LECTURE XI
Pāli and other old Prākṛtas.
Prākṛta defined.—Sanskrit as a hieratic language, occupies naturally a position of very high honour. It is no wonder therefore, that our old Prākṛta grammarians regarded it in their fancy, to be the very speech, in its original purity, which the gods and holy men spoke at the very dawn of human creation. Some Prākṛta grammarians have formulated (no doubt very wrongly) that Sanskrit is in the state of প্রকৃতি or natural purity, while, the provincial dialects alone disclosed বিকৃতি or corruption of the original প্রকৃতি, by deviating from the norm of Sanskrit. This is how these grammarians have sought to explain the term Prākṛta, though the word প্রকৃতি cannot be shown to have been in use at any time, to signify a speech, holy or unholy. Prakṛti no doubt signifies nature, but in its secondary signification as 'subjects' or 'common people' or 'people in general,' the word is in very common use in our literature of all times. Prākṛta, in its signification as a speech, seems therefore to be associated with prakṛti or the common people. No matter what the derivation may be, it is undoubted, that the term Prākṛta has always denoted the current speech of the people in general, in contradistinction with the cultivated literary speech of the learned. It is significant that our provincial vernaculars of to-day, are called by the orthodox Pandits as so many Prākṛta speeches. No one can fail to notice, that the early poets of Bengal as well as of Orissa have designated the language of their effusions as Prākṛta. It is therefore admitted in a manner on all hands, that
