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Prakrit

Also Known As Prakrits The plural, used because Prakrit names a group of vernaculars rather than one.
Sacred & Content Languages

Prakrit is the collective name for the Middle Indo-Aryan vernaculars that stand between Vedic Sanskrit and the modern North Indian languages, and it carries a great deal of Indian religious literature. The Jain canon is preserved in Ardhamagadhi and other Prakrits, Ashoka's edicts are cut in Prakrit rather than Sanskrit, and Pali, the Theravada canonical language, belongs to the same layer. Sanskrit drama gives Prakrit to women and to characters of low status, which is itself evidence of how the two registers were heard.

Facts
Origins
Language Family
Middle Indo-Aryan, the stage between Vedic and classical Sanskrit on one side and the modern north Indian languages on the other; a group of related literary registers rather than a single language. 2
Place of Origin
Prakrit originated on the Indian subcontinent as a family of Middle Indo-Aryan vernacular languages, standing alongside the more formal literary register of Sanskrit. 3Tradition: The Indo-Aryan Languages
Practice
Liturgical and Scriptural Role
The languages of the Jain canon and of Ashoka's edicts, and the speech assigned to women and to lower-status characters in Sanskrit drama, so that a Prakrit passage in a play marks a social position as much as a dialect. 4
Identity
Native Script
Brahmi in the earliest inscriptions, and later the regional scripts descended from it, chiefly Devanagari in the Jain manuscript tradition. 1
Learn More
The Language the Jain Canon Is In

Prakrit is the collective name for the Middle Indo-Aryan vernaculars standing between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit on one side and the modern North Indian languages on the other, and the word itself means natural or original, as against samskrita, refined or made. It is not one language. Ardhamagadhi, Maharashtri, Shauraseni, Magadhi and Jain Maharashtri are distinct literary registers with their own grammars and their own uses, and a reader trained in one is not automatically at home in another.

The Shvetambara Jain canon is preserved in Ardhamagadhi, and later Jain commentarial and narrative literature runs in Jain Maharashtri and in Shauraseni. That makes Prakrit the primary scriptural language of a living religion. Jain tradition holds that Mahavira taught in the vernacular of his hearers rather than in Sanskrit, so the choice of language is itself a doctrinal statement about who the teaching is for.

Buddhism made a related choice. Pali, the canonical language of Theravada, is a Middle Indo-Aryan language of the same period and the same family, and the two traditions together mean that the earliest surviving scriptures of two religions were composed in vernaculars deliberately preferred over the priestly language. Richard Salomon's guide to Indian epigraphy sets out the philological groundwork for all of it.

The Edicts of Ashoka, and Where Prakrit Went

The oldest deciphered writing in India is Prakrit. The edicts Ashoka had cut on rocks and pillars in the third century BCE, in the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts, are in regional Prakrits, and they are a religious document as much as a political one. They set out dhamma as a public ethic, record the king's remorse after the conquest of Kalinga, and enjoin respect between sects and restraint in the killing of animals. Because they are dated, located and in the vernacular, they anchor the chronology of early Indian religion.

Prakrit then had a long literary career. Maharashtri became the language of lyric poetry, above all in the anthology of seven hundred verses attributed to a Satavahana king, and Sanskrit drama assigns Prakrit to particular characters by convention, so that a single play may carry three or four registers with the social position of the speaker determining which is used.

The survey edited by George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain places the Prakrits in the descent from Old to Middle to New Indo-Aryan, and the modern languages of the north, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi and the rest, come through them. Prakrit is therefore both a scriptural language still in liturgical use among Jains and the ancestral stage of the speech of several hundred million people.

Connections

Associated With

Ayaro (Acaranga Sutra), Literary Works

This source names Prakrit directly: "of the Jain canon, giving the original Prakrit in both Devanagari and roman scripts alongside a full English translation, annotations, notes, glossary and index."

Source Ayaro = Acaranga Sutra (Internet Archive)Internet Archive (digitized catalogue record)
Buddhism, Religions

Pali, the Theravada canonical language, belongs to the same Middle Indo-Aryan layer.

Devardhigani Kshamashraman (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Prakrit directly: "Jain ascetic and author of several Prakrit texts who died in 473 CE, documenting his role guiding the second council of Valabhi, dated here to 453 CE, at which he sat with the surviving shramans..."

Source Devardhigani Kshamashraman (Wikipedia)
Hemachandra, Historical Figures

This source names Prakrit directly: "He was an extraordinarily prolific author, producing Sanskrit and Prakrit grammars, poetic and historical works including the Trishashtishalakapurushacharita, an account of the lives of sixty three..."

Source The JainsPaul Dundas
Jaina Sutras, Part II: Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga (Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East vol. 45), Sources

This source names Prakrit directly: "English, prepared directly from the Prakrit text with introductory notes on each text's content, structure and place in the Jain canon."

Source Jaina Sutras, Part II: Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga (Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East vol. 45)Hermann Jacobi (translator)
Jainism, Religions

The Jain canon is preserved in Ardhamagadhi and other Prakrits.

K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Oxford University Press), Sources

This source names Prakrit directly: "under Sivaskandavarman, whose Prakrit copper plate charters record the performance of Vedic sacrifices including the Ashvamedha and grants of village and garden land to Brahmins, establishing the..."

Source K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Oxford University Press)K.A. Nilakanta Sastri
Pallava Dynasty (Wikipedia), Sources

This source names Prakrit directly: "Hirahadagalli copper plate grants, the Prakrit script and language of the earliest charters, and the scholarly disagreement over dating his reign anywhere from the late third to the mid fourth..."

Source Pallava Dynasty (Wikipedia)
Sivaskandavarman Performs the Ashvamedha and Grants Land to Brahmins at Kanchipuram, Spread Events

This source names Prakrit directly: "in the far south of India, issued the Prakrit copper plate charters known today as the Mayidavolu and Hirahadagalli grants."

Source K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Oxford University Press)K.A. Nilakanta Sastri
Sutrakritanga, Scriptures & Texts

This source names Prakrit directly: "spelled Suyagadanga in its original Prakrit) is the second of the twelve Angas, the oldest core texts of the Svetambara Jain Agama canon, and is largely devoted to refuting rival philosophical and..."

Source Jaina Sutras, Part II: Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga (Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East vol. 45)Hermann Jacobi (translator)

Language Of

Agamas, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Arham, Mantras

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Bhagavati Sutra, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Dashavaikalika Sutra, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Kalpa Sutra, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Khamemi Savva Jive, Prayers

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Logassa Prayer Opening, Prayers

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Micchami Dukkadam, Prayers

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Namokar Prayer, Prayers

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Navkar Mantra, Mantras

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Om Hreem Arham Namo Arihantanam, Mantras

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Shatkhandagama, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Sutrakritanga, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Uttaradhyayana Sutra, Scriptures & Texts

Entity-backed identity for the language enum value this record already carries, resolved to the live divinity language entity that value names, per the phase 3 entity-backed browse bucket conversion (docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md, owner decisions 2026-09-28, w-bucketconv-divlang2-0929, mapping corrected). The language fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the record unchanged; this relationship only adds the durable entity identity the value already names.

Named or Composed in This Language

Agamas, Scriptures & Texts
Source The JainsPaul Dundas
Bhagavati Sutra, Scriptures & Texts
Source Vy?khy?praj?apti (Wikipedia)
Dashavaikalika Sutra, Scriptures & Texts
Source The Svetambara Jain AgamasAnonymous (Jain tradition)
Kalpa Sutra, Scriptures & Texts
Source The JainsPaul Dundas
Khamemi Savva Jive, Prayers

The prayer is transmitted in Prakrit.

Logassa Prayer Opening, Prayers

The prayer is transmitted in Prakrit.

Micchami Dukkadam, Prayers

The prayer is transmitted in Prakrit.

Namokar Prayer, Prayers

The prayer is transmitted in Prakrit.

Shatkhandagama, Scriptures & Texts
Source Satkhandagama (Wikipedia)
Sutrakritanga, Scriptures & Texts
Source Jaina Sutras, Part II: Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga (Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East vol. 45)Hermann Jacobi (translator)
Uttaradhyayana Sutra, Scriptures & Texts
Source Uttaradhyayana (Wikipedia)
Uvasaggaharam Stotra, Hymns & Liturgical Texts

Its own text: "a five verse Prakrit hymn in praise of Parshvanatha".

Source The JainsPaul Dundas

Related To

Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, Languages

Ardhamagadhi Prakrit is one of the Prakrits.

Sanskrit, Languages

Prakrit stands between Vedic Sanskrit and the modern North Indian languages.

Uses This Script

Brahmi, Scripts & Magical Alphabets
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Devanagari, Scripts & Magical Alphabets
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
In the Other Atlases
  • Also in Language Atlas: Indo-Aryan, in branch there.
Sources
1. The World's Writing Systems
Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996View the Source
2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), SIL International, 2024View the Source
3. The Indo-Aryan Languages
George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds.), Routledge, 2003On the Prakrits as Middle Indo-Aryan vernaculars alongside SanskritView the Source
4. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages
Richard Salomon, Oxford University Press, 1998View the Source
Satkhandagama (Wikipedia)
Named or Composed in This Language: Shatkhandagama, Infobox, language field
Quote, Named or Composed in This Language: Shatkhandagama, Infobox, language field
Prakrit
View the Source
Vy?khy?praj?apti (Wikipedia)
Named or Composed in This Language: Bhagavati Sutra, Infobox, language field
Quote, Named or Composed in This Language: Bhagavati Sutra, Infobox, language field
Prakrit
View the Source
Uttaradhyayana (Wikipedia)
Named or Composed in This Language: Uttaradhyayana Sutra, Infobox, language field
Quote, Named or Composed in This Language: Uttaradhyayana Sutra, Infobox, language field
Prakrit
View the Source
The Jains
Paul Dundas, Routledge, 2002
  • Named or Composed in This Language: Agamas, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: prakrit
  • Named or Composed in This Language: Kalpa Sutra, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: prakrit
View the Source
The Svetambara Jain Agamas
Anonymous (Jain tradition)Named or Composed in This Language: Dashavaikalika Sutra, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: prakritView the Source
Jaina Sutras, Part II: Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga (Hermann Jacobi, Sacred Books of the East vol. 45)
Hermann Jacobi (translator), Clarendon Press, Oxford (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 45), 1895Named or Composed in This Language: Sutrakritanga, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: prakrit

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