A Dramatic Prakrit, Sauraseni was the chief language of northern medievalIndia, evolving into the Hindi language complex and Punjabi. Any of the three main dialects of Prakrit, used extensively in Sanskrit literature. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Hindi (हिन्दी) is a language spoken in most states in northern and central India. ... Punjabi (sometimes spelled Panjabi) is the language of the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan. ...
The Prakrits were vernaculars, often used for ordinary speech, and may be contrasted with Sanskrit, which continued to be used as a literary language and quickly developed such features as written grammars.
However, some Prakrits developed literary languages of their own and developed unique strains, a few of which are Sauraseni, Magadhi and Maharastri.
We might say that the Prakrits are to Sanskrit as Vulgar Latin and the Romance languages are to Classical Latin.