Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 328

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ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
APRIL, 1931
language, but was rather a purified resuscitation of the original speech of the upper Gangetic Döāb, in which a few sporadic works had already been composed.
Up to the date of the introduction of printing into India by the English, the only Urdu literature was in verse. During the same period, Hindū poets generally used their own local dialects for the same purpose. These are still used for Hindi poetry, High Hindi being almost entirely confined to prose. HH. poetry has only come into existence during the last thirty years and has not yet won general acceptance. Poetry in the Hindi dialects is based on Indian traditions and written in Indian metres. On the other hand, nearly all Urdū poetry is an imitation of the Persian, and employs Persian metres. Urdū prose, like HH., came into general use under English influence, and began in the compilation of text books for the College of Fort William.
1 Cf. Amir Xusrau in Elliot, History of India as told by its own Historians, iii, 539. Whatever live Hindu fell into the king's hands was pounded into bits under the feet of elephants. The Musalmans, who were Hindis (country-born), had their lives spared.'
9 In LI. the term Western Hindi' is employed instead of Hindi,' in order to distinguish it from the altogether different 'Eastern Hindi.' The word 'Western' is here dropped, as being hardly necessary for the class of readers for whom this work is intended.
8 Not Hindustani,' as often written by Europeans. See 0. J. Lyall, Sketch of the Hindustani Language, Edinburgh, 1880, p. 1. Regarding the place of origin, cf. J. Blool, in BSOS., V, 728. He is inclined to look upon Hindöstäni as barod on the dialect of tho Eastern Panjab rather than on that of the upper Gangetic Doab.
The South being a Dravidian country, the soldiers and rulers who came from various parts of northern India and conquered it, did not acquire the local language, but adhered to their own lingua franca picked up in the Delhi bazár.
5 Lyall, op. cit., 9.
Regarding Roxta, sco Kantu-prasad Guru, in Hindi Työkaruna, p. 26. The two principal writers in Röxtl wero Rangin and Jan Sahib. Their work are valuable for students of the women's dialect.
A translation of the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana.
7. Urdū is written in a modified form of the Persian character. The general use of this form of writing the languago dates from the time of Tödar Mal, Akbar's celebrated Fin. ance Minister, and a Hindu († 1589). Up to this time all revenue acoounts had been kept in some character of the Nagari type, and he ordered them in future to be written in Persian. He thus forced his coreligionists to learn the court-language of their rulers, and the study of Persian, and a familiarity with its character, became necessary for its pecuniary advantages.1 Other forms of H. are gonerally written in the Nagari character or in the closely allied Kaitbi. Owing to the number of Arabic words present it is most inconvenient to write Urdū in Nagari, wbile HH. written in the Persian character is found, as a matter of practical experi. ence, to be illegible.
1 Blochman, Ain-d Akbari, tr., 352.
8. The other dialects of Hindi aro Băngarū, Braj Bhākhā, Kanauji, and Bundēlī. Bangarū, or Hariāni, ie the language of the Bāngar, or the highland of the south-eastern Panjab, immediately to the west of the Jamuna. It is a mixed dialect, partly Hindi, partly Panjabi, and partly Rājasthāni. Braj Bhākha (Br.), the language of the Vraja or the Cowpen country celebrated as the scene of the early life of Krena, is spoken round Mathurā and in part of the Central Gangetic Döāb. It is the form of H. mainly used in literature of the clas. sical period, and is hence considered to be the dialectos præcipua, and may well, save in one respect,1 be considered as typical of the Midland language. It has a copious literature of high merit, mainly devoted to illustrating the legends regarding and the religion directed to Krena. Kanauji (Kn.) or Antarbëdi is the language of the ancient holy Antarvědi or Cuntral Gangetic Döāb, the chief city of which was for very many centuries Kanauj (Kanyakubja). It hae extended north of the Ganges up to the Népal Taräi. It differs but little from Br., and like it has a copious literature. Bundeli (Bn.) is the language of Bundõlkhand, lying