Paishachi

2021-07-14T15:54:10Z

2405:204:93:C4AA:62C9:6572:DEFD:38FF: /* Identity */

{{Infobox language
| name = Paiśācī Prakrit
| altname = Paishachi
| nativename = [[Brahmi]]: 𑀧𑁃𑀰𑀸𑀘𑀻
| region = [[North India]]
| era = Perhaps from 5th century BCE; most texts, however are from 3rd–10th centuries CE
| ref = linglist
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3 = [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| iso3 = none
| linglist = qpp
| glotto = pais1238
| glottorefname = Paisaci Prakrit
}}

'''Paishachi''' ({{IAST3|Paiśācī}}) is a largely [[Attested language|unattested literary language]] of the [[middle kingdoms of India]] mentioned in [[Prakrit]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/PrakritaPrakashaOfVararuchiDr.P.L.Vaidya_201806|title=Prakrita Prakasha Of Vararuchi Dr. P. L. Vaidya|last=Dr. Narinder Sharma|language=Sanskrit}}</ref> and [[Sanskrit]] 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, but also due to its archaicism.<ref name="menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de">{{cite web|url=http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/pageview/56372|title=181 [95] - The home of the Paisaci - The home of the Paisaci - Page - Zeitschriften der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft - MENAdoc – Digital Collections|website=menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de}}</ref>

==Identity==
The [[etymology]] of the name suggests that it is spoken by [[pishacha|piśāca]]s, "[[ghoul]]s". In works of Sanskrit [[poetics]] such as [[Daṇḍin]]'s ''[[Kavyadarsha]]'', it is also known by the name of {{IAST|Bhūtabhāṣa}}, 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]] were separated by choice of [[sacred language]]: the [[Mahāsāṃghika]]s used [[Prakrit|Prākrit]], the [[Sarvastivada|Sarvāstivādins]] used Sanskrit, the [[Sthavira nikāya|Sthaviravādins]] used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used [[Apabhraṃśa]].<ref>Yao, Zhihua. ''The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition.'' 2012. p. 9</ref>

==Literature==
The most widely known work, although lost, attributed to be in Paiśācī is the ''[[Brihatkatha|Bṛhatkathā]]'' (literally "Big Story"), a large collection of stories in verse, attributed to [[Gunadhya]]. It is known of through its adaptations in [[Sanskrit]] as the ''[[Kathasaritsagara]]'' in the 11th century by Somadeva, and also from the ''Bṛhatkathā'' by [[Kshemendra]]. Both Somadeva and Kshemendra were from [[Kashmir]] where the ''Bṛhatkathā'' was said to be popular.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Talking of its existence, Pollock writes:<ref name=pollock/>{{rp|92}}
{{quote|Linguists have identified this as everything from an [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|eastern Middle-Indic dialect]] close to Pali to a [[Munda languages|Munda language]] of inhabitants of the [[Vindhya Range|Vindhya Mountains]] […] In fact there is little reason to bother to choose […] Paishachi is the joker in the deck of South Asian discourses on language, having an exclusively legendary status, since it is associated with a single lost text, the ''[[Brihatkatha|Bṛhatkathā]]'' (The Great Tale), which seems to have existed less as an actual text than as a conceptual category signifying the ''Volksgeist'', the Great Repository of Folk Narratives […] In any event, aside from this legendary work (which "survives" only in one [[Maharashtri Prakrit|Jain Maharashtri]] and several Sanskrit embodiments), Paishachi is irrelevant to the actual literary history of South Asia.}}There is one chapter dedicated to Paisachi Prakrit in Prakrita Prakasha, a grammar book of Prakrit languages attributed to [[Vararuchi]].<ref name=":0" />

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 - [[iarchive:PrakritaPrakashaOfVararuchiDr.P.L.Vaidya 201806/page/n125|Chapter 10 of Prakrita Pariksha]]

==See also==
*[[Pali]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=pollock>{{citation
|last=Pollock
|first=Sheldon I.
|authorlink = Sheldon Pollock
|year=2006
|title = The language of the gods in the world of men: Sanskrit, culture, and power in premodern India
|publisher=[[University of California Press]]
|isbn=978-0-520-24500-6
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UCh7r2TjQIC&pg=PA92
}}</ref>
}}

{{Old and Middle Indo-Aryan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paisaci}}
[[Category:Indo-Aryan languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Prakrit languages]]

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