________________
A PHONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF APABHRAMSA
OF THE 11th CENTURY A.D.
W
S. Karunatilleke
0. Introduction
The pui pose of this paper is to present a brief descriptive analysis of the phonology of Apabhramśa of the 11th century A.D.
The earliest references to the term “ Apabhiamsa” in Indian literature go as far back as the 2nd century BC 1 when it was used not in the sense of any dialect but to refer to apy deviation from Sanskrit It was only around the 31d century A.D. that the term “Apabbiamsa” assumed the sense of a “ dialect" as distinct from Sanskrit ? Consequently it came to be used as a generic term referring to all the later Middle Indo-Aryan dialects Apabhramsa attained the status of a literary dialect from around the 6th century AD Regionwise literary Apabhramśa dialects fall into three main divisions (a) Western Apabhramsa, the literary documents of which
range from 6th Cent. AD to 12th Cent, AD. 15) Sonthern Anabhramsa, the literary documents of wluch
range from 10th Cent A.D to 11th Cent AD, and (c) Eastern Apabbramśa, the literary documents of which
range from 7th Cent A.D to 12th Cent A D 4 0.1 The data for this papel derive primarily from the text entitled Karakanda Cariu composed by a poet called Muni Kanakāmara 5 Karakamda Carnu (henceforth to be abbreviated as Kch) is a verse-text written about the life-story of a king called Karakamda The text runs to ten chapters each of which is referred to as a 'Sandhi' Muni Kanakāmara, the author of this text. was a monk of the Digambara
