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 12 THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ASANYA LANGUAGE J. C. Ghoah, writing on Visakha Datta, the author of Madrid ase, opines: "In some manuscripts of the Mudra Rilas, the reading of Avanti Varmá has been found in the last line of the last sloka in place of Chandra Gupta.... Although the history is silent about any descendants of Bhaslear Varma of Kamarupa, the relerence to Varaha Avatara leads us to think that Avanti Varm might be the immediate descendent of thislar Varma who claimed his descent from the Variha avatara'. (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXVI (1930). p. 244). On these authorities N. N. Basu pustulatus: "But from the account already sen we find that the paramount ruler, Jayatunga Varma was on the throne before 668 AD. Under the circumstances, Avanti Varma should be a descendant of Jayatunga Verma and predecessor of Sri Harshadeva of the Bhagadatta line." (SF2.K, III, 26-27). There are at least two difficulties in admitting this tentative chronology after Bhaskar Varma, namely, that Bhaskar Varma was in all probability a confirmed bachelor whence possibly he had his title Kumāra, and his line ceasing with him and the line of Salastambha being admitted im- mediately after Bhaskar Varma there can be no room to thrust this new chronology in. Whatever this may be the linguistic unity of East India lansangen is a point which is most notable. N. N. Basu has a pointed reference to it: "Needless to say, under the influence of Bhikar Varma and his stecessors the social customs, practices, education, culture and even the language in Kamarupe, Gauda, and Kalinga tended to be similar. Though the social structure of Gauda underwent profound changes as a result of the great influence which the Barendra and Radhiya Beth- mans came to exercise over it in a later age, the civilization and even the languages of Kamarupa and Kalinga are still reminiscence of the lose association which existed at one time between these two provinces. Another reason of this is to be seen in the influence which the Bhauma dynasty of Kämarupa exercised over Kalinga even in a subsequent age". (S.I.K. III, p. 13). This view la practically confirmed by S. K. Chatterji when the latter says: "The three eastern- most speeches of the great Indo-European family of languages, Assamese, Bengali and Oriya, are closely linked with each other; in fact they are like uterine sisters within the family. A thousand or twelve hundred years ago, Assamese, Bengali and Oriya, virtually formed one single speech. Their differentiation into three distint literary speeches as vehicles of three slightly different forms of the same pan-Indian took place as a result of the othnological, political