History of Bengali Language and Literature c6.s8.98

c6.s8.98

Asāmese, Uriyā and Bengali. Let us say a word regarding Āsāmese and Uriyā in relation to Bengali, the three now forming distinct languages. Before the first Bengali grammar was written by Mr. Halhead, Bengali—which was called “Gauḍīya Sādhū Bhāsā” by the people—presented different provincial dialects even in literary compositions. The same author's works were read all over a vast tract of country, which geographically transcended the limits of Modern Bengal and the Eastern Provinces. But words were changed by those who copied the manuscripts, conformably to the dialectical peculiarities of each district, so that one reads 'লাফ' in the old manuscripts of Krittivāsa found in Western Bengal where লাফ would be the usual form in a manuscript of the same work, recovered from the Eastern Provinces. The Vaiṣṇava works in Bengali found readers in Orissā and Āssām. The people of those countries occasionally changed words in those works to suit the peculiar forms of their dialects. Many Bengali works have lately been found in manuscript forms in Orissā. Bengali, therefore, in the various forms charecteristic of provincial dialects presented a literature which used to be read and written by the people of a vast area bounded by the sea on the South,—extending to the Himalayan forests on the North of Old Gauḍa,—stretching so far as Magadha and Mithila in the West and reaching to the backwoods of Āssām and the out-skirts of Burmā on the East. The differences of dialect described, could have been easily synthetised by a common grammar, including Āssāmese, Uriyā and Bengali in one group. Bengali, recognised as the most advanced language in Eastern India, and fast assimilating the forms of different provincial dialects, for the purpose of propagating the Vaiṣṇava creed, might have been taken as the common vehicle for the expression of the thought of these three provinces; and in fact on the principle of natural selection, it had already, before the beginning of the nineteenth century, advanced its claim towards that end. But Āsāmese and Uriyā have now alienated themselves from Bengali. The people of those provinces declare that they possess a distinct literature of their own which is as old as Bengali literature; and indeed they do. The people of Chittagong, Tippera and Sylhet also possess old literatures stamped with provincialism of dialect, which now form a valuable part of our literature; but which are by no means any way nearer, in style and form, to the old literature of the Burdwan and Bānkurā districts, than are Āsāmese and Uriyā. The vanity of preserving the peculiarities of a small province may be natural amongst its own people, but it does not indicate a healthy state of feeling. The literary language of England has now reached a wonderful development because the American, the Irish, the Scotch and the Australian have all adopted it. There is no want of peculiarities and dialectical differences in the forms of this language as spoken in those countries; but these differences of the spoken language are not recognised in writing, and all these countries have submitted to a single grammar. The language has thus gathered strength from the co-operation of its votaries who recognise this unity in their literature, though politically many of them are not under the same yoke. Here is a passage which I quote as a specimen of the spoken dialect of Chittagong. No Bengali of the Western districts would understand a line of it and in the peculiar from which it exhibits, it would appear more remote from current Bengali than is Uriyā or Āsāmese.