Shauraseni Prakrit

Shauraseni Prakrit (Sanskrit: शौरसेनी प्राकृत, IAST: Śaurasenī Prākṛta, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ɕɐurɐɕseːniː praːkr̩t̪ɐ]) 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]

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 Hindustani (Hindi–Urdu), Gujarati, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Saraiki, Hindko, Pahari, and Sindhi.^[3][4]