A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.s5.10

c7.s5.10

The first actual remnants of Apabhraṁśa preserved occur in a citation in Ānandavardhana, in the *Devīçataka*, and in Rudraṭa. By preserving *ṛ* and *r* it is clear that these verses belong to the species of Prākrit styled by the eastern school of grammarians (Kramadīçvara, Mārkaṇḍeya, Rāma Tarkavāgīça) Vrācaṭa, which also is styled the speech of the Ābhīras. This tribe appears to have entered India some time before 150 B. C., when it is mentioned by Patañjali. Its early home was Sindhudeça, by which is meant² not Sindh but the Peshāwar district of the Rāwalpindi division, where they had as eastern neighbours the Gurjaras.³ Later both tribes spread; the Gurjaras are found as Gūjars in the United Provinces; in the main, however, they went south and occupied Gujarāt. The Ābhīras are recorded in the *Mahābhārata* as in the Panjāb, later they are heard of in Kurukṣetra, and their descendants, the Ahirs, range as far east as Bihar; some went south and settled on the coast to the west of Gujarāt; they won considerable fame, and an Ābhīra dynasty is stated in the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* to have succeeded the Andhrabhṛtyas. Both Ābhīras and Gurjaras were probably of the Dardic branch of the Indian race, to judge at least from the strong Dardic element in Lahndā, the speech of the western Panjāb. As they grew in civilization, they must have sought to create a literature; whether they attempted it in their own dialect at first and later produced Apabhrañça must remain uncertain; what is clear is that Apabhrañça originally was an effort to infuse into Prākrit a measure of their vernacular.