Notes on Some Prakrit Words

Author(s): H C Bhayani
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NOTES ON SOME PRAKRIT WORDS H. C. Bhayani (1) Adualiya The Partridge In / And The Cart In Agastyasimha's Curni on the Dasavealiyasuttal (c. late 6th Cent. A. D.), while treating various types and sub-types of the udaharanas, the following story is given as an illustration of the Vyamsaka ("trickster, trickery') subtype of Hetul: ekeNa gAmellaeNa kaTu-sagaDeNa NagaraM jaMteNaM aMtare tittirI matA laddhA / taM sagaDe pakkhivittA Nagare pavisaMto gara-dhutteNa pucchito - kahaM sagaDa-tittirI labbhati ? | teNa bhaNitaM - tappaNAduyAlitAe / dhutteNa sakkhiNo AhaNiUNaM sagaDaM sa-tittirIyaM NIyaM / gAmellao sa-cito acchati / aNNeNa viDeNa pucchitA - kiM citesi? teNa savvaM kahitaM / viDo bhaNati - jAhi padesiNi veDhettA bhaNa 'visiTuM pitA tappAmADugAliyaM dehi' 1 diNNAe 'aMgulI dukkhati' ti mahilAe AdutAlAvehi / taM mahilaM sa-sakkhiyaM hatthe ghettuM bhaNa - tappaNADutAlitA sagaDatittirie kItA! teNa jahovaesaM kataM / dhutteNa saNhoraM jemAvettA sagaDa-bharo visajjito, NiyattiyA bhajjA // Translation : A villager while going to the city with his cart loaded with pieces of wood saw a dead partridge on the way. He picked it up and put it in the cart. As he entered the city, a city-rogue asked him : "For how much can I get the cart-partridge ?" The other replied, "In exchange of commingled barley-groats." The rogue called witnesses and took away the cart with the partridge. The villager sat worrying. Another clever and cunning fellow asked him : "What is your worry ?" The other man told him all that happened. The cunning fellow said : "You approach that rogue with your index finger wrapped up and tell him, 'Give me the commingled barley - groats we agreed upon.' When he gives it, tell to the chief lady of his house that "my finger aches" and get it soaked by her (in cold water ?). Then getting hold of that lady in the presence of witnesses tell the rogue : "I have bought the barley-groats (tappana) and the soaker (adutalita) in lieu of the cart-partridge." The villager acted in accordance with the instructions. The rogue with humble submission dined him, returned the cart, discharged him, and called back his wife. Notes : tappanaduyalita, tappanadugaliya, adutalav-, tappanadutalita. If the inorganically inserted -12- and -g- are removed and -du- in the first form is taken to be a mistake for -du-in other forms, we would have tappanadualia and adualav..

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H. C. Bhayani In the first occurrence tappanadualia means 'barley-groats (Pk. tappana = Sk. saktu) which are commingled' (adualia: past passive participle used as a modifier) (with probably ghee). Hemacandra has given aduali in the sense of mixing', 'mixture', (misratva, misribhava, Desinamamala, 1. 69 ). Gujarati advalvu means to mingle a powdery substance (e. g. grain-floor) with a liquid and coagulate.' In the third occurrence in the cited passage tappanadualla means, barley-groats (tappana) and the person who has soaked them' (adualia feminine agent noun)3. In the second occurrence it is to be taken as ambiguous having double entendre. The rogue played a verbal trick on the villager by using the expression sagada-tittiri which can mean 'the partridge that is in the cart and the cart and the partridge'. He is paid back in the same coins through a matching verbal trick: tappanadualia can mean 'barleygroats mingled' and 'barley-groas and the mingler'. The 'aching' finger is treated by immersing it in the cold water". 26 sanhoram This is glossed in the Notes as salajjar 'being ashamed, shamefully'. It seems to be a corrupt reading for sa-nihoram. In Modern Hindi nihorna means 'to entreat', nihora entreaty. It occurs in Apabhramsa in an illustrative citation given in the Svayambhucchandas, VIII 10-1055. Nirgrantha Another version of this story occurs in Samghadasa's Vasudevahindi (c. mid 6th century A.D.) where it is given as a tale narrated by Kamalasena to her husband Dhammilla to illustrate the roguish and cheating character of the urban people. Its later part is completed by Dhammilla. In that version the cartman brings with him in the cart a cage with a partridge in it... The roguish sons of a seller of medicinal herbs (gamdhiya-putta) tricked the cartman to sell to them the sagada-tittiri (differently interpreted by the buyer and the seller). for one karsapana. Thereafter, following the instruction of a benign nobleman the cheated cartman approached the rogue and offered them his ox in lieu of tappanaduyaliya, but on condition that, that is given to him at the hands of their mother, nicely dressed and adorned. When the mother came to give the barley-groats, the cartman caught hold of her and went away. The dispute was ultimately settled in favour of the cartman, who was liberally compensated. Now, the editor and translators of the Vasudevahindi have failed to grasp the meaning and significance of the Prakrit expression tappanaduyaliyam in the text of this story. The editors have emended it as tappanadupaliya i. e. the two palis (a measure) of the barley-groats, and the translators also have depended upon this emendation. But in the emended expression there is no scope for the double entendre which is pivotal for the point of the story as shown above in the case of the Dasakalika-curni version. As a tale-type, this story is based on the principle of 'tit for tat' or clever retaliation.

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Vol. 1-1995 Notes on some prakrit words Deception by some verbal trick or equivacation is the motif in one class of these tales? Incidentally, we may note two other occurrences of aduyal - from Prakrit literature. In the Avasyaka curni (c. A. D. 600-650) (P. 447) (Haribhadra's Vrtti, P 342 a, Malayagiri's Vrtti, P. 452) occurs adduyaliya (v. I. adduyaliya - adduyaliya)'. tattha pattho sarisavANaM chUDho / tANi savvANi aDyAliyANi / 'A measure of sarsapas was thrown in it. All these were mixed up by stirring.' Later aduyaliya -occurs in a somewhat different sense. In Silanka's Caupanna-mahapuriscariya (A. D. 869) it is used in the sense of stirring and heaving felt in the stomach due to undigested food : 375feri ( v. 1.37geft) wietojant (p. 319, 1.11). Rajasthani adaro preserves this meaninglo. Monier Williams has given adval (advalayati) 'to mix, mingle' on the basis of advalana 'mixing. mingling which occurs in the Katyayanasrauta-sutra and its commentary. Tval is recorded in the Paniniya-Dhatupatha (20,5) as also tal-(20, 4), both in the sense of vaiclavya 'to be disturbed.' Monier Williams considers these gval, tal, and dval as variants of the same root. Whitney observes that, as advalana is used by only one scholiast, it is no proper root (The Roots, Verb - forms, -59). Turner also thinks tal, tval and (adval to be allied (CDIAL under 5450). However the Pk. and NIA. evidence (from Gujarati and Rajasthani) clearly show that tal (or tval) and dval have separate identities and semantic range. This case further bears out the view that, with regard to those roots of the Dhatupathas which remain unattested from the available Sanskrit literature, Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan sources can provide evidence to establish their authenticity. It would be rash to dismiss them as artificial creations of the grammarians. (2) On the words gommata, gumati, gumata Late A. N. Upadhye had convincingly established" that the word gomata in Old Marathi and gomta in Modern Marathi (and gomto in Konkani) means 'fair,' 'handsome,' 'attractive,' 'good,' etc., and in Old Kannada gommata similarly signified 'pleasing,' 'excellent. He has cited passages containing this word from serveral Marathi literary texts of the 13th century and documents of the 17th century and from the Kannada inscriptions of the 12th century. He has also rightly concluded that the word is of Dravidian origin and was an early loan-word in Marathi (through Kannada). His other important conclusions that gommata 'fair-skinned,'beautiful was a household name, a pet name, a personal name of Camundaraya, the minister and general of the Ganga monarchs, who got carved, out of the rock, the famous image of Bahubali at Sravanabelgoda in A. D. 981; that statue came to be called Gommatesvara after the minister's name; and that through reinterpretation Gommata was made later synonymous

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H. C. Bhayani Nirgrantha with Bahubali. Thus all earlier speculations and misundertandings have been set at rest. The present brief note aims at supplementing Upadhye's study of the word gommata by pointing out three occurrences of the word gumati, one as a Prakrit word and another as a Sanskrit word, not noticed by Upadhye or, to my knowledge, by any other scholar. The first occurrence is noted from a text passage datable in the first half of the 11th century A. D. and hence the earliest brought to light so far. In Bhoja's Sarasvatikanthabharana, to illustrate the Sanikirna type of the Figure of Sound called Jati, a verse is cited which has a mixture of Sanskrit, Maharastri Prakrit, and Apabhramsa (II. v. 10) languages. Its first line begins with the following words: akata-gumati-candra-jyotsna The Maharastri ord akata is paraphrased by the commentator Ratnesvara as ascaryam 12 and gumati as manojna. Thus the moonlight is described as wonderfully beautiful. It should be noted that one constituent of the meaning of gumati here (applied to the moonlight) is 'white'. Compare the Marathi phrase gora-gomta in which, as suggested by Upadhye, we have collocation of two synonyinous words to express intensity of whiteness. The second occurrence of gumati I happened to notice was in a verse cited in the Prabandhacintamani (A. D. 1305) of Merutunga in one of its manuscripts (Pb Siglum) dated the 17th Century A. D. The verse occurs within a legendary anecedote connected with the Paramara king Bhoja and a poor man. The latter addresses to the King a self.. composed Sanskrit verse which contains 11 ti-sounds. Its third line contains the following words: priya na gumati : 'I have not got a fair woman as my wife'. The third occurrence is somewhat doubtful. In Somesvara's Manasollasa (A. D. 1131), the illustrative verse given for the musical prabandha called Caturangaka, which is characterized by a mixture of several languages, is found in a highly corrupt forin. I have attempted to restore it". The first line of the verse is in Sanskrit, the second in the Maharastri Prakrit, the third in some regional dialect (Early Madliyadesiya ?) and the fourth in Magadhi. The third line has been restored by me as under: jo govi-jani gaije bahu-pare rupim tinho gomata The Mss. read niham-tinho and gomaya respectively for the last two words. If my emendation of gomaya as gomata is plausible, we have here an early 12th century occurrence of gomata in the sense of manojna. It cannot of course mean here gaura, because Krsna' is syamala, dark.

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Notes on some prakrit words Thus gomata, quite probably a Kannada loan word in early Marathi, is attested from more number of texts, of the 11th, 12th, and 14th century. (3) Pk. halahala/old and bambhani In a recently published paper on the 15th chapter (Teyanisagga, Gosalaya-saya), which gives an account of Gosala Mamkhaliputta, the leader of the Ajivikas, Roth has made the following observation on the significance of Halahala, the personal name of the potter woman, in whose shop Gosala with his follower was accommodated : Vol. 1-1995 "From this it appears that the name Halahala was given to the potter-woman, who accommodated Gosala, in order to characterize her as a poisonous snake." (p. 448, note 13). Roth's observation is based on the meaning 'snake' recorded in PW and on halahaladhara' a small, black, venomous kind of snake'. It may be noted that MW also records halahala 'a kind of snake' from Indian lexicographers. It has, however, also recorded halahala and halahala' a kind of lizard' and halahala' a kind of small mouse'. Besides, it has given halini a kind of lizard'. All these derive from lexicographical sources. It seems that there is strong evidence for supporting a kind of lizard' as the original meaning for halahala, halahala, etc. Roth has noted (p. 419) that, Hemacandra's Desinamamala records under 8.75 halahala with two meanings: malara (= SK. molakara, malika 'garland-maker') and bambhani (= bambhanika according to Hemacandra's commentary on the passage). Roth has misunderstood bambhani / bambhanika. We may note in this connection that the Desinamamala records under 8.63 halahala also with the single sense of bambhani and further it has given bambhani (with its variant bambhani) also under 6.90 in the sense of halahala. Corresponding to PK. bambhani, the SK. form is brahmani. Dhanapala, using possibly the same source as Hemacandra, records (714) halahala as synonymous with bambhania. Now, Hemacandra's Abhidhanacintamani records, as noted by Bechardas Doshi (p. 316, note 2. p. 429, not 1), under v. 1298 halahala with its synonyms halini, anjanika, and anjanadhika in the sense of a type of lizard' and under 1299 brahmani in the sense of a fat lizard having red tail (rakta-pucchika)'. So here Hemacandra has given halahala and brahmani as Sanskrit words, but as words with somewhat different meanings. MW. has recorded brahmani from the Ramayana in the same sense. The word is preserved in Hindi babhani, bamhani a type of lizard', and in Gujarati bodi bamni in the same sense.

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H. C. Bhayani Nirgrantha Halahala occurs in Hala's Gahakosa (1, 62) where the commentator Bhuvanapala observes that halahala is the same as grhagodhika, which is popularly called brahmani. The Desi-Sabdakosa has recorded from the Jaina Agama literature haliya, halliya, 'lizard', 'brahmani'; hallahalla 'a kind of insect'; halaka'a kind of insect' and halahala 'a kind of insect. We can conclude that the potter-woman's name Halahala signified 'a red-tailed big lizard.' Such personal names have been traditionally common down to the present day in the lower castes!4. Postscript Dr. Roth has kindly sent to me a copy of H. Lueders's paper 'Von indischen Tieren' (included in his Kleine Schriften, ed. 0. Von Hinuber, 1973, pp. 24-80) and has also drawn my attention to some Hindi textual data. I feel, however, that the Prakrit lexical evidence is much more relevant and it heavily weighs in favour of a nonpoisonous type of lizard as the meaning of halahala (called in Gujarati 'Sap-ni-masi,' aunt of serpent). Notes And References: 1. Dasakaliya-sutta, Ed. Punyavijaya Muni, PTS series No. 17, Ahmedabad 1973, p. 28. 2. The Text of the Dasakaliya sutte has numerous forms with the inorganic -t (the so-called t-sruti). Comparable to the reading adutali- is okkayallitao. (For okkayalliyao. For the discussion of insertion of -- in Prakrit forms, see Vasudevahindi-Madhyama-Khanda, Ed.-- H. C. Bhayani, R. M. Shah, LDS No. 99, Ahmedabad 1987, "Introduction', pp. 38. 3. In the Sanskrit glosses given in the footnotes of the Dasakalika, the Prakrit expression is rendered as tarpana-calika (p. 28, n. 9). 4. The Sanskrit gloss in the Notes on adutalavehi is sitikaranartham acalaya (p. 28, n. 8). kaNNa paripADi, jaNu jANai torA / cattau jo savai, tasu kavaNu NihorA // "O karna, people know your habitual practice. What entreaty can be made to him, who abuses that which is abandoned ?' This seems to be a citation from some Apabhramsa poem on the Mahabharata theme. Eds. Chaturvijaya Muni and Punyavijaya Muni, Gujarat Sahitya Akademi Reprint, Ahmedabad 1989, pp. Vasudevahindi Gujarati Translation by B. J. Sandesara(1988 reprint), pp. 85-86. The Vasudevahindi English Translation, J. C. Jain, Ahmedabad 1977, pp. 618620.

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Vol. 1-1995 Notes on some prakrit words 7. H. C. Bhayani, Lokakatha-na Mula ane Kula, (Gujarati), Ahmedabad 1990, pp. 154-161. 8. Avasyaka-curni()- Vrtti of Haribhadra, 1, p.228; also in the Avasyaka 1-1 vrtti of Malayagiri. 9. The Sk. verb alod is used in the same sense in a similar context : sthagikAyA: samAkRSya saktUnAloDya variNA / eko'pi bhoktumArebhe Takko raGka iva dutam / / (Hemacandra's Yogasastra, 2. 156) 10. See. H. C. Bhayani, " Rajasthani adaravu, Gujarati acdalvu," Marusri, 6, 2-3, Jan. June, 1977, p. 65. 11. Gommata : Origin and Etymological Study of the Word. Reprinted in the Jinamanjaree, 8, 3, New York 1993, pp. 15-32. 12. With akata we can compare Apabhramsa kata, kata-re etc. occurring in the same meaning. In both the words akata and gumati, t. has exceptionally remained unvoiced. 13."The Prakrit and Desabhasa Passages from Somesvara's Manasollasa", K. K.Handiqui Felicitation Volume, 1983, pp. 174 175 (=Indological Studies, 1993, p. 306). 14. In story no. 37 of Rajasekhara suri's Vinodakatha Samgralia, we meet a gambler named Halahala (1.34. b). The work is dated c. middle of the 14th century A. D. References : Abhidhanacintamani of Hemacandra, ed. Vijayakastursuri, Ahmedabad 1957. Desinamamala, ed. Pischel and Ramanujaswami, Bombay 1938. Desi Sabda kosa, Ed. Muni Dulaharaj, Ladnun 1988. Desi sadba Sangraha, edited and translated by Bechardas Doshi, Ahmedabad 1974. "Golsala Mankhaliputta's Birth in a cow-stall Including Notes on a Parallel in the Gospel of Luke 2" by Gustav Roth in Jain Studies In Honour of Jozef Deleu, Tokyo 1993, pp. 413-455. Hala's Gahakosa with the Sanskrit commentary of Bhuvanapala, ed. M. V. Patwardhan, Part - 1, Ahmedabad 1980. Paialacchinamamala of Dhanapala, ed. Bechardas Doshi, Bombay 1960. Paiasaddamahannavo. Hargovinddas T. Sheth. Sec. ed, Varanasi 1963. Vinodakasha Sangraha by Rajasekharasuri, ed. Vijayavira suri, Bombay 1918. Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Monier Williams, reprint, Delhi 1963. Viyahapannatti-suttam, Part-2. Jain Agama Series, Bombay 1978.

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ON THE RISE OF APABHRANSA AS A LITERARY LANGUAGE H. C. Bhayani 1. General Observations Literary language means a language used also or mostly for literary purposes, presupposing the existence and cultivation of literature in that language. The idea and domain of literature and literary art, as we understand in modern times under the impact of the West, were considerably different in the Indian Tradition. Even in the latter, their implication, application, and formulation have altered inevitably in a spatio-temporal context that embraces three thousand years of continuous production of literary discourse and vast regions with partly shared, partly specific, cultural traditions. In the Indian situation historically viewed, our currently understood oppositions between literary and non-literary, literality and orality, creative literature and non-creative literature cannot always hold, at least not to the same degree. History as conceived by us after the Western impact as a record of events and things changing over sequential chronological periods was, with a few exceptions, something unknown to the Indian Tradition. So, when we talk of literary history in Indian context, we are setting up an alien frame for ordering, organizing, and understanding, for our purpose, the changes in the character and form of the texts produced at different periods of time. To deal with Indian literary traditions means to deal with vastly multilingual developments, broadly shared by, but narrowly peculiar to various regions in keeping with, of course, more or less pervasive cultural developments. Who, for whom, and with whose support produced literature are very obviously the interconnected vital matters for our consideration. The patronage came from the rulers, from the elite groups, or the religious institutions and establishments. All the three great traditions - Vedic-Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist - played a key-role. Popular literature of course flourished in a different milieu. But establishing significant and mutually invigorating linkages between the 'Class' and 'Mass' literatures periodically was a distinguishing feature of the literary history. Besides, the hierarchical structure of Indian society, its authoritarianism and distribution of literacy were factors determining the nature, character, type, and structure of the

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Vol. 1-1995 On the rise of.... literary texts produced. Modes of transmission and the preservation also of texts produced over centuries present us with a set of problems. Besides the oral and written modes of preservation and a set of complex relations of give and take between them, we are faced with the fact that a vast amount of literature is permanently lost to us and a considerable bulk remains locked up in unpublished manuscripts and unrecorded oral traditions. This situation also creates serious handicaps in trying to figure out literary history. The ideological and philosophical overview of the community plays a decisive role in the production of literature and the type of literature produced. The changes which the former had undergone was also a basic deciding factor for the rise of 'new' literatures at various periods. With regard to the Indian Tradition, our modern notions of uniqueness of the author of a text, of integrity of a text, and of originality mostly fail to work. Reinterpreting, revising, retelling, recreating, or rather transcreating has been the mode of preserving the traditional, modifying or enriching it, and keeping it 'living and thus making it meaningful under the changed socio-cultural conditions and cater to the new needs of the community were the normal and accepted practice. A corrolary of the point 7 is that the categorizations or dichotomies we got as the modern Western heritage, into fact and fiction, real and mythical, objective truth and subjective belief, have to be basically modified when we consider the Indian Tradition. In many an area the view and approach are not the positivistic 'either-or' but the holistic 'both-and.' The contrast in practice is not exclusive but graded with poles differentiated. Several of these points of course overlap and are interdependent. The case of Apabhramsa language Earlier Traditions : The precedent situation. I will consider the recognition of Apabhramsa as a literary language and the beginning and cultivation of Apabhramsa literature, assuming that it was typical of similar other developments in the Indian Tradition. Periodwise, Apabhramnsa literature was subsequent to Sanskrit and Prakrit literatures and preceded literatures in Modern Indian Languages of North India, i. e. New Indo-Aryan languages. The earliest statement on record relating to Apabhramsa as a recognised language of literature is by Bhamaha, a late sixth century theorist of literature. From the references we find in Bhamaha

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H. C. Bhayani Nirgrantha and Dandin, another literary theorist who followed the former after a century or less, we gather that the Apabhramsa was one of the four languages of literature, another three being Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Paisaci. There are indications that the Apabhramsa literature began to be produced from about the sixth century when there already were three other literary languages and literatures with a history extending over several centuries and with a large number of works in several literary genres which can be subsumed under the general types of poetry, fiction, and drama. We know that, by the sixth century before Christ, the Early Indo-Aryan or 'pre-Sanskrit' as used by the common people in the region of Magadha in East India had so much changed that Vardhamana Mahavira and Gautama Buddha, who were among the most prominent religious teachers of that period, had preached their message in the colloquial "Magadhi' and not in the language current in the prestigious Vedic-Bralimanic circles. The dialect situation of a few centuries thereafter is reflected broadly in the inscriptions of emperor Asoka (3rd century B. C.) which show the distinctive features for the dialects of the eastern, western, and northern regions. But what is noteworthy about this literary situation is the important fact that, of the then current three languages of literature, Sanskrit had been confined since over a thousand years to a limited class of elites, who employed it for learned discourse and for composing high literature. There existed a large volume of texts in Sanskrit - Sastras (religio-philosophical and scientific treatises) and Kavyas (creative writings) also in the several literary genres: Mahakavya (the ornate epic), Katha (the fiction), Natya * (the drama), etc. Sanskrit drama used a mixture of prose and verse and its performance was an organic structure of verbal text, dance and music combined. Over and above the Sanskrit language, it used for the speech of 'inferior' characters several regional colloquial dialects (Sauraseni, Maharastri, Magadhi, etc.) in a highly stylized form so as to represent the sex and class differentiation of the language used in the society of those times. The preserved fragments of Asvaghosa's dramas (second century after Christ) and Bharata's encyclopaedia of dramaturgy and dramatic performance (original portions datable to c. the third century of Christ) give us a picture of the situation. Before the beginning of the Christian era, Gaha, Dhavala (short lyrics), etc., and Kaha (romantic fiction) began to develop as consciously composed literary genres in the language of the Maharastra region in the West (i.e. Maharastri Prakrit), and by the fourth century, an ornare Mahakavya (the

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Vol. 1-1995 On the rise of.... Harivijaya) was composed in that language. Another elaborate Mahakavya (the Setubandha) also appeared a century later. It should, however, be noted in this connection that, because of its religious and cultural prestige, its refinement and creative vigour, the Sanskrit language, literary style and expression, and literary models exerted quite a dominating influence. Literary Maharastri was in that regard rather a colloquialized and stylized form of Sanskrit, which was confined to its region to start with but shortly earned recognition in all other regional literary circles. This is not to gainsay the fact that the contents of the Maharastri lyrics largely and typically related to the life and ways of the rural society, but this poetry was produced and appreciated mostly in royal courts and elite circles. Essentially, in that regard, it was not different from the Sanskrit poetry; but there was a significant point of difference: Maharastri poetry and verse-fiction had developed its own metrical forms different from those of Sanskrit. Moreover, the performance aspect, too, played a decisive role. It should also be stressed that Prakrit had predominantly vocalic word-forms with only homo-organic consonant clusters. This made it more suitable for song and music. Regarding the Paisaci language and literature, we are almost totally in the dark. An enormous work in the Paisaci language, containing stories, tales, legends and narratives teeming with romantic episodes and daring adventures, with humans, subliumans, and suprahumans having a free intercourse and with remarkable complexity of forin - the Vaddakaha - was written about the second century after Christ. But the original has been irrecoverably lost. What we now have are its several considerably late recasts, renderings or retellings, with additions, expansions, and omissions, in Sanskrit and in Maharastri Prakrit. No other work is available in the Paisaci language. Only the name of one other Paisaci text is mentioned by a writer of the ninth century. This means that Pajsaci had virtually ceased to be the language of literature shortly after the second century. We are also ignorant about the region where Paisaci was in colloquial use and how it came to be used for coinposing literary works. The Indian Tradition presents us with myths and legends about these matters. Gunadhya, the author of the lost Vaddakaha, is reported to have been a learned Sanskrit scholar, well-versed also in Maharastri Prakrit. He was a court-poet of the Satavahana king (himself a famed Prakrit poet and patron of poets), ruling at Pratisthana in Maharastra. The legend has it that he came to be placed

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H. C. Bhayani Nirgrantha in such a situation that he had to forego the use of Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the spoken idiom of his time. Hence he had to compose his marathon storywork (which in fact, had originated from God Siva and he was just a carrier) in Paisaci, spoken by some tribals or primitives (actually Pisacas, goblins') haunting the forest regions of the Vindhya mountain range. Medieval Indian and Modern scholars disagree considerably about the original region and characteristics of the Paisaci language. It was in all probability a stylized form of Prakrit with its phonology partially recast after the dialect of some aboriginal tribe. Beginnings of Apabhraisa language and literature Dandin, a seventh century literary theorist, has characterized literary Apabhramsa as based on the dialects of the communities called Abhira and others (which probably included the Gurjaras). Taking into account the cultivation and continuities during the later times, it is reasonable to assume that it was the Western region including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Sindh, and Malava where Apabhramsa language and literature had their beginnings. Later, they spread to other regions towards the south and east. To start with, the Apabhramsa was but a colloquialized form of literary Prakrit. Like Prakrit, literary Apabhramsa, too, became considerably stylized and strongly influenced by Sanskrit, which provided the prestigious paradigms for style and expression. But its metrical reportoire was its own; so also it had developed some characteristic literary genres (the Rasabandha and the Sandhibandha, besides several song-types). A noteworthy feature of the literary Apabhramsa was that it was, to a degree, free to absorb colloquial elements. The explanation lies in the fact of its rise and recognition as a literary medium. The highly stylized Prakrits, continuing with vigour side by side with the dominant Sanskrit, got in course of time considerably removed from the popular regional dialects. Apabhramsa arose to fill the communication gap. Phonologically, Apabhramsa was but a developed variety of Prakrit. But its inorphology, a part of its lexicon, and above all its idiomatic features made it more allied to the later New Indo-Aryan languages. In that way, Apabhramsa was transitional. It preserved its 'classical character in limited Jaina circles up to about the 15th-16th century. On the other hand it became more and more colloquialized and diversified, eventually ending up as various New Indo-Aryan literary languages, many of which inherited its metres, patterns, and literary forms.

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Vol. 1-1995 On the rise of.... It now remains to delineate the socio-cultural and geographical milieu within which the Apabhramsa literature flourished for several centuries after its rise (and continued to be produced for an equally long period after the rise of New Indo-Aryan literatures about 1000 years after Christ, although it had then lost its vitality and vibrancy, and had become increasingly rigidified.) 37 In a general way, the Apabhramsa literature can be said to repeat in many respects what happened in the case of Sanskrit and Prakrit literatures, which had continued to be produced in bulk alongside the Apabhramsa literature. Unfortunately, the period of the first three centuries in the history of Apabhramsa literature is almost a blank for us, as all early texts are lost. We have a score of names of early poets and a few citations and allusions. But there is enough evidence that Apabhramsa had continued the earlier tradition of composing voluminous epics having the Mahabharata as well as the Ramayana narratives and the Krsnacarita (the Puranic life account of Krsna) as their themes. Besides these there were a number of lyrical types basically oriented towards performance. Apabhramsa had been adopted by all the three main traditions - the Vedic-Brahmanic, the Jainistic, and the Buddhist. But, on account of the better institutional structure of preservation, most of the preserved works in Apabhiramsa are Jainistic. The modern Westernized perception would call it religious poetry. But the Indian Tradition categorized the 'fictional literary works according to the four ends of all human endeavour, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksa, and hence the Dharmakatha (religious fiction), irrespective of its religious theme and didactic purpose, had the same status as the Arthakatha (pertaining to the worldly life and dealings) and Kamakatha (having the love-life as its theme). All the preserved Apabhramsa texts are verse-texts and there is little evidence to believe that there were also Apabhramsa works in prose. The Apabhiramsa texts were recited, sung, or performed before the audience or spectators, who, even though mostly illiterate, were quite familiar with and responsive to orally presented literature. The audience consisted of the religious, faithful, or the interested groups at large. The patronage was provided by the high-ups in the ruling class or by rich merchants and heads of guilds who maintained religious institutions and establishments. Literary Apabhramsa was more or less homogeneous, but in the later period, and because of preservation through oral transmission, the original language of earlier texts and parts of the textual contents were subject to modifications in keeping with the changing colloquial idioms and changing cultural conditions. This was of course an essential and indispensable condition for the text to remain in the living tradition and to have

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H. C. Bhayani Nirgrantha contemporary relevance. The account presented here is obviously sketchy and open to the charges of having several gaps and loose ends. In view, however, of the complexity of the subject, the issues involved, and scantily preserved evidence, this was in part inevitable. Limitations of time and space, too, cannot be disregarded. (For the present purpose, I have omitted the bibliographical references. But the requisite preliminary information can be had from H. C. Bhayani, Apabhra nisa Language and Literature, B. L. Institute of Indology. Distributors, Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi 1989.)