Paishachi or Paisaci () is a largely unattested literary language of the

middle kingdoms of India The middle kingdoms of India were the political entities in the Indian subcontinent from 230 BCE to 1206 CE. The period begins after the decline of the Maurya Empire and the corresponding rise of the Satavahana dynasty, starting with Simuk ...

mentioned in

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

grammars of antiquity. It is generally grouped with the Prakrits, with which it shares some linguistic similarities, but is still not considered a spoken Prakrit by the grammarians because it was purely a literary language, and because of its archaicism.

Identity

The

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the name suggests that it is spoken by piśācas, ( demons). In works of Sanskrit poetics such as

Daṇḍin Daṇḍi or Daṇḍin (Sanskrit: दण्डिन्) () was an Indian Sanskrit grammarian and author of prose romances. He is one of the best-known writers in Indian history. Life Daṇḍin's account of his life in ''Avantisundari-ka ...

's ''

Kavyadarsha The Kavyadarsha (, ) by Dandin is the earliest surviving systematic treatment of poetics in Sanskrit. Contents This work is divided into 3 ''pariccheda''s (chapters) in most of the printed editions, except one, where the third chapter of the ot ...

'', it is also known by the name of , an epithet which can be interpreted either as a "dead language" (i.e. with no surviving speakers), or as "a language spoken by the dead" (i.e. ghouls or ghosts), the former interpretation being more realistic and the latter being the more fanciful. Evidence which lends support to the former interpretation is that literature in Paiśācī is fragmentary and extremely rare but may have been once common. The Siddha-Hema-Śabdanuśāśana, a grammar treatise written by Rev. Acharya Hemachandraacharya, includes six languages: Sanskrit, the "standard" Prakrit (virtually Maharashtri Prakrit), Shauraseni, Magahi, Paiśācī, the otherwise-unattested Cūlikāpaiśācī and Apabhraṃśa (virtually Gurjar Apabhraṃśa, prevalent in the area of Gujarat and Rajasthan at that time and the precursor of Gujarati language). The 13th-century Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the

early Buddhist schools The early Buddhist schools refers to the History of Buddhism in India, Indian Buddhist "doctrinal schools" or "schools of thought" (Sanskrit: ''vāda'') which arose out of the early unified Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist monastic community (San ...

were separated by choice of

sacred language A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Some religions, or part ...

: the

Mahāsāṃghika The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi script, Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha (Buddhism), Sangha", ) was a major division (nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India. They were one of the two original communities th ...

s used Prākrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa.

Literature

The most widely known work, although lost, attributed to be in Paiśācī is the '' Bṛhatkathā'' (literally "Big Story"), a large collection of stories in verse, attributed to Gunadhya. It is known through its adaptations in

as the '' Kathasaritsagara'' in the 11th century by Somadeva, and also from the ''Bṛhatkathā'' by Kshemendra. Both Somadeva and Kshemendra were from

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

where the ''Bṛhatkathā'' was said to be popular. Talking of its existence, Pollock writes: There is one chapter (chapter 10) dedicated to Paisachi Prakrit in Prakrita Prakasha, a grammar book of Prakrit languages attributed to Vararuchi. In this work, it is mentioned that the base of Paisachi is Shauraseni language. It further goes on to mention 10 rules of transforming the base text to Paisachi. These are mostly rules of substitution of letters - Chapter 10 of Prakrita Pariksha

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paisaci Indo-Aryan languages Extinct languages of Asia Prakrit languages Panchatantra

Identity

Literature

See also

References