Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 334

# 21-22)
ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
APRIL, 1931
6 Cf. Imperial Gazetteer of India (1907), I, 387.
6 Hodgson, Origin and Classification of the Military Tribes of Nepal, JASB. II (1833), 217 ff. ; Vansittart, The Tribes, Clans, and Castes of Nepal, JASB, LXIII (1891), Pt. I, 213 ff.; S. Lvi, Lc Népal, I, 257 ff., 261-7, 276 ff., II, 216 ff. and Index.
21. We have seen that these Khašas arc, in Sanskrit literature, frequently associated with the Piśācas. They must have spoken a language akin to the Dardic languages, for traces of the latter are readily found over the whole Sapädalaksa tract, diminishing in strength as we go eastwards. The Gurjaras, modern Gūjars, seem to have first appeared in India about the fifth or sixth century A.D. D.R. Bhandarkar bas shown (I.c.) that they occupied Sapädalakņa. There they amalgamated with the Khaśa population that they found in situ. In western Sapädalaksa they became the Rão sept of the Kanēts, but were not admitted to equality of caste with the older Khasiya Kanēts. In east Sapädalakṣa they became altogether merged in the great mass of the Khas population. These Gurjaras were those who took to cultivation, or who adhered to their pastoral pursuits. The fighting men, as we have seen, became Rajputs. From Sapädalaksa, Gurjaras migrated to Méwåt, and thence settled over eastern Rājpūtānā. In later years, under the pressure of Musalmān rule, many Rājpūts remigrated to Sapādalaksa, and again settled there. In fact, there was continual intercourse between Sapädalakṣa and Rājputānā.3 Finally, as we have seen, Népal was conquered by people of tho Khas tribe, who of course included many of these Gurjara-Rājpūts. In this way the close connexion between the three Ph. languages and R. is fully explained.
1 Such are the tendency to drop an initial aspirato (inā for hona, to bocomo); to disaspirate sonant aspirates (bas for blue brother): to hardlen sonants Gawan to change c to fa, and j to 2 (isatarü for cajarī, good); to change to ts (Theis for klut, a fiold: to crop modial (katā for kartā, doing); to chango a sibilant to X (Xunnu for funnā, to hear), or to h (orak (for brās, a rhododendron), and many others
% Tod, Rajasthan, Introduction : Elliot. Mcmoirs, ote., an quotoil above, I, 99, and Index ; Ibbetson, op. cit. 262 ft. Jackson, Gazetteer, as ab., I, 4633 : V. Smith, The (urjaras, etc., as ab., 03 fl.; The Outliers of Rajasthani, IA, XL (1911), 83 ff.; D. R. Bhandarkar, Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population, JA, XL (1911), 7 ff., esp. 21 ff.
3 It is worth noting that the Raja of Garhwal claims descent from Kanisko, who is said to have come to Garhwal from Gujarat or western Räjputana. (Atkinson, op. cit., 449.)
I have not considered here the question of Western Rajasthani and Gujarati. Gujarat may well have been conquered by Gurjara tribes coming from the north-west. The western Rajputs had their centre of dispersion near Mount Abů, but whether the Gurjares of Abu came from the east or from the west I cannot say. All that can be said is that the agreement between WPh. and WR. is very striking.
22. Finally, as shown by V. Smith, 1 certain of the Gurjaray who had settled in eastern Rajpūtāni agnin migrated towards the north-west, and invalled the Panjāb from the southcast. They left a line of colonists extending from Mēwāt, up both sides of the Jamuna valley, and thence, following the foot of the Himalaya, right up to the Indus. Where they have settled in the plains they have abandoned their own language, and speak that of the surrounding population, but as we enter the lower hills we invariably come upon a dialect locally known as Gujari. In cach case this can be described as the language of the people nearest the local Güjars, but badly spoken, as if by foreigners. The farther we go into these sparsely populated hills, the more independent do we find this Gūjar dialect, and the less is it influenced by its surroundings. At length, when we get into the wild hill-country of Swat and Kašmir, we find the nomad Gujars (here called Gujurs) still pursuing their original pastoral avocations, and still speaking the descendant of the language that their ancestors brought with them from Mêwat. But this shows traces of its long journey. It contains odd phrases and idioms of the Hindöstäni of the Jamunā valley, which were picked up en route, and carried to the distant hills of Dardistân. We thus see that there are two classes of Gūjar languages in the sul)Himalaya. There is first the mixed languages of the Gurjaras who conquered the Khasas of Sapädalakşa, some of whom migrated later to Měwāt, and there is also the Gujuri of Swát and the Kašmir hills, which is the language carried by some of these last back to the Himalaya.
In Outliers, etc., an above.