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Prakrit Languages and Literature
B. K. KHADABADI
Language is a medium or vehicle of thought and a full-fledged language is said to date from the Azilian culture which is assigned to the approximate period between 15,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.1 Hence we can safely say that the invading Aryans stepped on the Indian soil with a full-fledged language about the beginning of the second millenium B.C. We cannot say anything about when and how they tried their hand at producing literature which is defined as "the permanent record of memorable speech." ."2 But we do know that by c. 1,500 B.C. they composed and left for us the Rg-veda which stands as the earliest known record of human knowledge.
What language did the invading Aryans speak? How many dialects did their community of speakers use? How possibly did the literary Vedic emerge out of them? Many such questions have exercised and are still exercising the minds of scholars in this field. Different opinions are held on these and other allied problems. It is interesting to note that Panini (c. 700 B.C.) called the language of the Vedic texts Chandasa. Nowhere in his great grammatic work does he mention the term Sanskrit which is said to have come into currency by the time of the Rāmāyaṇa. Nor does he mention the term Prakrit anywhere in it. The theory that from Vedic descended classical Sanskrit and from classical Sanskrit descended Prakrit, is held to be unscientific because several linguistic features of the Vedic language are nearer to those of Prakrit than to the corresponding ones of Sanskrit; and a number of Prakritisms are surprisingly found in the Vedic literature itself. Jules Bloch holds that the oldest language, which was considered sacred, gave a model, but not birth to the latter viz., Classical Sanskrit. Similarly Sanskrit cannot be the basis for Prakrit as is stated by some grammarians and scholars.
Paper presented at the Staff Academy, Karnatak Arts College, Dharwad, in April,
1979.
1 (1) Aspects of Language, William J. Entwistle, Faber and Faber, London, pp.26 ff. (ii) Azilian culture belongs to the upper Palaeolithic age or old stone age,
2 On the Art of Writing, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Guild Books No. 426, Cambridge, 1954, p.42.
3 'Some Problems of Indo-Aryan Philology', B.S.O.S. Vol.V, Part IV, London, 1930, p.720.
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