History of Bengali Language and Literature c6.s8.14

c6.s8.14

The influence of the written forms of words in a literary language, is often reflected in its spoken forms, and if we study the Prākṛita writings of the 5th and 6th centuries, we shall find numerous instances of লাম, দলিদ, চালুদত্ত, চলন and similar words being used for রাম, দরিদ্র, চাৰুদত্ত, চৰণ &c. These loose forms are no longer in use in any spoken dialect of India within the knowledge of the writer of the present treatise. In the translation of the Rāmāyaṇa by Krittivāsa (born, 1432 A. D.) there is one curious passage, which he certainly did not find in the original poem of Vālmīki, referring to this process of the recovery of words from their lax Prākrita forms. Vālmīki, when he was a robber could not say রাম but pronounced the word as লাম. The sage Nārada attributed this inability to the vices that he had practised in life, and declared with much force that no vicious man would ever be able to pronounce র. This story may be understood as an instance of the way in which the later Brahmanical school attacked and overcame the loose forms of Prākrita current in the Buddhistic period. No Bengali peasant, however illiterate, would now be excused if he could not pronounce the র in রাম.