Apabhraṃśa in the context of "Charyapad"

Sanskrit Buddhist literature refers to Buddhist texts composed either in classical Sanskrit, in a register that has been called "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" (also known as "Buddhistic Sanskrit" and "Mixed Sanskrit"), or a mixture of these two. Several non-Mahāyāna Nikāyas appear to have kept their canons in Sanskrit, the most prominent being the Sarvāstivāda school. Many Mahāyāna Sūtras and śāstras also survive in Buddhistic Sanskrit or in standard Sanskrit.

During the Indian Tantric Age (8th to the 14th century), numerous Buddhist Tantras were written in Sanskrit, sometimes interspersed with local languages like Apabhramśa, and often containing notable irregularities in grammar and meter.

The Charyapada is a collection of mystical poems, songs of realization in the Vajrayāna tradition of Buddhism from the tāntric tradition in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.

It was compiled between the 8th and 12th centuries in late Apabhraṃśa or various Abahaṭ‌ṭha dialects, representing the formative stage of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. It was written during a period when the northeastern Prākrit languages had not yet differentiated into later forms, or they were just getting differentiated. Scholars of many eastern Indo-Aryan languages, such as Assamese, Bengali, Maithili, and Odia find features of these languages in the language of this work. A palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyāpada was rediscovered in the early 20th century by Haraprasād Shāstrī at the Nepal Royal Court Library. The Charyāpada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

Old Bengali was the earliest recorded form of the Bengali language, spoken in the Bengal region of eastern Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages. It developed from an Apabhraṃśa of Magadhi Prakrit around 650 AD, and the first Bengali literary works date from the 8th century. Between 1200 and 1350 AD, no written form or literary work of Bengali language is found; during this period the Islamic conquest took place in Bengal. It is marked as the barren age, and also marks the end of the Old Bengali era, as the Middle Bengali language developed later.

Old Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language that is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, and its closest relatives are Old Odia and Kamarupi Prakrit. Like other Old Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, it is distinct from Modern Bengali and is not fully comprehensible to Modern Bengali speakers without study. Within Old Bengali grammar, the verb evolved and a letter is omitted from a ligature formed by consonants.

Old Western Rājasthāni (also known as Maru-Gurjari, Old Gujarātī) is the common ancestor of the modern Gujarati and Western Rajasthani languages which developed from Sanskrit and the Prakrit Apabhraṃśas, and was spoken around 8-14th centuries in Western India. The literary form of Old Western Rājasthāni, the Dingala language was in use as early as the 12th century. While the spoken Old Western Rajasthani gave way to medieval forms of Western Rajasthani and Gujarati, it flourished in its literary form as Dingala till the 19th century.

Early texts of the language display characteristic features such as direct/oblique noun forms, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs. It had three genders, as Gujarati does today, and by around the time of 1300 CE, a fairly standardized form of this language emerged. The belief that modern Rajasthani sporadically expressed a neuter gender was based on the incorrect conclusion that the [ũ] that came to be pronounced in some areas for masculine [o] after a nasal consonant was analogous to Gujarati's neuter [ũ]. A formal grammar, Prakrita Vyakarana, of the precursor to this language, Gurjar Apabhraṃśa, was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Acharya Hemachandra Suri in the reign of Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja of Anhilwara (Patan).

The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Māgadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, which includes Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bengal region, Tripura, Assam, and Odisha; alongside other regions surrounding the northeastern Himalayan corridor. Bengali is official language of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley of Assam while Assamese and Odia are the official languages of Assam and Odisha, respectively. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Abahattha, which descends from Magadhan Apabhraṃśa and ultimately from Magadhi Prakrit.

Hindi literature (Hindi: हिंदी साहित्य, romanized: hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Central Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Hindi, some of which have different writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃśa such as Awadhi. Hindi literature is composed in three broad styles- prose (गद्य, gadya), poetry (पद्य, padya), and prosimetrum (चंपू, campū). Inspired by Bengali literature, Bharatendu Harishchandra started the modern Hindi literary practices. In terms of historical development, it is broadly classified into five prominent forms (genres) based on the date of production. They are:

• Ādi Kāl /Vīr-Gāthā Kāl (आदि काल/वीरगाथा काल), prior to & including 14th century CE
• Bhakti Kāl (भक्ति काल), 14th–18th century CE
• Rīti Kāl /Śṛṅgār Kāl (रीति काल/ शृंगार काल), 18th–20th century CE
• Ādhunik Kāl (आधुनिक काल, 'modern literature'), from 1850 CE onwards
• Navyottar Kāl (Hindi: नव्योत्तर काल, lit. 'post-modern literature'), from 1980 CE onwards

The literature was produced in languages and dialects such as Khariboli, Braj, Bundeli, Awadhi, Kannauji, as well as Chhattisgarhi. From the 20th century, works produced in Modern Standard Hindi, a register of Hindustani written in the Devanagari script, are sometimes regarded as the only basis of modern literature in Hindi (excluding Urdu literature of Hindustani language).

Abahaṭ‌ṭha, Abahatta or Avahaṭṭha (Sanskrit apabhraṣṭa 'corrupted', related to apabhraṃśa) is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of the Indo-Aryan languages. This group consists of languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, and Odia. Abahatta is considered to follow the Apabhraṃśa stage—i.e. those Apabhraṃśas derived from Magadhi Prakrit.

After different business and trading classes, including the Jains, rose in power and influence at the end of the ninth century CE, the widespread speaking of classical Sanskrit waned. Apabhransa and Abahatta thus became very popular, especially amongst common people, functioning as a lingua franca throughout the north of the Indian subcontinent.