Shauraseni Prakrit

Shauraseni Prakrit (Sanskrit: शौरसेनी प्राकृत, romanized: Śaurasenī Prākṛta) was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit. Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in medieval northern India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries, and represented a regional language variety with minor modifications to the same linguistic substratum as other Dramatic Prakrit varieties.^[1]

Shauraseni Prakrit
Śaurasenī Prākṛta
𑀰𑁅𑀭𑀲𑁂𑀦𑀻 (Brahmi)
Region	Indian subcontinent
Era	c. 3rd to 10th centuries AD
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Shauraseni Prakrit
Language codes
ISO 639-3	psu
Glottolog	saur1252

Among the Prakrits, Shauraseni is said to be the one most closely related to Classical Sanskrit in that it "is derived from the Old Indian Indo-Aryan dialect of the Madhyadeśa on which Classical Sanskrit was mainly based."^[2]: 3–4 Its descendants include Punjabi, Lahnda, Sindhi,^[3] Gujarati, Rajasthani, and Western Hindi.^[4]

See also

• Saurashtra language
• Apabhraṃśa
• Prakrit