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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
299
And in this long history the Prakrits have played an important role by contributing their own significant mite to the cultural life of India, which fact is found reflected in their literature that is vast and varied covering a considerably lengthy period of about 1700 or 1800 years, from the days of Mahavira and the Buddha until c.11th century A.D. when the modern Indo-Aryan languages began to appear.
Thus after having a brief acquaintance of Prakrit languages and their literary evolution, let us, now, have a bird's eye-view of the outstanding realms of Prakrit literature and try to assess its contribution to the culture of this great country of ours.
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The inscriptions of Emperor Aśoka (300 B.C.) are earliest available Prakrit records which deserve to be classed as literature. Moreover these inscriptions, as observed by Bloch,11 are the first authentic documents marked and dated with a relative precision in the whole range of Indian History. They are more than thirty and are incised on rocks, boulders, pillars and walls of caves. The fourteen rock-edicts, found in seven recensions, are simple but forceful and they echo the great monarch's appealing voice. They depict the picture of the state and also reflect the monarch's great personality that championed the cause of Ahimsa and Peace and yearned for the welfare of the subjects. Amongst the numerous Prakrit inscriptions belonging to the post-Asokan period, special mention may be made of the Hathigumpha inscriptions of King Khāravela (2nd century A.D.) for their informative value and literary qualities. It is striking to note that inscriptions in India are all in Prakrit from 300 B.C. to 100 A.D.; and during this period Sanskrit was eclipsed by Prakrit, to which fact stand as the first witness, the Asokan inscriptions, clearly indicating that the official language of the then Magadhan Empire was Prakrit. Here, again, we should recapitulate what Dr.Katre Says: "These Prakrit inscriptions and coin legends continued for nearly eight centuries, and during the latter half of this period competed with Sanskrit, both as media of instruction and cultural languages." After inscriptions we enter the realm of canonical literature
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