Monumental Prakrit

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Monumental Prakrit
Region India
Eraca. 200 BCE to 450 CE
Early forms
Brahmi
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog None

Monumental Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect used as a lingua franca in Indian inscriptions from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

It developed out of a west-central dialect closely related to the Ashokan Prakrit exhibited in the Girnar Rock Edicts, with a resemblance to literary Pali.

After the end of the Mauryan Empire, it became the dominant inscriptional language in India outside of Northwestern India before being gradually replaced by Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit and Sanskrit, first in North India and then in Southern India where it was last evidenced in the 5th century CE. [3]

Monumental Prakrit is often simply labeled as Prakrit in articles describing inscriptions. [4]

Characteristics

According to Richard Salomon, Monumental Prakrit "partakes of the typical characteristics of the western and central MIA languages" [1] :

Sample

A sample inscription from the Bharhut stupa:

jetavena anādhapeḍiko deti kotisaṃthatena ketā [5]

References

  1. 1 2 Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 76–77. ISBN   978-0-19-509984-3.
  2. ↑ Senart, Émile (1892). "Monumental and Literary Prakrits". The Indian Antiquary. 21: 258–275.
  3. 1 2 Bhandarkar, D. R. (1989). Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture. Asian Educational Services. pp. 28–29. ISBN   978-81-206-0457-5.
  4. ↑ Karpik, Stefan (2023). "Light on Epigraphic Pali: More on the Buddha Teaching in Pali". Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. 23: 51.
  5. ↑ Solomon 1998, p. 267.
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