In this piece, I discuss a language known as Paishachi (पैशाची, alternative spelling paiśācī). The word paishachi is derived from the Sanskrit word piśāc which means a ghost or ghoul. The grammarian Vararuchi (वररुचि) names four varieties of Prakrit (an umbrella term for Middle Indo-Aryan languages) in his work Prākrit Prakāsha (प्राकृत प्रकाश):
(a) Mahārashtri (the older stage of modern-day Marāthi)
(b) Shaursenī (the older stage of Braj Bhāshā)
(c) Magadhi (the older stage of Magahi)
(d) Paishachi
We cannot be certain as to where was Paishachi spoken. References to this language can be found in the works of Rajeshekhara (राजशेखर, alternative spelling Rājaśekhara), the court poet of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynansty that ruled large parts of present-day Northern and Central India from eighth to the eleventh century.
As Ollett (2017) notes, Rajashekhara makes very clear in his works that literature could only be composed in four languages—Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, and Paishachi. He observes further that 'Rājaśekhara’s famous image of "literature man" (kāvyapuruṣa) is a reinterpretation of Daṇḍin’s metaphor that makes the "four languages" (Daṇḍin’s three with the addition of Paishachi) into actual body parts: Sanskrit is the face, Prakrit the arms, Apabhramsha the groin, and Paishachi the feet (Ollett 2017: 129). Paishachi has sometimes also been termed a 'bhutbhasha' which means both 'language of the ghosts ' and 'language of the past'.In Kāvyamimānsā (poetics), Rajashekhara says, for example:
ससंस्कृतमपभ्रंशं लालित्यालिङ्गितं पठेत् ।
प्राकृतं भूतभाषां च सौष्ठवोत्तरमुद्गिरेत् ।
[One should read it in Sanskrit and Apabhramsha with care and embrace it,
and offer a beautiful response in Prākrit and Bhutbhāshā]
Prior to Rajashekhara, references to this language can be found with respect to Gunadhya's work. It is said that Gunādhya (गुणाढ्य) wrote Brihatkathā (बृहत्कथा, the Great Story) in Paishachi. The text Brihatkathā does not exist anymore, but it is said to have inspired a number of texts, including Brihatkathāmanjari (बृहत्कथामञ्जरी) by Kshemendra and Kathāsaritsāgara (कथासरित्सागर) by Somdeva, both eleventh-century poets. Ollett (2017) says that 'the Kashmiri retellings of Brihatkathā in the eleventh century say that Guṇāḍhya composed the work in ghoulish, precisely because he took a vow that prevented him from using the three languages current among men.' Ollett (ibid.) notes that this detail is absent in all of the earlier retellings of the story and argues that 'this detail reflects a retrospective identification of the dead language in which the work was composed as the language that Uddyotana calls Paishachi.'
Ollett (2017) posits that irrespective of such retellings, Paishachi went from being 'a non-language in the enumerative schemas of the seventh and eighth centuries to being a half-language, and later on a full language, in subsequent representations.'
In Part II of this blog, I will discuss the linguistic features of Paishachi.
Note: The term 'Prakrit' is of Sanskrit origin. It means 'something that has come or arisen from the source.' This term refers to Middle Indo-Aryan languages known from inscriptions, literary works, and grammarians’ descriptions (Cardona 2013).
References
Primary:
Kāvyamimānsā (काव्यमीमांसा) by Rājśekhara. Link here
Secondary:
Ollett, A. (2017). Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India. University of California Press.
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