
From Prakrit to the languages of Bihar
Apabhraṃśa — the late stage of the Prakrits (roughly the 6th to the 12th centuries), when grammar simplified further and the shapes of the modern languages began to show. The grammarians wrote of Apabhraṃśa forms linked to each major Prakrit.
The traditional lines of descent
| Apabhraṃśa | Modern languages traced to it |
|---|---|
| Māgadhī Apabhraṃśa (the east) | Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Bengali, Odia, Assamese |
| Śaurasenī Apabhraṃśa (the midland) | Western Hindi — Braj, Khari Boli — and others |
| Mahārāṣṭrī Apabhraṃśa | Marathi |
These neat lines simplify a messier history of mixing, but the broad grouping holds: the Bihari languages form one eastern branch.
Bihar's languages and Magadha — Magahi still carries the name of Magadha; Bhojpuri and Maithili share with it features such as the weak marking of gender in verbs and the use of number classifiers.
A sound to hear — Māgadhī's change of r to l: Sanskrit rājā appears as lājā — a feature grammarians noted as typically 'eastern'.
The trap: Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili are traced to Māgadhī Apabhraṃśa, not Śaurasenī — Śaurasenī's line leads to the western Hindi dialects.
प्राकृत भाषा और उसकी बोलियाँ
Points to Remember