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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1899.
Speakers of Eastern Hindi abroad. - Large numbers of speakers of Eastern Hindt are scattered all over Northern India. Putting to one side the number of Oudh men who have travelled abroad in quest of service, there is our native army which is largely recruited in that Province. Unfortunatel, it is impossible even approximately to estimate the number of these Eastern Hindi speakers who are away from their homes. All that can be done is to give the following approximate estimates for the Lower Provinces of Bengal, and for Assam :Estimated number of speakers of the Eastern Hindi in Assam ... ... 32,290
Lower Provinces
111,258
Total ...
143,548
Origin of Eastern Hindi. - As explained elsewhere, in the early centuries after the Christian era, there were two main languages or Prakrits, spoken in the Jamna and Ganges valleys. Thede were Saurasêni spoken in the west, its head-quarters being the Upper Doah, and Magadht spoken in the East, with its head-quarters in the country south of the present City of Patua. Between these two there was a debatable ground, roughly corresponding to the present province of Oudh, in which a mixed langunge, known as Ardha-Magadhi or Half-Magadhi, was spoken, partaking partly of the character of Saurasênt, and partly of that of Magadbi. We know that all the languages of the Eastern Group are descended from Magadbi, and that the group of closely connected languages, of which Western Hindi may be taken as the type, is directly descended from Sauraseni. It now remains to state that this mixed language, or Ardha-Mâgadhi, was the parent of modern Eastern Hindi. .
Geographical position of Bastern Hindt in regard to neighbouring languages. - Eastern Hindi is bounded on the north by the Aryan langaages of the Nepal Himalayas, and on the west by various dialects of Western Hindi, of which the principal are Kananji and Bundelkhandi. All these are descended from Sauraseni. On the east it is bounded by the Western Bhojpuri and Nagpuriâ dialects of Bihari, and by Oriyê. On the south it meets forms of the Marathi language. These three are descended from Magadht Prikrit. It is hence surrounded on two sides by languages derived from Saurasêni, and on two sides by languages derived from Magadhi, and, as might be expected, is the modern representative of Ardha Mágadhi. Like it, it partakes of the nature of both. the ancient languages.
Its name. The name Hindt is popularly applied to all the various Aryan languages spoken between the Panjab on the west and the river Maha-nande on the east, and between the Himalayas on the north and the river Narbada on the south. From these Bihari has already been subtracted. It is spoken in Bihar and the eastern districts of the North Western Provinces. We shall also have to subtract the languages of Rajputans, and there remain, still bearing the name of Hindi, the dialects spoken in the basins of the Jamna and the Ganges, say, from Sirhind in the Panjab to Benares. These divide themselves into two main groups, entirely distinct from each other, a Western and an Eastern. The Western includes, amongst others, Band611, Kananji, Braj BhAkhi, and the standard Hindustani which forms the lingua franca of the greater part of India. These dialects are all various forms of one language, which I call Western Hindt. The Eastern group includes the three dialects that togetber form the language which I term Eastern Hindt. It is necessary to explain this. as no attempt has hitherto been made to name these two languages. Its very existence has hitherto been a matter of doubt,1
The East-Contral Group compared with the Eastern. The dialects of the EastCentral Group differ from the languages of the Eastern Group mainly in the conjugation of the verb.
1 The student is warned that the Eastern Hindt of Dr. Hoerplo's Gaudian Grammar is not the language hero given that name. That Eastern Hindt is Bihari. Dr. Hoernle himself has long abandoned the name 'Eaetoru Hindl,' and has adopted 'Bihari."
