Shauraseni Prakrit

Shauraseni Prakrit (Sanskrit: शौरसेनी प्राकृत, IAST: Śaurasenī Prākṛta, Sanskrit pronunciation:) was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit. Shauraseni was the vernacular of the Surasena region and the chief language used in drama in medievalnorthern India such as those written in Jain Shauraseni. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th-centuries, and represented a regional language variety with minor modifications to the same linguistic substratum as other Dramatic Prakrit varieties.

Among the Prakrits, Shauraseni is said to be the one most closely related to Classical Sanskrit in that it "is derived from the Old Indian Indo-Aryan dialect of the Madhyadeśa on which Classical Sanskrit was mainly based."