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A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s5: Indian Languages in Their Relation to Literature

A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s5

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Indian Languages in Their Relation to Literature

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¹ See *R. G. Bhandarkar*, JBRAS 16, 245 ff.; 17, 1 ff., and *G. Grierson*, BSOS I, 3, 1920 pp. 51 ff.

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The whole of this vast literature which has thus been handed down to us, is for the most part composed in Sanskrit. Yet the terms "Indian literature" and "Sanskrit literature" are by no means identical. The history of Indian literature in the most comprehensive sense of the word is the history of a literature which not only stretches across great periods of time and an enormous area, but also one which is composed in many languages. Those languages of India which belong to the Indo-European family of languages, have passed through three great phases of development, partly consecutive in time, but partly also parallel.

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These are:

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I. Ancient Indian, II. The Middle Indian languages and dialects, III. The Modern Indian languages and dialects.

I. Ancient Indian

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The language of the oldest Indian literary monuments, of the songs, prayers and magic formulas of the Vedas, is sometimes called "Ancient Indian" in the narrower sense, sometimes also "Vedic" (inappropriately also "Vedic Sanskrit"). "Ancient High Indian"¹ is perhaps the best name for this language, which, while based on a spoken dialect, is yet no longer an actual popular language, but a literary language transmitted in the circle of priestly singers from generation to generation, and intentionally preserved in its archaic form. The dialect on which the Ancient High Indian is based, the dialect as it was spoken by the Aryan immigrants in the North-west of India, was closely related to the Ancient Persian and Avestic, and not very far removed from the primitive Indo-Iranian language.² Indeed, the difference between the language of the Vedas and this primitive Indo-Iranian language seems to be less, perhaps, than that between the Indian languages Sanskrit and Pāli. The Vedic language hardly differs at all from Sanskrit in its phonetics, but only through a much greater antiquity, and especially through a greater wealth of grammatical forms. Thus for instance, Ancient High Indian has a subjunctive which is missing in Sanskrit; it has a dozen different infinitive-endings, of which but one single one remains in Sanskrit. The aorists, very largely represented in the Vedic language, disappear in the Sanskrit more and more. Also the case and personal endings are still much more perfect in the oldest language than in the later Sanskrit.

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¹ It is called thus by *Rhys Davids*, "Buddhist India," p. 153.

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² This is the common original language to be inferred from a comparison of the language of the Veda with the Old Persian of the cuneiform inscriptions and the language of the Avesta.

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A later phase of Ancient High Indian appears already in the hymns of the tenth book of the Ṛgveda and in some parts of the Atharvaveda, and the collections of the Yajurveda. On the other hand, the language of the Vedic prose writings, of the Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads, has preserved only a few relics of Ancient High Indian, on the whole the language of these works is already what is called "Sanskrit," while the language of the Sūtras belonging to the Vedāṅgas only in quite exceptional cases shows Vedic forms, but is essentially pure Sanskrit. Only the numerous Mantras, taken from the ancient Vedic hymns, *i.e.* verses, prayers, spells, and magic formulas, which we find quoted in the Vedic prose writings and the Sūtras, belong, as regards their language, to Ancient High Indian.

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The Sanskrit of this most ancient prose-literature—of the Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas, Upaniṣads and of the Sūtras—differs little from the Sanskrit which is taught in the celebrated grammar of Pāṇini (probably about fifth century B. C.). The best designation is perhaps "Ancient Sanskrit." It is the language which was spoken in Pāṇini's time, and probably earlier too, by the educated, principally by the priests and scholars. It is the Sanskrit of which Patañjali, a grammarian of the second century B. C., still says that in order to learn it correctly one must hear it from the "Śiṣṭas," that is, from the learned Brahmans who were well versed in literature. But that the sphere of people speaking Sanskrit extended much further—to all "educated people"—we learn from the same Patañjali, who tells us an anecdote, in which a grammarian converses in Sanskrit with a charioteer and the two have a discussion on etymologies. When in Indian dramas, the languages are so distributed that the king, the Brahmans, and nobles speak Sanskrit, while the women and all the common people use the vulgar tongues, only with the noteworthy exception that a few educated women (nuns and courtesans) occasionally speak Sanskrit, whereas uneducated Brahmans are introduced speaking popular dialects, then most probably the use of the languages in real life is reflected therein—and not only of the period after Christ, when these dramas were composed, but also of much earlier centuries. Sanskrit was certainly not a popular language, but the language spoken in wide circles of educated people, and understood in still wider circles. For, as in the drama dialogues occur between Sanskrit-speaking and Prākrit-speaking persons, so too in real life Sanskrit must have been understood by those who did not speak it themselves.¹ Also the bards, who recited the popular epics in the palaces of kings and in the houses of the rich and nobles, must have been understood. The language of the epics is likewise Sanskrit. We call it "Epic Sanskrit," and it differs but little from the "Classical Sanskrit," partly in that it has preserved some archaisms, but more in that it keeps less strictly to the rules of grammar and approaches more nearly to the language of the people, so that one may call it a more popular form of Sanskrit. But there would never have been popular epics written in Sanskrit,¹ if Sanskrit had not once been a language that was widely understood—similarly as to-day in Germany Modern High German is universally understood, although it differs essentially from all spoken dialects.

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¹ The linguistic conditions of ancient India, of which the dramas give us such a good idea, have altered very little up to the present day. It still happens that in a rich house with a large staff of servants who come from different districts, a dozen different languages and dialects are spoken and generally understood. *G. A. Grierson* describes a case known to himself, where in one house in Bengal, no less than thirteen languages and dialects are spoken. The master of the house speaks to Europeans in the refined Bengali language, while in ordinary life he uses the Bengali of every-day intercourse, which differs widely from the literary language. His wife comes from a place at a distance of one hundred miles, and speaks the peculiar women's dialect of that district. His secondary wife, whose ordinary colloquial language is the Urdu of Lucknow, lapses into a jargon when she is angry. The manager of his business speaks Dhākī, while among the servants some speak Uriyā, others Bhojpuri, Awadhī, Maithilī, Ahīrī, and Chaṭgaiyā. They all understand each other perfectly, although each one speaks his own dialect. It very rarely happens that one of them uses the dialect of the person whom he is addressing. (Ind. Ant., 30, 1901, p. 556.)

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¹ It has been suggested that the popular epics were originally composed in dialect and were later translated into Sanskrit. This supposition, however, lacks all evidence from facts, as H. *Jacobi* (ZDMG., 48, 407 ff.) has shown.

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That Sanskrit is a "high language" or "class language" or "literary language"—whatever we may call it in contrast to the actual language of the people—the Indians themselves express through the name "Sanskrit." For Sanskrit—Saṃskṛta, as much as "made ready, ordered, prepared, perfect, pure, sacred"—signifies the noble or sacred language, in contradistinction to "Prākrit"—prākṛta, as much as "original, natural, ordinary, common"—which signifies the "common language of the people."

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Yet Sanskrit should never be spoken of as a "dead" language, rather as a "fettered" language, inasmuch as its natural development was checked, in that, through the rules of the grammarians, it was arrested at a certain stage. For through the Grammar of Pāṇini, in about the fifth century B. C., a fixed standard was created, which remained a criterion for the Sanskrit language for all future times. What we call "Classical Sanskrit" means Pāṇini's Sanskrit, that is, the Sanskrit which according to the rules of Pāṇini's Grammar, is alone correct.² In the "fetters" of this Grammar, however, the language still continued to live. The great mass of poetic and scientific literature, throughout a thousand years, was produced in this language, the "Classical Sanskrit." Moreover Sanskrit is not a "dead" language even to-day. There are still at the present day a number of Sanskrit periodicals in India, and topics of the day are discussed in Sanskrit pamphlets. Also the Mahābhārata is still to-day read aloud publicly, which pre-supposes at least a partial understanding. I have myself observed with pleasure and surprise, that scenes from such ornate Sanskrit dramas as Mudrārākṣasa and Uttararāmacarita, performed on a primitive stage at Santiniketan, were understood and greatly appreciated by a large audience of students, both men and women. To this very day poetry is still composed and works are still written in Sanskrit, and it is the language in which Indian scholars even now converse upon scientific questions. Sanskrit at the least plays the same part in India still as Latin in the Middle Ages in Europe, or as Hebrew with the Jews.¹

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² Only this literary language as determined by the Indian grammarians is called Sanskrit by the Indians. If, as it is often done, people speak of "Vedic Sanskrit" the term "Sanskrit" is extended to Ancient Indian.

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¹ There are epigraphical grounds for assuming that Sanskrit is a modification of a Northern Indian dialect, which was developed by schools of grammar, and which in historical times spread slowly throughout India among the educated classes; see Bühler, Ep. Ind., I, p. 5. Sanskrit is called a sacred language (brāhmī vāc) in the Mahābhārata I. 78, 13, and it probably always was the language of a certain class of society. *Cf.* Windisch, Ueber den sprachlichen Charakter des Pali (OC., XIV, Paris, 1906), pp. 14 ff.; Thomas JRAS., 1904, 747 f.; W. Petersen, JAOS., 32, 1912, 414 ff.; T. Michelson, JAOS 33 1913, 145 ff. About the wide use of Sanskrit in the India of to-day Paul Deussen ("Erinnerungen an Indien," Kiel, 1904, pp. 2 f.) says: "Not only the professional scholars, as especially the native Sanskrit Professors of the Indian Universities, speak Sanskrit with great elegance, not only their hearers are able to handle it as well as our students of classical philology can handle Latin, but the numerous private scholars, saints, ascetics, and even wider circles can speak and write Sanskrit with facility: I have repeatedly conversed in it for hours with the Maharaja of Benares: manufacturers, industrials, merchants, partly speak it or understand what is spoken: in every little village my first enquiry was for one who speaks Sanskrit, whereupon immediately one or another came forward, who usually became my guide, indeed often my friend." When he gave lectures in English, he was often invited to repeat in Sanskrit what he had said. "After this had been done, a discussion followed in which some spoke English, others Sanskrit, yet others Hindi, which therefore was also understood, to a certain extent, because pure Hindi differs from Sanskrit in little more than by the loss of inflectional endings. Hence every Hindu understands as much of Sanskrit as an Italian of Latin, especially as, in the real Hindustan, the script has remained the same: and a smattering of Sanskrit can be traced down to the circles of servants and the lower classes wherefore a letter to Benares with only a Sanskrit address will without difficulty reach its destination, through every postal messenger." As to Sanskrit as a "living" language, see also S. Krishṇavarmā in OC V, Berlin, 1881, II b, p. 222; R. G. Bhandarkar, JBRAS., 16, 1885, 268 ff., 327 ff.; *Windisch*, OC XIV, Paris, 1897, I. 257, 266; *Hertel*, Tantrākhyāyika, Transl. I., pp. 8 ff., and HOS., Vol. XII, pp. 80 ff.

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Summing up, I would, therefore, divide Ancient Indian in its relation to literature as follows:—
1. Ancient High Indian: (*a*) Language of the oldest hymns and mantras, especially of those of the Ṛgveda. (*b*) Language of the later hymns and mantras, especially those of the other Vedas, besides of the mantras occurring only in the Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras.
2. Sanskrit. (*a*) Ancient Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic prose works (with the exception of the Mantras) and of Pāṇini. (*b*) Epic Sanskrit, the language of the popular epics. (*c*) Classical Sanskrit, the language of the Classical Sanskrit literature after Pāṇini.

II. The Middle Indian Languages and Dialects

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Simultaneously and parallel with the development of Sanskrit proceeded the more natural further development of the popular dialects spoken by the Aryan Indians. The languages and dialects which we distinguish as "Middle Indian" are not indeed derived directly from the Sanskrit, but rather from the Indo-Aryan popular languages which underlie the Ancient High Indian and the Sanskrit, or are related to the two latter. Considering the size of India, it is not to be wondered at that, with the gradual spreading of the Aryan immigrants from the West to the East and the South, a large number of varying dialects were formed. Of the diversity of these dialects we get an idea from the oldest Indian inscriptions, which are all written in Middle Indian and *not* in Sanskrit. Quite a number of such popular languages, moreover, have been raised to the rank of literary languages. Only these shall be briefly enumerated here :

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1. The most important of the Middle Indian literary languages is *Pāli*, the ecclesiastical language of the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam, the language in which the oldest preserved collection of sacred writings of Buddhism is written. The Buddhists themselves tell us that the Buddha did not, like the Brahmans, preach in the learned Sanskrit, but talked to the people in the language of the people. As Buddha first preached in the land of Magadha (Southern Bihar), and there displayed his best activity, therefore the Buddhists tell us that Pāli is the same as Māgadhī, the language of the province of Magadha. However, that cannot be right, as the dialect of Magadha which is otherwise known to us does not agree with Pāli. It is, however, probable that Pāli is a mixed language the foundation of which was Māgadhī.¹ The word Pāli really signifies "row," then "order, regulation, rule," hence also "sacred text" and finally the language of the sacred texts, in contradistinction to the Ancient Sinhalese, the language in which the commentaries to these texts were composed.

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¹ This is the view of E. *Windisch*, "Ueber den sprachlichen Charakter des Pali" (OC., XIV., Paris, 1906) and of G. A. *Grierson*, Bhandarkar Com. Vol., 117 ff. The latter agrees with *Sten Konow* (ZDMG 64, 1910, 114 ff.), that Pāli is similar to Paiśācī-Prākrit. The latter was probably the local dialect of Eastern Gāndhāra and the district of Taxila, a famous seat of learning at the time of Buddha.

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2. Besides the Pāli literature there exists also a Buddhist Sanskrit literature. Now in these Buddhist works there is frequently only the prose in Sanskrit, while the interspersed metrical pieces, the so-called "Gāthās" (*i.e.* "songs" or "verses") are composed in a Middle Indian dialect, which has therefore been called “Gāthā dialect.” But this term is not quite appropriate, as the same dialect is found also in prose portions, and even whole prose works are written in it. It is an old Indian dialect, which through the insertion of Sanskrit terminations and other Sanskritisms in a rather crude manner, tries to approach the Sanskrit, wherefore Senart suggested for it the designation “mixed Sanskrit.”¹

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¹ See S. *Lefmann*, ZDMG, 212 ff.; and E. *Senart*, Ind. Ant., 21, 1892, 243 ff.

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3. Like the Buddhists, the Jains too did not use Sanskrit for their sacred writings, but Middle Indian dialects, indeed two different Prākrits:²

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² The Hindus do not designate popular languages generally by the term “Prākrit” but only those popular languages which are used in literature. For the whole of this chapter see R. *Pischel*, “Grammatik der Prākrit-Sprachen” (in Grundriss I, 8 Einleitung) and H. *Jacobi* in A Bay. AXXIX, 4, 1918, pp. 81 * ff.

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(*a*) The Jaina Prākrit (also called Ardhamāgadhī or Ārṣa), the language of the older works of the Jaina Canon.

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(*b*) The Jaina-Māhārāṣṭrī, the language in which the commentaries to the Jaina Canon and the non-religious poetical works of the Jainas are written.³ This dialect is closely related to that Prākrit, which has been used most frequently as a literary language for secular writing, namely—

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³ See H. *Jacobi*, Ueber das Prākrit in der Erzählungs-litteratur der Jainas, in RSO, II, 1909, pp. 231 ff.

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4. The Māhārāṣṭrī, the language of Mahārāṣṭra, the land of the Marathas. This is universally considered the best Prākrit, and when the Indians speak simply of Prākrit then they mean Māhārāṣṭrī. It was used principally for lyric poetry, especially also for the lyric parts in the dramas. However, there are also epic poems in Māhārāṣṭrī. Other important Prākrit dialects which are used in the drama are:

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5. The Śaurasenī, which in the prose of the dramas is chiefly spoken by high-born women. Its foundation is the dialect of Śūrasena, the capital of which is Mathurā.

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6. Persons of the lower classes speak Māgadhī in the dramas, the dialect of Magadha, and

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7. Paiśācī is spoken in the drama by the members of the lowest grades of society. The word probably originally designated the dialect of a branch of the Piśācas, although the Indians declared it to be the language of the demons called Piśācas. A famous book of narrative literature, Guṇāḍhya's Bṛhatkathā was also composed in this Paiśācī dialect.

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8. Lastly the Apabhraṃśa which is used in popular poetry, in Jaina romances and occasionally in the drama, stands midway between the Prākrit and the modern Indian vernaculars: for “Apabhraṃśa” is a general term for literary idioms which, though based on the Prākrit, are more closely adapted to certain popular dialects.[^1)

III. The Modern Indian Languages and Dialects

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By about the year 1000 A.D. the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars had developed out of the Middle Indian dialects, and from the 12th century onwards these languages can show literatures of their own, which are partly independent and partly dependent on the Sanskrit literature. The most important of these vernaculars is Hindī, the language of the ancient Madhyadeśa or midland, *i.e.* of the greater portion of the Gangetic Dōāb and of the adjacent plain to the Himalaya in the North, to the valley of the Nerbudda in the South, beyond Delhi in the West and nearly as far as Cawnpore in the East. Of the numerous Hindī dialects, Kanaujī and

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[^1): On the Apabhraṃśas S. H. *Jacobi* in A Bay A XXIX, 4, 1918, pp. 53 * ff.; XXXI, 2, 1921, pp. xviii ff., 1 ff. and in Festschrift für Wackernagel, pp. 124 ff. *Jacobi* is of opinion, that the Apabhraṃśa was first used by the poets of the Ābhīras and Gurjaras. [^2): I follow the excellent survey of the Indo-Aryan Vernaculars given by Sir George Grierson in BSOS I., 1, 1918, pp. 47 ff. Compare also E. J. *Rapson*, Cambridge History I, 37 ff.

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Bundēlī, and especially Braj Bhākhā (the language of the district of Mathurā), have produced literature worthy of the name. Hindōstānī or Urdu, a dialect with a strong admixture of Perso-Arabic elements,¹ is a form of the Hindī language. It originated in the twelfth century in the neighbourhood of Delhi, then the centre of the Mohammedan rule, in the camps (urdu) of the soldiers, hence also called "Urdu," *i.e.* "camp language." In the 16th century it also began to produce literature. Now-a-days it is the *lingua franca* of the whole of Northern India. High Hindī is a return to the vernacular of the Upper Dōāb, which is not as yet influenced by Persian. The following languages, belonging to the adjacent regions, are closely related to the language of the midland : Pānjābī in the North-West, Rājasthānī and Gujarātī in the West, Eastern Pahārī or Naipālī (the language of Nepal), Central Pahārī and Western Pahārī in the East. Rājasthānī and Gujarātī are closely related. Mārwārī, a dialect of Rājasthānī, can scarcely be distinguished from Gujarātī. Eastern Hindī, the language in which Tulsī Dās wrote, is more closely related to the "Outer" languages. Among the latter are : Lahndā (the language of Western Panjāb) and Sindhī in the North-West, Marāthī in the South, Bihārī, Oriyā, Bengālī and Assamese in the East. Maithili is a dialect of Bihārī. Since the beginning of the 19th century literary Bengālī has diverged considerably from the vernacular by reason of the absorption of so many Sanskrit words. The High Hindī of Benares shows a similar tendency. Now-a-days, however, good authors, both in Bengālī and in Hindī, are aiming at keeping their language free from borrowed Sanskrit words.

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¹ It is also written in Persian-Arabic characters.

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The "Dardic" or modern Piśāca languages, among which Kāśmīrī (the language of Kashmir) possesses a considerable literature, form a separate group.

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Finally, Singhalese, the language of Ceylon, is an Indo-Germanic dialect descended from the Middle Indian. Through the introduction of Buddhism and the Buddhistic literature into Ceylon, an early literary activity began here, which was at first limited to the elucidation of the religious texts. In the later centuries we find, in addition, a secular literature influenced by Sanskrit poetry.¹

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¹ See Wilhelm Geiger, Literatur und Sprache der Singhalesen, in "Grundriss" I, 10

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All the Indian languages mentioned up to now belong to the Indo-Germanic group of languages. Besides these there are in India a number of non-Indo-Germanic languages, namely the Munda languages (scattered dialects in the Mahadeo Hills of the Central Provinces, in the Santāl Parganās and Chotā Nāgpur), the Tibeto-Burmese languages (on the Northern and North-Eastern borders of India proper) and above all the Dravidian languages of Southern India. The latter must at one time have been common in the North as well,² for the Indo-Aryan languages show strong Dravidian influence.³ The most important Dravidian languages are Malayalam (on the coast of Malabar), Kanarese, Telugu and Tamil. Although these languages are not Indo-Germanic, numerous Samskritisms have penetrated into them: moreover, the not unimportant literature of these languages is greatly dependent on the Sanskrit literature.

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² Sporadic Dravidian dialects are found also in the Ganges valley and even in Baluchistan (Brahūī).

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³ See Grierson, BSOS., I, 3, 1920, pp. 71 f.

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In this book we shall have to limit ourselves mainly to the Sanskrit, Pāli and Prākrit literature. At most it will only be possible to touch on modern Indian literature in an Appendix.

Cites (7)