Paiśācī
| Paiśācī Prakrit | |
|---|---|
| Paishachi | |
| Region | North India |
| Era | Perhaps from 5th century BCE; most texts 3rd–10th centuries CE |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
|
Linguist list
|
qpp |
| Glottolog | pais1238 |
Paiśācī is a largely unattested literary language of the middle kingdoms of India mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is found grouped with the Prakrit languages, with which it shares some linguistic familiarities, but is not considered a spoken Prakrit by the grammarians because it was purely a literary language, but also due to its archaicism.
The etymology of the name suggests that it is spoken by piśācas, "ghouls". In works of Sanskrit poetics such as Daṇḍin's Kavyadarsha, it is also known by the name of 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. There is no known complete work in this language, however certain scholars specializing in Indology like Sten Konow, Felix Lacôte & Alfred Master have attempted to explain that Paiśācī was the ancient name for Pāli, the language of the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
The 13th-century Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the early Buddhist schools were separated by choice of sacred language: the Mahāsāṃghikas used Prākrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa.
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