Puritan revolution Hindley church was entered by the Cavaliers, who played at cards in the pews, pulled down the pulpit and tore the Bible in pieces.
HINDOSTANI (properly Hindōstāni, of or belonging to Hindostan[1]), the name given by Europeans to an Indo-Aryan dialect (whose home is in the upper Gangetic Doab and near the city of Delhi), which, owing to political causes, has become the great lingua franca of modern India. The name is not employed by natives of India, except as an imitation of the English nomenclature. Hindostani is by origin a dialect of Western Hindi, and it is first of all necessary to explain what we mean by the term “Hindi” as applied to language. Modern Indo-Aryan languages fall into three groups,—an outer band, the language of the Midland and an intermediate band. The Midland consists of the Gangetic Doab and of the country to its immediate north and south, extending, roughly speaking, from the Eastern Punjab on the west, to Cawnpore on its east. The language of this tract is called “Western Hindi”; to its west we have Panjabi (of the Central Punjab), and to the east, reaching as far as Benares, Eastern Hindi, both Intermediate languages. These three will all be dealt with in the present article. Panjabi and Western Hindi are derived from Śaurasēnī, and Eastern Hindi from Ardham gadhā Prakrit, through the corresponding Apabhraṁśas (see Prakrit). Eastern Hindi differs in many respects from the two others, but it is customary to consider it together with the language of the Midland, and this will be followed on the present occasion. In 1901 the speakers of these three languages numbered: Panjabi, 17,070,961; Western Hindi, 40,714,925; Eastern Hindi, 22,136,358.
Linguistic Boundaries.—Taking the tract covered by these three forms of speech, it has to its west, in the western Punjab, Lahndā (see Sindhi), a language of the Outer band. The parent of Lahndā once no doubt covered the whole of the Punjab, but, in the process of expansion of the tribes of the Midland described in the article Indo-Aryan Languages, it was gradually driven back, leaving traces of its former existence which grow stronger as we proceed westwards, until at about the 74th degree of east longitude there is a mixed, transition dialect. To the west of that degree Lahndā may be said to be established, the deserts of the west-central Punjab forming a barrier and protecting it, just as, farther south, a continuation of the same desert has protected Sindhi from Rajasthani. It is the old traces of Lahndā which mainly differentiate Panjabi from Hindostani. To the south of Panjabi and Western Hindi lies Rajasthani. This language arose in much the same way as Panjabi. The expanding Midland language was stopped by the desert from reaching Sindhi, but to the south-west it found an unobstructed way into Gujarat, where, under the form of Gujarati, it broke the continuity of the Outer band. Eastern Hindi, as an Intermediate form of speech, is of much older lineage. It has been an Intermediate language since, at least, the institution of Jainism (say, 500 B.C.), and is much less subject to the influence of the Midland than is Panjabi. To its east it has Bihari, and, stretching far to the south, it has Marathi as its neighbour in that direction, both of these being Outer languages.
Dialects.—The only important dialect of Eastern Hindi is Awadhī, spoken in Oudh, and possessing a large literature of great excellence. Chhattīsgaṛhī and Baghēlī, the other dialects, have scanty literatures of small value. Western Hindi has four main dialects, Bundēlī of Bundelkhand, Braj Bhasha (properly “Braj Bhāṣā”) of the country round Mathura (Muttra), Kanaujī of the central Doab and the country to its north, and vernacular Hindostani of Delhi and the Upper Doab. West of the Upper Doab, across the Jumna, another dialect, Bāngarū, is also found. It possesses no literature. Kanauji is very closely allied to Braj Bhasha, and these two share with Awadhi the honour of being the great literary speeches of northern India. Nearly all the classical literature of India is religious in character, and we may say that, as a broad rule, Awadhi literature is devoted to the Ramaite religion and the epic poetry connected with it, while that of Braj Bhasha is concerned with the religion of Krishna. Vernacular Hindostani has no literature of its own, but as the lingua franca now to be described it has a large one. Panjabi has one dialect, Dōgrī, spoken in the Himalayas.
Hindostani as a Lingua Franca.—It has often been said that Hindostani is a mongrel “pigeon” form of speech made up of contributions from the various languages which met in Delhi bazaar, but this theory has now been proved to be unfounded, owing to the discovery of the fact that it is an actual living dialect of Western Hindi, existing for centuries in its present habitat, and the direct descendant of Śaurasēnī Prakrit. It is not a typical dialect of that language, for, situated where it is, it represents Western Hindi merging into Panjabi (Braj Bhasha being admittedly the standard of the language), but to say that it is a mongrel tongue thrown together in the market is to reverse the order of events. It was the natural language of the people in the neighbourhood of Delhi, who formed the bulk of those who resorted to the bazaar, and hence it became the bazaar language. From here it became the lingua franca of the Mogul camp and was carried everywhere in India by the lieutenants of the empire. It has several recognized varieties, amongst which we may mention Dakhinī, Urdū, Rēkhta and Hindī. Dakhini or “southern,” is the form current in the south of India, and was the first to be employed for literature. It contains many archaic expressions now extinct in the standard dialect. Urdu, or Urdū zabān, “the language of the camp,” is the name usually employed for Hindostani by natives, and is now the standard form of speech used by Mussulmans. All the early Hindostani literature was in poetry, and this literary form of speech was named “Rēkhta,” or “scattered,” from the way in which words borrowed from Persian were “scattered” through it. The name is now reserved for the dialect used in poetry, Urdu being the dialect of prose and of conversation. The introduction of these borrowed words, which has been carried to even a greater extent in Urdu, was facilitated by the facts that the latter was by origin a “camp” language, and that Persian was the official language of the Mogul court. In this way Persian (and, with Persian, Arabic) words came into current use, and, though the language remained Indo-Aryan in its grammar and essential characteristics, it soon became unintelligible to any one who had not at least a moderate acquaintance with the vocabulary of Iran. This extreme Persianization of Urdu was due rather to Hindu than to Persian influence. Although Urdu literature was Mussulman in its origin, the Persian element was first introduced in excess by the pliant Hindu officials employed in the Mogul administration, and acquainted with Persian, rather than by Persians and Persianized Moguls, who for many centuries used only their own languages for literary purposes.[2] Prose Urdu literature took its
- ↑ “Hindōstān” is a Persian word, and in modern Persian is pronounced “Hindūstān.” It means the country of the Hindūs. In medieval Persian the word was “Hindōstān,” with an ō, but in the modern language the distinctions between ē and ī and between ō and ū have been lost. Indian languages have borrowed Persian words in their medieval form. Thus in India we have shēr, a tiger, as compared with modern Persian shīr; gō, but modern Pers. gū; bōstān, but modern Pers. būstān. The word “Hindu” is in medieval Persian “Hindō” representing the ancient Avesta hendava (Sanskrit, saindhava), a dweller on the Sindhu or Indus. Owing to the influence of scholars in modern Persian the word “Hindū” is now established in English and, through English, in the Indian literary languages; but “Hindō” is also often heard in India. “Hindostan” with o is much more common both in English and in Indian languages, although “Hindustan” is also employed. Up to the days of Persian supremacy inaugurated in Calcutta by Gilchrist and his friends, every traveller in India spoke of “Indostan” or some such word, thus bearing testimony to the current pronunciation. Gilchrist introduced “Hindoostan,” which became “Hindustan” in modern spelling. The word is not an Indian one, and both pronunciations, with ō and with ū, are current in India at the present day, but that with ō is unquestionably the one demanded by the history of the word and of the form which other Persian words take on Indian soil. On the other hand “Hindu” is too firmly established in English for us to suggest the spelling “Hindo.”. The word “Hindī” has another derivation, being formed from the Persian Hind, India (Avesta hindu, Sanskrit sindhu, the Indus). “Hindi” means “of or belonging to India,” while “Hindu” now means “a person of the Hindu religion.” (Cf. Sir C. J. Lyall, A Sketch of the Hindustani Language, p. 1).
- ↑ Sir C. J. Lyall, op. cit. p. 9.
