Prakrit Literature: Authors, Works and Genres
What this domain tests
Authors, works, dialects and genres. Questions typically match a title to its author and language, or ask which genre a work belongs to.
Landmarks
- Hāla, Gāthāsaptaśatī - 700 Māhārāṣṭrī gāthās, the classic anthology
- Pravarasena, Setubandha (Rāvaṇavaha) - Māhārāṣṭrī mahākāvya on Rāma’s bridge
- Vākpatirāja, Gauḍavaha - 8th-century Māhārāṣṭrī historical kāvya
- Guṇāḍhya, Bṛhatkathā - lost Paiśācī narrative, known through retellings
- Saṅghadāsagaṇi, Vasudevahiṇḍī - Jain Prakrit prose narrative
- Haribhadra, Samarāiccakahā and Dhūrtākhyāna
- Uddyotanasūri, Kuvalayamālā (779 CE) - campū mixing prose and verse
- Vimalasūri, Paumacariya - the Jain Rāmāyaṇa
- Rājaśekhara, Karpūramañjarī - drama in Prakrit and Sanskrit
Genres
Kāvya (mahākāvya and laghukāvya), gāthā anthology, campū, carita (biography), kathā (prose tale), drama, and the Jain canon. Prakrit literature is transmitted largely through Jain monastic libraries, which is why narrative and didactic genres dominate.
Traps
Attributing the Gāthāsaptaśatī to a single author rather than a tradition ascribed to Hāla; confusing Vimalasūri’s Paumacariya with Svayambhū’s Apabhraṁśa Paumacariu; assigning the Setubandha to Sanskrit.