Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/407

* PRAJAPATI. 343 PRAKRIT. was to be empliasized, of those divine personages who, produced by Brahma, created all existing beings, including gods and demons, llanu names ten such Prajapatis engendered, through pure meditation, by Brahma, Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Prachetas or Daksha, Vasishtha, Bhrigu, and Xarada. The Puranas (q.v. ) contain many legends about them, together with yarving accounts both of their number and origin. In modern India the cult of Prajapati has almost disappeared, although the Kumbars, or potter caste, of the Punjab still worship him. Consult: iluir. Original Sanskrit Texts (London, 1868-74) ; Hopkins. Religions of India (Boston, 1895) ; Slacdonell, Tedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897). PRAJNA PARAMITA, pra'nya pa'r:i-meta (Skt.. wisdom which has gone to the other shore; absolute or transcendental wisdom). The title of the principal Sutra of the ilahayana School of the Buddhists. Its main object is metaphys- ical, and its doctrine is the entire negation of the subject as well as the object, teaching that the supreme good, defined by it as the Aisdoni which releases from transmigration, has no more reality than he who strives to gain it. The com- mencement of the work is merely a eulogy of Buddha, and of the Bodhisattvas, who form his retinue. Other parts contain narratives of won- derful phenomena connected with the apparition of Buddhist saints,. descriptions of the benefits arising from an observance of Buddhistic doc- trine, or verses in which the Buddha is praised by his disciples. Both on account of the extent to which such episodical topics could easily be expanded, as well as by reason of the amplifica- tions of the real substance of the work, several recensions of the Prajiia Paramit.a are in exist- ence. Some of these do not contain more than 7000 slokas, or distichs. but others amount to 18.000, 2.5.nnO, or even 100.000 slokas. PRAKRIT, pr-i'krit (Skt. prdl-rta, natural, unrefined, vernacular, from prakrti, element, foundation, from pra. before + kar, to make). The medieval popular Aryan languages of India, standing chronologically between Sanskrit and the modern Aryan dialects of the peninsula, such as Hindustani. Gujarati, Bengali, and others. While there were doubtless a great number of Prakrit dialects, we have trustworthy informa- tion about lery few. According to the Priikrta- sarvasra of ilarkandeya Kavindra, who wrote probably about the middle of the seventeenth century, there were four main divisions of Pra- krit, bhOsa vihhSsO, apahhramm, and paisuca. The bliasiis, or languages proper, included JIaharashtri, Sauraseni. Pracya, Avanti, and Magadhi. In his view the Ardhaniagadhi was a variety of Magadhi somewliat resembling Sau- raseni. while Babliki also differed little from Magadhi. The vibhasas, or dialects, comprised Sakari, Candali, f^abari. Abhriki. and ^akki. but not. as some native grammarians held. Odri or Dravidi. The Apabhramsas, or patois, included twenty-seven dialects, all of which were derived from three, Xagara, Vracada, and Upanagara, although it is not improbable that, as a matter of fact, each literary Prakrit, whether bham or ribhCiiiii. had its patois, or npabhrarhia, beside it. The ijCiimcas. popularly interpreted as demon languages, but probably originally the dialects of the north or west of India, had eleven varieties, derived, according to Markandeya, from three, Kaikeya, Saiirasena, and Pancala. Of all the Prakrits by far the most important was Maha- rashtri, which is the one implied by the native grammarians when they speak simply of Prakrit. This is the dialect which is employed sometimes in two slightly modified forms called Arsha or Ardhamagadhi, and .laina Maharashtri, in the sacred texts of .Jainism (q.v.). An important source for the great majority of Prakrits, how- ever, is the Indian drama. According to the conventions of Hindu dramaturgy only the prin- cipal male characters speak Sanskrit. The lower male and all the female roles are in various Prakrits, often corrupted in course of time by careless or ignorant scribes and editors. Accord- ing to a passage in the Sanskrit rhetorical trea- tise, entitled the nahityadarpana, noble womeu employ in dramatic prose Sauraseni, but in verse JIaharashtri, courtiers speak Magadhi, ministers and princes Ardhamagadhi, buffoons Pracya, ras- cals Avanti, gamblers and citizens Dakshinatya, woodcutters Paisaca, and so on. On the other hand, women of high birth, their friends, cour- tesans, and celestial nymphs may speak Sanskrit as well as Prakrit. While there is little doubt that such an elaborate division of Prakrits as we find in the drama was artificial, it finds an analogue -in the princely retinues of modern India, where many different districts with di- verse dialects are represented in one place. It also leads to the inference that Sanskrit was probably not spoken by all classes of people, al- though it was intelligible to many who were obliged to reply in the vernacular. Prakrit is not derived from classical Sanskrit (see San.skkit L.^nguage), but from a dialect- group closely akin to Vedic Sanskrit. As an- alogues between Prakrit and Vedic Sanskrit may be cited the change of intervocalic d to I, as Sanskrit garuda, name of a niytliical bird, Prakrit gariila, cf. Sanskrit ide, 'I praise,' Vedie Sanskrit He : instrumental plural in ■Shim, as Prakrit racchchitii, 'with trees,' Vedie rrksebhih, but classical Sanskrit rrksUih, Prakrit riikkha, 'tree,' Vedic riiksa, not found in classical Sanskrit. The chief phonological characteristics of Pra- krit are the loss of Sanskrit r, the shortening of the Sanskrit diphthongs C; 5 before consonant groups, the frequent elision of intervocalic k. g, j, i, d, p, 6, V, the common change of medial kh, gh, th, dh, bh to 7(, the change of >i to n throughout, and of s and s to s or rarely to h, and the sim- plification of consonant-groups. In morphology the inflection is character- ized especially by the gi'owth of o-stems at the expense of the r- and consonant stems, as San- skrit pitar. 'father,' but Prakrit piara, .Sanskrit karman, 'deed.' Prakrit kamma. The old dual is lost excepting in do, duve, be, 'two;' and the genitive assumes the functions of the dative. The pronominal declension is to a verj' large extent influenced by the nominal, while in all periods of Sanskrit the two systems are kept distinct. In conjugation there is btit one sys- tem, apart from some scattered forms, as con- trasted with the nine present fomiations in San- skrit. Verbs are. therefore, conjugated accord- ing to the Sanskrit o-class, as Sanskrit rartati, 'turns,' Prakrit vatta'i. Excepting the past participle, the middle voice has almost disap- peared. The tense system is extremely meagre, consisting only of present and future. Of the