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Written language of Ancient India
Magadhi Prakrit (Māgadhī ) is of one of the three
Dramatic Prakrits , the written languages of
Ancient India following the decline of
Pali and
Sanskrit . It was a vernacular
Middle Indo-Aryan language , replacing earlier
Vedic Sanskrit .
[2]
History and overview
Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern
Indian subcontinent , in a region spanning what is now
eastern India ,
Bangladesh and
Nepal .
[3]
[4] Associated with the ancient
Magadha , it was spoken in present-day
Assam ,
Bengal ,
Bihar ,
Jharkhand ,
Odisha and eastern
Uttar Pradesh under various apabhramsha dialects,
[5] and used in some dramas to represent vernacular dialogue in Prakrit dramas. It is believed to be the language spoken by the important religious figures
Gautama Buddha and
Mahavira
[6] and was also the language of the courts of the
Magadha
mahajanapada and the
Maurya Empire ; some of the
Edicts of Ashoka were composed in it.
[4]
[7]
Magadhi Prakrit later evolved into the
Eastern Indo-Aryan languages :
[1]
[8]
References
^
a
b South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, By Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills, Routledge, 2003, p. 203
^ Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, eds. (2003), "The historical context and development of Indo-Aryan", The Indo-Aryan Languages , Routledge language family series, London: Routledge, pp. 46–66,
ISBN
0-7007-1130-9
^ Prasad, Balaram; Mukherjee, Sibasis.
"Magadhi / Magahi" (PDF) . lsi.gov.in . Retrieved 24 February 2022 .
^
a
b Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926).
The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language . p. vi.
^ Grierson, Sir George Abraham (1903).
The Languages of India: Being a Reprint of the Chapter on Languages . Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 57–58.
^ Beames, John (2012) [1879].
Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India: To Wit, Hindi, Panjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, and Bangali . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
doi :
10.1017/cbo9781139208871.003 .
ISBN
978-1-139-20887-1 .
^ Bashan A.L., The Wonder that was India , Picador, 2004, pp. 394
^ Ray, Tapas S. (2007).
"Chapter Eleven: "Oriya" . In Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George. The Indo-Aryan Languages . Routledge. p. 445.
ISBN
978-1-135-79711-9 .
External links
Language Dialects Culture Scripts