Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India

Andrew Ollett

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2017

Language of the Snakes

Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India

Andrew Ollett

In the series South Asia Across the Disciplines

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520968813

Overview
Contents

About this book

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Language of the Snakes traces the history of the Prakrit language as a literary phenomenon, starting from its cultivation in courts of the Deccan in the first centuries of the common era. Although little studied today, Prakrit was an important vector of the kavya movement and once joined Sanskrit at the apex of classical Indian literary culture. The opposition between Prakrit and Sanskrit was at the center of an enduring “language order” in India, a set of ways of thinking about, naming, classifying, representing, and ultimately using languages. As a language of classical literature that nevertheless retained its associations with more demotic language practices, Prakrit both embodies major cultural tensions—between high and low, transregional and regional, cosmopolitan and vernacular—and provides a unique perspective onto the history of literature and culture in South Asia.

Author / Editor information

Ollett Andrew :

Andrew Ollett works on the literary and intellectual traditions of premodern India.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
1. Prakrit in the Language Order of India Open Access Download PDF	1
2. Inventing Prakrit: The Languages of Power Open Access Download PDF	26
3. Inventing Prakrit: The Languages of Literature Open Access Download PDF	50
4. The Forms of Prakrit Literature Open Access Download PDF	85
5. Figuring Prakrit Open Access Download PDF	111
6. Knowing Prakrit Open Access Download PDF	141
7. Forgetting Prakrit Open Access Download PDF	169
Appendix A. Time Line of the Sātavāhanas and Their Successors Open Access Download PDF	189
Appendix B. Sātavāhana Inscriptions Open Access Download PDF	193
Appendix C. Fragments of Early Prakrit Grammars Open Access Download PDF	205
Notes Open Access Download PDF	213
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	259
Index Open Access Download PDF	297

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 324

eBook

Published: October 10, 2017
ISBN: 9780520968813