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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s26: Source of Honour.

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s26

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English

Source of Honour.

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The king granted titles. Even the title Śreshṭhin was granted to merchants by the king (E. I. II p. 237).

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LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

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We showed in Vol. II (p. 3) how the second sub-period of Hindu Mediæval History (800-1000 A. D.) was characterised by the rise of the modern vernaculars of India under the combined influence of political and religious causes. Buddhism being supplanted and Hinduism coming to be reconstructed, the study of Sanskrit was resorted to with greater energy and the new philosophy of Śankara especially had to be explained to the people in their own language. The Apabhrańśa languages, therefore, throughout Aryan India underwent change by the use of Sanskrit loan-words in their original or Tatsama form and Sanskrit and new conjugational and inflexional forms also were introduced from Sanskrit. Even the Non-Aryan languages assumed new forms by the use of pure Sanskrit words and acquired new grace (Vol. II p. 168). Thus the modern Sanskrit-born vernaculars were evolved in the preceding sub-period, viz. Bengali, Hindi Eastern and Western (Rajastāni), Panjabi, Gujarathi, and Marati; as also the modern Non-Aryan vernaculars Kanarese, Telugu, Tamil and Malyalam. In the present sub-period we find all these languages so far developed as to give rise to literature as classical as that in Sanskrit. And it is curious to note that in each of the provinces of these languages different forms of the alphabet also grew out of the same old Sanskrit Devanāgarī alphabet as evidenced by Al-Beruni. He enumerates the different alphabets of India as follows (Vol. I p. 173): "The most generally known alphabet is called Siddha Mātrīkā used in Kashmir and Vārāṇasī. These are the high schools of Hindu sciences. The same writing is used in Madhyadeśa, the country round Kanauj also called Āryāvarta". This is the Eastern Hindi script. "In Mālwa there is another alphabet called Nāgar which differs from the above only in shape. Then comes the alphabet known as Ardhanāgarī as it is compounded of the above two. It is used in Bhatia and some parts of Sind. (This is a verification of our view in the geographical chapter that Bhatia town and province (p. 173), was to the north of Sind, a part of the Panjab to the west of the Jhelum). This is probably themodern Panjabi script. Other alphabets are Malaivari used in Southern India on the seacoast; the Saindhava used in Almeansūra; the Karnāta used in Karnātadeśa ‘whence those troops come which in the armies are known as Kannara’, the Andhri used in Andhradeśa the Dirwari (DrāvidI) used in Dirwardeśa; the Lāri used in Lāradeśa; the Gauri used in Pūrvadeśa by the Buddhists.”

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Now this is a complete survey of India so far as alphabet is concerned, and we may take it that it also represents the state of the country as regards language, a state which is practically the same as now. In Eastern Panjab and Kashmir, down to Benares we have the Eastern Hindi with its peculiar script, in Malwa and Rājputana western Hindi, in northern Sind and Western Panjab we have a language distinct from others; and Sindhi in Sind. On the sea-coast a still more distinct language and writing which is called Malawāri. Perhaps this was imported from Malabar by sea and the Saindhava at Almansura must be a mixed jargan of Arabic and Hindi. Both apparently do not survive now. Gujarati (alphabet and language) apparently had not a distinct existence in 1030 A. D. as even the name Gujarat for the province had not come into existence at that time. It will be seen that Al-Beruni does not mention the Marathi alphabet; probably the Lāri or the language of Lāta as spoken in North Konkan is another name for old Marathi which became uniform when the Yādavas became supreme in the 13th century even in Konkan. Marco Polo (1280) mentions that there were different languages in Gujarat and in Thana. Marathi is now a general language which has suppressed its different dialects viz. the Lādi of North Konkan, the Konkani in south Konkan as far as Goa, and the speech of Mahārastra proper, Vidarbha and Khandesh, owing to the supremacy of the Yādavas and the prevalence of the Bhāgavata worship of Vithoba of Pandharpur both of which things happened about the end of this sub-period viz. from 1170 to about 1200 A. D. That Marathi as a distinct language with minor dialectic differences had not only come into existence but had developed about the 12th century is clear from the literature now found of the Mahānubhāvas and even Dnyāneśvari of 1290 A. D. in its finished excellence presupposes the development of the language at least a century before it. We find a Marathi sentence in an inscription from Konkan recorded by the Śilāhāras of Thana. In Bengal also it may be taken that the modern vernacular of that province had come into literary existence. Its different script, the Gaudi, is mentioned by Al-Beruni.

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In South India already its different vernaculars, the Kanarese, the Telugu, the Tamil also called Drāviḍi and Malyālam had come into literary existence. We have given in Vol. II. (pp. 173-4) extracts from Dr. Sir Grierson's Survey of Indian Languages showing how far Kanarese, Telugu, and Marathi literatures go back.

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Besides we have many inscriptions in this sub-period written in Kanarese, Tamil, and Telugu. A Sanskrit inscription of the Eastern Gangas of 1075 A. D. gives its subsequent portion in Telugu (E. I. IV p. 314). We may, therefore, be certain that all the modern vernaculars of India, both Sanskrit-born and Tamil-born, were fully developed at this time as spoken and written languages with graceful, literature in each. Mahānubhāva writings in Marathi with Dnyāneśvarī coming a hundred years later, Pampa's Ādipurāṇa in Kanarese, Nannaya's Mahābhārata in Telugu are works which still survive. Some works in Eastern Hindi and in Rājasthānī (Dingal) still exist though they have not yet been studied. And Prithvīrāj Rāsā, though in its present form it is an extensive amplification, in its nucleus goes back, according to our view, to the end of our sub-period.

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This vernacular literature is chiefly in verse and is generally a translation or imitation of Sanskrit poems or Purāṇas. But original works in Sanskrit on a vast range of subjects were written in this sub-period to which it would not be out of place to direct the attention of the reader. The great seats of learning were Kashmir and Benares, as even Al-Beruni records and Nadia in Bengal, Tanjore in South India and Kalyan in Mahārāshtra. Kanauj and Ujjain perhaps were also as famous as before; the learned men of the Madhyadeśa who were great Mīmāṃsakas in the time of Bāṇa and Kumārila were still famous, studied Vedas and performed Vedic sacrifices as zealously as before.* The list of subjects includes poetics (Alankāra), philosophy, law (Dharmaśāstra), Logic (Nyāya), grammar, astronomy, medicine and music. Mr. P. V. Kane has given a detailed history of the development of Alankāraśāstra and shown how Mammata (1100) and others evolved the theory of Dhvani in this period. Philosophy also had its contribution from Rāmānuja and others which swelled the already vast philosophical literature of India including, as it did, Sānkhya and Yoga (common to all), Jain and Bauddha (unorthodox), and Kumārila and Śankara (orthodox) philosophies.* We have already noted how law was studied in all Hindu kingdoms at this period and how solid works like the Mitāksharā were written. In Logic again a new depature was made by Hindu logicians at Nadia. Hemachandra’s grammar Siddha Hema has already been mentioned. In astronomy Someśvara son of Vikramānka of Kalyan was a royal author in this period and Bhāskara’s Siddhānta-śiromani (1150) the greatest Hindu work on the subject belongs to this time. In medicine Dalhaṇa of Bhadāvara near Mathura and Chakrapāṇi, court-physician of Nayapāla of Bengal, wrote detailed commentaries on Charaka about 1050 A. D. The great learning of king Bhoja of Malwa and his authoritative works on many subjects have already been noticed. The land of Kerala was famous for learned astrologers and physicians (Marco Polo p. 376). On the west coast and the east coast, under the Kadambas and the Cholas, music was greatly studied and dancing was specially developed. And in Kashmir Harsha acquired fame by his musical compositions and also his patronage of music. Thus Hindu intellect maintained its reputation for acuteness and brilliancy in this sub-period by the production of such works as Kāya-Prakāsha and Siddhānta-Śiromani, Naishadha Mahākāvya and Gitagovinda the most charming lyric in the world. Indeed this galaxy of eminent authors Bhoja and Mammata, Bhāskara and Rāmānuja, Jayadeva and Śriharsha and many others illumines to some extent this sombre period of Mediæval Hindu history of India.

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∗ अभ्रान्तकुण्डमण्डलचलधूमवलिश्यामल-व्योमावलयं विलोक्य विलसन्नीलाम्बुदालिभ्रमात्। विस्फारितवेत्रपाणितततोपोद्धरे यमूनै सपक्षप्रसरा रटन्ति पडवो हंसा मुहुः केकिनः ॥ (E. I. I p. 41).

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∗ All these were zealously studied by learned men of this period as will appear from the following description of a great Pandit in E. I. I. p. 41, मीमांसाद्वयपारगो धुरससौ-पञ्चाक्षपीये नये सांख्ये चाप्रतिहतनयनिधिष्यक्षोऽक्षपावोक्तिदक्षः । यश्चार्वाकविशालमानमलभो युर्भर-मीमांसुषैः पानानन्दितकुम्भसम्भवमुनीर्वाससामन्तकः ॥

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