Abahatta, from Prakrit

Prakrit

Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...

 abasatta and ultimately from Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 apaśabda "meaningless sound", is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages

Indo-Aryan languages

The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...

 such as Bangla, Maithili

Maithili language

Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...

, Oriya

Oriya language

Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...

. It is also called Apabhramsa Avahatta, Apabhramsha Abahatta or Purvi Apabhramsa. Abahatta is considered to follow the Apabhramsha

Apabhramsha

Apabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...

 stage, i.e. those Apabhramsha's derived from Magadhi Prakrit

Prakrit

Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...

s.

Abahatta which existed from the 6th century to 14th century, was contemporaneous with some Apabhramsa languages as well as the early Modern languages such as Old Oriya, Old Bangla or Maithili

Maithili language

Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...

. Many poets composed both in Abahatta and a modern language, e.g. Charyapada

Charyapada

The Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems from the tantric tradition in eastern India. Being caryagiti , the Charyapada were intended to be sung. These songs of realization were spontaneously composed verses that expressed a practitioner's...

 poets wrote dohas or short religious verses in Abahatta; the Maithili poet Vidyapati

Vidyapati

Vidyapati Thakur , also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil was a Maithili poet and a Sanskrit writer. He was born in the village of Bishphi in Madhubani district of Bihar state, India. He was son of Ganapati...

wrote his autobiography Kirtilata in Abahatta.

The Abahatta stage is characterized by

• The loss of affixes and suffixes
• Loss of grammatical gender
• Increased usage of short vowels
• Nasalisation at the end or in the middle of words
• The substitution of h for s, etc.

For the Bengali language, the Abahatta stage was followed by the Old Bangla (ca. 1100 AD).