________________
AUGUST, 1874.] TRIBES AND LANGUAGES OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
one, until we are in possession of other materials for forming a final judgment upon it. Lacking such materials, i do not think it advisable to hazard any mere guess at an explanation of the facts.
There are one or two other remarks which may be added here. As Dr. Kern has correctly remarked in the Preface to his edition of the
Brihatsanhita, Kâlidâsa uses the Arya metre with considerable frequency in his dramas. This characteristic may be noted also in the play before us, and the fifth act is really monopolized, or nearly so, by the Aryâ or the Gitî. Again, in the first act, N â rada is represented as descending from heaven to see the King of Mountains, and the description of the scenery which Nâ rada sees puts one strongly in mind of the similar passages occurring in the sixth act of Kâlidâsa's Sakuntala. Thus after saying परिवहनाम्नः पवनस्य पत्यनं प्राप्तवानस्मि, Narada proceeds :
तन्त्रीमण्डलमाईयन्ति कणिका मन्दाकिनीपाथसा मप्यन्तःकरणं च मे सुमहती मालम्बते निर्वृतिम् ॥
Thus the passage in the Pârvatiparinaya: compare that in the Sákuntala. Mâtali says:त्रिस्रोतसं वहति यो गगनप्रतिष्ठां (तस्य ) वायोरिमं परिवहस्य वदन्ति मार्गम्. ॥ And then says Dushyanta
मातले ! अतः खलु मे सबाद्यान्तःकरणोन्तरात्मा प्रसीदति ॥ Furthermore, there is a considerable resemblance between the description by Nârada of the appearance of the earth to him as he descends from Heaven, and the description by king
TRIBES AND LANGUAGES OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.
BY THE REV. JOHN WILSON, D.D., F.R.S., &c. (From the Bombay Administration Report for 1872-73.
The name of the Marath & country is in Sanskrit Maharashtra. Two meanings have been assigned to this designation. The first of these, which is etymologically unobjectionable, is the 'Great Country.' Of the origin of this name, supposing it to be correct, sufficient historical or geographical reasons do not seem to be yet forthcoming. The second meaning proposed is the Country of the Mah&rs', the representatives of whom are to be found, now generally in a depressed condition, in every village of the country, and that to such an observable extent that the following proverb is everywhere current among the Marathas,, 'Wherever there is a village, there is the Mahâr ward.' It
221
Dushyanta of the earth under similar circumstances. I give below the verses in the play, as it is not in everybody's hands:
उद्यद्भिः शिखरैरमी कतिचन व्यज्यन्त एवाचला || वैमल्यादनुमीयते च सरितां स्त्रोतस्विनी संततिः ॥ सूच्यन्ते परिमण्डलेन तरवो नीलाम्बुदश्रीमुषो | मन्दं मन्दमुपैति लोचनपथमाह्यां दशां मेदिनी ॥ Infernfedigeftede vedi angust. 11 अवरोहति मयि रभसाद्धूरियमारोहतीव गगनतलम् ॥ It may, perhaps, be worth adding also that Nârada describes himself as having made use of the tiraskárini vidyá so often alluded to in the dramas of Kâlidâsa on the occasion when he went to observe the proceedings of Cupid and their result. On the other hand, however, it should be noted, too, that whereas the three generally recognized dramas of Kâlidâsa have but one stanza for the Nândî, this drama has two. And it is further to be remarked that whereas in those three dramas, as well as in the Raghuvansa, the introductions do not speak of the author in magniloquent language, the introduction to this drama is not remarkable for any such feeling of modesty.
To sum up. It appears to me that the facts adduced in this paper require some explanation. It is possible that the author of the Párvatiparinaya took the work of Kâlidasâ as the basis for his own work; and this appears to me the safest hypothesis on the facts as they stand at present. It is not, however, a thoroughly satisfactory hypothesis, and additional light upon the subject must be awaited.
has been objected to this theory that we should have to read Mahararashtra, and not Maharashtra, for the name of the country, if it meant the Country of the Mahârs.' The disappearance in a compound word of the short vowel a, however, does not constitute a great difficulty, especially when popular usage in pronunciation is remembered. It is to be kept in mind, in connexion with this matter, that most of the provinces of India get their names from the people to whom they belong or by whom they have been subdued, as exemplified in Gurjarâshtra, the country of the Gurjaras (abbrevi. ated as in the case of Maharashtra if we suppose the word to have been originally Mahararashtra);
