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The Prakrit : A Review
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popular medium Although Vararuci, who wrote Vārtikas on Panini and lived probably in the 5th century A.D., is the first to give a grammar for Prakrit, and Bhāmaha (assigned to the 7th century A.D.) wrote commentary on it, the most important of the Prakrit grammars is the chapter VIII of the Siddha-Hemacandra of Hemacandra Sūri (1088-1172 A.D.); and interestingly all these grammarians were Sanskritists who added only a chapter on Prakrit in their work on Sanskrit grammar. This can explain that the literary Prakrit as extant now was systematized, and the works were possibly cleansed of colloquialisms by the learned pandits to bring them in tune with the grammatical codes ard at par with the language of the fişta (urbanised, in essence, an adept in the use of chaste Sanskrit) of the day.
The language used by Aśoka Maurya (272 B. C.-235 B. C.) in his inscriptions provides us with a window on the language of the masses in the first millennium before Christ. According to the phonetic variations, four groups are indicated :
1. The region to the west of the Sutlej, falling within the Viceroyaly of Takşabila, and represented by the Rock Edicts at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra. Besides the Indian language written in the Kharoşthi script, the Greek and Aramaic languages written in their respective scripts were also in use, mostly beyond the Khyber and Bolan passes.
2. The region to the east and south of the Sutlej, covering the entire Gangetic basin, with centre at Pataliputra, and represented by the Rock Edicts at Kalsi, Dhauli and Jaugad, Pillar Edicts in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and the Minor Rock and Pillar Edicts in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar,--all written in Prakrit but in the Brahmi script.
3. The region controlled by the Viceroyalty of Ujjayini, and represented by the Rock Edicts at Girnar and Sopara, written in Prakrit in the Brāhmi script.
4. The region controlled by the Viceroyalty at Suvarnagiri and represented by the Edicts in Andra Pradesh and Karnatak Pradesh, written in Prakrit in the Brahmi script.
The same form of language and script continues for about 500 years after Asoka when it was supplanted by panegyrics and eulogies in classical
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