Home > Indian History > Languages in India > Apabhramsa
Apabhramsa
Apabhramsa, according to historians, denotes the true vernaculars and the latter have constructed a scheme for the derivation of modern vernaculars from the various local Apabhraricas.

Share this Article:

Apabhramsa, Origin of Indian LanguagesApabhramsa is a term that is collectively provided to the dialects that deviate from Sanskrit. It is a term for the dialects forming the transition between the late Middle Indic and early Modern Indic languages. This is the period spanning between the 6th and the 13th centuries. Apabhramsa has now evolved into the regional languages. They became distinctive by the end of twelfth century. The languages such as Western Hindi, Rajasthani and Gujarati came from Qaurasena Apabhramsa. From Maharashtra Apabhramsa the languages derived is Marathi; from Magadha Bengali, Bihari, Assamese, and Oriya. From Ardha-Magadha came the language of Eastern Hindi. Apabhramsa is the collective term that is used to denote literary languages other than Sanskrit or Prakrit.

Apabhramsa was originally an effort to infuse into Prakrit a measure of their vernacular. In Apabhramsa there was an effort to simplify Prakrit by adopting as the base of the grammar the vernacular. In the main the Prakrit vocabulary is used and to some extent Prakrit inflexions too.

Once Apabhramsa had become popular it had spread beyond west and various local Apabhrancas arose. In Bengal there is a type of Apabhranca that is used in Buddhist texts. The much degraded form is Avahattha however the basis of this Apabhranca is Maharashtri that proves its ultimate western origin.

There is a considerable similarity in inflexion in Apabhranca to Old Gujarati. Therefore in Bengal the Apabhranca used was not formed by applying vernacular inflexions to the local Prakrit. However it cannot be firmly supposed that Apabhramsa formed a necessary step towards composition in vernaculars. Apabhramsa literature has been found in Jain texts. There were many poets especially in regions that were ruled by Hindu kings who wrote in Apabhramsa. These authors include Devasena of Dhar, Sarahapad of Kamarupa, Dhanapal, Pushpadanta of Manyakheta, Hemachandra of Patan, Muni Ramsimha and Raighu of Gwalior. One of the early examples of Apabhramsa is in Vikramorvashiyam of Kalidasa.

This article is a stub. You can enrich by adding more information to it. Send your Write Up to content@indianetzone.com


Share this Article:

Related Articles

More Articles in Languages in India


Development of Tamil Scripts
Development of Tamil scripts can be traced to the period just after the reign of Asoka. The Tamil script is believed to have developed from the Brahmi script.
History of Tamil Language
History of Tamil Language dates back to around the 2nd century BCE. Tamil language consists of the oldest non-Sanskrit Indian literature amongst all other Indian languages.
History of Maithili Language
History of Maithili Language can be dated back to the early fourteenth century. Maithili is now one of the national languages of India.
West Indian Languages
West Indian languages distinguish themselves with rurality and urbanity drawing the primary lines of speech.
Nagari Script
Nagari script today is classified as Devanagari, believed to have served as the ancestor of various modern-day writing.