PRAKRIT (prakrta, " common," as contrasted with sarpskria, "perfect") is the term applied to the vernacular languages of India derived from Sanskrit. In the San-skrit drama all except the highest male characters speak Prakrit. Prakrit grammar was written in the Hindu scientific style - on the lines of Panini - by Vararuci, one of the " nine gems " of Vikramaditya's court,1 and by Hemacandra ; these grammarians distinguish at least four different kinds of Prakrit, the relations and localization of which are by no means clear. The word Prakrit is some-times used of all the still spoken Aryan vernaculars of India. See SANSKRIT.