Proceedings of the Seminar on Prakrit Studies 1973

Author(s): K R Chandra, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 78

8. On Studying the Prakrit Literature
Dr. K. K. Dixit, Ahmedabad
One might make plea for a serious study of the Prakrit literature on several grounds, considerably independent of each other. Of these, worthy of special consideration are three viz.
(I) The fact that the Prakrit languages stood closer to the popular languages of the day than did Sanskrit, the most celebrated classical language of India.
(II) The fact that the modern Indian Languages (belonging to the Aryan group) stand closer to the Prakrit Languages than they do to Sanskrit.
(III) The fact that a very large number-if not actually the majority-of Prakrit works are a composition of Jaina authors while these Jaina Prakrit texts are, for some reason or other, some of the most important Jaina texts.
Let these three grounds be taken up one by one.
(I) The vast Prakrit Literature is a standing and solid testimony to the experiment made in this country in the past to employ near-popular languages for the purposes of cultured communication light-literary as well as theoretical. To say that the Prakrít languages were near-popular languages only means that they stood closer to the contemporary popular languages than did Sanskrit which then was the most developed and most frequently employed language of cultured communication. On the other hand, it also obviously means that the Prakrit languages were not themselves popular languages. For pieces composed in actual popular languages of those times must have been of the form of folk-composition circulated orally among the illiterate masses at large. As against them, the Prakrit works were the composition of learned scholars who would pick up their Prakrit from the grammatical texts just as they would pick up their Sanskrit from Pāṇini. So it was possible for a Sanskrit dramatist writing in any part of the country to make his characters speak Sauraseni, Maharaştri, Māgadhi or the like as was prescribed by the authorities on Sanskrit drama. Even so, the Prakrit-experiment deserves a more serious and sympathetic appreciation than is usually meted out to it. This experiment is neglected unduly because in the course of history it was heavily overshadowed by the much more successful Sanskrit-experiment. But that is what happened in the past whereas our times should find it possible to take a balanced view of the total situation. For our