History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.6

v2.c28.6

What is more remarkable still is that the language of the people too changed markedly from this time. The modern vernaculars of India arose about this time for reasons which we shall try to elucidate in a separate chapter. It is sufficient here to state that the history of the modern vernaculars of India can be traced back continuously to this period and not beyond it; and hence it may be said, speaking historically, that the modern languages of India began to be formed about thist time. While in previous centuries the ancient Prākṛits Śaurasenī, Māgadhī, Mahārāshtrī and Paiśāchī or their Apabhraṇśas appear to have still been spoken, from the ninth century onward we find Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Panjabi appearing as new developed spoken languages of north, east, south and west India.