It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit.
[2] Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
[3][4] Associated with the ancient Magadha, it was spoken in present-day Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and eastern Uttar Pradesh under various apabhramsha dialects,[5] and used in some dramas to represent vernacular dialogue in Prakrit dramas.
It is believed to be the language spoken by the important religious figures Gautama Buddha and Mahavira[6] and was also the language of the courts of the Magadha mahajanapada and the Maurya Empire; some of the Edicts of Ashoka were composed in it.
[4][7] Magadhi Prakrit later evolved into the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, categorised into four groups:[1][8]