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MAY, 1911.)
CORRESPONDENCE
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became infected with Tibeto-Barman peculiari. histories give full particolars. It is, for instance, ties. I have records to show that the language historically true that the Gorkh&s who conquered has changed in the course of the last twenty Nepal (or at least the principal founders of the years, and in the case of these changes (which tribe) came from Udaipur. The Garhwal Rajpûts the Nepalis themselves tell of) the forms which say, they came from Gujaråt, and the Têbri they call "old-fashioned" are all essentially Garhwal Rajputs have a genealogy which pretends Aryan, while those which they call "modern" to carry them back in & straight line to Kanishare really (though they are unaware of the fact) ka (!). Nearly all the R&jds of the Panjab Tibeto-Burman. As an example of these, I may Himalaya, as far west as Chamba, claim to bave quote the use of the case of the Agent. In the come from Rajputana. One of them (Mandi) old language this was used only before the past claims descent from the Lakshmana Sena of tenses of transitive verbs, exactly as in Hindi or Bengal, who was a Chandravamsi. So, the origiMarathi, but now-a-days the same case is used for nal title of the Chamba Royal Family was varmd. the subject of any tense of a transitive verb, These claim to have come from Ayodhya, and past, present, or future, exactly as in Tibeto-Bur | to be descended from Kuśa, the son of Ramaman languages.
chandra. There are several other high Rajpat "It is reasonable to presume that a similar families in Chambå which were all founded by state of affairs exists in the Sub-Himalayan tracte | Rajput leaders--each probably with a small band of the Upper Provinces and of the Panjab (as of followers-who either came directly from the well also in Nepal). Here the original Aryan plains, or were scions of one or other of the inhabitants were undoubtedly Khasas. Sanskrit ruling families who had previously established literature, bistory, and modern traditions agree themselves in the Hills. as to this. These people were conquered by people “So far my facts stand. But for some time speaking quasi-Rajasthåni, and the language of the importance of the fact that the Gdjars of the the latter has become infected with typical pecu- hills still further to the west in Kashmir and the liarities of the language of the former.
neighbourhood talk a language akin to Rajas. "You will observe that I here use the term thâni, has been more and more borne upon my "quasi-Rajasthani." By this I mean that the consideration. The language of these men is language is closely connected with Rajasthani, what Sir H. Risley calls a "morient" languge, but that we must not therefore assume that its that is to say, it is the language spoken by a original speakers all necessarily came from remnant of a tribe, and fast dying out, while most Rajputâna.
of the members of the tribe bave abandoned it "Before going further, I would like to state, for some other. Most of the Panjab Gujars with reference to a remark of yours (p. 22, note (those of the plains) have abandoned their own 75), that Mr. Jackson pointed out that the term language for Panjabi or some other. Although "Gauda" refers to the province round Thåndsar, it is, as a rule, unsafe to base ethnological specu. and not to Bengal,--that the fact was long before lations upon linguistic evidence, it is allowable, pointed out by Dr. Hoernle about the year 1875, in the case of a "morient" language, to assume and that on this account, he called the Modern that it is the original language of the few people Indo-Aryan Vernaculars, "Gaudian."
who continue to speak it after it has been abandon"On p. 30, above, you quote some theories of ed by most of the tribe. We may thus assume mine, in which I attempt to account for the that the original language of the Gujars of the existence of this quasi-Rajasthani in the Sub- Panjab was once everywhere a language akin to Himalayas. I have, as you correctly state, the ancestor of what is now RAjasthani. Now, I implied that the speakers came from Rajputand do not think that it is at all extravagant to and imposed their language on the people whom assume that the Gujars and Ahirs (who also in they conquered. Since I wrote this, I have been Sub-Himalaya speak a form of Gujari) over-ran preparing the Pahari section of the Linguistic and settled in the greater part of the Sub-HimeSurvey, and a consideration of all the facts laya of the Panjab and United Provinces, after revealed by a closer examination of the many hill conquering the previously eettled Khaías. This dialects between Chamb& and Nepál inclusive, has would at once account for the existence of a led me to modify this opinion.
language skin to Rajasthani in the hills. In "I still believe that there were important migralater times it received fresh drafts from Raj. tions from Rajputânâ into these hills. The local putans which quite possibly strengthened the
• Chamba Gazetteer, 1910, p. 63. You will find a mass of valuable information in this and the other local Panjao Gazetteers lately published.
