Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c9.13

c9.13

The extensive corruptions of Sanskrit sounds, therefore, must be accounted for by the supposition that the language had to be spoken by races whose original tongue it was not Those alien races could not properly pronounce the Sanskrit words used by the conquering Âryas , and thus the Prâkṛit forms of Sanskrit words represent their pronunciation of them A few sounds unknown to Sanskrit as well as some words not traceable to that language are also found in the Prâkṛits, and these point to the same conclusion It thus appears that the Indian Âryas in their progress through the country came in contact with alien races, which were incorporated with their society and learnt their language, at the same time that they preserved some of their original words and phonetic peculiarities ⁸ This was the state of things in the north down to the Marâṭhâ country But farther south and on the eastern coast, though they penetrated there and communicated their own civilization to the aboriginal races inhabiting those parts, they were not able to incorporate them thoroughly into their own society and to root out their languages and their peculiar civilization On the contrary, the Âryas had to learn the languages of those races and to adopt a portion at least of their civilization Thus the Kanarese, the Telugu, the Tamil, and the other languages now spoken in Southern India are not derived from the Sanskrit but belong altogether to a different stock, and hence it is also that southern art is so different from the northern The reason why the result of the Âryan irruption was so different in Southern India from what it was in the north appears to be that when the Âryas penetrated to the south there existed already well-organized communities and kingdoms In the passage in the Râmâyana, referred to above, the monkey-soldiers are directed to go to the countries of the Andhras (Telugu people), the Pâṇḍyas, the Cholas, and the Keralas, in the south, and are told that they will there see the gate of the city of the Pâṇḍyas adorned with gold and jewels And these races, their country, and their kings are alluded to in other Sanskrit works, as will be noticed hereafter In the north, however, at the time of the Âryan invasion, the condition of the country must have been similar to that of Daṇḍakâraṇya, which is represented in the Râmâyana as a forest infested by Râkshasas or wild tribes who disturbed the religious rites of the Brâhmaṇ sages And throughout the older portion of Sanskrit literature, which is to be referred to the times when the Âryas were gradually progressing from the Panjâb, the wild tribes they met with are spoken of under the name of Dasyus, Râkshasas, and others