Old Indo-Aryan

E123643

Indo-Aryan language stage historical language language stage

Old Indo-Aryan is the early historical stage of the Indo-Aryan languages, exemplified by Vedic and Classical Sanskrit and attested in ancient texts of the Indian subcontinent.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (4)

Label	Occurrences
Old Indo-Aryan canonical	16
Old Indo-Aryan languages	5
Old Indo-Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit)	1
Vedic Sanskrit (indirectly)	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1023194 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Old Indo-Aryan
Context triple: [Gandhari Prakrit, precededBy, Old Indo-Aryan]

A. Middle Indo-Aryan
Middle Indo-Aryan is the group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects, including Prakrits and Pali, that represent the intermediate historical stage between Old Indo-Aryan (Vedic and Classical Sanskrit) and the modern Indo-Aryan languages.
B. Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed common ancestor of the vast Indo-European language family, from which many ancient and modern languages of Europe and Asia are derived.
C. Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Iranian languages are a major branch of the Indo-European language family that includes numerous related languages spoken across Iran, Afghanistan, the Indian subcontinent, and surrounding regions.
D. Proto-Dravidian
Proto-Dravidian is the reconstructed common ancestral language from which all modern Dravidian languages, including Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu, are believed to have descended.
E. Indo-Aryan languages
Indo-Aryan languages are a major branch of the Indo-European family spoken primarily in the Indian subcontinent, including languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Marathi.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Old Indo-Aryan
Target entity description: Old Indo-Aryan is the early historical stage of the Indo-Aryan languages, exemplified by Vedic and Classical Sanskrit and attested in ancient texts of the Indian subcontinent.

A. Middle Indo-Aryan
Middle Indo-Aryan is the group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects, including Prakrits and Pali, that represent the intermediate historical stage between Old Indo-Aryan (Vedic and Classical Sanskrit) and the modern Indo-Aryan languages.
B. Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed common ancestor of the vast Indo-European language family, from which many ancient and modern languages of Europe and Asia are derived.
C. Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Iranian languages are a major branch of the Indo-European language family that includes numerous related languages spoken across Iran, Afghanistan, the Indian subcontinent, and surrounding regions.
D. Proto-Dravidian
Proto-Dravidian is the reconstructed common ancestral language from which all modern Dravidian languages, including Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu, are believed to have descended.
E. Indo-Aryan languages
Indo-Aryan languages are a major branch of the Indo-European family spoken primarily in the Indian subcontinent, including languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Marathi.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (63)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Indo-Aryan language stage ⓘ historical language ⓘ language stage ⓘ
attestedIn	Atharvaveda ⓘ Brahmanas ⓘ Mahabharata ⓘ Ramayana ⓘ Rigveda ⓘ Samaveda ⓘ Upanishads ⓘ Vedas ⓘ surface form: Vedic texts Yajurveda ⓘ early Sanskrit epics ⓘ
chronology	first millennium BCE ⓘ second millennium BCE ⓘ
earliestStage	Vedic Sanskrit ⓘ
exemplifiedBy	Sanskrit ⓘ surface form: Classical Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit ⓘ
followedBy	Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit ⓘ Middle Indo-Aryan ⓘ Pali ⓘ Prakrits ⓘ
hasDescendant	Assamese ⓘ Bengali ⓘ Gujarati ⓘ Hindi ⓘ Marathi language ⓘ surface form: Marathi Middle Indo-Aryan ⓘ surface form: Middle Indo-Aryan languages Nepali ⓘ New Indo-Aryan languages ⓘ Odia ⓘ Punjabi language ⓘ surface form: Punjabi Sinhala ⓘ
hasEarlyForm	Vedic Sanskrit ⓘ
hasLaterForm	Sanskrit ⓘ surface form: Classical Sanskrit
influenced	Buddhist literature ⓘ Hindu religious tradition ⓘ Jain literature ⓘ classical Indian literature ⓘ
linguisticFeature	complex verbal system ⓘ eight grammatical cases ⓘ free word order ⓘ rich inflectional morphology ⓘ three grammatical genders ⓘ
partOf	history of the Sanskrit language ⓘ
precededBy	Proto-Indo-Iranian language ⓘ surface form: Proto-Indo-Aryan
region	Indian subcontinent ⓘ
standardForm	Sanskrit ⓘ surface form: Classical Sanskrit
subclassOf	Indo-Aryan languages ⓘ Indo-European language family ⓘ surface form: Indo-European languages Indo-Iranian languages ⓘ
usedAs	language of ritual ⓘ liturgical language ⓘ scholarly language ⓘ
usedBy	Vedic priests ⓘ ancient Indian scholars ⓘ
usedIn	ancient Indian literary texts ⓘ ancient Indian philosophical texts ⓘ ancient Indian religious texts ⓘ ancient Indian ritual texts ⓘ
writingSystem	Brahmi script ⓘ Kharoṣṭhī script ⓘ surface form: Kharosthi script various early Indic scripts ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (23)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Gandhari Prakrit → precededBy → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Maharashtri Prakrit → predecessor → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

this entity surface form: Old Indo-Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit)

Indo-Iranian languages → historicalStage → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Magadhi Prakrit → developedFrom → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

this entity surface form: Vedic Sanskrit (indirectly)

Pali → ancestorLanguage → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Prakrit → follows → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Middle Indo-Aryan → follows → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Middle Indo-Aryan → linguisticStageBetween → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Shauraseni Prakrit → derivedFrom → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Harauti → hasAncestor → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Assamese → developedFrom → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ

Jatki → hasAncestor → Old Indo-Aryan ⓘ