Historical Outline of the Languages of Western Indian

Author(s): K B Vyas
Publisher: Z_Vijay_Vallabh_suri_Smarak_Granth_012060.pdf
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/250113/1

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA Prof. K. B. VYAS, M.A., F.R.A.S. I There are several languages spoken in Western India, of which Gujarati, Western Rajasthani, Malavi, Cutchi, Sindhi and Konkani are the principal ones. Of these Cutchi and Sindhi are allied and so are Gujarati, Rajasthani and Malavi. Konkani, however, stands apart. It has no affinity with its northern neighbours. In this brief historical outline of the languages of Western India, we shall restrict ourselves mainly to Gujarati which is admittedly the most outstanding and the richest of these languages. The area in which Gujarati is spoken may be roughly outlined thus :In the north, Gujarati is spoken as far as Cutch, where it is the courtlanguage and the language of culture. From there it extends to the north up to Mithi, 30 miles to the North of the desert of Cutch. From here it extends to the East to Deesa, Palanpur, and Mount Abu. Beyond Mount Abu, the speech is Gujarati or its dialectal form mixed with Marwali. From this northernmost point, the boundary of Gujarati descends southeastward including within itself Mahikantha, Idar, Dohad and Lunawada, Chhota Udepur and Rajpipla. To the east and south of the Panchmahals, Chhota Udepur and Rajpipla, Gujarati slowly merges into the Bhilli dialects. From Rajpipla the boundary sharply descends southward covering the entire Surat District and a major portion of the Dangs where it touches the area of Khandesi. From here further south upto Umbergaon and Dahanu, Gujarati is spoken as the principal speech. Beyond this to the south the Konkani language is spoken which is claimed to be a dialect of Marathi. These are then the limits of the area of the Gujarati speech--from Mount Abu in the north to the Dangs and Umbergaon in the south, and from Dvarka in the west to Dohad in the east. Roughly it includes the whole of Saurastra and almost the entire northern division of the Bombay State which is popularly known as Gujarat. The number of persons speaking Gujarati in Gujarat and Saurastra alone comes to over 1,33,00,000. To these must be added 35,00,000 speaking

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158 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME Gujarati in the border-lands of Gujarat and in Cutch. Gujarati is also the speech of a large and influential section of the population in Bombay. The Gujarati-speaking population is not negligible in Calcutta, Karachi, Madras, Nagpur, Hyderabad and other important commercial and industrial centres of India. Gujarati colonies are also to be found in Burma, South Africa, East Africa, Indonesia, and several other parts of the world, where they speak Gujarati and follow Gujarati traditions and culture. II Gujarati is thus a very important language indeed both culturally and politically on the western coast-line of India. It is one of the few languages of the world which has a continuous history with full documentary evidence for every stage of its evolution, from the time of its inception right up to the present age. From about 1200 A.D., the date of the first Gujarati work discovered so far, till the time of the advent of the English when printing was introduced, we find countless works belonging to various subjects composed in Gujarati. They have been preserved in the various Jaina Jnana-Bhandaras or manuscript-libraries attached to Jaina temples and Upasrayas. Several important cities of Gujarat are celebrated for their rich manuscript-libraries dating from very early times. In Patan alone, there are Bhandaras which house no less than 40,000 old manuscripts of different ages, some of which are very rare on account of their antiquity, wealth of illustrations and historical data. Cambay is known for its collection of palm-leaf manuscripts. The other cities in Gujarat too have such manuscript-libraries, but the rarest manuscript-collection is found to have been preserved in the Bada Bhandara of Jesalmer situated deep in the heart of Rajasthan. Only a part of this great store of ancient literature, both religious and secular, has come to light so far. Numerous works of great antiquity and literary merit are still awaiting publication. The fact that Gujarat was the great commercial centre of India from early times and enjoyed comparative peace and political security for long periods, contributed to the development of the Gujarati language and literature in no small measure. In this process of development, as we shall presently see, Gujarati came in contact with several foreign languages and cultures like the Persian, Arabic, Portuguese and English, and was influenced by them to a certain degree,

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA 159 III . It would be very interesting to trace the history of the language of Gujarat from the earliest times. We must, however, remember that in earlier times the boundaries of Gujarat were not the same as they are today. Northern Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan along with a part of Malva then formed the territory known as the Gurjara desa. Southern Gujarat was then known as Lata and remained for a long time under the influence of the south. Situated as the gateway of India, maritime Gujarat witnessed from early times several immigrations of Greeks, Bactrians, Sakas, Ksatrapas, Gurjaras, Hunas, Arabs, Turks and Mughals, many of whom made it their home. In the earliest times known to history the language spoken in Gujarat and Saurastra was a dialect the conventionalized form of which is known as Vedic Sanskrit. But of this speech we have no written evidence before the Asokan Inscriptions. Then-i.e. from 1000 B.C. to 600 B.C.--three or four dialects existed : Udicya or the northern, Madhyadesiya or the midland, Pracya or the eastern, and the Praticya or the western. The northern dialect was the nearest to the Vedic and was standardized by Panini in the present-day classical Sanskrit. From the early eastern speech developed the Prakrit dialect spoken by Buddha and Mahavira, which was popularly known as the Magadhi Prakrit. A close examination of the inscriptions of Asoka (250 B.C.) reveals, besides the eastern Magadhi, at least two other distinct dialects--the northern, allied to Paisaci, and the midland or western, allied to Sauraseni. The western dialect as recorded in the rock-edicts of Girnar contains several linguistic traits (such as the preservation of 'r' in consonant-clusters) which characterized Gujarati speech from very early times. These spoken Prakrit speeches fossilized in course of time and resulted in a classical standardized form of common Prakrit which became the medium of literature and was treated by grammarians as the principal Prakrit. This form of Prakrit became later known as Maharastri Prakrit or the language of a large portion of the country (Maharastra). The popular speeches of the north, midland and east came to be considered as the dialects of this speech and were termed as Paisaci, Sauraseni and Magadhi. The language Avantija or Avanti which Bharata mentions in

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100 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASORI COMMEMORATION VOLUME his Natyasastra must be the speech then current in Saurastra, Anarta, Lata and Maru (i.e. the present-day Gujarat and Rajasthan). This speech may have been identical with or closely allied to the Sauraseni of the Prakrit grammarians. IV From these early Prakrit speeches developed the Apabhramsa, the language current in a considerable portion of northern India, from the 5th to the 10th century A.D. Some philologists lean to the view that there existed several regional Apabhraisas from which New Indo-Aryan speeches or Modern Indian Languages gradually evolved. On the other hand, other authorities believe that there was only one Apabhraisa current in Western India with slight dialectal variations. .: From the evidence of early grammarians and rhetoricians, Apabhrassa has been connected with the Abhiras. It was that speech that developed into Apabhraisa. Their abode extended from the Indus delta to Cutch and Saurastra. They adopted the general Prakrit language, vigorously infusing into it the characteristics of their own speech, resulting in a powerful speech known as Apabhramsa. Three varieties of Apabhraisa are mentioned, but Hemacandra, the greatest and the most celebrated grammarian of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, treats Apabhramsa as one homogeneous speech, and cites instances from the current folk-literature of the period. This Apabhraisa is basically the Apabhramsa of Gujarat (the Gurjara Apabhramsa), though there are traces of dialectal variations in this material. Some call this Apabhramsa Saurasena, while others term it as Nagara. Apabhramsa too became, in course of time, a standard stylized speech in which considerable literature was composed. For instance, works like Paumacariaya, Kumarapalacarita, Bhavisayatta-Kaha, Vilasavai-Kaha are all composed in Apabhramsa. But linguistically, the specimens from folk-literature cited by Hemacandra in "Siddha Hemacandra', his Prakrit Grammar, reflect the speech more faithfully than the stylized form used in literary works. These verses of Hemacandra are remarkable also from another point of view. Some of them reveal a striking freshness of imagination and a rare poetic charm. Several of these verses are erotic; a few are didactic; while a large number of them are heroic. The following erotic verses have a rare poetic charm about them :

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA 161 DhollA sAmalA dhaNa caMpAvaNNI / gAi suvaNNareha kasavaTTai dinnnnii|| (Dholla samala dhana campavanni/ Nai suvannareha kasavattai dinni//) "The husband is dark in complexion, while the wife is fair as a campaka flower: (she appears) like a streak of gold on the black touchstone." vAyasu uDDAvanti ae piu diTThau sahasatti / addhA valayA mahihi gaya addhA phuTTa taDatti // (Vayasu uddavantiae piu ditthau sahasatti/ Addha valaya mahihi gaya addha phutta tadatti//) "While frightening away the crows the lady suddenly saw her husband coming home; half of her bracelets slipped down (while waving away the crow before she sighted her husband), while the remaining cracked with a noise (as a result of the joy which filled her when she saw her husband)." jai kevaDa pAvIsu piu akiyA kuDa kriim|| pANiu navai sarAvi jiva samvaMge paisIsu // (Jai kemvai pavisu piu akiya kudda karisu/ Paniu navai saravi jivam savvange paisisu//) "If ever I meet my husband again, I shall do a wonderful thing never done before : I shall enter into all his limbs even as water permeates a new earthen vessel." - The heroic verses cited below from Hemacandra's Apabhramsa fully reveal the glory that was early Gujarat: saMgarasaehiM ju vaNNiai dekkhu amhAga kantu / ahamattahaM cattaMkusahaM gayakuMbhaI dArantu // (Sangarasaehim ju vanniai dekkhu amhara kantu/ Aimattaham cattamkusaham gayakumbhaim darantu//) "Behold my husband : whose prowess requires mention of hundreds of battles; who breaks the temples of elephants excessively maddened and beyond all control." de bhallA huA ju mAriA bahiNi mahArA kantu / lajejantu vayaMsiahu jai bhaggA gharu entu / / (Bhalla hua ju maria bahini mahara kantu/ I.ajjejjantu vayamsiahu jai bhagga gharu entu//)

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162 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME "It is well, O Sister, that my husband is killed in battle; for, if he had fled the battlefield and returned home I would have died of shame among my women-friends." jai bhaggA pArakaDA to sahi majjhu pieNa / aha bhaggA amhahaM taNA to teM mAriaDeNa || (Jai bhagga parakkada to sahi majjhu piena/ Aha bhagga amhaham tana to tem mariadena//) "If enemies are fleeing (from the battlefield), it must be, O friend, because of my husband's valour; but if our men are running away, then it must be that he has been killed in the battle." pAi vilaggI antraDI siru lhasiuM khandhassu / to vi kaTArai hatthaDau bali kijau~ kantassu / / (Pai villaggi antradi siru lhasium khandhassu/ To vi katarai hatthadau bali kijjaum kantassu//) "The entrails hang down and entangle the feet; the head, severed from the trunk, is drooping sidewards; yet the hand is firmly on the dagger -I bow to this husband of mine." The heroism of these verses captures our imagination and wins our heart. From Apabhramsa slowly evolves the New Indo-Aryan Languages. This is not surprising because Apabhramsa was always so near and akin to the rising regional languages than to the Prakrit which was nearer to Sanskrit. For instance, the following Apabhramba verse easily turns into old Gujarati with only slight phonological changes : siri jara-khaMDI loaDI gali maNiyaDA na vIsa / at fe IEET FRISTI GT 38- ! .. (Siri jara-khandi loadi gali maniyada na visa/ To vi gotthala karavia muddhae uttha-baisa//) (Apabhramsa) siri jIrNa-khaMDI lobaDI gali maNiyaDA na vIsa / toi goThaDA karAviyA mugdhAe UThabaIsa // (Siri jarnakhandi lobadi gali maniyada na visa/ Toi gothada karaviya mugdhae uthabaisa//) (Old Gujarati version)

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA 163 "Though she has only a tattered lobadi (woollen cloth) on her head, and hardly twenty glass-beads round her neck-still the beautiful maiden agitated the young men of the hamlet." It is not easy always to demarcate the point where Apabhramsa ends and old Gujarati begins. There are, however, some characteristics such as the simplification of conjunct consonants, substitution of post-positions for inflections, and most of all the use of the auxiliary verb achai-chai, the precursor of the modern Gujarati che, which indicate the termination of Apabhramsa and the evolution of Gujarati. VI The earliest literary work in old Gujarati that has come to light so far is the Bharatesvara Bahubali Rasa of Salibhadra Suri, composed in V.S. 1241 (1185 A.D.). The following quotation will reveal how the new speech has just left the Apabhramsa stage and started on its career towards modern. Gujarati. risaha jiNesara paya paNamevI, sarasati sAmiNi mani samarevI, namavi niraMtara gurucaraNA // bharaha nariMdara taNuM carito, jaM jugI vasavalaya vadIto, bAra varasa bihu baMdhavahaM || huM hiva pabhaNisu rAsaha chaMdihiM, taM janamanahara mana AnaMdihiM, bhAvihiM bhavIyaNa saMbhaleu // . (Risaha Jinesara paya panamevi, sarasati samini mani samarevi, namavi norantara gurucalana// Bharaha narindaha tanurh caritto, jam jugi vasahamvalaya vadito, bara varasa bihum bandhavaham// Hum hiva pabhanisu rasaha chandihim, tam janamanahara manaanandihim, bhavihim bhaviyana sambhaleu//) "Having bowed to the feet of Rsabha Jinesvara, having remembered Goddess Sarasvati, and saluting always the feet of the guru; "The life history of King Bharata, famous in this world from times of yore, (the war between) the two brothers which lasted for twelve years; "(This) I shall sing in the form of a rasa in verse, so fascinating to the minds of people; may the religious-minded hear it with delight!" In the century which followed, Gujarati was developed further and became the vehicle of over a dozen works in poetry. The following verse

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164 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME in the Revantagirirasu of Vijayasenasuri which describes Saurastra, will indicate the extent to which the language has evolved. gAmAgarapuravaNagahaNa sarisaravari supaesu / devabhUmi disi pacchimaha maNaharu soraThadesu // jiNu tahiM maMDalamaMDaNau maragayamauDamahaMtu / nimmalasAmalasiharabhare rehai giri revaMtu // (Gamagarapuravanagahana sarisaravari supaesu/ Devabhumi disi pacchimaha manaharu sorathadesu// Jinu tahim mandalamandanau maragayamaudamahantu, Nimmalasamalasiharabhare rehai giri Revantu// "Attractive with its towns and villages, imposing because of its forests, and charming on account of its rivers and lakes, is the beautiful Soratha desa, the abode of gods, situated in the western direction. "There stands out the charming Revanta mountain, the ornament of the world : its dark summits forming a majestic emerald green crown." With the dawn of the next century (14th century) Gujarati emerges into the limelight as a fully developed mature language with immense possibilities. Several works are composed in this period, some of which reveal a rare poetic beauty. Of these works the anonymous Vasanta Vilasa, the Thulibhadda Phagu of Jinapadmasuri, the Neminatha Phagu of Maladhari Rajasekharasuri, are most outstanding. The following description of spring found in Vasanta Vilasa is singularly beautiful both in its style and in its conception : kAmukajanamanajIvanu tI vanu nagara suraMga / " rAju karai avabhaMgihi raMgihiM rAu anaMgu // alijana vasaI anaMta re vasaMtu tihAM paradhAna / taruara bAsaniketana ketana kizalasaMtAna // (Kala bhuncha teliya bhoi, gade linga calavyaum/ Raju karai avabhangimhi rangihim rau anangu// Alijana vasaim ananta re vasantu tiham paradhana/ Taruara vasaniketana ketana kisalasantana/) "That forest, the life of the hearts of lovers, is (like) a charming city; (there) rules in full splendour the King Ananga (the God of Love). "Innumerable bees dwell there; spring is there the minister; the trees are the dwelling places, and the mass of tender sprouts the banners." Another remarkable work composed towards the close of this century is the Ranamalla Chanda of Sridhara Vyasa, written in a style which is

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA 185 the parent of the Dingala or Carani poetry. caDi caMcali cAuddizi caMpi thirathira thANadAra ari kaMpii / kamadhajakari dhari loha lahakkiA bibahari bUMba bUMba bahakkii / / nizi khaMbhanayara udhrakiha dhuMdhali dhuMsa paDii dhulakkii / prahi pokAra paDii paTTaNatali re raNamalla dhADi tava saMbhali / / (Cadi cancali cauddisi campi thirathira thanadara ari kampii/ Kamadhajakari dhari loha lahakkii bibahari bumba bumba bahakkii// Nisi khambhanayara udhrakii dhundhali dhumsa padii dhulakkii// Prahi pokara padii Pattanatali re Ranamalla dhadi tava sambhali//) "When he mounts his horse and invades the four quarters, the generals of the enemies tremble with fear. As soon as the sword flashes in the hand of Kamadhajja (Rathoda) Ranamalla, wails resound in the harems of the enemies. "At night Cambay trembles; in the early morning Dholka is struck with terror; in the morning Patan wakes up with screams--when, O Ranamalla, people hear of your attacks." . The 15th century is remarkable for its wealth of old Gujarati literature. Among the works of this century the pre-eminent in literary merit is the Kahnadade Prabandha of Padmanabha, which is a rare saga of Rajput heroism that has ever come down in the Indian Languages. The verses given below from that great mediaeval epic will testify to its great poetic beauty. kAlA mUMcha teDIyA bhoI, gADe liMga caDAvyauM / Agali ghaNI jotarI trIyala, DhIlI bhaNI calAvyauM / / Agai rudra ghaNai kopAna li, daitya save taI bAlyA / taI pRthvI mAMhi puNya varatAnyAM, devaloki bhaya TAlyA // taI bAliu kAma tripura vidhvaMsiu, pavanavegi jima tUla / padmanAbha pUchai somaIyA kethU karayAM trisUla || (Kala bhuncha tediya bhoi, gade linga cadavyaum/ Agali ghani jotari triyala, Dhili bhani calavyaum// Agai Rudra ghanai kopanali, daitya save taim balya/ Taim Prthvi mamhi punya varatavyam, devaloki bhaya talya/

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166 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME Taim baliu Kama Tripura vidhvamsiu, pavanavegi jima tula/ Padmanabha puchai Somaiya Kethum Karayaum trisula//) "Dark Bhois were called for; and the pieces of Siva's linga were hauled up in the cart. Several pairs of bullocks were made to draw it; it was thus removed to Delhi. "O Rudra, in the times of yore you consumed the demons in the fire of your wrath; you spread punya in the world and removed the terror which oppressed the gods. "You burnt down Kama and destroyed Tripura just as wind blows away cotton. Padmanabha (the poet) asks you, O Somanatha, where have you laid up your trisula now?" The other outstanding poets of this period are Narsimha, the poetsaint, and Mirambai the immortal poetess of Rajasthan, whose poetry is the cherished heritage of India; Bhalana, the celebrated scholar who set Kadambari to verse; and the great Jaina writers Lavanyasamaya and Manikyasundara Suri. Of the latter writers Manikyasundara Suri is celebrated for his remarkable prose classic Pethvicandracaritra, which is an ornament of the Old Gujarati prose. It stands unique in the entire Old Gujarati literature on account of its dignified and mellifluous prose-style and the remarkable beauty of its composition. Numerous specimens of Old Gujarati prose have come to light, but of the ornate literary prose used by scholars of the mediaeval times, Pethvicandracaritra is almost the solitary example. VII From the 16th century A.D. Gujarati assumes almost its present linguistic form. This period is remarkable for its wealth of literature--the well-known Akhyanas of Premananda, reflecting the contemporary Gujarati life, the poetical romances of Samala, reminding us of the Kathasaritsagara and the Arabian Nights, and the great philosophical poems of Akho, and the delicately melodious and almost etherial lyrics of Dayaram. From the middle of the 19th century Gujarati language and literature undergo a fateful change on account of the influence of the English language and literature. The prose now became, under the influence of English, more cultivated and complex in nature, capable of expressing involved thoughts. The prose style could now vary from the declamatory and the narrative to the reflective. In content, the literature, which was so far restricted only to religion and allied topics, now embraced every

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A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE LANGUAGES OF WESTERN INDIA 167 topic on earth. In respect of form, lyrics, ballads, sonnets and elegies in poetry, and essay, fiction, short story, drama, autobiography, and travel literature now came into existence as a direct consequence of contact with western literature. The still newer forms of literature like the short story, one-act plays and radio-plays have recently come into greater vogue and achieved success. Such is modern Gujarati language and literature. VIII Besides its standard form in which literature is composed Gujarati has several interesting dialects which are only spoken forms of speech, though almost universally current among the masses of Gujarat. They are the Kathiawadi, Pattani or north Gujarati, Carotari or middle Gujarati, and Surati or south Gujarati. The Bhils on the eastern border speak their own dialect--the Bhilli, which bears a close affinity to Gujarati. To the north beyond Mount Abu is spoken a language which has traces of Gujarati within its predominantly Rajasthani corpus. To the south-east in the Danga area the speech is an intermixture of Gujarati and Marathi-predominantly Gujarati on the western side, and leaning more to Marathi on the eastern side. There are also racial dialects of Gujarati which are spoken by particular communities. For example, Kathis and Ahirs of Saurastra speak an archaic dialect nearer to Apabhramsa than to modern Gujarati. The Kharvas of the coast-line of Saurastra have their special dialect known as Kharvi. Parsis speak Parsi-Gujarati, while Vohras of north Gujarat, Memons of Saurastra, and Baraiyas and Dharalas of middle Gujarat speak Gujarati with their characteristic dialectal traits. Some of these dialects are given a place in modern Gujarati creative literature-particularly in the short-story and fiction-in order to impart local colour to the work. Gujarati in its long history stretching over a thousand years as outlined above came in contact with several external influences and assimilated some of them. Thus it is that Arabic words like umda,* insaf, javab, kharca, taiyar, makan, vatan, sarbat; and the Persian words like gulab, gumasto, calak, jakham, dago, dastavej, darji, fudino, bakhsis, baju, majur, hajar, etc.; and the Turki words like kalgi, kabu, cakmak, camco, jajam, These and other loan-words are reproduced in their characteristically Gujarati form.

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168 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME top, begum, mughal; and the Portuguese words like afus, ananas, ingrej, ijaner, kaju, tamaku, batata, mej, mosambi, have found a place in Gujarati and have been almost completely naturalized. More recently Gujarati borrowed several loan-words from English such as office, appeal, court, doctor, pencil, boot, master, station, hotel, etc., and gave them a completely indigenous Gujarati form. This process of borrowing continues even to-day as Gujarati does not hesitate in borrowing several words from Indian or foreign languages if they are found to express sense in a particularly effective manner in reference to corresponding words of indigenous origin. Herein lies its strength, because this process increases the potentiality of the language. Gujarati has also improved by being relieved from a surfeit of Sanskrit words which marred its innate beauty and made it heavy and pedantic as in the writings of some of the scholars of the latter part of the last century. This purification owes its origin to Gandhiji. Gandhiji insisted on using the simple and forceful speech of the masses living in the country-side as the standard form of language to be used in all literary compositions. Gandhiji demonstrated in his worldfamous 'Autobiography' the inherent strength of this simple speech which could be adapted to the highest literary purposes. A whole school of writers followed his foot-steps and wielded the folk-speech with considerable power and charm even in serious literary works of philosophy, economics, politics and social sciences. This is the Gujarati of to-day, full of strength and promise, awaiting a future even more glorious than its hoary past. TAN AAN TV mby VA ST XX il l) .