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JAIN JOURNAL
through Apabhramsa with Sanskrit at their back, they are fundamentally Sanskrit-Prakrit in structure, and it is through these languages, most of the classical culture was transmitted to modern India. It is a fact to be noted that even Kashmiri, though belongs to Dardic group, is greatly influenced and nurtured by these three languages. Though linguistically and even culturally India has languages from other three language families, such as, Dravidian, Austric and Sino-Tibetan, the languages belonging to these three groups are Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam from the Dravidian side, Kolarian or Munda groups represented by Santali, Mundari, Ho, Bhumija, Khadiya, Korku, Juyang Sabar and Gadab, and the Khasia and the Nicobari from the Austric side, and Shan, Ahom and Khamti from the Thai branch, Meithei, Lushei, Manipuri from the Tibeto-Chinese branch, all these languages are also more or less influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages and culture of Northern India. The importance of the study of all these languages can hardly be ignored. But at the same time it is to be noted that the greatest bulk of Indian life and society is influenced by Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit. Here I shall deal only with Prakrit and its impact on Indic studies.
1. Position of Prakrit among Indian Languages :
Before we deal with the subject, it is necessary to know the position of Prakrit in the present context of India. Let us see first what Prakrit can offer us.
The Indo-Aryan language of Northern India is broadly divided into three periods : Old, Middle and New. The old Indo-Aryan (=OIA) is represented by Sanskrit (i.e. both Vedic and classical), Middle IndoAryan (=MIA) by Prakrit (and also by Pali and other Inscriptional languages), and New Indo-Aryan as one of the MIA languages, belongs to the middle period of the India group of the Indo-Iranian sub-branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is therefore, immediately connected with the OIA on the one hand and remotely with the Iranian, and still more remotely with the Indo-European on the other.
In fact, the word Prakrit is used by Indian authorities to include a number of languages or dialects traces of which are found in the religious, literary and dramatic literature of the Jains and non-Jains, beginning from about the 6th or 5th century B.C. down to the 10th or 11th century A.D. or even later than that, covering a period of more than fifteen hundred years. It is very difficult to surmise at present whether the term Prakrit as employed by the Indian grammarians and rhetoricians in their respective treatises included Pali and Inscriptional languages as
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