________________
58
that there was a dialect of Apabhramśa spoken in Magadha; thus proving the existence of the Apabhramśa in the east of the Peninsula as late as the 11th century A. D.
(9) For lesser and later writers like Pṛthvidhara, the commentator of the Mrcchakatika, the unknown author of the Rasikasarvasva quoted by Nārāyaṇa in his commentary on Gitagovinda, Sankara, one of the commentators of the Sakuntala and two or three others, see Pischel. It is needles to refer to them here for they invariably quote others' views and because they cannot have had living touch even with the dying Apabhramsas, their acquaintance with them is only second hand.
(B) The Age of the Apabhramsa:
We have thus examined the references to the Apabhramśa in works on rhetoric and poetics from Bharata of about 2nd or 3rd century A. D. down to the commentator Namisādhu of the middle of the 11th century A. D. We have thus been able to put together some undisputed facts about the age, extent and varieties of the Apabhramsa.
(1) Apabhramsa existed in the 2nd or 3rd century A. D. at least, under the name Abhiri, and was spoken in Sindh, Moultan and northern Punjab mainly by the Abhiras and other nomadic tribes that had penetrated into India and for a time.settled in these provinces.
(2) By the 6th century the Apabhramśa was still recognised as the dialect of the Abhiras and others, had got its distinctive name Apabhramsa and had developed a literature of its own which had to be recognised by rhetoricians like Bhamaha and Dandin.
(3) By the 9th century it had ceased to be recognised as a language of the Abhiras, Sabaras and Caṇḍālas only, had come to be known as a language of the great artisan class although the elite spoke Sanskrit and the stage people the Prakrits; i. e. it had become the language of the people. It had by now already spread as far south as Suraṣṭra and probably also as far east as Magadha.
(4) By the middle of the 11th century, even literary people have come to recognise that Apabhramsa is not one language but many dialects, one of which had attained literary importance. It was known to have had a dialect in Magadha, east of the great Peninsula. The Dohākośa (see VII end) furnishes actual testimony.
The lower limit for the age of Apabhramsa accords well with Sir R. G. Bhandarkar's opinion. In his report for the search of Mss. after noting no. 545 Pingalarthapradipa, with some extracts from the same, he says, The extracts quoted are verses 58 (Candesara); 69 (Ceipai-Cedipati); 71 (Hammira), 92 (ibid), 147 (ibid), 151 (ibid), and 199 (ibid); 72 (Sahasanka); 77 (Kasisa), 198 (ibid); 87 (Acala), 96 (Karna), 126 (ibid), 185 (ibid), in Chandra Mohan Gosh's edition. Cedipati Prince of Cedi and of the Kalacuri race; he was contemporary of Bhimadeva of Gujarat and Ahavamalla of Maharastra.
