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Prakrit literature

(Encyclopedia)Prakrit literature. By the 6th cent. b.c. the people of India were speaking and writing languages that were much simpler than classical Sanskrit. These vernacular forms, of which there were several, a...

Hitopadesa

(Encyclopedia)Hitopadesa: see Sanskrit literature. ...

Sutra

(Encyclopedia)Sutra: see Sanskrit literature.

Pali

(Encyclopedia)Pali päˈlē [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Some scholars classify it as a Prakrit, or vernacular dialect of clas...

Puranas

(Encyclopedia)Puranas po͝oräˈnə [key]: see Sanskrit literature. ...

mahatma

(Encyclopedia)mahatma məhătˈmə, –hätˈ– [key] [Sanskrit,=great-souled], honorific title used in India among Hindus for a person of superior holiness. Mohandas Gandhi is the best-known figure to whom the ti...

Indo-Iranian

(Encyclopedia)Indo-Iranian, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by more than a billion people, chiefly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (see The Indo-Eu...

Bhatpara

(Encyclopedia)Bhatpara bətpäˈrə [key], city, West Bengal state, NE India, on the Hugli River. Once a ce...

Hindi

(Encyclopedia)Hindi hĭnˈdē [key], language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The official language of India, Hindi is the written or literary va...

locative

(Encyclopedia)locative lŏkˈətĭv [key] [Lat.,=placing], in the grammar of certain languages (e.g., Sanskrit), the case referring to location. Nouns in this case are often translatable into English phrases beginn...

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