Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 355

SEPTEMBER, 1931)
HISTORICAL
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literary Prakrit has been altered to approach the vernacular. But, nevertheless, when used with caution they impart valuable information as to what that vernacular was.10
1 For the whole question of the origin of Apabhramsa, see H. Jacobi, Bhavisa ita Kaha von Dhanavila. 58. ff. (München, 1918), as supplemented by his Sanatkumiracaritam, XVIII ff. (München, 1921), both heing in the Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, XXIX and XXXI, respectively.
2 See H. Jacobi, Sanatkumaracaritam, XVIII.
3 Translated into German by E. Leumann, under the title of 'Dio Yonny,' in Zeitschrift für Buddhiriw. III, 193 ff. and 272 ff.
4 Regarding the Vrúcnta Apabhramba of the Abhiras, see H. Jacobi, 'Bhavisatta Kaha, 67' ff. and 73* ff.
Jacobi, Bhavisatta Kaha, connects 'Vracata with 'vraja,' a station for herdsmen, rejecting Lussen derivation from vrátya,' a man who has lost caste, or who does not follow the proper rites. With all respect for Jacobi's authority, I prefer Lassen's explanation. The termination ta or da, is frequently sect to indicate contempt.-in the modern languages this is the rule. The Abhiras, or cowleda, were always looked upon as unorthodox. They were, and are to the present day, worshippers of Indra, rather than of Vignu (cf. Bhāg. Pu., X, xxiv-xxvii, and Grierson, Indra and Durga in modern Hindöstân,' in Zeitschrift für Inologie und Ironistik, II, 133 ff.).
6 RT., III, iii, 6 ff.in IA., LII, 5 ff. ; Mk., XVIII, Comm. to 12.
7 That they were not the actual vernaculars of the countries after which they were named is clear frore the descriptions of RT. and Mk. See Grierson in JRAS., 1913, 875 ff.
# KI., V, 68-9; RT., III, iii, 1-5; Mk., XVIII, 1-12. Both RT. and Mk. say that Vracada was born in Sindh (Sindhudēsódbhava).
See the dates fixed in § 66 pos. Ap. could hardly have been a living spoken language in He's time, for his grammar does not deal with one Apabhramsa, but with several dialects which he mixes together. His very rules are frequently contradicted by his own examples. He would not have done this had he been describing a living language known to him colloquially. In this respect, his grammar is a compilation put together from many widely differing and mutually contradictory sources (Pr. Gr., 28).
10 In his grammar, Hc. gives numerous Ap. verses as examples of his rules. Many of these, with the necessary phonetic changes, have survived almost word for word in the modern language of western Rājputánā, and are still current in popular speech. See the series of articles by Candradhar Sarmå Guleri in vol. II (New Series, Sam. 1973) of the Nägart Pracarini Patrika, especially pp. 18 ff. and 44.
63. Turning now to the real Apabhramsas,-the actual Aryan vernaculars of the people, originally called dēša-bhāşās,--they were spoken during the later centuries of the first millennium after Christ (Bhn., 302). To each Pr. there was a corresponding Ap. Thus there was a Saurasēna Ap. corresponding to Saurasēni Pr., a Magadha Ap. corresponding to Māgadhi Pr., a Māhārāstra Ap. corresponding to Māhārāştri Pr., and so on (Pr. Gr., 85). To these can be referred nearly all the IAVs. To Saurasēna Ap. are to be referred Hindi, Rajasthāni and Gujarati, the last-named being closely connected with the Nāgara form of Saurasēna (see below). To Magadha Ap. belong Bihāri, Bengali, Assamese and Oriyā, to Ardha-Māgadha Ap., Eastern Hindi, and to Māhārāstrā Ap., Marathi. There remain the North-Western group. There does not seem to have been a literary Pr. for this part of India, but, for Sindhi, we can fall back on the Vrācada Ap. of the grammarians (see below). For Lahnda no corresponding Ap. is known, and we must assume a Kaikēya (of. the Kaiköya Pistoaka of Pr. Gr., 827) Ap., which was closely connected with Vrācada. The Indian grammarians did not divide the literary (as distinot from the real) Aps, in this fashion. As already stated, those of the East knew of three chief literary dialecte, a Nagara, a Vrācada, and an Upanagara. The first was the principal literary dialect, and seems to have been based on the dēda-bhāgā spoken in the country now inhabited by the Nāgara Brāhmaṇas of Gujarat, a tribe long celebrated for its learning and which, according to Nagendranātha Vasu (vide ante, $ 14, n. 1), gave its name to the Nagari alphabet. Hēmacandra was also an inhabitant of Gujarat, and the Ap. described by him claims (iv, 446) to be based on Sauraseni Pr., although, as already remarked, much of what he teaches really belongs to other forms of the language. We may therefore assume that Nagara Ap. was either the same as, or was closely related to,
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