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Prakrit|ˈprɑːkrɪt|
Also 8 Pracort, 8–9 Prácrit, 9 Prā-, Pracrita, Prâ-, Prā-, Prákrit.
[ad. Skr. prākṛta natural, unrefined, vulgar: opposed to saṇskṛta prepared, refined, polished (Sanskrit).]
A general name for those popular languages or dialects of Northern and Central India which existed along-side of or grew out of Sanskrit. Also attrib. or as adj.
Applied primarily to the ancient vernacular dialects, the earliest traces of which go back to c 500 b.c.; then to the mediæval Prakrits which succeeded these; and sometimes to the modern languages Hindī, Bengālī, Marāthī, etc. Pāli is a form of primary Prakrit.
1766J. Cleland Way to Things by Words 88 The Pracort is the vulgar language, so called in contradistinction to the Sanscort. 1786Asiatic Miscellany II. 502 Four unconnected Stanzas, in the Prácrit Language, which was anciently vernacular in India. 1789Sir W. Jones tr. Sacontalá Pref., Wks. 1799 VI. 206 The men of rank and learning are represented speaking pure Sanscrit, and the women Prácrit, which is little more than the language of the Bráhmens melted down by a delicate articulation to the softness of Italian. 1801Colebrooke Sanscrit & Pracrit in Asiatic Res. VII. 199 The Gods, &c. speak Sanscrĭta; benevolent genii, Prácrĭta; wicked demons, Paísáchí; and men of low tribes and the rest, Mágad'hí. Ibid. 200 Prácrĭt, consisting of provincial dialects, which are less refined, and have a more imperfect grammar. 1837C. P. Brown Sanscrit Pros. 19 The Pracrita metres do not fall within the scope of the present essay. 1861Max Müller Sci. Lang. Ser. iv. iv. 138 We meet the same local dialects again in what are called the Prâkrit idioms, used in the later plays, in the sacred literature of the Jainas, and in a few poetical compositions. 1875Whitney Life Lang. x. 187 One Prakrit dialect, the Pali, became in its turn the sacred language of southeastern Buddhism. 1880, etc. [see Maharashtri]. 1883I. Taylor Alphabet x. II. 296 The inscriptions of Asoka are written in three local Pali or Prakrit dialects, evidently derived by long continued detrition from the Sanskrit of the Vedas. 1904Athenæum 18 Oct. 481/3 The literatures which were produced..by the earliest language of the Vedas, by the later classical Sanskrit, by the Pali of the Buddhist books..and by such of the other Prakrits, or popular dialects, as attained to literary form. 1968W. S. Allen Vox Graeca i. 14 In relatively ancient times this receives support from transcriptions into Prakrit (Middle Indian) on coins of the Greek kings of Bactria and India in the 1 and 2 c. b.c. 1971[see Indologist].
Hence Prakˈritic a., pertaining to Prakrit; ˈPrakritize v., trans. to turn into Prakrit.
1875Whitney Life Lang. x. 187 The next stage of Indian language..is called the Prakritic. 1881R. Morris in Academy 27 Aug. 161/2 In Marâthî muramura = muttering, grumbling,..seems to be a prâkritised form of the Sanskrit murmura, which in Pâli would become muramura or mummura. |