[INDOLOGY] Question about Gandhari Prakrit

[Madhav Deshpande]

Dear Colleagues,

     I have a question about the Gandhari Prakrit.  From the Gandhari
Dharmapada edited by John Brough to recent publications of the Buddhist
Gandhari materials, we have come to learn of Gandhari as a variety of
Prakrit.  To my memory, the Prakrit grammars do not mention Gandhari
Prakrit, while they do refer to numerous regional varieties.  I am just
wondering why the Gandhari Prakrit did not enter into the description of
Prakrit varieties by the Prakrit grammarians.  If Pāṇini's grammar coming
from the Swat valley survived and prospered in the mainland of India, why
did the Gandhari Prakrit remain unknown?  Any suggestions?

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20210122/edb97f0d/attachment.htm>