page_title: Prakrit
section_title: Definition
hierarchical_section_title: Prakrit / Definition
caption_attribution_description: English: [1] MS in Jain prakrit on paper, Western India, ca. 1500, 105 ff. (complete), 13x31 cm, single column, (10x26 cm), 15 lines in Devanagari book script, 2 miniatures in gold, red and lapiz lazuli . The Suryaprajnaptisutra, an astronomical work dating to the 3rd or 4th c. BC, constitutes on of the classics of the Jain Svetambara sect and gives information on the sun, moon and planets and their motions. As in this MS, copies of the work generally only include 2 illustrations on the opening pages, one of Mahavira, the last and most celebrated of the Jinas, teaching to all creatures, and the other of his greatest disciple, Gotama. The prosperity of the Jain community in this period is reflected in the expensive materials, especially gold and lapis lazuli, that were used in luxury MSS such as this one.
context_page_description: The Prakrits are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages used in India from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, excluding earlier inscriptions and the later Pali. The Prakrits were used contemporaneously with the prestigious Classical Sanskrit of higher social classes. Prākṛta literally means "natural", as opposed to saṃskṛta, which literally means "constructed" or "refined".
context_section_description: Modern scholars have used the term "Prakrit" to refer to two concepts:
  Prakrit languages: a group of closely related literary languages
  the Prakrit language: one of the Prakrit languages, which alone was used as the primary language of entire poems
  Some modern scholars include all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of 'Prakrits', while others emphasize the independent development of these languages, often separated from the history of Sanskrit by wide divisions of caste, religion, and geography.
  The broadest definition uses the term "Prakrit" to describe any Middle Indo-Aryan language that deviates from Sanskrit in any manner. American scholar Andrew Ollett points out that this unsatisfactory definition makes "Prakrit" a cover term for languages that were not actually called Prakrit in ancient India, such as:
  the language of Ashoka's inscriptions
  the language of later inscriptions of India, labeled "Monumental Prakrit", "Lena Prakrit", or "Stupa dialect"
  the language of inscriptions of Sri Lanka, labeled "Sinhalese Prakrit"
  Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon
  the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
  Gandhari, the language of birch-bark scrolls discovered in the region stretching from northwestern India to western China
  According to some scholars, such as German Indologists Richard Pischel and Oskar von Hinüber, the term "Prakrit" refers to a smaller set of languages that were used exclusively in literature:
  Scenic Prakrits
  These languages are used exclusively in plays, as secondary languages
  Their names indicate regional association (e.g. Shauraseni, Magadhi, and Avanti), although these associations are mostly notional
  Primary Prakrits
  These languages are used as primary languages of literary classics such as Gaha Sattasai
  This includes the Maharashtri Prakrit or "Prakrit par excellence", which according to Dandin's Kavya-darsha, was prevalent in the Maharashtra region, and in which poems such as Ravana-vaho (or Setubandha) were composed.
  According to Sanskrit scholar 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 grammar of Ardhamagadhi first, and then define the other grammars with relation to it. For this reason, courses teaching 'Prakrit' are often regarded as teaching Ardhamagadhi.
caption: The Sūryaprajñaptisūtra, an astronomical work written in Jain Prakrit language (in Devanagari book script), c. 1500
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