The term apabhramsa was used in medieval Sanskrit texts to denote
- Aoutcastes among the Rajputs
- Bdeviations from Vedic rituals
- Cearly forms of some of the modern Indian languagesCorrect
- Dnon-Sanskrit verse metres
Explanation
The correct answer is C because the term Apabhramsa literally means falling away or corrupted. In the context of medieval Sanskrit texts, it was used by grammarians to describe the transition phase of Indo-Aryan languages as they evolved from Prakrit. It represents the linguistic bridge between the older Prakrit dialects and the emergence of modern Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi. While Sanskrit was considered the refined language of the elite, Apabhramsa denoted the common spoken dialects that deviated from standard Sanskrit grammar.
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