Introduction To Prakrit

Introduction to Prakrit provides the reader with a guide for the more attentive and scholarly study of Prakrit occurring in Sanskrit plays, poetry and prose--both literary and inscriptional. It presents a general view of the subject with special stress on Sauraseni and Maharastri Prakrit system. The book is divided into two parts. Part I consists of I-XI Chapters which deal with the three periods of Indo-Aryan speech, the three stages of the Middle Period, the literary and spoken Prakrits, their classification and characteristics, their system of Single and Compound Consonants, Vowels, Sandhi, Declension, Conjugation and their history of literature. Part II consists of a number of extracts from Sanskrit and Prakrit literature which illustrate different types of Prakrit--Sauraseni, Maharastri, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi, Avanti, Apabhramsa, etc., most of which are translated into English. The book contains valuable information on the Phonetics and Grammar of the Dramatic Prakrits--Sauraseni and Maharastri. It is documented with an Index as well as a Students' Bibliography.

Excerpt from Introduction to Prakrit The specimens of Pali and of old Prakrit are intended as inducements to further study. Modern forms have been occasionally quoted to show the historical continuity of words from ancient times. The student should be able to connect up a much larger number of forms from his mother tongue. The Index is intended partly for convenience of reference, and partly to provide an instrument by which one may test one's ability to explain forms, and to recognize them out of their context. Transliteration. The Roman script has been used for several reasons. Over a dozen years of teaching experience has convinced the writer that the slovenly spelling, so prevalent in both Roman and Devanagari scripts, is partly due to the fact that Hindi and Sanskrit are written in the same script, but with slightly different sound-values. A word written in Deva nagri may be pronounced as in Sanskrit or as in Hindi, e.g. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This volume brings together eight contributions of Professor Madhav M. Deshpande relating to the historical sociolinguistics of sanskrit and Prakrit languages. The studies brought together here represent his continuing research in this field after his 1979 book: Sociolinguistic Attitudes in India: An Historical Reconstruction. The main thrust of these studies is to show that patterns of language, including grammatical theories are deeply influenced by political, religious, geographical, and other sociohistorical factors. This is true as much of ancient languages as it is for modern languages.