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014
R. K. Kliadabadi
*There is the beautiful town Vengipalu spreading its fame all around in the country of Bengi that extended from Mount Malaya to Mount Himālaya'. Bengi or vengi is derived from the Kannada be! meaning pisaca. So vengimandala means the country of the Pisācas whose language was Paigāci. The modern Karnatak is a part of the ancient Vengimandala. Hence Kannada is born of Paisāci. (ii) Further, from this bel or venginad developed the tern bekanāļa (one belonging to the Pisāca country) occuring in the Rgveda (VIII, 7. 66): bel bengi vengi > beka etc. Therefore the extensive country of Vengi existed prior to the Vedic period itself and this glorious territorial picture was before Pampa's mind when he referred to Vengipalu. (iii) Moreover Culikā Paišācī, the sub-dialect of Paigācı, is named after Coladesa where it was spoken. (iv) The names of some modern towns and cities in Karnatak also owe their origin to the term bel (Pisaca) and, thus, support the theory very well : bel-gāma (Belgaum); bel-kola (Belgola): and same is the case with Bellary, Banglore etc., (v) Lastly, that indeed was belnudi or Pisaca language (mother of Kannada language) which had less admixture of the Aryan linguistic elements.
Dr. V. R. Umarji advances, at first, a novel theory that all Indian languages, Gaudian and Dravidian, go to the Sanskritic origin. He presents some comparative material in each, Ch. !! Phonology, Ch. III Vocabulary. Ch, IV Morphology and Ch. V Syntax. It is in Ch. VII Conclusions that he draws a corollary from his general theory, noted above, that Kannada is originally a Paigācī language. In support of this statement he gives some 'evidences' from literature and grammatical works: (i) Ranna's statement navabhūtabhasă etc in his Gadayuddha (iv. 41) carries the meaning of the New Paisācı Language i.e., Kannada, bhūrabhas being Paisāci. (ii) Vātāpi, Ilvala etc., referred to as Pisaegs in the Rāmāyana, lived in the present Bādāmi region in Karnatak. The place name Badāmi has come after Vātāpi. Hence the ancient Karnatak ig Pisācadeśa and the language spoken there then was Paišāci from which ortginated the Kannada language. (iii) Thus paisāci flourished in the Bādāmi region of Karnatak; but Culikā Paisāci flourished in Coladeśa, the modern Tamil Nadu, (iv) Coladesa was also called Dravidadesa. The Dravidi (Prakrit) noted by Bharata in his NatyaSastra or the Dravida Apabhramsa enlisted by Markandeya in his Prakrta Sarvasya, was a desi language viz., Paiśācī, spoken in the region. (v) Moreover Pisacadeśa can be identibed as Karnatak on the strength of Pampa's Vengimandala and the Vedic bekanā!o.7 (vi) Lastly the Agastya-Vindhya episode and thc Southward march of Rāma described in the Ramayana also lend support to the Paisācı origin of the Kannada language.
6 Op. cit.
Prof. ''uliya Timmappayya's arch 'evidence' which Dr. Umar ji acknowledges.