Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 19

The Apabhramśa Language
At the beginning of this century our knowledge of the Apabhramsa language was confined to its description found in the Prākrit grammars of Hemacandra and others, stray remarks about it in Sanskrit works on dramaturgy and poetics, a few illustrative examples cited by them, and the verses in the fourth Act of Kālidāsa's Vikramorvašīya. Since 1918, however, a large number of works in Apabhramsa was brought to light due to the labours of a number of Sanskrit and Prākrit scholars and today we possess a sizable literature in it along with numourous attempts to describe the language both historically and descriptively. Yet much remains to be done in explaining its linguistic structure and its place in tracing the origins of the New Indo-Aryan languages. In fact, a number of problems connected with it, like its exact relation to the Prākrit dialects of the earlier stage, its connection with the socalled Avahattā and the Deśībhāsās, its different dialects as noted by the Prākrit grammarians and revealed by the writers of Apabhramśa works and its precise relation to the New Indo-Aryan languages must be resolved in order to follow accurately the development of the Modern Indian languages as a whole. Before any of these problems can be usefully discussed it is necessary to have a general sketch of the language as far as it can be ascertained with the material available to us. For this purpose, the material found in the grammar of Hemacandra is far more useful than the larger Apabhraíša works, because of its variety both in contents and form and ampler traces of dialectal variations and freedom from the influence of the Prākrit dialects from which much of the Apabhramśa literature suffers.
The vowel system of Apabhramsa can be stated as follows :
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