PRAKRIT (from the Sanskrit prakriti, nature; hence, natural, not accomplished, vul gar) is the collective name of those languages or dialects which are immediately derived from, or stand in an immediate relation to Sanskrit, or "the accomplished language" (q. v.)of the Hindus. These languages, however, must not be confounded with those mod ern languages of India which also have an affinity with the Sanskrit language; for, in the Prakrit languages, however much they may differ from Sanskrit in their phonetic laws, the words and grammatical forms are immediately derived from that language; whereas, in the modern tongues of India, there is not only no connection between their phonetic laws and those of Sanskrit, but their grammatical forms also are wholly differ ent from those of the ancient language; and while many of their words have no San skritic origin, even those which have show that they are not immediately drawn from that source. The Prakrit languages comprise, beside the Pall (q.v.), which generally, how ever, is not included among them, those dialects which are found in the dramas and in the oldest inscriptions. In the dramas it is women, except female religious characters, and subordinate male personages, who arc made to speak in these languages—the use of Sanskrit being reserved for the higher characters of the play—and among the former, again, the choice of the special Prakrit'dialect is adapted by the poet to the rank which such a subordinate personage holds, the more refined dialect being appropriated, for instance, to the wives of the king or hero of the play; an inferior Prakrit to his minis ters; others less in degree to the sons of the ministers, soldiers, town-people, and the like; down to the lowest Prakrit, which is 'spoken only by servants, or the lowest classes. A work on the poetical art, the Saityada/pana, enumerates 14 such Prakrit dialects— viz., the Sanruseni, Ndhardehtri, Akigadhl, Ardhanatigadhi, Arantikd. Ddle
ehinatyi, Seikcari., Bialaliku, Chandeill, &Mari, and Paitdehi; but Vara ruchi, the oldest known grammarian of the Prakrit dialects, knows but four--viz., the Mahartiehtri, Saaraecii, Mdgadhi, and Paiedehi ; and Lassen, in the Indiselte Alterations kande, holds that of those only the Sauruseni and the Mdgadhi have a really local char acter—the former, as he assumes, having been the vernacular of a large district of west ern, and the latter, which is also the Prakrit in the inscriptions of king Asoka—of east ern India; whereas the Maharashtri, or the language of the Mahrattas, does not seem to have been the language 8f the country the name of which it bears: and the Paisaehl, or the language of the Pisacha, is obviously merely a fancy name. The principal Prakrit dialect is the Illaharaslitrl ; the lowest, according to some, the Paisachi, of which two varieties are mentioned; but, according to others, the A7)abitramoo—which word origi nally means "a falling-off "—i.e., a dialect which completely deviates from the grammat ical laws of Sanskrit, but in this special application ;would designate a dialect even inferior to the Paisachl, and is compared by a granunarian to the language of the rep tiles. On the grammar of the Prakrit languages, see Chr. Lassen, Distitmtiones Lingua? Praeritkte (Bonn, 1837). The SQtras, or grammatical rules of Vararuchi, have been edited in the same work; but more elaborately, with a commentary, copious notes, an English translation, appendices, and an index, by Edward Byles Cowell, who lies also adaed co kis excellent edition An Easy Introduction to Preikrit Grammar (Hertford, 1854).