Indian Antiquary Vol 61

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

Page 77

APRIL, 1932)
THE NAGAR BRAHMANS AND THE BENGAL KAYASTHAS
67
places and districts named after Någars, as they migrated in different directions. One such district is Någarchål which forms the south-east part of the Jaipur State. Its principal town is Nagar or Karkot Nagar. Now, Sir George Grierson informs us that in this province is spoken a dialect called Nagarchali which is a variety of Jaipurî.80 This shows that it was not in Bombay Gujarat alone but also in the south-east part of Jaipur that the Någars by their number have created a dialect of their own. The existence of a Någar dialect both in ancient and modern India is enough to indicate that the Någars, like the Abhiras. were an ancient tribe or race which settled in some provinces in such numbers as to develop a dialect of their own. But this is not all. The Någars were also noted for their culture and erudition. We find that there was not simply a Nagar Apabhramsa but also a Nagar script. It is true that the Buddhist work Lalita-vistara, which is believed to have been composed in the second or third century A.D., enumerates no less than sixty-four scripts which were learnt by Buddha, but makes no mention of a Någar alphabet. 81 Things were different by the middle of the fifth century A.D., when the Jaina religious book Nandi-sútra was put together. Here the author gives a list of eighteen scripts which Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthamkara, mastered, and we find Nagari-lipi mentioned among them. The question now arises : what is meant by Nagari-lipi? We have got a Marathi-English Dictionary compiled by J. T. Molesworth in 1857 with the help of the Pandits of Maharashtra. If we refer to the word Nagari in this lexicon, we find the following: "relating to the Nagar Brâhman-language, character of writing, etc." As a matter of fact, the Nagar Brâhmans to this day use the Nagari script though they live in Gujarat and Kathiâwâr surrounded by people who employ nothing but the Gujarati character for their vernacular. This is a most noteworthy fact, because wherever the Någars have migrated, they have developed their script, if not dialect also. As we have just seen, the Någar Brâhmans have spread as far south as the north-west part of Mysore. Being domiciled in this province, they naturally speak Kanarese, but their books are in Någari or Balabodha, though the books of all other castes there are in the Kanarese character. 8. This is in regard to the extreme south. The same remark holds good in respect of the extreme east, the Sylhet district (Assam), up to which, as we have seen above, their movement has been traced. It is curious that in the Sylhet and Bankura districts, which constitute the eastern and western extremities of Bengal, a form of Nagari script is employed by the orthodox Muhammadan community. This is known as Sylhet Nagari ' in East Bengal and 'Musalman Nagari' in West Bengal. Several manuscripts of scriptures written by the Muhammadans in this script are known. Though the character used is Någarî, their language is Bengali, and the metrical form, payár. Hundreds of manuscripts written in Bengali and Persian characters have been collected in Bengal. And the question arises why in Sylhet and Bånkuså alone, the script used for writing these books in the Bangali language should be Nagari, instead of the popular Bangali or Persian. “It is on record that many Brahman families of Sylhet embraced Islam." And we have perceived that in ancient times there was a regular.colony of the Nagar Brahmans in this district. The conclusion is incontrovertible that the religious books written in Nagarî by the Bengal Muhammadans were "the contributions of the Någar Brâhmans who had now been converted to Islam.” Attention to this point was first drawn by Mr. J. C. Ghosh,8: and Mr. N. N. Vasu gave us further information on this subject in his address as President of the Bengali Section of the All-India Oriental Conference held in 1930 at Patna. Fuller information is still a keen-felt desideratum, and it is hoped that one of these scholars or both will try to supply it before long. We thus see that the Någars had not only a dialect but also a script of their own called Någari after them. It is thus impossible to doubt that the Någars originally denoted some cultured tribe or race, which spread over the different parts of India, maintaining their dialect and script. 80 Ibid., p. 191.
81 JASB., Vol. LXV. Pt. I. pp. 125-8. 89 Ind. Ant., Vol. III. p. 230.
83 Ind. His. Quart., Vol. VI. pp. 69-70.