ABSTRACT
Indo-Aryan varieties can be subsumed under the label Prakrit (Skt. pra-kr ˚ ta Pkt. pa-ia-
‘stemming from the original, natural’), referring to vernaculars in contrast to the polished language called sam. skr
˚ ta. Traditionally, most Indian commentators and grammarians of
Prakrits derive these from Sanskrit, but there are formations in Prakrits found in Vedic sources but not in Classical Sanskrit. Thus, as Classical Sanskrit is not derivable from a single attested Vedic dialect, so the Prakrits cannot be derived from Classical Sanskrit. In the present sketch, I use Prakrit in a narrow sense, of Middle Indo-Aryan languages other than As´okan dialects, Pa-li or Apabhram
. s´a. There are abundant literary sources for
New Indo-Aryan languages from the twelfth century on, some materials from earlier times. Several scripts have been and currently are used for Indo-Aryan languages. In ancient
times, two major scripts were used on the subcontinent: Kharos.t.hı-written from right to left, was predominantly used in the north-west, Bra-hmı-, written from left to right, elsewhere. Most scripts used for Indo-Aryan languages stem from Bra-hmı-, including Devana-garı-(see Chapter 21, Section 2), widely employed for Sanskrit and now the official script for Hindi, Marathi, Nepali. The Arabic script, with modifications, is used for some Indo-Aryan languages, including Urdu.
