History of Bengali Language and Literature c6.s8.12

c6.s8.12

It has already been said in a foregoing chapter that our language, under Buddhistic influence, had lapsed into a very lax form of Prākṛita, and was on that account treated with contempt by the Brāhmanic school. I have already referred to some of its chief sources of development after the downfall of Buddhism. Within the last one thousand years there has been a movement for the enrichment of our language by importing Sanskrit words, and by correcting the current forms of words according to the rules laid down in Sanskrit-grammar. Curiously enough, in this process of the resuscitation of words, our language offers a striking resemblance to the Romance languages, which also passed through a similar process, almost at the same period of history. If we look into the works noticed in the foregoing pages, this fact will be apparent. In spite of many portions of these works having been recast in subsequent times, there are numerous instances in them of words belonging to a very lax form of Prākṛita, which are no longer in written use. I quote some such words below:—