34-453: Vaddaradhane by Shivakotiacharya is the earliest extant prose work in Kannada . It is a didactic work consisting of nineteen stories and is based on Harisena 's Brhatkathakosa . The work is also known for mentioning the precursor to modern idli called iddalige prepared using black gram batter. It gives a detailed description of the life of Bhadrabahu of Shravanabelagola . The work
68-556: A cover term for languages that were not actually called Prakrit in ancient India, such as: 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: According to Sanskrit and Prakrit scholar Shreyansh Kumar Jain Shastri and A. C. Woolner , the Ardhamagadhi (or simply Magadhi ) Prakrit, which
102-463: A critical look at contemporary Brahmin practices. It mentions fierce warriors, royal retainers ( velevali ) who were under oath to lay down their life for the king and royalty. The dating of the work and its authorship has been a controversy. According to the scholar R.S. Mugali, experts are not unanimous whether the prose piece was written before Kavirajamarga (ca. 850) or after. According to modern Kannada poet and scholar M. Govinda Pai ,
136-591: A distinction between Jain and non-Jain Prakrit literature. Jacobi used the term "Jain Prakrit" (or "Jain Maharashtri", as he called it) to denote the language of relatively late and relatively more Sanskrit-influenced narrative literature, as opposed to the earlier Prakrit court poetry. Later scholars used the term "Jain Prakrit" for any variety of Prakrit used by Jain authors, including the one used in early texts such as Tarangavati and Vasudeva-Hindi . However,
170-426: A highly systematized Prakrit grammar, but the surviving Prakrit texts do not adhere to this grammar. For example, according to Vishvanatha (14th century), in a Sanskrit drama, the characters should speak Maharashtri Prakrit in verse and Shauraseni Prakrit in prose. But the 10th century Sanskrit dramatist Rajashekhara does not abide by this rule. Markandeya, as well as later scholars such as Sten Konow, find faults with
204-402: A language (or languages) spoken by the common people, because it is different from Sanskrit, which is the predominant language of the ancient Indian literature. Several modern scholars, such as George Abraham Grierson and Richard Pischel , have asserted that the literary Prakrit does not represent the actual languages spoken by the common people of ancient India. This theory is corroborated by
238-503: A market scene in Uddyotana's Kuvalaya-mala (779 CE), in which the narrator speaks a few words in 18 different languages: some of these languages sound similar to the languages spoken in modern India; but none of them resemble the language that Uddyotana identifies as "Prakrit" and uses for narration throughout the text. The local variants of Apabhramsha evolved into the modern day Indo-Aryan vernaculars of South Asia. Literary Prakrit
272-418: A street for the prostitutes ( sulegeri ); palaces; streets with people, horses and elephants; homes of cloth merchants ( dusigar ); homes of diamond merchants ( baccara ); feudatories ( samanta ); royal officials ( niyogi ); grain markets and traders; and various types of settlements such as villages ( grama ) and towns ( nagara ). The text dwells on the evils of Kali Yuga including miscegenation and takes
306-411: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Shivakotiacharya Shivakotiacharya (also Shivakoti ), a writer of the 9th-10th century, is considered the author of didactic Kannada language Jain text Vaddaradhane ( lit , "Worship of elders", ca. 900). A prose narrative written in pre-Old-Kannada ( Purva Halegannada ), Vaddaradhane is considered the earliest extant work in
340-623: Is attested in the inscriptions of Ashoka (ca. 260 BCE), as well as in the earliest forms of Pāli, the language of the Theravāda Buddhist canon. The most prominent form of Prakrit is Ardhamāgadhı̄, associated with the ancient kingdom of Magadha, in modern Bihar, and the subsequent Mauryan Empire. Mahāvı̄ra, the last tirthankar of 24 tirthankar of Jainism, was born in Magadha, and the earliest Jain texts were composed in Ardhamāgadhı̄. Almost all
374-465: Is dated to the 9th century but some scholars advance a pre-sixth century date for the work. Based on internal evidence, it is suggested that Shivakotiacharya may have been a native of Kogali, in the Bellary district of modern Karnataka. The list of 19 stories are This Karnataka -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about the literature of India
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#1732801939527408-535: Is now the basis for all Sanskrit grammar. Similarly, the Agamas, and texts like Shatkhandagama , do not follow the modern Prakrit grammar. Prakrita Prakasha, a book attributed to Vararuchi , summarizes various Prakrit languages. Prakrit literature was produced across a wide area of South Asia. Outside India, the language was also known in Cambodia and Java. Literary Prakrit is often wrongly assumed to have been
442-501: The Jains used Prakrit for religious literature, including commentaries on the Jain canonical literature, stories about Jain figures, moral stories, hymns and expositions of Jain doctrine. Prakrit is also the language of some Shaiva tantras and Vaishnava hymns. Besides being the primary language of several texts, Prakrit also features as the language of low-class men and most women in
476-577: The Sanskrit stage plays . American scholar Andrew Ollett traces the origin of the Sanskrit Kavya to Prakrit poems. Some of the texts that identify their language as Prakrit include: The languages that have been labeled "Prakrit" in modern times include the following: Not all of these languages were actually called "Prakrit" in the ancient period. Dramatic Prakrits were those that were used in dramas and other literature. Whenever dialogue
510-492: The Vaddaradhane dates much further back. Based on his studies of the text and some pre-2nd century inscriptions from Shravanabelagola , Pai authored two scholarly publications in 1960: Kannada Sahityada Halame ("Antiquity of Kannada literature") and Kannada Sahityada Prachinate (also meaning "Antiquity of Kannada literature"), in which he argued Vaddaradhane more accurately dates to the pre-6th century period. However,
544-430: The Prakrit portions of Rajashekhara's writings, but it is not clear if the rule enunciated by Vishvanatha existed during Rajashekhara's time. Rajashekhara himself imagines Prakrit as a single language or a single kind of language, alongside Sanskrit, Apabhramsha, and Paishachi . German Indologist Theodor Bloch (1894) dismissed the medieval Prakrit grammarians as unreliable, arguing that they were not qualified to describe
578-472: The author's name appears in the concluding section of every story in the writing, and that the Prakrit writer, also named Shivakoti, lived in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. and was the disciple of Acharya Samantabhadra . Another name, Revakotiacharya, also appears in some places in the Kannada text. Historian Jyotsna Kamat is of the opinion that the didactic work comprising 19 stories dates to the 10th century and
612-671: The common people – as well as the converse influence of Sanskrit on the Prakrits, gave Prakrits progressively higher cultural prestige. Mirza Khan's Tuhfat al-hind (1676) characterizes Prakrit as the language of "the lowest of the low", stating that the language was known as Patal-bani ("Language of the underground") or Nag-bani ("Language of the snakes"). Among modern scholars, Prakrit literature has received less attention than Sanskrit. Few modern Prakrit texts have survived in modern times, and even fewer have been published or attracted critical scholarship. Prakrit has been designated as
646-466: The language of the texts composed centuries before them. Other scholars such as Sten Konow , Richard Pischel and Alfred Hillebrandt disagree with Bloch. It is possible that the grammarians sought to codify only the language of the earliest classics of the Prakrit literature, such as the Gaha Sattasai . Another explanation is that the extant Prakrit manuscripts contain scribal errors. Most of
680-536: The lives of Jain saints ( Jainas ), it treats on Jain tenets regarding the torments of flesh and spirit, interpretations of fate ( karma ), rebirth and the plight of humans on earth. The text gives useful information about contemporary society including education, trade and commerce, magic and superstitions, the caste system and untouchability, and position of women in society. The text provides details on contemporary urban and rural society: towns with majestic buildings and multi-storied houses; temples ( devalaya );
714-420: The native prākrit grammarians identify prākṛta to be named so because they originate in the source language (prakṛti) which is Sanskrit . Thus the name prākṛta indicates that they depend on Sanskrit for their origin and are not themselves the prakṛti (or originary languages, originating independent of Sanskrit): The dictionary of Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899), and other modern authors, however, interpret
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#1732801939527748-661: The other two being Sanskrit and the vernacular languages. It describes Prakrit as a mixture of Sanskrit and vernacular languages, and adds that Prakrit was "mostly employed in the praise of kings, ministers, and chiefs". During a large period of the first millennium, literary Prakrit was the preferred language for the fictional romance in India. Its use as a language of systematic knowledge was limited, because of Sanskrit's dominance in this area, but nevertheless, Prakrit texts exist on topics such as grammar, lexicography , metrics, alchemy, medicine, divination , and gemology . In addition,
782-403: The prose genre in the Kannada language. Scholars are, however, still divided about when exactly the text was written, with claims ranging from before the 6th century to the 10th century. According to the scholar R.S. Mugali, Vaddaradhane is one of the finest pieces of Jain literature, which stands out by itself in all of Kannada literature . In addition to religious content describing
816-434: 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"
850-472: The scholar D.L. Narasimhachar opines that the writing is from around c. 920. Professor Upadhye dates the writing to the post-9th century period while the historians A.R. Naronakar, K.A.N. Shastri, and Dravidian scholar Zvelebil date it to c. 900. There is an opinion that Shivakoti was not the author of the work, and that his Prakrit work Bhagavati Aaradhane may have been the inspiration for this Kannada writing. However, it has been pointed out that
884-512: The surviving Prakrit manuscripts were produced in a variety of regional scripts during 1300–1800 CE. It appears that the scribes who made these copies from the earlier manuscripts did not have a good command of the original language of the texts, as several of the extant Prakrit texts contain inaccuracies or are incomprehensible. Also, like Sanskrit and other ancient languages Prakrit was spoken and written long before grammars were written for it. The Vedas do not follow Panini's Sanskrit grammar which
918-477: The word in the opposite sense: "the most frequent meanings of the term prakṛta , from which the word "prakrit" is derived, are "original, natural, normal" and the term is derived from prakṛti , "making or placing before or at first, the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance". Modern scholars have used the term "Prakrit" to refer to two concepts: Some modern scholars include all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under
952-542: The works written by Jain authors do not necessarily belong to an exclusively Jain history, and do not show any specific literary features resulting from their belief in Jainism. Therefore, the division of Prakrit literature into Jain and non-Jain categories is no longer considered tenable. Under the Mauryan Empire various Prakrits enjoyed the status of royal language. Prakrit was the language of Emperor Ashoka who
986-507: Was a strict structure to the use of these different Prakrits in dramas. Characters each spoke a different Prakrit based on their role and background; for example, Dramili was the language of "forest-dwellers", Sauraseni was spoken by "the heroine and her female friends", and Avanti was spoken by "cheats and rogues". Maharashtri and Shaurseni Prakrit were more common and were used in literature extensively. Some 19th–20th century European scholars, such as Hermann Jacobi and Ernst Leumann , made
1020-444: Was among the main languages of the classical Indian culture. Dandin 's Kavya-darsha ( c. 700 ) mentions four kinds of literary languages: Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha , and mixed. Bhoja 's Sarasvati-Kanthabharana (11th century) lists Prakrit among the few languages suitable for composition of literature. Mirza Khan's Tuhfat al-hind (1676) names Prakrit among the three kinds of literary languages native to India,
1054-582: Was inspired by the Sanskrit writing Brihatkatha-Khosa . Prakrit Prakrit ( / ˈ p r ɑː k r ɪ t / ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent 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 Pali . The oldest stage of Middle Indo-Aryan language
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1088-463: Was patron of Buddhism. Prakrit languages are said to have held a lower social status than Sanskrit in classical India. In the Sanskrit stage plays , such as Kalidasa 's Shakuntala , lead characters typically speak Sanskrit, while the unimportant characters and most female characters typically speak Prakrit. While Prakrits were originally seen as 'lower' forms of language, the influence they had on Sanskrit – allowing it to be more easily used by
1122-448: 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. Medieval grammarians such as Markandeya (late 16th century) describe
1156-440: Was written in a Prakrit, the reader would also be provided with a Sanskrit translation. The phrase "Dramatic Prakrits" often refers to three most prominent of them: Shauraseni Prakrit , Magadhi Prakrit , and Maharashtri Prakrit . However, there were a slew of other less commonly used Prakrits that also fall into this category. These include Prachya, Bahliki, Dakshinatya, Shakari, Chandali, Shabari, Abhiri, Dramili, and Odri. There
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