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Kamarupi Prakrit (Sanskrit:कामरुपी प्राकृत) (Assamese:কামৰূপী প্ৰাকৃত) (Bengali:কামরূপী প্রাকৃত) or Kamrupi Apabhramsa was the Apabhramsa used in ancient Kamarupa. The evidence of this apabhramsa exist in and systematic errors in the Sankrit language used in the Kamarupa inscriptions. The main characteristic of this Prakrit is the replacement of ś (শ) and ṣ (ষ) by s (স), which is contrary to the Vararuci's rule for Magadhi Prakrit which warrants that ṣ and s are replaced by ś. Sociolinguists have used the name proto-Kamrupa to denote the language, which is seen as a predecessor of Assamese and the KRNB lects. Linguists claim this apabhramsa gave rise to various eastern Indo-European languages like modern Assamese and felt its presence in the form of Kamrupi and North Bengali.

Characteristics of Kamarupi Prakrit

Though the epigraphs were written in classical Sanskrit in kavya style of a high degree, they abound in corrupt and unchaste forms. Besides the most characteristic feature of the sibilants, there are indiscriminate shortening or lengthening of vowels, loss of reph and reduplication of the following consonant; avoidance or irregularity of sandhis etc.

Apabhramsa

Some linguists claim that there existed a Kamrupi apabhramsa as opposed to the Magadhi apabhramsa from which the three cognate languages---Assamese, Bengali and Oriya and Maithili---sprouted. The initial motive comes from extra-linguistic considerations. Kamarupa was the most powerful and formidable kingdom in the region which provided the political and cultural influence for the development of the Kamrupi apabhramsa. Xuanzang's mention that the language spoken in Kamarupa was a 'little different' from the one spoken in Pundravardhana is provided as evidence that this apabhramsa existed as early as the 5th century. That Kamarupa remained unconquered till the beginning of the Assamese literature in the 14th century points to the possibility that the apabhramsa of the Kamarupa kingdom must have flourished.

Archaic forms found in epigraphic records from the Kamarupa period give evidence of this apabhramsa, of which there are numerous examples.

The Buddhist Charyapadas from the 8th to 12th century are claimed by different languages: Assamese, Bengali, Oriya and Maithili languages. But the geographical region of its composition was the Kamarupa pitha and many of the composers were Kamarupi siddhas. Therefore the language in the Charyapadas is the best example of this apabhramsa. H. P. Sastri, who discovered these poems, termed the language sandhya bhasha (twilight language) and this is nothing but the Kamarupi apabhramsa.

Geographical vicinity

Assamese, or more appropriately the old Kamarupi dialect entered into Kamrup or western Assam, where this speech was first characterized as Assamese. Golockchandra Goswami in his An introduction to Assamese phonology writes:

"In early Assamese there seems to be one dominant dialect prevailing over the whole country, the Western Assamese dialect"

So said difference in spoken language of Kamrup from mid India pointed out by Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang was Kamrupi Apabhramsa developing in modern Western Assam region.

Notes

1. "This sort of oneness must have helped the growth of a common language which can be termed as Kamrupi Prakrit or Kamrupi Apabhramsa" (Hazarika 1968, p. 80)
2. "... (it shows) that in Ancient Assam there were three languages viz. (1) Sanskrit as the official language and the language of the learned few, (2) Non-Aryan tribal languages of the Austric and Tibeto-Burman families, and (3) a local variety of Prakrit (ie a MIA) wherefrom, in course of time, the modern Assamese language as a MIL, emerged." (Sharma 1978, pp. 0.24–0.28)
3. The contrary rule was first pointed out by Dimbeswar Neog (Sharma 1978, p. 0.25)
4. "In this study I refer to the western dialect of Asamiya as Kamrupi, and the historical ancestor of proto-Kamata and proto-Asamiya as proto-Kamrupa." (Toulmin 2006, p. 14)
5. Mrinal Miri, Linguistic situation in North-East India , 2003, Scholars have shown that it is rather through the western Assam dialects that the development of modern Assamese has to be traced.
6. Sukhabilasa Barma, Bhawaiya, ethnomusicological study,2004 Based on the materials of the Linguistic Survey of India, Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay has divided Eastern Magadhi Prakrit and Apabhramsa into four dialect groups (1) Radha-the language of West Bengal and Orissa (2) Varendra-dialect of North Central Bengal (3) Kamrupi-dialect of Northern Bengal and Assam and (4) Vanga-dialect of East Bengal.
7. (Sharma 1978, p. 024)
8. Sukumar Sen, Grammatical sketches of Indian languages with comparative vocabulary and texts, Volume 1, 1975, P 31.

References

• Hazarika, Parikshit (1968). "The Kamarupi Apabhramsa". Journal of the Assam Research Society. 18: 77–85. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sharma, Mukunda Madhava (1978). Inscriptions of Ancient Assam. Guwahati, Assam: Gauhati University. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Toulmin, Mathew W S (2006). Reconstructing linguistic history in a dialect continuum: The Kamta, Rajbanshi, and Northern Deshi Bangla subgroup of Indo-Aryan (Ph.D.). The Australian National University. {{cite thesis}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Assamese from Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions, IIT, Guwahati

• Assamese language
• Endangered Indo-European languages