Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c9.4

c9.4

The Hindî has a great many dialects. Two at least may be distinguished among the variety of speech prevalent in Rajputana, the Mewârî spoken in Mewar and the adjoining districts, and the Mârwârî which prevails in Marwar, Jesselmere, and the other provinces. These, as may be inferred from their geographical position, are midway between the Gujarâtî and the Hindî dialects of the North, displaying some of the peculiar characteristics of both. Further north, we have the Braj prevailing in the country about Mathurâ; and to the east the Kanojî. There is not much difference between these. The language of the history of 84 Vaishṇavas and other books of the Vallabhâchâryan sects, which is ordinarily supposed to be the Braj, has grammatical forms identical with those mentioned by a recent grammarian as peculiar to the Kanojî. There is a good deal of confusion as regards this matter, the characteristics of one being found in the printed books together with those belonging to another. Then further north, we have the Garhawâlî and the Kumaonî spoken in the provinces of Garhawal and Kumaon. To the east, we have the Avadhî or the dialect of the province of Avadha or Ayodhyâ, and to the south of this again is the Rewâî spoken in the State of Rewâ. Further to the east is the Bhojpurî, and kindred dialects prevailing in Bihâr and the adjacent districts on the confines of Bengal. The old literature of the Hindî is principally written in two dialects, the Braj, and what is called the Pûrbî. Sûradâsa's works, Behârilâl's Satasâî, and others are written in the former; and to these I may add the Vallabha works I have already mentioned. The Râmâyana and Tulasîdâsa's other works are written in the latter. The chief distinction between the idioms of Sûradâsa and Tulasîdâsa appears to me to be, that the latter uses a great many grammatical forms which are old, and from which those used by the former are derived. In this respect Pûrbî might be considered to be a very old form of the Braj. But there are a few other distinctions, though it is questionable whether they are enough to justify the Pûrbî being considered an independent dialect. The language of Kabîra's Ramainî and Sâkhîs presents a few peculiarities found in neither of the above. But the characteristics of Sûradâsa and Tulasîdâsa are also to be found in it; so that if we leave out of consideration the other works of Kabîra, in which there is probably another variety of speech, the dialect used by these Hindî poets may be considered to be the same. This has come to be regarded as the poetic dialect, and most of the other Hindî poets have written in it. Its modern representative is the Braj, in which the commentaries on Tulasîdâsa's, Kabîra's and Behârilâl's works, and on the tenth book of the Bhâgavata that I have seen, are written. This then is the Hindî literary dialect. The language, however, which is used as the medium of instruction in the Government schools in the North-Western Provinces, and in which the books published by the Educational Department are written, is now regarded as the Standard Hindî and its grammatical structure is identical with that of the Urdu spoken by the Mussalmans. This is rather the dialect in which the Hindus of the different provinces in Northern India communicate with each other, than that which they speak in their own provinces. The Panjâbî has also several dialects; but little is known about them. Oriyî resembles the Bangâlî in so many respects that one of them may be considered a dialect of the other. The similarity between the Hindî and the Panjâbî is also very great. I will now give short specimens of these dialects.