[INDOLOGY] Question about Gandhari Prakrit

[Johannes Bronkhorst]

Dear Madhav,
You raise an interesting question. One factor that must probably be taken into consideration in trying to answer it is the following: Though a center of Vedic culture at the time of Pāṇini (i.e., presumably before Alexander's invasion and the Maurya Empire), Gandhāra was no longer Brahmanical territory after the collapse of that empire. This I argue at length in my book How the Brahmins Won (Brill 2016), especially § I.1.3.
Johannes Bronkhorst

On 23 Jan 2021, at 00:58, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:

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]
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