Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s6: Development of Regional Languages

Twilight of the Sultanate c16.s6

Language
English

Development of Regional Languages

c16.s6.1

Besides the work produced in classical languages, the fifteenth century in particular saw the development of Hindi and many other regional languages. Many causes contributed towards this development. Because of the new political set-up, stresses of the times, and lack of patronage from the kings, Sanskrit lost its old position. A common medium of expression was the natural outcome of the contact between the foreigners and Indians. Thus developed Hindustani, a great poet of which was Amīr Khusru. His Hindustani or Hindvī later bifurcated into two channels of Hindi and Urdu. This was the position in Madhya Desa. In the various kingdoms into which the country had been divided consequent upon the invasion of Tīmūr, regional languages like Maithili, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati developed rapidly under the patronage of their kings, and these were enriched by the writings of philosophers and poets. Because of all these factors the fifteenth century became an age of development of regional languages and their literatures.

c16.s6.2

The beginnings of all literatures are to be found in poetry, for man feels first and reasons afterwards. The first poet of Hindustani was Amīr Khusru, Tūti-i-Hind or Parognet of India.¹⁰⁸ Khusru was the first to employ Persian metres in Hindi, a language he loved and praised¹⁰⁹ and in which he wrote many couplets. By the fifteenth century Hindi had got a definite shape as is evident from the works of Kabīr, Raidās and many other saints of the fifteenth century, whose contribution to the development of languages will be studied later on. Suffice it here to say that these saints travelled extensively. They preached in Hindi and most probably conversed with the people in the same language wherever they went. Thus Hindi or Hindustani seems to have been understood all over northern India and had attained the position of a national language. However, it had its variations in various regions of the country. Rajasthani developed in Rajasthan, western Hindi (both Brajbhāsa and Kharī bolī) in western U.P., Avadhī in eastern U.P. and Bihari in Bihar. Kharī bolī did not become popular till the eighteenth century, but during the fifteenth century many books in Avadhī were written. Qutban, a disciple of Shaikh Burhān of the Chishtia order and a protege of the Sultan of Jaunpur composed, in 1501, his *Mrigāvatī*. It is a Rajput romance with little allegorical elements; but Manjhan's *Madhu-mālatī* (composed in the early years of the 16th century) has great imagery and deep allegory.

c16.s6.3

¹⁰⁸ Ram Babu Saksena, *A History of Urdu Literature*, 10.

c16.s6.4

¹⁰⁹ 'Ashīqa, E and D, III, Appendix, 556.

c16.s6.5

The development of Urdu was very gradual and imperceptible. Hindi and Urdu are of the same parentage and in their nature they are not different from each other. Urdu, under the patronage of Muslim kings, sought inspiration from Persian while Hindi continued to draw from its original fount Sanskrit.¹¹⁰ Khwājā Bandā Nawāz Gīsū-darāz (1321-1422), who lived in the Deccan, was the first writer of Deccan Hindi. His inspiring prose work, the *Mirātul 'Āshiqīn*, is replete with Arabic words, and is looked upon as the earliest work in the Urdu form of Hindi. Persian words are found interspersed in the writings of Kabīr and Jaisī also, and the foundations of Urdu were laid during our period of study.

c16.s6.6

¹¹⁰ Saksena, *Urdu Literature*, 2.

c16.s6.7

As in the Madhya Desa, so also in Bengal, Sanskrit ceased to be a living language after its conquest by the Turks. In the absence of the printing press and with very few hand-written works existing, it became the exclusive care of the pandits. It lost touch with life and reality and "ploughed a lonely furrow in the barren fields of hyper-subtle scholasticism".¹¹¹ Muslim Sultans and nobles were interested in encouraging art and literature, and got Sanskrit books translated into Bengali. The first Bengali translation of the *Mahābhārata* was undertaken at the command of Sultan Nāsir Shāh in the fourteenth century. But the father of Bengali poetry was Krittivāsa Ojhā who translated the *Ramayana in the* fifteenth century (c. 1418).¹¹² Maladhar Vasu translated the *Bhāgwat Purāna* in 1473-1480 at the command of Sultan Rukanuddīn Bārbak Shāh, from whom he received the title of Gunarāj Khan.¹¹³ Sultan Husain Shāh of Gaur (1493-1519) patronised Vipradās Piplai and Vijaya Gupta, the author of *Mansā Mangal*.¹¹⁴ At the command of Pārangal Khan, a general of Husain Shāh, Kavindra Paramēsvara translated a larger portion of the *Mahābhārata*. From the early fifteenth century the tradition of reciting in Bengali the *Ramayana* and *Mahābhārata* stories and the stories relating to Krishna gained currency.¹¹⁵

c16.s6.8

¹¹¹ J.C. Ghosh, *Bengali Literature*, 19.

c16.s6.9

¹¹² Ghosh, *op. cit.*, 34-36.

c16.s6.10

¹¹³ *Ibid.*, 37.

c16.s6.11

¹¹⁴ *Ibid.*, 45-46.

c16.s6.12

¹¹⁵ S. K. Chatterjee in *The Delhi Sultanate*, 513.

c16.s6.13

Muslim sovereigns of Bengal rendered great service to Bengali language and literature by granting recognition to Bengali in their courts. Following their example, the Hindu Rajas of Bengal also began to patronise the language of the people. But still greater service to the cause of the language was done by the Vaishnava philosophers and Bhakti poets of Bihar and Bengal. In the twelfth century Jayadeva had written “his masterpiece”¹¹⁶, the *Gīta Govind*. This lyrical epic was full of the passionate but divine love of Rādha and Krishna. Chaṇḍī Das (A. D. 1417-78) and Vidyāpati (A. D. 1433-81) wrote equally beautiful lyrical poetry in Bengali and Maithili. Besides devotional songs, Vidyāpati wrote historical poems also. His historical poem *Kīrtilatā* describes an episode in the life of his patron Hindu Raja. Incidentally it gives a very vivid picture of the life of Jaunpur city of his day. Chaitanya also himself contributed much to Bengali lyrical poetry.¹¹⁷ In the opinion of D. C. Sen, the author of the monumental work entitled the *History of the Bengali Language and Literature*, Bengali was raised to the status of a literary language by the Vaishnava hymn writers just as Pali was by the Buddhists.¹¹⁸

c16.s6.14

¹¹⁶ D.C.Sen, *A History of Bengali Literature*, 194. Also Keith, *Classical Sanskrit Literature*, Heritage of India series, 121.

c16.s6.15

¹¹⁷ Ghosh, *op. cit.*, 39 n.

c16.s6.16

¹¹⁸ Sen, *op. cit.*, Introduction.

c16.s6.17

In Maharashtra also the Bhakti poets from Namdēva onwards enriched the regional Marathi language. The Abhangs of the Maratha bhakts have a soul-stirring appeal and are sung even to this day in the villages and towns of Maharashtra. So also is the case with the religious songs of Narsi Mehta (1415-81) and his followers in Gujarat. In the Punjab, Guru Nānak gave a new religion and also a new script—Gurmukhī (meaning from the Guru’s lips)—to the people. His compositions like *Āsa-di-war*, *Japjī*, *Dākhni Onkār* and *Sidh Gosht*, though devoid of any pretensions to literary perfection, are works of excellent merit. Equally important is the emergence of the Apabhramsa literature of the Jains of this period. Up to the eleventh century the Jains stuck to Sanskrit, but afterwards their philosophical and poetical works came to be written in the language of the people. In the *Apabhramsa*, rhyme, which is regarded as a speciality of modern Indian languages, is profusely used; and it gave shape to the Kanarese and Tamil languages in the south.

Cites (7)