{{Short description|Written language of Ancient India}} {{Distinguish|Ardhamagadhi Prakrit}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox language | name = Magadhi Prakrit | altname = Māgadhī | nativename = Brahmi: 𑀫𑀸𑀕𑀥𑀻 | region = India | extinct = developed into the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages<ref name=Claus2003 /> | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = Indo-Iranian | fam3 = Indo-Aryan | glotto = none }} '''Magadhi Prakrit''' (''Māgadhī'') is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Classical-Medieval India following the decline of Pali. It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit.<ref>{{Citation| contribution=The historical context and development of Indo-Aryan | editor1-last=Cardona | editor1-first=George | editor2-last=Jain | editor2-first=Dhanesh | title=The Indo-Aryan Languages | publisher=Routledge | place=London | year=2003 | series=Routledge language family series | isbn=0-7007-1130-9 | pages=46–66}}</ref>
==History and overview== Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prasad |first1=Balaram |last2=Mukherjee |first2=Sibasis |title=Magadhi / Magahi |url=http://lsi.gov.in/MTSI_app/DraftReport/Bihar/11.%20MAGADHI%20MAGAHI.pdf |website=lsi.gov.in |access-date=24 February 2022}}</ref><ref name="Chatterjee'>{{cite book |last1=Chatterji |first1=Suniti Kumar |title=The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language |date=1926 |page=vi |url=https://archive.org/details/OriginDevelopmentOfBengali/CHATTERJI_Origin-Development-of-Bengali_Vol-1/page/n3/mode/2up?q=magadhi+prakrit+bengal |language=English}}</ref> Associated with the ancient Magadha, it was spoken in present-day Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and eastern Uttar Pradesh under various ''apabhramsha'' dialects,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grierson |first1=Sir George Abraham |title=The Languages of India: Being a Reprint of the Chapter on Languages |date=1903 |publisher=Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India |pages=57–58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L65DAAAAYAAJ&q=magadhi+prakrit+bengal |language=en}}</ref> and used in some Prakrit dramas to represent vernacular dialogue. It is believed to be the language spoken by the important religious figures Gautama Buddha and Mahavira<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beames |first=John |url=http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ref/id/CBO9781139208871 |title=Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India: To Wit, Hindi, Panjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, and Bangali |orig-year=1879 |year=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-20887-1 |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139208871.003}}</ref> and was also the language of the courts of the Magadha Mahajanapada and the Maurya Empire; some of the Edicts of Ashoka were composed in it.<ref name="Chatterjee'/><ref>{{cite book|last=Bashan |first=A.L. |title=The Wonder that was India |publisher=Picador |year=2004 |page=394}}</ref>
Magadhi Prakrit later evolved into the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, categorised into four groups:<ref name=Claus2003>{{cite book |last1=Claus |first1=Peter J. |last2=Diamond |first2=Sarah |last3=Mills |first3=Margaret Ann |title=South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |page=203}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cardona |first1=George |last2=Jain |first2=Dhanesh K. |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |date=26 July 2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-79711-9 |page=445 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OtCPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA445}}</ref>
*Bengali–Assamese *Bihari *Halbic *Odia
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150214085724/http://jainworld.com/literature/jain_agams.asp Jain Agams] (archived) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140810115344/http://jainfriends.tripod.com/books/jibljainismliterature.html Jainism in Buddhist Literature] (archived) * {{cite thesis|type=PhD|first=Mathew W S|last=Toulmin|title=Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: The Kamta, Rajbanshi, and Northern Deshi Bangla subgroup of Indo-Aryan|url=https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/45743|publisher=The Australian National University|year=2006}}
{{Old and Middle Indo-Aryan}} {{Maithili language}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Indo-Aryan languages Category:Prakrit languages Category:Magahi language Category:History of the Bengali language