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CHAPTER ONE
Origin of Apabhramsa
1. The Apabhramśa language is that phase of the middle Indo-Aryan, the various dialects or the regional variations of which gradually evolved as the modern vernaculars of Nortb India. It is still a synthetic and inflexional language, though. very much simpler and much more varied than its ancestor.
The vedic people offered prayers to their deities in a more: or less homogenous popular language. But gradually, in wake of various social changes, there was the rise of the priestly families. The prayers were then preserved orally for the posterity. Although, with the march of time, the language: was changing, the daily language of the priests was static due: to the constant influence of the older language of the prayers, banded down by oral tradition.
(a) Thus, in course of time, two levels of speech could be distinguished in the Vedic society: one was the conservative language of the priests and the other was the ever-changing language of the common people.
2. The language of the prayers, however, could not be continued in its old and archaic form in the daily speech for a long time. Many obsolete and esoteric forms were gradually thrown out and then a simplified form of the Vedic language had evolved, which was younger than the language of the hymns and older than the language of the common people. Thus, towards the end of the Vedic period itself, three levels of language could be distinguished :
