Jain Journal 1997 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 30

Book Review
Devendra Kumar Shastri-Apabhramsa Bhāṣā Sahitya Ki SodhaPravṛttiya (in Hindi), Bharatiya Jñanapiṭha, New Delhi, second edition, 1996, price : Rs. 130.00.
The appearance of Devendra Kumar Śāstri's Research Study on the Apabhramsa language and literature is a welcome idea for which the Indological scholars of the world will be greatly indebted to him. The present work is a newly enlarged version of the earlier edition published some years ago. The second edition of the book within a short time shows how popular the first edition was and how it has been utilised by the scholars of the world. I personally congratulate Professor Devendra Kumar Shastri for the second edition of his Apabhramsa bibliography, and the credit to the publisher will also go along with it.
The study of Apabhramsa, both its language and literature, is a necessary event for the origin, growth and development of New IndoAryan languages. The New IA languages of Northern India, such as, Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Maithili, Magahi, Bhojpuri, Marathi. Gujarathi, Rājasthani, Pāñjābi owe much for their origin to Apabhramsa. The early stages of all these literatures derived much linguistic material from Apabhramsa. In fact, the old Bengali Caryāgīti, the Kirtilata of Vidyapatiṭhakura and the old inscriptions of Mārāṭhi and Jñaneswari, a commentary on the Gita in the ovi metre, the Uktivyakti-prakarana of Damodara Pandit, the Adi-grantha and even the Padumāvat of Malik Muhammad Jaysi do not differ much from Apabhramsa. Although the origin of the time of New Indo-Aryan languages is generally reckoned from the 10th cent. A.D. onwards i.e. the time also for Apabhramsa, historically we can have the Apabhramsa literature even some 3/4 centuries earlier. The bulk of Apabhramsa literature did not really start before 9th/10th centuries A.D. The name Apabhramsa appeared in Patanjali's Mahabhāṣya (2nd c. B.C.), the verses of Kalidasa's Vikramorvasiya (in the 4th act) are also composed in Apabhramsa and in Vasudeva-hindi we have the specimens of Apabhramsa. These are some stray cases and controversial as well. In Uddyotana's Kuvalayamālā-campu (8th c. A.D./779 A.D.) there are mentions of several languages available at that time. Those names of Modern New IA languages includings Apabhramsa show that all these NIA languages began to appear on the horizon as early as the 8th cent. A.D.. This, in brief, is the case where we can find the existence of