BSEB Inter Prakrit key terms

The Prakrit language in which the Śvetāmbara Jain canon is preserved. Its name means 'half Magadhī', and it shows a mixture of eastern features with standard Prakrit conventions rather than a pure regional dialect.

The most prestigious and widely used literary Prakrit, associated with the western Deccan. It is the normal language of Prakrit court poetry, of the verses in Sanskrit drama, and of the Karpūramañjarī.

A Prakrit used mainly for prose dialogue in Sanskrit drama, especially by female and middle-ranking characters. It corresponds roughly to the speech of the Śūrasena region around Mathurā.

The Prakrit associated with the Magadha region, used in drama for low-status characters. Its hallmark is the change of Sanskrit r to l and of s to ś, giving forms like rājā becoming lājā.

A Prakrit named after the Piśācas and known chiefly from the Bṛhatkathā tradition. It is described in grammars as lacking the distinction between aspirate and non-aspirate consonants and is poorly attested in surviving texts.

The late Middle Indo-Aryan stage following the Prakrits, used in narrative and devotional verse from roughly the sixth to the twelfth centuries. It is the immediate ancestor of the modern Indo-Aryan languages.

A word descended directly from Sanskrit through regular phonetic change, such as Sanskrit agni becoming Prakrit aggi. Tadbhava forms are contrasted with tatsama loans and with deśī words of unknown origin.

A Sanskrit word borrowed into Prakrit without phonetic alteration, often for technical, religious or learned vocabulary. Its unchanged shape marks it as a loan rather than an inherited form.

Vocabulary used in Prakrit that cannot be derived from Sanskrit by regular sound change and is felt to belong to local or regional speech. Deśī word lists were compiled by Prakrit grammarians and lexicographers.

The insertion of a vowel to break up a consonant cluster, a characteristic Prakrit sound change. Sanskrit putra becomes putta or putra with an epenthetic vowel, and ratna becomes rayana.

The Prakrit tendency to make adjacent consonants agree in voicing and articulation, so that Sanskrit clusters simplify. Sanskrit putra gives putta, sarva gives savva, and dharma gives dhamma.

The Prakrit change in which single voiceless stops between vowels become voiced, then spirantised or elided. Sanskrit kathā appears as kahā and Sanskrit nara remains nara while Sanskrit loka becomes loa.

A defining Prakrit feature: Sanskrit final consonants, especially -m and -ḥ, disappear or are reduced. Sanskrit rājāḥ and phalam appear in Prakrit as rāyā and phala, affecting declension patterns.

Prakrit nouns inflect for three genders, two numbers and a reduced case system in which the dative and genitive often merge and the instrumental and ablative frequently fall together. Endings differ by stem vowel and by language.

The declension of masculine nouns in -a, the largest class. In Māhārāṣṭrī the nominative singular is usually -o, the accusative singular -aṃ, and the instrumental singular -eṇa, with plural endings such as -ā and -ehiṃ.

The tendency in Prakrit for the genitive and dative to share a single set of endings, so that one form expresses both possession and the indirect object. This simplifies the older Sanskrit distinction between the two cases.

Prakrit personal and demonstrative pronouns have irregular stems, for example ahaṃ for 'I' and tumaṃ for 'you', with oblique bases such as ma- and tu-. Their forms must be learned separately from noun paradigms.

The Prakrit present is built on the Sanskrit present stem with personal endings such as -mi, -si, -i, -mo, -ha and -nti. Thematic verbs add -a-, and the third person singular often ends in -i or -e.

The Prakrit mood expressing wish, possibility or polite injunction, formed with a suffix such as -ejjā- or -eyya-. Third person singular forms like karejjā mean 'he should do' or 'may he do'.

The Prakrit mood of command and request, with endings such as -u, -hi and -du in the singular and -ha and -ntu in the plural. Forms like suṇāhi 'listen!' are frequent in narrative and dramatic texts.

An indeclinable verbal form expressing an action preceding the main verb, usually made with -ttā, -ttāṇaṃ or -iya. Sanskrit kṛtvā corresponds to Prakrit kāūṇa or kāya, meaning 'having done'.

The Prakrit verbal noun of purpose, commonly formed with the suffix -ium or -iṃ, as in kāium 'to do'. It typically complements verbs of ability, desire or beginning.

Prakrit forms passives with the suffix -ijja- or -īya- added to the root, as in kījai 'is done' or dijjai 'is given'. The passive is common in legal, religious and descriptive prose.

The Prakrit causative is marked by the suffix -e- or -āve- before the personal ending, as in kārei or kārāvei 'causes to do'. Causatives are frequent in prose narrative and in Jain doctrinal exposition.

The principal Prakrit verse metre, consisting of four quarters of varying length in which the first and third quarters match and the second and fourth match. It is the metre of the Sattasaī and most Jain verse.

A single self-contained stanza that conveys one sentiment or situation without narrative connection to its neighbours. The Prakrit anthologies are built almost entirely of such independent verses.

The figure of speech that explicitly compares two things using a word such as iva, jahā or va, meaning 'like' or 'as'. It is the most basic and frequently analysed ornament in Prakrit poetics.

The figure in which one thing is identified with another without an explicit marker of comparison, so that the vehicle is predicated directly of the tenor. Prakrit poets often build a whole stanza on a single extended rūpaka.

The traditional name of the Śātavāhana king to whom the Gāthāsaptaśatī, or Sattasaī, is attributed. The anthology of seven hundred Māhārāṣṭrī verses is the earliest surviving collection of Prakrit poetry.

The celebrated anthology of Māhārāṣṭrī love and nature verses attributed to Hāla. Its compact stanzas on village life and separation are the classic model for later Prakrit muktaka poetry.

A Māhārāṣṭrī epic poem on the building of Rāma's bridge to Laṅkā, traditionally ascribed to Pravarasena. It is prized for its ornate descriptions and is a standard text for Prakrit literary study.

A Prakrit poem by Vākpatirāja describing the defeat and execution of the Gauda king, composed in Māhārāṣṭrī with elaborate figures. It is a key witness to the historical and literary culture of eighth-century Kannauj.

A Māhārāṣṭrī play about a courtesan's daughter, attributed to Rājaśekhara. It is unusual for being composed almost entirely in Prakrit and is a standard example of Prakrit dramatic writing.

Sanskrit plays in which most characters speak a Prakrit dialect, with the choice of language reflecting rank, gender and occupation. Śaurasenī and Māgadhī are the usual dialects, while the hero and king speak Sanskrit.

The Śvetāmbara Jain scriptural canon, preserved in Ardhamāgadhī and traditionally said to have been fixed at the councils of Pāṭaliputra and Valabhī. It comprises the Aṅgas and supplementary texts.

The variety of Māhārāṣṭrī used by Jain authors for commentaries, narratives and hymns, distinguished from the language of the Śvetāmbara canon. Much Jain narrative literature is composed in it.

The twelfth-century Jain scholar and grammarian of Gujarat, author of the Siddhahemacandra grammar of Prakrit and of the Yogaśāstra. His grammatical rules remain the standard reference for Prakrit forms.

The systematic description of Prakrit sounds and forms, chiefly through the sūtras of grammarians such as Vararuci, Hemacandra and Mārkaṇḍeya. These works list sound changes and paradigms in terse aphorisms with examples.

Third-century BCE inscriptions of Emperor Aśoka in Prakrit, written in Brāhmī, Kharoṣṭhī and Greek script. They are the earliest substantial records of Middle Indo-Aryan and an important source for Magadhan usage.

The ancient Indian script used for the earliest Prakrit inscriptions, including the Aśokan edicts, and the ancestor of most later Indian scripts. It is written from left to right with inherent vowels in its consonants.

A script of the northwest, written from right to left, used for Prakrit documents and inscriptions in Gandhāra. It is associated with the Gāndhārī variety of Prakrit and with early Buddhist manuscripts.

The Prakrit of the Gandhāra region, attested in Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts and inscriptions from the first centuries CE. It shows distinctive sound changes and preserves early Buddhist texts otherwise lost.

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages following Vedic and classical Sanskrit, used in literature and inscriptions from roughly the third century BCE. The term covers regional literary dialects such as Māhārāṣṭrī and Śaurasenī.