The Apabhramsa Lyrics in the Vernaculars

Summary

Focusing on the lyric tradition known as Apabhraṁśa, this article traces the evolution of vernacular poetry from Prakrit to the early Indo‑Aryan languages. The author begins by quoting A.B. Keith’s observation that Apabhraṁśa lyrics emerged alongside Sanskrit love poetry but differed markedly in tone and social outlook. Whereas Sanskrit poets wrote highly wrought verses for elite audiences, Apabhraṁśa songs in collections such as the Sattasaī and the Sātavāhana Hāla captured the emotions of ordinary men and women—love, sorrow, longing and devotion—in a colloquial idiom. The article analyses stanzas preserved in Jain narrative works and points out that Apabhraṁśa poets drew on rustic metaphors, folk tunes and women’s voices, making their verses more spontaneous than court poetry. It notes that these songs were composed by anonymous poets and sometimes by village women, and that they were later imitated by learned Sanskrit authors. The continuity of Apabhraṁśa lyrics into the regional vernaculars is emphasised: poets writing in Gujarati, Marathi, Braj and Bengali adapted Apabhraṁśa metres and imagery, and early Hindi literature owes much to this tradition. The paper critiques the view that Apabhraṁśa poems were artificial literary exercises; instead, it argues, they reflect the lived experiences of ordinary people at a time of socio‑religious change and thus form a valuable corpus for cultural historians. Finally, the article suggests that further collection and study of Apabhraṁśa lyrics will elucidate the development of regional literatures in medieval India.