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Introduction
53
word or a form However, there are clear indications that attempts are made in Apabhramśa to simplify Prakrit in various ways which would be
by noting the special features of Apabhramśa. 1) In Apabh. vowels are interchanged and an amount of liberty is taken with regard to the quantity of vowels : this explains the termination like ha' or hu' and he or hu for one and the same case and the shortening of Nom.sg. o of the standard Prakrit into u which comes to be added to many words in Apabh. as seen from words like punu, vinu, sahu, etc. 11) There is a less masculine pronunciation of m which often becomes nasalised v. ill) There is a tendency to change s into h in the Declensional terminations. This explains some of the queer forms: Nom, pl. form divaho noted by Mārkandeya and others is either to be traced back to Vedic daydsah or it is a generalisation from forms like candramasah; davaha from Pk. davassa; taha from tassa simplified as tåsa whose counterpart tasu also is used in Apabh.; tahi from tamsi; and ahu from iso. Sanskrit s is seen as h in Awesta and in Iranian dialects. This change is noted by Hemacandra in a few Prakrit words, and it is in Magadhi alone that it is seen in Gen, terminations.2 Even at present a Gujarāti dialect uniformly reduces s to h. It is possible that this change is a racial characteristic that came to be generalised later on. iv) Prakrit conjucts are often smoothened to simplify pronunciation. v) Case terminations are dropped in Nom. Acc. and Gen; here is a tendency to become non-inflexional. vi) The phonetic changes influence the conjugational forms which are being simplified and reduced in number. vii) Indeclinables and particles have changed their forms often beyond recognition, and in some cases they cannot be traced back to Sanskrit through Prakrits possibly being drawn from vernaculars or Deśabhāṣās, vill) Svārthe or pleonastic affixes like ka, da, la, etc., are seen in many words. ix) And lastly there is an abundance of Desi words and Dhātvādeśas.
Attraction of Apabh. Speech-On the whole there is a liquidity and smoothness about the flow of Apabh. verses which show many new metres based not on the number of syllables but on the quantity of mātrās, which can be better sung: and which are characterised by plenty of rhyme. It is no wonder, therefore, that Apabh. was a favourite medium of popular poetry as early as 6th century A.D. if nor even earlier. Guhasena of Valabhi, whose epigraphic records range from 559 to 569 AD., is said to have composed poems in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabh. Uddyotanasūri (778 A.D.)
1
See, for instance, sõsaü ma, etc on iv. 365; khedda yan, etc., on iv. 442; Ludwig Alsdorf : Bemerkungen zu Pischel's Materialien, etc., in Festschrift M. Winternitz, pp. 29 36. See i. 262-3, iv 229-300; Pichel's : Grammatik der Prakrit-sprachen 5264. The Sanskrit style of poets like Jayadēva betrays Apabhramsa influence.
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