32 SANSKRIT, PRAKRIT, AND APABHRANCA
5. Apabhranqa
Pischel 1 and Sir G. Grierson 2 have given currency to the view that the term Apabhranca denotes the true vernacu- lars as opposed to literary Prakrits, and the latter has con- structed a scheme for the derivation of modern vernaculars from the various local Apabhrancas; thus from Qaurasena (or Nagara) Apabhranca came Western Hindi, RajasthanI, and GujaratI ; from Maharastra Apabhranca MarathI; from Magadha Bengali, Biharl, Assamese,, and Oriya; from Ardha- magadha Eastern Hindi; from Vracada SindhI; and from Kaikeya Lahnda. Unfortunately this theoretical scheme will not stand investigation, for the evidence of texts and even of the literature proves clearly that Apabhranca has a different signification. 3
The essential fact regarding Apabhranca is that it is the collective term employed to denote literary languages not Sans- krit or Prakrit. Bhamaha 4 expressly gives this threefold division, and Dandin 6 expressly says that Apabhranca is the term applied to the idioms of the Abhlras, &c, when they appear in poetry. Guhasena of Valabhl, whose inscriptions have dates from A. D. 559-69, is declared to have composed poems in the three languages, Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhranca. Rudrata, 6 in the ninth century, asserts that Apabhraiica is manifold through the difference of lands, doubtless in agreement with Dandin. Hema- candra also does not identify Apabhranca with the vernaculars. The vernacular {degabhasa) is a different thing; hetairai are required to be skilled in the eighteen vernaculars according to the Jain canon ; the Kdmasutra, in enumerating their sixty-four accomplishments, includes knowledge of vernaculars as well as of literary speeches {kavyakriya) ; moreover, it preserves the
1 Gramm, der Prakrit-Spracken, § 4.
8 BSOS. 1. iii. 61 ff. ; cf. IA. li. 13 ff.
- Jacobi, Bhavisatta Kaha, pp. 53 ff.; Sanatkutnaracaritam, pp. xviiiff. ; Fest-
schrift Wackernagel, pp. 1 34 ff.
< i. 16.
1 i. 31. Nobel's effort {Indian Poetry, pp. 13a, 159) to distinguish between Bharoaha's and Dandin's use of Apabhrai^a is a failure.
