The Bihar Government has initiated the process for the constitution of two new vernacular academies- Prakrit and Pali - for the restoration, preservation and promotion of these languages.
These two academies will work under the administrative control of the newly created Department of Higher Education, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat department on December 10.
The state Cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Tuesday approved proposals to create three new departments — Youth, Employment and Skill Development, Higher Education and Civil Aviation.
Already existing language academies in Bihar have also been brought under the administrative control of the Higher Education department. “Functions which have been allocated to the Higher Education department include: Administrative control of institutions engaged in research work of university level in social, economic, scientific and other fields, such as the Constitution of vernacular academies such as Sanskrit Academy, Prakrit Academy, Pali Academy, etc.,” the notification said.
Before the modern derivatives of Sanskrit existed, a group of languages known as the Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan languages evolved from India's classical language. These were the vernacular dialects of ancient times.
The best known of this group is Pali, which still serves as the canonical language of Buddhism. Other Prakrit languages such as Sauraseni, Magadhi and Gandhari embody various facets of the literatures of both the Brahmanical/Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
