Indian Antiquary Vol 32

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

Page 23

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESTERN HINDI.
JANUARY, 1903.]
India. For them, the reader can consult Mr. Blumhardt's Catalogues of Hindustani and Hindi works in the British Museum Library, and of the same in the India Office Library. These are all published separately, and can be obtained at a moderate price. To this section I have added an appendix giving a list of early translations of the Scriptures into the various dialects of Western Hindi.
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In each of the first three sections, all the works of one writer are grouped together, and each writer is arranged in order of the date of the first work mentioned under his name. In the fourth section writers are arranged alphabetically.
I shall be grateful for any additions to, or corrections in regard to, the lists.
The earliest date which Yule gives of the use of the word 'Hindôstâni' is 1616, when Terry speaks of Tom Coryate being proficient in the Indostan, or more vulgar language.'s We may also note that Terry, in his A Voyage to East India (1655), gives a brief description of the vulgar tongue of the country of Indostan, which will be found quoted below under J. Ogilby. So Fryer (1673) (quoted by Yule) says: The Language at Court is Persian, that commonly spoken is Indostan (for which they have no proper character, the written Language being called Banyan).' It is evident, therefore, that early in the 17th century it was known in England that the Lingua Franca of India was this form of speech. On the other hand, another set of authorities stated that the Lingua Franca of India was Malay. So Ogilby in the passages quoted below. Again, David Wilkins, in the preface to Chamberlayne's collection of versions of the Lord's Prayer (published 1715), explains that he could not get a version in the Bengali language, as that form of speech was dying out, and was being superseded by Malay. He therefore, for Bengali, gave a Maiay version, written in the Bengali character.
It is possible that Ogilby had less excuse than appears for his mistake, for Mr. Quaritch, in his Oriental Catalogue published in 1887, mentions a MS. Dictionary then in his possession (No. 34, 724 in the Catalogue) which he doubtfully dates as 'Surat, about 1630.' This is a Dictionary of Persian, Hindostani, English, and Portuguese, and he describes it as a great curiosity as being the first work of its kind. It was probably compiled for the use of the English factory at Surat. The Persian is given in Native and in Roman letters, the Hindôstânî in Gujarati and Roman letters.' It is a small folio manuscript on Oriental tinted paper.
The celebrated traveller Pietro Della Valle arrived at Surat early in 1623, and remained in India till November 1624, his head-quarters being Surat and Goa. His Indian Travels were published in 1663,5 and he has the honour of being the first to mention the Nâgarî, or, as he calls it, Naghèr, alphabet in Europe. He also mentioned a language which was current all over India, like Latin in Europe, and which was written in that character. This is, however, probably Sanskrit, not Hindôstânî.
A Jesuit's College was founded at Agrâ in the year 1620, and to it, in 1653, came Father Heinrich Roth. Here he studied Sanskrit, and wrote a grammar of that language. He visited Rome in 1664, and afterwards returned to Agra, where he died in 1668. While in Rome he met Kircher, who was then in that city getting the imprimatur for his China Illustrata, and gave him information regarding the Nagari alphabet which he incorporated in that work. It was published at Amsterdam in 1667, and its full title was Athanasii Kircheri e Soc. Jesu CHINA Monumentis qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis Naturae et Artis Spectaculis, aliarumque Rerum memorabilium Argumentis ILLUSTRATA. Roth's contributions (besides verbal information) consisted of a set of
See, for this and other quotations, Hobson-Jobson, s. vv. Hindostanee and Moors. It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that in the 18th century Hindostani was commonly called 'Moors."
It has since been sold, and I have failed to trace it.
So Encyclopædia Britannica. Yale (Hobson-Jobson) gives 1650-58. [Edited for the Hakluyt Society by Edward Grey, B.C.S., 1892, 2 Vols. - ED.]
See Professor Zachariae, in the Vienna Oriental Journal, XVI. pp. 205 and ff.
* See Professor Zachariae, V. O. J., XV. pp. 313 and ff.