Apbhramsa of Hemchandracharya

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Kantilal Baldevram Vyas, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 16

Apabhraísa from wzich Marathi arose, and Māgadha Apabhramsa which later evolved into Bihari and Western Bengali. 11
Following these Western savants Dr. Chatterjee says : “At the confluence of the Middle Indo-Aryan period and the New Indo-Aryan period, we have the literary Apabhraííus and these Apabhramśas of literature are mainly based on hypothetical spoken Apabhramśas in which the earlier Prakrits die and the Bhāṣās or modern Indo-Aryan languages have their birth.12
At another place, Dr. Chatterjee says : "The Western or Saurasena Apabhramśa became current all over Aryan India from Gujarat and Western Punjab to Bengal; probably as a lingua franca, and certainly as a polite language, as a bardic speech which alone was regarded as suitable for poetry of all sorts.”:13
But these views about multiple Apabhraṁśas are hardly tenable, because the classical compositions of eminent Apabhramsa poets like mahākavi Puspadanta from Manyakheţa in the present Andhrapradesh, Mahāsiddha Saraha from Assam, and Krishnapāda from Bengal, show hardly any significant linguistic divergence. 14 Besides, the Abhiras whose language was Apabhramśa, belonged, according to a host of eminent ancient authorities, to western India. Also, the greatest number of Apabhramsa works of note have come from this region --Gujarat, Rajasthan and Vidarbia. And the NIA languages oi western India--Gujarati, Rajasthani and Western Hindi have in jerited practically all the linguistic characteristics of Apaðhrama. This settles beyond doubt that Apabh:amsa
... 11. Vide-Modi, op. cit., Introdn, p. 12, fn. 14 & 15.
Cf. also Tagare, ‘Historical Grammar of Apabhramsa, 1948, pp.
15, 16. He calls them Western, Southern, and Estern Apabhramśas. · 12. Dr. Suniti kumar Chatterjee, 'Origin and Development of the
Bengali Language' Introdn, p. 17, cited by Modi, op. cit., Introdo,
.
p. 12.
13. Cf. Chatterjee, 'Origin and Development of Bengali Language,
Introdn, p. 90; cited by Modi, op. cit., Introdn, p. 15. 14. Cf. Mədi, op. cit., Introdn, p. 15. i
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