This paper studies the connections between Prakrit and early Maṇipravāḷam literature from premodern Kerala. Maṇipravāḷam (literally, ‘gems and corals’) is the emic term for a dominant part of Kerala’s premodern vernacular literature, binding together Kerala’s local language and Sanskrit. As a highly Sanskritised register of a Dravidian language, Maṇipravāḷam has generally been viewed as having been inspired and influenced by either Sanskrit or Tamil literature, grammar, and poetics. This paper, however, highlights a rarely discussed aspect: the role of Prakrit in shaping both Maṇipravāḷam literature and theory. I discuss the relation between Prakrit and Maṇipravāḷam in two connected ways: first, by considering the similarities between the practices themselves, especially in terms of their themes and aesthetics; and second, by examining the implicit ways in which Maṇipravāḷam theory, as it is presented in the Līlātilakam, Kerala’s first grammar and work on poetics, is structured on Prakrit materials or on Sanskrit materials dealing with Prakrit.

本文研究了喀拉拉邦的Prakrit与早期Maṇipravāḷam文学之间的联系。Maṇipravāḷam（字面意思是“宝石和珊瑚”）是喀拉拉邦前现代白话文学的主要组成部分的特义词，将喀拉拉邦的当地语言和梵文结合在一起。Maṇipravāḷam是德拉威语的高度梵语注册语，通常被认为受梵语或泰米尔文学，语法和诗学的启发和影响。但是，本文强调了一个很少讨论的方面：Prakrit在塑造Maṇipravāḷam文学和理论方面的作用。我以两种相互联系的方式讨论了Prakrit和Maṇipravāḷam之间的关系：首先，通过考虑实践本身之间的相似性，特别是在主题和美学方面；其次，