Indian Antiquary Vol 32

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 22

16
THE INDIAN ANTIQUABY.
(JANUARY, 1918.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESTERN HINDI, INCLUDING HINDOSTÅNÍ.
BY G. A. GRIERSON, C.I.E., PH.D., D.LITT., I.C.S. Tus following bibliography deals with what I call Western Hindi, a language which includes the Bundelt, Kanauji, Braj Bhakha, and Hindôstini dialects. The last appears under two phases, - viz. (1) the vernacular language of the Upper Doab, and (2) the well-knowu Lingua Franca, which has received literary cultivation. As a literary language Hindüstint appears under beveral forms. Rekhta, or Hindéstâni poetry following the Persian rules of metre, may be taken as commencing with Wali of Aurangabad (16th century). Hindôstkui prose did not take birth till the end of the 18th century, among the learned nat.ves at the College of Fort William, and under the fostering care of Dr. Gilchrist. We may note three varieties of it, -(1) ordinary Hindistint, capable of being written either in the Persian or Déva-nagari character, and intelligil.le to both Musalmans and Hindus, of which the Bautdl Pachisi may be taken as a good example ; (2) Urdú, the variety employed by literary Musalmane, more or less londed with a Persian (including Arabic) vocabulary, and capable of being written only in a modified form of the Persian alphabet, of which the Back o bahar is a familiar example; and (3) Bindi, the variety employed by literary Hindis, more or loss loaded with a Sanskrit vocabulary, and capable of being written only in the Déva-nigari alphabet The Prém-edgar is an example. Hindi bas rarely been used for anything bat prose. Attempts at employing it for poetry bave only resulted in derision. The Hindd poetry in the Western Hindi language is almost all in Braj Blakha. When Urdd or ordinary Hind stani is employed for poetry, it becomes Rekhta.
I do not include under the name of Western Bindt the language of Oudh and the neighbourhood, or the dialects of Rajpntana and Central India. The language of Oudh, which is that employed by Tolasi Dâs for his Ramayan, is a form of Eastern Hindi, an altogether different language. I group the Rajpatana dialects under one language-name, Rajasthant. This language is more closely allied to Gojaráti than to Western Hindi,
of the dialects of Western Hindi, Eraj Bhakha and HindstAnt are the ones which have received most literary culture. Kanaojt is so like Braj Bhakba, that it hardly deserves separate mention, I only refer to it as its existence is popularly recognised. Some few works bave been written in Bundels, but none of them hare been critically edited. Indeed, this important dialect bu boon almost entirely ignored by students. Even Dr. Kellogg does not describe it in his Grammar. Kanaajt and Bundell are therefore hardly mentioned in this bibliography. Newly all the entries rofor either to Braj Bhikha or to one or other of the various forms of Hindôstånt.
The Bibliography is divided into four sections :
I. - General.- This deals with works giving a general account of the language or of one or more of its dialects, including works dealing with the subject from the point of view of comparative philology.
II. - Urammar, Dictionaries, and other helps to the student. - I have endeavoured to make this as complete as possible up to the date of the Mutiny. After that I have selected, perhaps in a Bomowbat arbitrary fashion.
III. -- Selections. Collections of scattered pieces, and Collections of Proterba. - This includes some Readers put together mainly for students.
IV.-- Texts. Here, with a few exceptions, I bave confined myself to works which have been more or us critically edited by European scholars. It would have been impossible to enomerate the huge mass of texts which hare issued without any attempt at editing from the native presses of
1 This is the correct spelling of the word, not Hindustan.' In Urdd poetry, 'Hindout n'rhymes with 'Batan. 8. O. J. Lyall, Sketch of the Hindustani Language, Edinburgh, 1889, p. 1, Note 1.
• Vido ante, VolXXVI. PP. 262 and ff.