Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 338

29-30)
ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
[JUNE, 1931
pronunciation of most of the other languages is based on a new-system of stress-accents falling, as far as possible, on the antepenultimate of each word."
See B. A. Gupte, IA, xxxiv (1905), 27. 1 Soe Turnor, The Indo-Germanic Accent in Marathi ; JRAS, 1916, 203 ff.
29. Coming to the Eastern Group of the Outer languages, the first that we have to deal with is Bihāri (B.). This is spoken over a considerable area, including nearly the whole of the Bihār and Cutiã (Chota) Nagpur Provinces, as well as the eastern part of the United Provinces of Agrā and Audh. The eastern boundary may be taken as the River Mahānanda in the District of Puraniya (Purnea of the maps), and in the west it extends to Benares and beyond. Its northern boundary is the Himalaya and its southern the northern border of the District of Simhabhūmi (Singh bhūm) of Cutiā Nāgpur. In the centre of the Bihāri area lie the Districts of Patna and Gaya, which together roughly correspond to the ancient king. dom of Magadha, and we may here note that B. still shows the two most important charac. teristics of Māgadhi Prakrit.1
1 These are the change of a tod, and the termination & of the nominative of a basee. In writing at the present day, 6 is invariably written for both . and a, though in modern times the pronunciation is , not d. The change of pronunciation is due to political reasons. See LSI, I, I, 148. In Bengali, the 4-sound is retained. In old Bihari poetry, when, for metrical reasons, it is necessary to lengthen the final vowel of the nominative singular, this is done by making the word ond in d. Thus Vidyāpati Thakkura (1400 A.D.) has sinänd for andrs, paragdde for prabasah, pare for param, dhing for dhiram, and hundreds of other which will be found in any edition of the poet's works. In Hindi poetry such words would end in au, not in &. The old Eastern Hindi of Tulasi Dasa, corresponding to Ardham agadhi Prakrit, occupice an intermediate position, and use both a (for au) and as in parivarú for parivarah, and sayāne for sajAnah. It should be noted that both these & and a terminations are used indifferently both for the nominative, and for the accusative, thus following the example of Apabhramsa, in which (Pr. Gr., p. 247) tho mocutive has the same form as tho nominative.
30. Bihari has three main dialects, Maithili, Magahi, and Bhojpuri. Maithili (Mth.) or Tirohutia, the language of the ancient Mithila and of the modern Tirhūt, is spoken over the greater part of north Bihār, its standard form being that of the north of the District of Dar. bhanga, and has a small literature going back to the fifteenth century. Magahi (Mg.) is the dialoot of the Districts of Patnā and Gayä and the neighbourhood, and also extends south over the northern plateau of Cutiã Någpur. It is the modern representative of the ancient Magadhi Prakrit, the language of ancient Magadha. It closely resembles Maithili both in grammar and vocabulary, but has no formal literature. Maithili and Magahi have & most complex verb, the conjugation of which is determined not only by the subject, but also by the person and degree of honour of the object. Bhojpuri (Bh.) differs considerably from Mth. and Mg. It is spoken in the western portion of the B. area and also covers the southern plateau of Cutiā Nāgpur. It has abandoned the conjugational complexities of the other two dialects, and is a simple, direot, form of speech. These differenoes of dialect correspond to ethnic differences. Maithili is the language of a people under the domination of a power. ful sept of Brāhmang, who lay great stress on ceremonial purity. According to the proverb, three Tir hutiã (or Maithil) Brahmans will have thirteen cooking places, so particular are they to avoid pollution of their food. Tirhūt is one of the most congested parts of British India, the inhabitants of which have little intercourse with the outer world. Magadha is the country of the Babhang, admittedly descended from outcaste Brāhmans (probably Bud. dhists), and lies on the highway between upper India and the fertile plains of Bengal. It forms the political gate of the latter province, has suffered many disastrous invasions from Musalmān armies, and has long lost the spiritual impress given to it by the Buddha. Its