Prakrit

A group of Middle Indo-Aryan vernacular registers, contrasted with Sanskrit ("the refined") as the actual spoken languages of ordinary people rather than the maintained literary standard; the name itself derives from Sanskrit prakrta, "natural" or "derived." The earliest substantial attestation of Middle Indo-Aryan is Ashoka's rock and pillar edicts of around 260 BCE, inscribed chiefly in Brahmi script, making Ashokan Prakrit the oldest large body of writing in an indigenous Indian language and predating any comparable Sanskrit inscriptional corpus. Named Prakrits are associated with particular regions, dynasties or scriptures: Ardhamagadhi with the Jain canon and the preaching of Mahavira, Pali with the Theravada Buddhist canon, Shauraseni with classical Sanskrit drama and the Digambara Jain corpus, Magadhi with the eastern region of Magadha, and Maharashtri with courtly lyric poetry. Prakrit remained a living vernacular register from roughly the third century BCE into the first millennium CE before evolving into the New Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi and Bengali.