83-597: Nāya ( Prākrit : 𑀦𑀸𑀬 Nāya ; Pāli : Nāta ; Sanskrit : Jñāta ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age . The population of Nāya, the Nāyikas , were organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic ), presently referred to as the Nāya Republic , which was part of the larger Vajjika League . The Nāyikas lived in
166-779: A classical language on 3 October 2024 by the Government of India as the earliest Prakrit texts are older than literature of most of the languages. In 1955, government of Bihar established at Vaishali , the Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology and Ahimsa with the aim to promote research work in Prakrit. The National Institute of Prakrit Study and Research is located in Shravanabelagola , Karnataka, India. Shakya Shakya ( Pāḷi : Sakya ; Sanskrit : शाक्य , romanized : Śākya )
249-643: A common ancestor, and was also a myth of an early human utopia where humans were born as couples. The important role of the Sāl tree in the life of the Buddha according to the Buddhist texts, as well as his representation as a Bodhi tree and his Enlightenment occurring under one such tree, suggest that the Shakyas practised tree worship, a custom likely derived from Munda religious customs of worshipping sacred groves, and
332-556: 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
415-536: 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,
498-426: 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
581-402: 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
664-491: A long war with massive loss of lives on both sides. Details of this war were exaggerated by later Buddhist accounts, which claimed that Viḍūḍabha exterminated the Shakyas in retaliation for having given in marriage to his father the slave girl who became Viḍūḍabha's mother. In actuality, Viḍūḍabha's invasion of Shakya might instead have had similar motivations to the conquest of the Vajjika League by Viḍūḍabha's relative,
747-503: 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
830-576: A share of his relics from the Mallakas of Kusinārā on the grounds that he had been a Shakya. Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Kauśalya king Viḍūḍabha , who had overthrown his father Pasenadi , invaded the Shakya and Koliya republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala . Viḍūḍabha finally triumphed over the Shakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after
913-543: A simple voting system through either raising hands or the use of wooden chips. Similarly to the other gaṇasaṅgha s, the Sakya Assembly met rarely and it instead had an inner and smaller Council which met more often to administer the republic in the name of the Assembly. The members of the council, titled amaccā s, formed a college which was directly in charge of public affairs of the republic. The head of
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#1732773234012996-531: A slave or servant class of sudda s, themselves comprising at least an aristocracy, as well as land-owners, attendants, labourers, and serfs. Landholders held the title of bhojakā s, literally meaning "enjoyers (of the right to own land)," and used in the sense of "headmen." The lower classes of Shakya society consisted of servants, in Pāli called kammakara s ( lit. ' labourers ' ) and sevaka s ( lit. ' serfs ' ), who performed
1079-623: 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
1162-535: 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
1245-403: The amaccā s came back and waited for the recorders' decision. Another reflection of non-Indo-Aryan cultural practices of the Shakyas was the practice of sibling marriages among their ruling clans, which was forbidden among Vaidika peoples, and was a practice of social demarcation and of maintaining power within a smaller sub-group of the Shakya clan, and was therefore not permitted among
1328-501: 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
1411-511: The Māgadhī king Ajātasattu , who, because he was the son of a Vajjika princess, was therefore interested in the territory of his mother's homeland. The result of the Kauśalya invasion was that the Shakyas and Koliyas merely lost political importance after being annexed into Viḍūḍabha's kingdom. The Shakyas nevertheless soon disappeared as an ethnic group after their annexation, having become absorbed into
1494-577: 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
1577-761: The Terai – an area south of the foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain with their neighbors to the west and south being the kingdom of Kosala , their neighbors to the east across the Rohni River being the related Koliya tribe, while on the northeast they bordered on the Mallakas of Kushinagar . To the north, the territory of the Shakyas stretched into the Himalayas until
1660-468: The Vajjika League from the Kosala kingdom. By that time, the Shakya republic had become a vassal state of the larger Kingdom of Kosala . During the fifth century itself, one of the members of the ruling aristocratic oligarchy of the Shakyas was Suddhodana . Suddhodana was married to the princess Māyā , who was the daughter of a Koliya noble, and the son of Suddhodana and Māyā was Siddhartha Gautama ,
1743-574: The Athenian and Theban republics. As a member of the Vajjika League, the Nāya republic was also threatened by Ajātasattu, and it therefore fought on the side of the other confederate tribes of the league against Magadha. The military forces of the Vajjika League were initially too strong for Ajātasattu to be successful against them, and it required him having recourse to diplomacy and intrigues over
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#17327732340121826-705: The Buddha. Scholars criticize the Scythian hypothesis due to a lack of evidence, with Bryan Levman maintaining that the Shakyas were native to the north-east Gangetic plain and unrelated to the Iranic Sakas. By the sixth century BCE, the Shakyas, the Koliyas , Moriyas , and Mallakas lived between the territories of the Kauśalyas to the west and the Licchavikas and Vaidehas to the east, thus separating
1909-543: The Greater Magadha region, the Shakyas were saṃkīrṇa-yonayaḥ ("of mixed origin"), and therefore did not subscribe to the caturvarṇa social organisation consisting of brāhmaṇa s , khattiya s , vessa s , and sudda . While non-Indo-Aryan indigenous clans were given the status of sudda s, that is of slaves or servants, indigenous clans who collaborated with the Indo-Aryan clans were
1992-584: The Licchavi republic and the Vajjika League; Bimbisāra had chosen Vehalla as his successor following Ajātasattu's falling out of his favour after the latter had been caught conspiring against him, and the Licchavikas had attempted to place Vehalla on the throne of Magadha after Ajātasattu's usurpation and had allowed Vehalla to use their capital Vesālī as base for his revolt. After the failure of this rebellion, Vehalla sought refuge at his grandfather's place in
2075-605: The Licchavi republic, which had become the leading power in the territory of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom. The location of the Nāyikas close to the Vajjika capital of Vesālī gave them a geographical importance, and they were therefore one of the constituent republics of the Licchavi-led Vajjika League . As such, they held autonomy in matters of internal policy while their war and foreign policies were handled by
2158-577: The Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī, following which Ajātasattu repeatedly attempted to negotiate with the Licchavikas-Vajjikas. After Ajātasattu's repeated negotiation attempts ended in failure, he declared war on the Vajjika League in 484 BCE. Tensions between Licchavi and Magadha were exacerbated by the handling of the joint Māgadhī-Licchavika border post of Koṭigāma on the Gaṅgā by
2241-539: The Licchavika-led Vajjika League who would regularly collect all valuables from Koṭigāma and leave none to the Māgadhīs. Therefore Ajātasattu decided to destroy the Vajjika League in retaliation, but also because, as an ambitious empire-builder whose mother Vāsavī was Licchavika princess of Vaidehī descent, he was interested in the territory of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom which by then was part of
2324-569: The Licchavikas, who led the Vajjika League which the Nāyikas were part of, with their southern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha , were initially good, and the wife of the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra was the Vesālia princess Vāsavī, who was the daughter of the Licchavika Nāyaka Sakala's son Siṃha. There were nevertheless occasional tensions between Licchavi and Magadha, such as the competition at
2407-579: The Mallaka capital of Kusinārā over acquiring the relics of the Buddha after his death. In another case, the Licchavikas once invaded Māgadhī territory from across the Gaṅgā , and at some point the relations between Magadha and Licchavi permanently deteriorated as result of a grave offence committed by the Licchavikas towards the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra. The hostilities between Licchavi and Magadha continued under
2490-482: The Nāyikas." 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
2573-430: 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
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2656-460: The Sakya republic was an elected chief, which was a position of first among equals similar to Roman consuls and Greek archons , and whose incumbent had the title of mahārājā . The mahārājā was in charge of administering the republic with the help of the council. When sessions of the Assembly were held, the rājā s gathered in the santhāgāra; while four amaccā s were posted in
2739-867: The Shakya Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha . The Shakyas worshipped the Sun-god , whom they considered their ancestor, hence why the Shakya khattiya clan claimed to be of the Ādicca ( Āditya in Sanskrit) gotta , and of the Sūryavaṃśa ("Solar dynasty"). The Shakya khattiya clan claimed descent from the Sun-god via his descendant, named Okkāka (in Pāli ) and Ikṣvāku (in Sanskrit ), and whose eight twin sons and daughters who were married to each other had founded
2822-442: The Shakyas was also derived from the name of the śaka or sāka tree, which Bryan Levman has identified with either the teak or sāla tree, which is ultimately related to word śākhā ( शाखा ), meaning 'branch,’ and was connected to the Shakyas' practice of worshipping the śaka or sāka tree. The Shakyas were an eastern sub-Himalayan ethnic group on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of
2905-897: The Shakyas with Central Asian nomads who were called Scythians by the Greeks, Sakā s by the Achaemenid Persians, and Śāka by the Indo-Aryans. These scholars have suggested that the people of the Buddha were Saka soldiers who arrived in South Asia in the army of Darius the Great during the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley , and saw in Scytho-Saka nomadism the origin of the wandering asceticism of
2988-437: The Shakyas, which originated from among the pre-Indo-Aryan Tibeto-Burman populations of northern South Asia. The cremation rituals of the Shakyas which were performed for the funeral of the Buddha as described by Buddhist texts involved wrapping his body in 500 layers of cloth, placing it in an iron vat full of oil as a mark of honour, and then covering it with another iron pot before being cremated. These rites originated from
3071-669: The Vajjika Council, in which the Gaṇa Mukhya of the Nāyikas held a seat. The important position of Nāya thanks to its geographical position and its Gaṇa Mukhya 's membership in the Vajjika Council in turn gave the Nāyika Gaṇa Mukhya Siddhārtha enough importance that he married the princess Trisalā , who was the daughter of the Licchavika Gaṇa Mukhya Ceḍaga , whose daughter Cellanā
3154-525: The Vajjika League, the Nāyikas were a kṣatriya tribe, and the heads of the Nāyika kṣatriya families were organised into an Assembly which met rarely, while the Assembly's smaller Council met more frequently than the assembly. The Assembly and the Council met in a santhāgāra , although the number of members of neither of these two bodies is known. The chief of the Nāya clan was the Gaṇa Mukhya , who
3237-491: The Vajjika League. Ajātasattu's hostility towards the Vajjika League was also the result of the differing forms of political organisation between Magadha and the Vajjika League, with the former being monarchical and the latter being republican, not unlike the opposition of the ancient Greek kingdom of Sparta to the democratic form of government in Athens , and the hostilities between the ancient Macedonian king Philip II to
3320-466: The annexation of the Shakya kingdom by Kosala. The earlier Burmese accounts stated that he was a descendant of Pyusawhti , son of a solar spirit and a dragon princess. The Shakyas lived in what scholars presently call the Greater Magadha cultural area, which was located in the eastern Gangetic plain to the east of the confluence of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā rivers. Like the other eastern groups of
3403-420: The capital city of the Shakyas and were the tribe's ancestors. This was an origin myth of the ruling status of the khattiya families of the Shakya clan, who had the right to be represented in the santhāgāra , were often related to each other, and possessed adjacent areas of land, thus establishing kinship, which itself helped form rights of landownership, and, therefore, of political authority. This myth
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3486-513: The clan in which he was born. After the death of the Buddha, the Licchavikas, the Mallakas, and the Sakyas claimed shares of his relics while the Vaidehas and the Nāyikas did not appear among the list of states claiming a share because they were dependencies of the Licchavikas without their own sovereignty, and therefore could not put forth their own claim while Licchavi could. The relations of
3569-671: 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
3652-452: The eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. The Shakyas were of 'mixed origin' ( saṃkīrṇa-yonayaḥ ) of Indo-Aryan and Munda descent , with the former group forming a minority. The Shakyas were closely related to their eastern neighbours, the Koliya tribe, with whom they intermarried. Scholars such as Michael Witzel and Christopher I. Beckwith have equated
3735-487: The eighteen-member Vajjika Council. The Nāya republic did not possess a large standing army, although it contributed to the army of the Vajjika League during its war against Magadha. The Nāya republic possessed a small police force. The existence of the Nāyikas is primarily known of because Mahāvīra was born in this tribe. Mahāvīra himself was called Jñātaputra in Sanskrit and Nātaputta in Pāli, meaning "son of
3818-564: The forested regions of the mountains, which formed their northern border. The capital of the Shakyas was the city of Kapilavastu . The name of the Shakyas is attested primarily in the Pali forms Sakya and Sakka , and the Sanskrit form Śākya . The Shakyas' name was derived from the Sanskrit root śak ( शक् ) ( śaknoti ( शक्नोति ), more rarely śakyati ( शक्यति ) or śakyate ( शक्यते )) meaning "to be able," "worthy," "possible," or "practicable." The name of
3901-596: The form Jñāti of the name. The name Nāya is the Prākrit form of the Sanskrit word jñāta , meaning "kinsfolk," and which was later adopted as tribal name. The Nāyikas were a sub-group of the Videha tribe who in the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. In the 7th or 6th century BCE, the Licchavikas invaded the Vaidehas, replaced their monarchy by a republican system, and settled down in
3984-434: The four corners or sides of the hall so as to clearly and easily hear the speeches made by the rājā s; and the consul rājā took his appointed seat and put forward the matters to be discussed once the Assembly was ready. During the session, the members of the Assembly expressed their views, which the four amaccā s would record. The Assembly was then adjourned, after which the recorders compared their notes, and all
4067-473: The historical Buddha and founder of Buddhism . During the life of the Buddha, an armed feud opposed the Shakyas and the Koliyas concerning the waters of the river Rohiṇī, which formed the boundary between the two states and whose water was needed by both of them to irrigate their crops. The intervention of the Buddha finally put an end to these hostilities. After the death of the Buddha, the Shakyas claimed
4150-409: The important role in their traditions of the Sāl tree, whose flowering marks the beginning of their New Year and Flower Feast festivals: the Santal tribe worship the Sāl tree and gather to make communal decisions under them Sāl trees. The importance of the tree spirits called yakkha s and yakkhī s in Pali ( yakṣa s and yakṣī s in Sanskrit) in early Buddhist texts is an attestation of
4233-408: The labour in the farms. The Sakyas were organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic ) similarly to the Licchavikas . The heads of the Sakya khattiya clans of the Gotama gotta formed an Assembly, and they held the title of rājā s. The position of rājā was hereditary, and after a rājā 's death was passed to his eldest son, who while he
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#17327732340124316-404: 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
4399-548: The linguistic influence of Munda languages , as attested by many of their villages having Mundari names, and the name of the founder of their clan, which has been recorded in the Sanskrit form Ikṣvāku and the Pali form Okkāka , being of Munda origin . The society of the Shakyas and Koliyas was a stratified one which did not subscribe to the caturvarṇa social organisation consisting of brāhmaṇa s , khattiya s , vessa s , and sudda s , but instead consisted of an aristocratic class of khattiya s and
4482-521: The lower classes of the Shakya. Since they lived in the Greater Magadha cultural area, the Shakyas followed non-Vedic religious customs which drastically differed from the Brahmanical tradition, and even by the time of the Buddha, Brahmanism and the brāhmaṇa s had not acquired religious or cultural preponderance in the Greater Magadha area to which Shakya belonged. It was in this non-Vedic cultural environment that Śramaṇa movements existed, with one of them, Buddhism , having been founded by
4565-420: 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
4648-609: 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,
4731-419: The peoples of the Greater Magadha region by the Vedic peoples extended to the Shakyas, as recorded in the Ambaṭṭha Sutta , according to which the brāhmaṇa s described the Shakyas as "fierce, rough-spoken, touchy and violent," and accused them of not honouring, respecting, esteeming, revering or paying homage to the brāhmaṇa s owing to their "menial origin." The Shakyans were at least bilingual, under
4814-417: The population of Kosala, with only a few displaced families maintaining the Shakya identity later. The Koliyas likewise disappeared as a polity and as a tribe soon after their annexation. The massive life losses incurred by Kosala during its conquest of Shakya and Koliya weakened it significantly enough that it was itself soon annexed by its eastern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha , and its king Viḍūḍabha
4897-430: The populations of Greater Magadha as existing outside of the limits of Āryāvarta , with the Manusmṛiti grouping the Vaidehas , Māgadhīs , Licchavikas , and Mallakas , who were the neighbours of the Shakyas, as being "non-Aryan" and born from mixed caste marriages, and the Baudhāyana-Dharmaśāstra s requiring visitors to these lands to perform purificatory sacrifices as expiation. This negative view of
4980-415: The pre-Indo-Aryan autochthonous populations of the eastern Gangetic plains, as were the practices such as honouring the Buddha's body with singing, dancing, and music, as well as placing his bones in a golden urn, the veneration of these remains and their burial in a round stūpa which possessed a central mast, flags, pennants, and parasols at a public crossroads, which were rituals that were performed by
5063-434: 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"
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#17327732340125146-401: The rule of Ajātasattu , who was Bimbisāra's son with another Licchavika princess, Vāsavī, after he had killed Bimbisāra and usurped the throne of Magadha. Eventually Licchavi supported a revolt against Ajātasattu by his younger step-brother and the governor of Aṅga , Vehalla, who was the son of Bimbisāra by another Licchavika wife of his, Cellanā, a daughter of Ceḍaga , who was the head of both
5229-476: The southern part of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom. After this, the Nāyikas appear as an independent people with a republican state organisation, although they continued considering themselves as Vaidehas. Once the Licchavikas had established their own republican state, they founded the Vajjika League led by themselves, and which the Nāyikas, as well as the Vaidehas living in the north of the former Mahā-Videha kingdom, joined. The Nāyikas were closely connected to
5312-474: The span of a decade to finally defeat the Vajjika League by 468 BCE and annex its territories, including Nāya, to the kingdom of Magadha. The Nāya republic ceased to be mentioned as an existing polity after the Māgadhī annexation of the Vajjika League. Although later Jain texts depict Nāya as a powerful kingdom, the Nāyikas were in fact a small tribe organised into an aristocratic republic . Similarly to their Licchavika, Vaideha, and Mallaka confederates within
5395-428: The status of khattiya s. The Buddhist suttas are ambiguous on the status of the Buddha, sometimes calling him a kshatriya, but mostly ignoring the varna system. Additionally, the populations of Greater Magadha did not subscribe to the supremacy of the brāhmaṇa s of the peoples of Āryāvarta , and khattiya s were regarded as higher in the societies of Greater Magadha. Vedic literature therefore considered
5478-399: The surname Shakya and also claim to be the descendants of the Shakya clan with titles such as Śākyavamsa (of the Shakya lineage) having been used in the past. According to Hmannan Yazawin , first published in 1823, the legendary king Abhiyaza , who founded the Tagaung Kingdom and the Burmese monarchy belonged to the same Shakya clan of the Buddha. He migrated to present-day Burma after
5561-512: 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
5644-412: The territory of the former kingdom of Mahā-Videha , whose borders were the Sadānirā river in the west, the Kauśikī river in the east, the Gaṅgā river in the south, and the Himālaya mountains in the north. The Nāyikas themselves were principally located in a small area around a minor town called either Kuṇḍagāma (Kuṇḍagrāma in Sanskrit) or Kuṇḍapura in Pāli, which served as the Nāyika capital and
5727-477: 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
5810-423: 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
5893-418: The worship of these beings done at yakkha cetiya s . The worship of yakkha s and yakkhī s, which was of pre-Indo-Aryan autochthonous origin, was prevalent in the Greater Magadha region. The nāga king Mucalinda , who in Buddhist mythology protected the Buddha during a storm under a mucalinda tree, was a both snake- and a tree-deity, thus alluding to the practice of serpent worship among
5976-507: 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
6059-428: Was also a foundation myth of the city which, as the residence of the ruling families of the clan, the city, which was the centre of political and economic activity, was associated with that clan's janapada (territory), and was equated with the whole janapada itself. The myth of the Shakyas' ancestors being four pairs of married twin siblings was a myth which traced the origins of the ruling Shakya families to
6142-444: 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,
6225-490: Was an ancient clan of the northeastern region of South Asia , whose existence is attested during the Iron Age . The Shakyas were organised into a gaṇasaṅgha (an aristocratic oligarchic republic ), also known as the Shakya Republic . The Shakyas were on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. The Shakyas lived in
6308-765: Was defeated and killed by the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu . The Buddha was given the epithet of the "Sage of the Shakyas," Sakka-muni in Pali and Śākya-muni in Sanskrit, by his followers. The functioning of the proceedings in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven ruled by Sakka , lord of the devas in Buddhist cosmology , are modelled on those of the Shakya santhāgāra or general assembly hall. Tharu people of Tarai region of India and Nepal claim descent from Sakya. Significant population of Newars of Kathmandu valley in Nepal use
6391-653: Was living held the title of uparājā ("Viceroy"). The political system of the Sakyas was identical to that of the Koliyas, and like the Koliyas and the other gaṇasaṅgha s, the Assembly met in a santhāgāra , the main of which was located at Kapilavatthu, although at least one other Sakya santhāgāra also existed at Cātuma. The judicial and legislative functions of the Assembly of the Sakyas were not distinctly separated, and it met to discuss important issues concerning public affairs, such as war, peace, and alliances. The Sakya Assembly deliberated on important issues, and it had
6474-626: Was located somewhere close to the Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī to its northeast. Other Nāyika settlements included a northeastern suburb of Vesālī named Kollāga, as well as a cetiya named Dūīpalāsa that was nominally part of the Nāyikas' settlement at Kollāga but was physically located outside of it. The name of Nāya is attested in Prākrit texts in the forms of Nāya , Nāyae , Nāe , and Nāī ; in Pāli texts, they are called Nāta and Nātha ; Sanskrit texts refer to them as Jñāta ; and northern Buddhist texts contain
6557-470: Was married to the king Bimbisāra of Magadha . These marriage connections provided Siddhārtha with significant political influence. The Nāyikas from an early period had been followers of the 23rd Jain Tīrthaṅkara Pārśva , and the son of Siddhārta and Trisalā was the 24th Tirthankara, Mahāvīra , whose teachings the Nāyikas accepted. After Mahāvīra's, death the Nāyikas acquired renown due to being
6640-463: 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
6723-417: Was the lifelong head of the Nāya republic. The Gaṇa Mukhya was more often referred to by the titles of rājā (meaning "ruler") or khattiya (that is, the Pāli form of kṣatriya ), and whose status was equivalent to those of the much later tāluqdār s and zamīndār s . The head of the Nāyikas was assisted by the Assembly and the Council, and he held one of the nine non-Licchavika seats of
6806-448: 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
6889-440: 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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