Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
View full book text
________________
INDIAN BRANCH
307 and modern ages it spread southwards. It has three main dialects, Maithili, Mayahi and Bhojpuri, which are closely connected with one another. Maithili or Tirhuria is the dialect of ancient Mithila or Tirhut; it is spoken nowadays by over ten and a quarter million people in Tirhut, Champaran, eastern Monghyr. Bhagalpur and western Purnea. The Maithili literature goes back to the fifteenth century,
No less than three different characters are employed by the Tirhutians: (1) the Deva-nagari, used only by the few highly educated people, and particularly by those who are under the influence of the liberal literary circles of Benares; (2) the Tirhuti variety of the Kaithi character (see below), which is the current hand; and (3) the so-called Maithili character (Fig. 165, 1), used by Tirhut Brahmans, and not by persons of other castes. The Maithili character resembles the Bengali script, but is much more difficult to read, at least at first sight.
Early Manipuri Character This script (Fig. 163, 2), probably a descendant of the Bengali character, was adapted about A.D. 1700 under the reign of Charairongba to Manipuri or Meithei, a kuki-chin speech, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. This early Manipuri script is now very rarely used.
Manipuri is spoken nowadays by about 400,000 people in the valley of Manipur. The Manipuris are mentioned from 4.0.777 onwards and have a fairly high culture; the most important manuscripts are Takhelgnamba and Samsoknamba.
Assamese Character (Fig. 182, 2) The Assamese character is also a variety of the Bengali script, and is employed for Assamese, a language belonging to the most eastern group of Indo-Aryan, which is spoken by nearly two million inhabitants of the Assam valley. Assamese literature is quite important, especially on historical subjects. Certain adjustment had to be made to equate the Assamese sounds with the Bengali letters. The main difference between the Assamese and the Bengali characters is that the former has special signs to represent the sounds w and .
Kaithi Character Kaithi or Kayathi (Fig. 166) is really the script employed by the Kavaths or Kayasthas, or the writing caste of northern India. It is the character most generally used, with many local variations, all over northern India, from the Gujarat coast to the river Kosi. Its exact origin is uncertai Although it is commonly described as a corruption of the Nagari character, it is certainly not its descendant, but a collateral development. Both probably derived from an ancient common source, and developed pari passu: one, the Deva-nagari, as a literary script, the other as a running hand for everyday purposes. The main difference between the Kaithi and the Deva
