Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 356

$$ 64-66 )
ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
[SEPTEMBER, 1931
Saurasēna Apabhramsa. Vracada Ap. was based on the form spoken in Sindh. Its peculiarities are described in Pr. Gr., $ 28.1 It is noteworthy that, as in Dardic, it makes little distinction between cerebrals and dentals. Upanagara Ap. was a mixture of Vrācada Ap. and Nāgara Ap., and was therefore probably based on the language of the modern western Rājpūtānā and the south Panjab.
1 Cf. also Mk., Preface, 7 and xvii, xviii, RT., III, iii in IA., LII (1923), 3] and Grierson, Vracada and Sindhi, JRAS., 1902, 47.
64. Even the Apabhramsa of the grammarians shows clearly the artificial character of literary Prakrit, and how tendencies have there been generalized into universal rules. Apabhramsa is in a phase of development more advanced than that of the spoken languages cor. responding to literary Prakrit, yet even the grammarians show that it was in a phase much older than that exhibited by these artificial monuments of false generalization. For instance, He., iv, 396, expressly states that Apabhramśa does not usually elide, but often softens, certain surd consonants, although these inust be elided by the rules of literary Prakrit, in which such an Apabhramsa word as sughē for sukhēna could not occur. There, the word would be suhēna. No ingenuity of etymology could make the h of suhēna develop into the gh of sughe. The latter is the older form, and shows that the usual pronunciation of the spoken Prakrit on which the literary Prakrit was founded must have been something like sughēna, with a tendency, at most, for it to be pronounced suhena by some lazy speakers. The literary Apa. bhramsa, therefore, though not wholly trustworthy, gives us important information not only in regard to spoken Apabhramsa, but also in regard to the spoken Prakrit on which Jiterary Prakrit was founded
65. The spoken, or real, Apabhramsas follow, as has been suid above, the divisions of the Prakrits. Unfortunately, Hc., our chief source of information regarding them, deals professedly with but one of them,--the literary Saurasēna (or Nägara) Apabhramsa. We have little definite information regarding the others, although RT. and Mk. tellus something; but for our present purposes it is permissible to assume that each Apabhramsa in, say, the period between the sixth and tenth centuries after Christ, bore, as regards stage of development, the same relation to its corresponding literary Prakrit that the literary Apabhramsas on which He, based his grammar bore to literary Saurasēni Prakrit. Thus, the Skr. sutah, would be sudo in Sr. Pr. and sudu in Sr. Ap. In Mg. Pr., it would be sudē, and we are justified in assuming that the corresponding Mg. Ap. word would be *sudi,1 or something of the sort. Again, the Skr. pattah becomes paffo in Sr. Pr. and pastē in Mg. Pr. (Mk., xii, 7), and we may assume that the Mg. Ap. would be something like *pasti. That this assumption is not irrational is proved by the modern vernaculars. The IAV. of the Midland has the nominative of strong a-bases in 7 (<au), while in the eastern Bihari, in old poetry it ends in è (ai). The dental 8 of the Midland is written & in B. and pronounced & in Bg. I myself have heard an ignorant Bihāri villager say pastā instead of the Midland patta, a lease.
1 That this is a justified assumption is shown by the fact that Mk. admits the termination i, as well as e, even into literary Mg. Pr. (xii, 26).
See $ 29, note!, ante.
3 See $$ 333, 336, post. . 66. The various Apabhramsa dialects represent the concluding phase of the Secondary Prakrits, and from them are descended the IAVs., or Tertiary Prakrite. It is possible to fix the date at which these took their present form with some approach to accuracy. It is first necessary to trace the various meanings of the word bhäņā. In Panini's grammar it was
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