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I was asked for an English translation of my thread on #Prakrit an Sanskrit. Here it goes (well, at least partially!

#StartOfThread 1/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
2/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics

The relation between Samskrta #Sanskrt and various Prakrtas #Prakrit is a subject that has been debated widely. Since #Kannada in its long history has been influenced by Samskrta and Prakrita(s), I thought of this note.
References in Sanskrit state " प्रकृतिः संस्कृतम्, तत्र भवेत् पाकृतं" - implying it is Samskrta that was the originator, or natural language, and those varieties (of it) that arose from it were called Prakritas.

3/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
Diglossia exists in many Indian langs. Similarly, it is common to see langs morph over time/space. It is possible to imagine many dialects such as Sauraseni, Magadhi, Pali, Maharashtri (well known Prakritas) to a single language called (clasical) Sanskrit.
4/n #Sanskrit #Prakrit
In contrast to the traditional views that were held in India, in the past 200 years or so, a theory has been put forward to state Sanskrit was a "made-up" languae form various Prakritas.

5/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
Unfortunately, some people who float/support such theories today have minimal understanding of either Samskrta or other Prakritas. This is really ironical & worrisome.

6/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
Some people float a theory of Panini inventing or creating an artificial language called #Sanskrit

The job of a grammarian is to describe how words take forms,/derive some commonality iin formation to come up with generic rules and also document exceptions to the rules. 7/n
So grammar is determined by the forms and struture in use in a given language. The purpose of grammar is not to "create" a language. As clearly said by Patanjali, no one goes to a grammarian asking for words!

8/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
While this very impossible theory is not new, its newfound love among the SM is new. these days is becase lots of people are unaware of the languages in question and also not aware of historical facts.

9/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
The SM also makes things worse by the attitude of people sharing anything they see without asking questions. So starting from Facebook posts to online portals to print media, ridiculous claims and propagation of things that fit their agenda is common place.

10/n #Sanskrit
+ often with zero effort to cross check against facts. This discease is not new - and it will only grow, until people start getting educated from primary sources on such topics.

11/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
Still to continue ... 12/n #Sanskrit #Kannada #Prakrit #Prakrta #Linguistics
Continuing from where I stopped:

Such arguments result because of not reasing primary sources, and trying to interpret through, often faulty, or limited English translations.

For example, it is claimed Buddha used Pali "language" againt "Samskrta language"

13/n #Prakrit
(cont.d) as though these were not mutually intelligible to speakers of these two "language" speakers.

But before coming to such a conclusion, you must actually read some of the Pali suttas and be surprised at how close these two "languages" are.

14/n

#Prakrta #Buddha #Pali
#Pali

न भजे पापके मित्ते
न भजे पुरिसाधमे
भजेथा मित्ते कल्याणे
भजेथा पुरिसुत्तमे

Here's my who #Sanskrit chaya of the sutta.

न भजे पापके मित्रे
न भजे पुरुषाधमे
भजेsथा मित्रे कल्याणे
भजेsथा पुरुषोत्तमे

Doesn't it look like two dialects of the same language to you?
#Buddha
15/n
Here's another in Pali:
मनोपुब्बंगमा धम्मा
मनोसेट्ठा मनोमयाः
मनसा चे पदुट्ठीन
भासति वा करोति वा
ततो नङ् दुक्खण् अन्वेति
चक्कं व वहतो पदङ्

My #Sanskrit chaya:
मनो पूर्वंगमा धर्म
मनसेष्टा मनोमयाः
मनसो चेत् प्रदुष्टेन
भासति वा करोति वा
ततो नहि दुःखमन्वेति
चक्रं वो वहतो पदान्
16/n
You don't need to be a #Pali expert to understand these two are very similar, and look very similar to two dialects of the same language. As a comparison, the difference is as much as you will see between a text book Kannada and Kannada spoken in rural areas

#Pali #Prakrta

17/n
A parallel, from a ರತ್ನನ ಪದ:

ಬ್ರಮ್ಮ ನಿಂಗೆ ಜೋಡುಸ್ತೀನಿ ಯೆಂಡ ಮುಟ್ಟಿದ್ಕೈನ
ಬೂಮ್ಯುದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಬೊಗ್ಗುಸ್ತೀನಿ ಯೆಂಡ ತುಂಬಿದ್ಮೈನ

A "text-bookish" version :

ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ ನಿನಗೆ ಜೋಡಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ ಹೆಂಡ ಮುಟ್ಟಿದ ಮೈಯನ್ನು
ಭೂಮಿಯುದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಬಗ್ಗಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ ಹೆಂಡ ತುಂಬಿದ ಮೈಯನ್ನು

#Pali #Prakrta #Samskrta #Sanskrit

18/n
Now if you could read the devanagari script and the kannada script, you will agree the difference between Pali and Samskrta is just very similar to the two flavors of Kannada in the previous tweet. So you can conclude, Pali was just a regional, spoken variety of #Samskrta

19/n
So how come? If you can not call the second verion of text-bookish kannada as a "constructed" language, how can you call Samskrta as an artificially made up language? You just can't - i.e. if you follow reasoning. For those beyond reasoning, I don't want to be preechy ;-)

20/n
I hate my typos. Preachy, is what I meant!
Now if you ask me if I can prove Samskrta did not originate from Pali, you need to only look at various other "spoken" varieties. Pali wasn't the only #Prakrit. There was Maharashtri, near narmada - Godavari basin

#linguistics 21/n
+ Sauraseni spoken in Ganga-Yamuna area, Magadhi in the Eastern parts of North India etc - each of which have very similar variations with the "standard" samskrta. All these places are quite far from each other.

Can all languages were "processed" to create a "Samskrta" ?

22/n
Or is it easier to think of regional variations of one language branching off from the trunk ?

Rather parroting "Samskrta was created by combining multiple languages and refining" which is a futile drAvida prANAyama exercise, we need to face the facts, staring at us :-)

23/n
If you ask, as a Kannadiga, how does what happened between Samskrta and Prakrta, matter to me - the answer is that Kannada had an early influence from both the languages almost 2000 years ago - and took quite a bit of vocabulary from Samskrta as well as Maharashtri #Prakrta
24/n
Many everyday common words of Kannada have come from #Maharashtri #Prakrta. It is quite natural if we see the history of the area between Krishna and Narmada river, which had Kannada and Maharashtri speakers - causing Kannada words to enter (later) Marathi, and vice versa.

25/n
These areas were ruled by #Kannada speaking kings from Chalukya & Rashtrakuta dynasty. Earliest written inscriptions in the area start from Prakrita and then move to Kannada, showing Kannada was influenced by the script it got from #Prakrta/#Samskrta.

26/n
#Linguistics #thread
So why was #Samskrta chosen by many Kannadigas to write their works? Did they speak Samskrta everyday? Not necessarily.

It is just like me tweeting in English. It gets a better reach & understood widely than when I tweet in Kannada (which I do regularly too!)

27/n
#Prakrta
Why did I have to write all this? Just because I am fed up with same nonsense arguments showing up on my TL, with fancy claims of some scholar saying "Pali opposed Samskrta", "Buddha opposed Samskrta", "Samskrta is not natural" and, you can't beat the following - 28/n
#Prakrta
+ "Sanskrit promotes social conflict" (Not joking, this statement was made by a "scholar" in Karnataka😬)

Here I end my thread on #Samskrta, #Sanskrit, #Pali, #Prakrta #Prakrit #Kannada and the fake narratives on SM.

Do share if you found this interesting.
#EndOfThread 29/29
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