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This is witnessed by the presence of such words as (vi) kata (already in the Rv) nata, bhata in the late Vedic literature. The spoken languages of those times must have considerably differed from the languages of the educated and the cultured people. The distinction between the standard, the polished, the hieratic and the substandard forms was expressed by the terms samsksta and prāksta applied to them. The term prāksta as opposed to saṁskrta, is to be understood either as 'natural, unsophisticated' form of speech as opposed to samsksta which is ‘refined, polished' form of speech; or it can be understood as the grammarians do it : Saṁskṛta language is the praksti 'basis' and prāksta is the one 'derived from this prakrti' (cf. Hemacandra 1.1 prakrtih samskrtam/tatra bhavam, tata āgatam vā prākrtam). It must be remembered that this prākļia could not have directly come from the late literary or standard Sanskrit, but from its earlier spoken variety in the Vedic period. This explains why in Pāli we have ! and !h in place of d and dh exactly as in the Rgveda but not in the classical Sanskrit, or why we have the instr.pl.endings -ehi (Pāli) or ehiṁ (Pkt) < Vedic ebhiḥ, or the nom. pl. ending - āso (Pali), āho (Mg.) < Vedic - asaḥ; the classical Skt. does not have these terminations but has aiḥ for instr.sg. and -as for nom. pl.
The period of the middle Indo-Aryan stretches roughly form the 5th cent. B.C. to 1000 A. D. It could be fairly easily assumed that these languages played a distinct role as means of communication in the everyday life of the people since both Buddha and Mahāvíra favoured the use of these, as against Sanskrit, for teaching their messages, The earliest attestation of this middle Indo-aryan stage is found in Pali, the language of the Buddhist canon and in the inscriptions of Asoka. It is believed that the Buddhist canon was first formulated in the eastern dialect, the dialect of Buddha himself, and that it was later translated into Pāli. The assumed eastern canon is nolonger available. The Asokan inscription reflect at least two varieties of the MIA stage, the eastern (with/and nom. sg.in - e) and the western (with r and nom. sg. in - o), and perhaps a north-western (having three sibilants s, Ś and ș and many consonant clusters). The principal languages included in the MIA stage are the Ardhamāgadhi, the Sauraseni, the Māgadhi, the Paisāci and the Māhārāstri. The Māhārāstri does not represent any regional variety of MIA but a stage of development that lies between the literary Prakrits on the one hand and the Apabhraṁsa on the other. The Apabhraṁsa of about 1000 A.D. marks the close of the Middle Indo-Aryan period.
The new Indo-Aryan or the last stage in the development of the Indo-Aryan languages is said to have commenced in the 11th cent. A. D. and is represented in the various standard and sub-standard regional languages of northern India. These languages apparently grew out of the local Apabhraṁšas which, although not attested for different regions, must be assumed to precede and be the starting points of the NIA languages.
Madhu Vidya/551
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