History of Ardhamagadhi Language and Prakrit Literature
What this domain tests
Short-answer history: place Ardhamāgadhī among the Prakrits, explain its name, name the councils and canon divisions, and identify authors and works. Dates and titles carry the marks.
Position and name
Indo-Aryan runs Old (Sanskrit) → Middle (Prakrit) → Apabhraṃśa → New (Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati). Ardhamāgadhī is a literary Middle Indo-Aryan of the first stratum, used by the Śvetāmbara Jains and also called Ārṣa ("of the seers") and Māgadhī. The prefix ardha- is explained as "half": it shares eastern features such as the a-stem nominative singular in -e, but keeps s where Māgadhī has ś, and shows western (Śaurasenī-type) forms because the canon was transmitted in the west.
Canon and councils
The Śvetāmbara canon is counted as 11 Aṅgas, 12 Upāṅgas, 6 Chedasūtras, 4 Mūlasūtras, 10 Prakīrṇakas, plus Nandī and Anuyogadvāra. The first compilation is placed at Pāṭaliputra in the 3rd century BCE under Sthūlabhadra, after the Magadhan famine. Two recensions followed - at Mathurā under Skandila and at Valabhī under Devarddhigaṇi; the Valabhī recension, fixed around Vīra-nirvāṇa 980–993 (5th century CE), underlies the surviving canon, and the writing down of the texts belongs to this period.
Wider Prakrit literature
Mahārāṣṭrī: Hāla's Gāhā Sattasaī, the Setubandha, Koūhala's Līlāvaī. Jain Mahārāṣṭrī: Vimalasūri's Paümacariya, Raviṣeṇa's Padmacarita. Apabhraṃśa: Svayambhū and Puṣpadanta's Mahāpurāṇa. Commentators on the Ardhamāgadhī canon include Śīlāṅka and Abhayadeva, preceded by the Cūrṇis.
Worked example
Question: why is the language called "half-Māgadhī"? Reasoning: check what it shares with Māgadhī and what it does not. It has the eastern nominative singular -e, but unlike Māgadhī it keeps s and preserves western forms and clusters. Half eastern, half western - hence the name.
Traps
- Saying it is exactly the speech of Mahāvīra; it is a partly normalized canonical language.
- Confusing the Pāṭaliputra and Valabhī councils, or dating the Valabhī recension to 527 BCE.
- Overlooking that the Digambaras hold the original Aṅgas to be lost.