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R. K. Rhadabadi
Now coming to Dr. Umarji. I would present the following observations: Instead of devoting the major portion of his small treat se i e., six out of seven Chapters, to trying to establish the Sanskritic origin of the Kannada language, the learned author should have done so to prove directly the Paisāci origin of the same. After this treatise came out, it may be noted, this thicory of the Sanskritic origin of Kannada and other So'ith Indian Languages was rightly, on the ground of the findings of the modern Linguistic Science, not accepted by Dr. D. N. Shankar Bhatt." (i) Ranna's poctic expression in IV. 41 of his Gadayuddha (c. 982 A.D.) cannot be taken in the grammarian's sense. Here narablútabhāseyin would mean in the new language of the goblins' moving on the battle field where the Mahabharata was ended with success for the Pāndavas. It cannot be taken as Kannada. We should not forget to note the poct's similar expressions navarakta and nayaveda in the carlier verse (IV. 39). He mentions in the verse (IV. 41) tle name of Gunadhya just to heighten the effect of his poetic expression viz. navabhittabhāṣā as against Gunadhya's (old) bhūtabhöşü which term for Paisacj was used by scholars like Dandin and Vagbhatal2. Moreover we do not come across anywhere the usage of navabhūtabhāṣā in the sense of Kannada language either in the above discussed context or otherwise. (ii) We need not take the legend of Vātāpi and llvale, narrated in the Rāmāyaṇa, to cut out a favourable linguistic possibility unless it is accorded by other dependable evidences -- linguistic, geographical, historical etc. We should note that there is also a reference in the Mahabharata (Dronaparya, 499) which indicates that the Pisācas were a tribe living in the North-Western region. 12 Pigācikä is a porthern Puranic river emerging from mount Rkşa. The Kashmirian legend of the Nāgas and Pisācas, preserved in the Nilamata Purāna, is much more appealing with its geographical and linguistic background. That Peśavar has come down from Pišācapura is much convincing with similar background. Moreover the concept of a piśāca is different in different traditions and times : The Yakşas in the Buddhist literature correspond to the Pisacas of the Hindu legends, caunabalism being a common characterstic in both. So Kalhaņa, in his Ra jatarangini (I. 184), equates Yakşas and Piğācas. Yaska does not consider Kāmbojas to b: Aryans and they are mentioned together with Pisacas, Khasas, Dardas etc. The word Pisaca is derived from pisitasis (cannibals, eaters of raw flesh). There are several traditions about the ancient cannibalism in the neighbourhood of the Hindukush : Krodhavasā, one of the wives of Kaśyapa, after whom Kashmir is named, was the ancestress of the cannibal Pisitasis or Pisacas. Similarly another wife of his 11 Vide, Why Kamnada is not born of Sanskrit, Samyukta Karnataka Daily, 8. 3. 1972. 12 Pischel notes this more than once, Op. cit., p. 29. 13 Vide CPC, p. 51.
