History of Bengali Language and Literature c8.35

c8.35

The literature of Western Bengal had many words which have passed out of the current dialect of that province but the use of them still lingers in Eastern Bengal. The words করিমু, খাইমু, করিবাম, খাম, দিবাম, etc., occur in Chaitanya-Bhāgavata and in the Manaṣā Maṅgalas written three to four hundred years ago by authors who were born in Birbhum and contiguous districts. And curiously enough the people of these districts now ridicule the people of Eastern Bengal for continuing to use the same words. Instances of করোস, করেন্ত, বোলেন্ত, etc., abound in the early literature of Eastern Bengal and that of the west also is not wholly free from such uses. In Çrikriṣṇa Vijaya by Mālādhara Vasu, Dāker Vachana and other works of West Bengal, many examples of পিবন্তি, যান্তি, খায়োমি, পুজসি, etc., are found. In Eastern Bengal we find the termination 'ও' affixed to a number of words after the manner of Prākrita, such as মাও for মা, পাও for পা, খাও for খা, নাও for না, রাও for রা, গাঁও for গাঁ, ছাও for ছা, দাও for দা, ভাও for ভাব, বাও for বা, তাও for তা. Occcasionally they are met with in the earlier literature of Western Bengal also, as in Dāker-vachan “রূপার দোলায় ফেলাম পাও.”