Vidyankur

Author(s): Raja Shivprasad
Publisher: Raja Shivprasad

Page 5

PREFACE.
Waes employed under Mr. William Edwards, in Simla, I wrote, as an adaptation from Chambers's “Rudiments of Krowledge" and first few pages of "Introduction to the Sciences,” two little books in Nágarí, called “Ma'lúrát” and “Bhúgol,” for his schools in the Hill States. Mr. Thomason, the then Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Pro, vinces, was so much pleased with them that he handed them over to Mr H. Stewart Reid, the then Director of Public Instruction, to introduce in his village schools. He made them over to his Pandits and Munshis, who, for the Hindí edition, weeded out all the Persian words, giving their place to Sanskrit, and for the Urdu edition in the same way weeded out all the Sanskrit words, and substituted Persian and Arabic. This practice of widening the gulf between one form of the spoken language and the other, or creating two distinct languages for our vernacular, lasted about one-third of a century. The Government order No. 15 A., dated 13th June, 1876, has put a stop to such pedantries of Pandits and Munshis, and a reaction has commenced for the restoration of the common language. There is no doubt that the different shades will remain in the language for ages yet to come. Maulvis and Mun. shis will write as many Persian and Arabic words as they know in Persian characters, and Panditjis will persist in introducing as many Sanskrit words, pure and incorrupted, as they can in their Nágarl