Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 331

APBIL, 1931)
GENERAL VIEW
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were even admitted to equality with the Brāhmans themselves, while the bulk of the tribe which still followed its pastoral avocations remained as a subordinate caste under the titlo of Gurjaras, or, in modern language, Gūjars.
1 V. Smith, JRAS, 1908, 768. 9 id. JRAS, 1908, 789 ; 1900, 56. 3 Tod, Rajasthan, Annals of Mewar, Chap. II. 4 Ib., Annals of Amber, Ch. I.
lb., History of the Pajput Tribes, Ch. VIII. 6 Ib., Annals of Mewar, Ch. I.
7 V. Smith, Early History of India, 377. Son also the following Tod, Rajasthan, Introduction : Elliot, Memoirs on the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North-Western Provinces of India. Ed. Beames, I, 99 ff., and Index ; Ibbetson, Outlines of Indian Ethnography, 262; Jackson, in Gazetteet of the Bombay Presidency, I, Pt. i, App. III, Account of Bhinmal, esp. pp. 463 fl.; V. Smith, The Gurjarge of Rajputana and Kanauj, JRAS, 1909, 53 ff.; D. R. Bhandarker, Foreign Elements in the Hindu Popu. lation, IA, XL (1911), 7 ff., esp. 21 ff.
8 V. Smith, Ear. Hist. Ind... 377, and IA, XL (1911), 36.
D. R. Bhandarkar, JASB, V (N. S.) (1909), 185. Cf., contra, Mohanlal Vishnulal Pandia, ib., VIII (X. S.) (1912), 63 ff.
13. So powerful did these Gurjaras or Gūjars become that no less than four tracts of India received their name. Three of these are the Gujrat and Gujrānwālā Districts of tho Panjāb and the Province of Gujarāt, and Al-Biruni (970-1031 A.D.)' mentions a fourth identi. fied by D. R. Bhandarkar as consisting of the north-eastern part of the Jaipur territory and the south of the Alwar State. According to D. R. Bhandarkar these last Güjars camo thither from that part of the Himalaya called Sapādalaksa corresponding to the modern Dis. tricts of Kupaun and Garhwal with the country to their west, and, from these, at least Eastern Rājpūtānā was peopled. Whether those that centred round Mount Abū in Western Rājpūtānā belong to the same invasion, or whether they came independently, via Gujarat and the north-west, is not as yet clear. Here it will suffice to state that the Central Pahāļi of Kumaun and Garhwal (i.e., of Eastern Sapädalakşa) agrees with Eastern Rajasthāni (Mēwāti and Jaipuri) in having the genitive postposition ko, and the verb substantive de. rived from the Vach., while in the Western Pahārī of the Simla Hills (i.e., of Western Sapădalaksa) the termination of the genitive is the Western Rajasthāni (Marwāri) ro, while one of the verbs substantive (i, is) is probably of the same origin as the WR. hai. We thus see that the grammatical shibboleths of ER. agree with Central Pahāri, while those of WR. agree with Western Pahāți. We now come to Gujarati. Here the genitive termination is nő, and the verb substantive belongs to the vach- group. West of Western Pahārī, in the Himalaya, we come to the northern (Pothwüri) dialect of Lahndā. Here also the genitive termination is no, but the verb substantivo differs from that of Gujarāti. On the other hand, Gujarāti agrees with all the Lahndā dialects in one very remarkable point, viz., the formation of the future by means of a sibilant. Hence we find that, right along the lower Himalaya, from the Indus to Nopal, there are three groups of dialects agreeing in striking points with, respectively, the three tongues Gujarati, Mārwārī, and Jaipuri.
Sachau's Tr., I, 202. Cf. D. R. Bhandarkar in IA, XL, quoted above. 2 Pth. kursi, G. kutse, he will strike.
14. Three characters, all of the Nägari type, are current in Gujarat and Rajputānā. The Nāgari character itself is used by the Nagari Brāhmans of Gujarāt, and is also read and understood over the whole area of both these languages. In Rājpūtānā books are printed in it, but, in Gujarāt, people other than Nāgar Brāhmans employ a variety of the Kaithi character. This Kaithi character is current over the whole of the Ganges Valley as a kind of script hand, instead of Nāgari, for letters and documents of small importance; but in Gujarāt it is used not only for written communications but also universally for printed books and newspapers. In Mārwās, the mercantile classes employ a character called Mahājani,
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