PRAKRIT, prii'krit (Skt. prakrta, natural, unrefined, vernacular, from proPrti, element, foundation, from pot before + Par, to make). The mediaeval popular Aryan languages of India, standing chronologically between Sanskrit and the modern Aryan dialects of the peninsula, such as Hindustani. Gujarati, Bengali, and others. While there were doubtless a great number of Prakrit dialects, we have trustworthy informa tion about very few. According to the Priikrta sarrasra of Markandeya Kavindra. who wrote probably about the middle of the seventeenth century, there were four main divisions of Pra krit, Mrtisit ribhasa, apabhraiioM, and p4f4eca. The gr languages proper, included Maharashtri. Sauraseni, Pracya, AN-anti, and Magadhi. In his view the Ardhamagadhi was a variety of Magadhi somewhat resembling Sau raseni. while Bahliki also differed little from \Iagadhi. The ribita$Fts, or dialects, comprised Sakari, Candali, abari. Abhriki, and akki. hut not. as some native grammarians livid. Odri or Dravidi. The A pabhramas, or patois, included twenty-seven dialects, all of which were derived from three, Nagara, Vracacla. and Upanagara, although it is not improbable that. as a matter of fact, each literary Prakrit, whether Lhasa. or ribhasi 1, had its patois, or a paldira Mtia, beside it. The paigaeas, popularly interpreted as demon languages, but probably originally the dialects of the north or west of India, had eleven varieties, derived, according to Markandeya, from three, Kaikeya, Saurasena, and Pancala. Of all the Prakrits by far the most important was 3faha rashtri, which is the one implied by the native grammarians when they speak simply of Prakrit. This is the dialect which is employed sometimes in two slightly modified forms called Arsha or Ardhamagadhi, and Jaina Maharashtri, in the sacred texts of Jainism (q.v.). An important source for the great majority of Prakrits. how ever, is the Indian drama. Ac-cording to the conventions of Hindu dramaturgy only the prin cipal male characters speak Sanskrit. The lower
male and all the female roles are in various Prakrits, often corrupted in course of time by eareless or ignorant scribes and editors. Accord ing to a passage in, the Sanskrit rhetorical trea tise, entitled the Sahityadarpaua, noble women employ in dramatic prose Saura-eni, but in verse Maharashtri. courtiers speak Magadhi, ministers and princes Ardhamagadhi, buffoons Praeya. ras cals Avanti, gamblers and citizens Dakshinatya, woodcutters Paisaca, and so on. On the other hand, women of high birth, their friends, cour tesans, and celestial nymphs may speak Sanskrit as well as Prakrit. While there is little doubt that such an elaborate division of Prakrits as we find in the drama was artificial, it finds an analogue in the princely retinues of modern India, where many different districts with di verse dialects are represented in one place. It also leads to the inference that Sanskrit was probably not spoken by all classes of people, al though it was intelligible to many who were obliged to reply in the vernacular. Prakrit is not derived from classical Sanskrit (see SANSKRIT LANGUAGE), but from a dialect group closely akin to Vedic Sanskrit. As an alogues between Prakrit and Vedic Sanskrit may be cited the change of intervocalic ?/ to 1, as Sanskrit garuda, name of a mythical bird. Prakrit garula, cf. Sanskrit 'I praise,' Vedic Sanskrit He: instrumental plural in -C.him, as Prakrit racchrk 'with trees,' Vedic rrkst'bhih, but classical Sanskrit rrkstiiIj, Prakrit rukkha, 'tree,' Vedic ruksa, not found in classical Sanskrit.
The chief phonological characteristics of Pra krit are the loss of Sanskrit r, the shortening of the Sanskrit diphthongs c, a before consonant groups, the frequent elision of intervocalic k, g. j, t, d, p, b, r, the common change of medial Ph, gh, th. dh. WI to h, the change of a to a throughout. and of and c to s or rarely to h, and the sim plification of consonant-groups.