Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology"

Chapter XIX: Act 1894: transferred to the district councils of every rural district (5)

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_Grammar._--In the following account we use these contractions: Skr. =
Sanskrit; Pr. = Prakrit; Ap. = Apabhramsa; W.H. = Western Hindi; E.H.
= Eastern Hindi; H. = Hindostani; Br. = Braj Bhasha; P. = Panjabi.

(A) _Phonetics._--The phonetic system of all three languages is nearly
the same as that of the Apabhramsas from which they are derived. With
a few exceptions, to be noted below, the letters of the alphabets of
the three languages are the same as in Sanskrit. Panjabi, and the
western dialects of Western Hindi, have preserved the old Vedic
cerebral l. There is a tendency for concurrent vowels to run into each
other, and for the semi-vowels y and v to become vowels. Thus, Skr.
_carmakaras_, Ap. _cammaaru_, a leather-worker, becomes H. _camar_;
Skr. _rajani_, Ap. _ra(y)ani_, H. _rain_, night; Skr. _dhavalakas_,
Ap. _dhavalau_, H. _dhaula_, white. Sometimes the semi-vowel is
retained, as in Skr. _kataras_, Ap. _ka(y)aru_, H. _kayar_, a coward.
Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Pr. stage
were double letters, and in W.H. and E.H. these are usually
simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened and sometimes
nasalized, in compensation. P., on the other hand, prefers to retain
the double consonant. Thus, Skr. _karma_, Ap. _kammu_, W.H. and E.H.
_kam_, but P. _kamm_, a work; Skr. _satyas_, Ap. _saccu_, W.H. and
E.H. _sac_, but P. _sacc_, true (H., being the W.H. dialect which lies
nearest to P., often follows that language, and in this instance has
_sacc_, usually written _sac_); Skr. _hastas_, Ap. _hatthu_, W.H. and
E.H. _hath_, but P. _hatth_, a hand. The nasalization of vowels is
very frequent in all three languages, and is here represented by the
sign ~ over the vowel. Sometimes it is compensatory, as in _sac_, but
it often represents an original _m_, as in _kawal_ from Skr.
_kamalas_, a lotus. Final short vowels quiesce in prose pronunciation,
and are usually not written in transliteration; thus the final _a_,
_i_ or _u_ has been lost in all the examples given above, and other
_tatsama_ examples are Skr. _mati_-which becomes _mat_, mind, and Skr.
_vastu_-, which becomes _bast_, a thing. In all poetry, however
(except in the Urdu poetry formed on Persian models, and under the
rules of Persian prosody), they reappear and are necessary for the
scansion.

In _tadbhava_ words an original long vowel in any syllable earlier
than the penultimate is shortened. In P. and H. when the long vowel is
_e_ or _o_ it is shortened to _i_ or _u_ respectively, but in other
W.H. dialects and in E.H. it is shortened to _e_ or _o_; thus, _beti_,
daughter, long form H. _bitiya_, E.H. _betiya_; _ghori_, mare, long
form H. _ghuriya_, E.H. _ghoriya_. The short vowels _e_ and _o_ are
very rare in P. and H., but are not uncommon (though ignored by most
grammars) in E.H. and the other W.H. dialects. A medial _d_ is
pronounced as a strongly burred cerebral _r_, and is then written as
shown, with a supposited dot. All these changes and various
contractions of Prakrit syllables have caused considerable variations
in the forms of words, but generally not so as to obscure the origin.

(B) _Declension._--The nominative form of a _tadbhava_ word is derived
from the nominative form in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but _tatsama_ words
are usually borrowed in the form of the Skr. crude base; thus, Skr.
_hastin_-, nom. _hasti_, Ap. nom. _hatthi_, H. _hathi_, an elephant;
Skr. base _mati_-, nom. _matis_, H. (_tatsama_) _mati_, or, with
elision of the final short vowel, _mat_. Some _tatsamas_ are, however,
borrowed in the nominative form, as in Skr. _dhanin_-, nom. _dhani_,
H. _dhani_, a rich man. As another example of a _tadbhava_ word, we
may take the Skr. nom. _ghotas_, Ap. _ghodu_, H. _ghor_, a horse. Here
again the final short vowel has been elided, but in old poetry we
should find _ghoru_, and corresponding forms in u are occasionally met
with at the present day.

In the article PRAKRIT attention is drawn to the frequent use of
pleonastic suffixes, especially -_ka_- (fem.-(i)_ka_). With such a
suffix we have the Skr. _ghota-kas_, Ap. _ghoda-u_, Western Hindi
_ghorau_, or in P. and H. (which is the W.H. dialect nearest in
locality to P.) _ghora_, a horse; Skr. _ghoti-ka_, Ap. _ghodi-a_, W.H.
and P. _ghodi_, a mare. Such modern forms made with one pleonastic
suffix are called "strong forms," while those made without it are
called "weak forms." All strong forms end in _au_ (or _a_) in the
masculine, and in _i_ in the feminine, whereas, in Skr., and hence in
_tatsamas_, both _a_ and _i_ are generally typical of feminine words,
though sometimes employed for the masculine. It is shown in the
article PRAKRIT that these pleonastic suffixes can be doubled, or even
trebled, and in this way we have a new series of _tadbhava_ forms. Let
us take the imaginary Skr. *_ghota-ka-kas_ with a double suffix. From
this we have the Ap. _ghoda-a-u_, and modern _ghorawa_ (with euphonic
_w_ inserted), a horse. Similarly for the feminine we have Skr.
*_ghoti-ka-ka_, Ap. _ghodi-a-a_, modern _ghoriya_ (with euphonic _y_
inserted), a mare. Such forms, made with two suffixes, are called
"long forms," and are heard in familiar conversation, the feminine
also serving as diminutives. There is a further stage, built upon
three suffixes, and called the "redundant form," which is mainly used
by the vulgar. As a rule masculine long forms end in -_awa_, -_iya_ or
-_ua_, and feminines in -_iya_, although the matter is complicated by
the occasional use of pleonastic suffixes other than the -_ka_- which
we have taken for our example, and is the most common. Strong forms
are rarely met with in E.H., but on the other hand long forms are more
common in that language.

There are a few feminine terminations of weak nouns which may be
noted. These are -_ini_, -_in_, -_an_, -_ni_ (Skr. -_ini_, Pr.
_-ini_); and -_ani_, -_ani_, -_ain_ (Skr. -_ani_, Pr. -_ani_). These
are found not only in words derived from Prakrit, but are added to
Persian and even Arabic words; thus, _hathini_, _hathni_, _hathin_
(Skr. _hastini_, Pr. _hatthini_), a she-elephant; _sunarin_,
_sunaran_, a female goldsmith (_sonar_); _sherni_, a tigress (Persian
_sher_, a tiger); _Nasiban_, a proper name (Arabic _nasib_);
_panditani_, the wife of a _pandit_; _caudhrain_, the wife of a
_caudhri_ or head man; _mehtrani_, the wife of a sweeper (Pres.
_mehtar_, a sweeper). With these exceptions weak forms rarely have any
terminations distinctive of gender.[4]

The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has disappeared. We
see it in the actual stage of disappearance in Apabhramsa (see
PRAKRIT), in which the case terminations had become worn down to
-_hu_, -_ho_, -_hi_, -_hi_ and -_ha_, of which -_hi_ and -_hi_ were
employed for several cases, both singular and plural. There was also a
marked tendency for these terminations to be confused, and in the
earliest stages of the modern vernaculars we find -_hi_ freely
employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -_hi_ for any
oblique case of the plural, but more especially for the genitive and
the locative. In the case of modern weak nouns these terminations have
disappeared altogether in W.H. and P. except in sporadic forms of the
locative such as _gawe_ (for _gawahi_), in the village. In E.H. they
are still heard as the termination of a form which can stand for any
oblique case, and is called the "oblique form" or the "oblique case."
Thus, from _ghar_, a house (a weak noun), we have W.H. and P. oblique
form _ghar_, E.H. _gharahi_, _ghare_ or _ghar_. In the plural, the
oblique form is sometimes founded on the Ap. terminations -_ha_ and
-_hu_, and sometimes on the Skr. termination of the genitive plural
-_anam_ (Pr. -_ana_, -_anham_), as in P. _ghara_, W.H. _gharau_,
_gharo_, _gharani_, E.H. _gharan_. In the case of masculine weak
forms, the plural nominative has dropped the old termination, except
in E.H., where it has adopted the oblique plural form for this case
also, thus _gharan_. The nominative plural of feminine weak forms
follows the example of the masculine in E.H. In P. it also takes the
oblique plural form, while in W.H. it takes the old singular oblique
form in -_ahi_, which it weakens to _ai_ or (H.) _e_; thus _bat_
(fem.), a word, nom. plur. E.H. _bat-an_, P. _bat-a_, W.H. _batai_ or
(H.) _bate_.

Strong masculine bases in Ap. ended in -_a-a_ (nom. -_a-u_); thus
_ghoda-a_- (nom. _ghoda-u_), and adding -_hi_ we get _ghoda-a-hi_,
which becomes contracted _ghodahi_ and finally to _ghore_. The
nominative plural is the same as the oblique singular, except in E.H.
where it follows the oblique plural. The oblique plural of all closely
follows in principle the weak forms. Feminine strong forms in Ap.
ended in -_i-a_, contracted to _i_ in the modern languages. Except in
E.H. the -_hi_ of the original oblique form singular disappears, so
that we have E.H. _ghorihi_ or _ghori_, others only _ghori_. The
nominative plural of feminine strong forms exhibits some
irregularities. In E.H., as usual, it follows the plural oblique
forms. In W.H. (except Hindostani) it simply nasalizes the oblique
form singular (i.e. adds -_hi_ instead of -_hi_), as in _ghori_, but
first on line looks like -hi]. P. and H. adopt the oblique long form
for the plural and nasalize it, thus, P. _ghoria_, H. _ghoriya_. The
oblique plurals call for no further remarks. We thus get the following
summary, illustrating the way in which these nominative and oblique
forms are made.

We have seen that the oblique form is the resultant of a general
melting down of all the oblique cases of Sanskrit and Prakrit, and
that in consequence it can be used for any oblique case. It is obvious
that if it were so employed it would often give rise to great
confusion. Hence, when it is necessary to show clearly what particular
case is intended, it is usual to add defining particles corresponding
to the English prepositions "of," "to," "from," "by," &c., which, as
in all Indo-Aryan languages they follow the main word, are here called
"postpositions." The following are the postpositions commonly employed
to form cases in our three languages:--

+--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+
| | Agent.| Genitive.| Dative.| Ablative.| Locative. |
+--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+
| Panjabi | nai | da | nu | te | vicc |
| Hindostani | ne | ka | ko | se | me |
| Braj Bhasha | ne | kau | kau | te, sau | mai |
| Eastern Hindi| None | ker, k | ka | se | me, bikhe |
+--------------+-------+----------+--------+----------+-----------+

The agent case is the case which a noun takes when it is the subject
of a transitive verb in a tense formed from the past participle. This
participle is passive in origin, and must be construed passively. In
the Prakrit stage the subject was in such cases put into the
instrumental case (see PRAKRIT), as in the phrase _aham tena mario_, I
by-him (was) struck, i.e. he struck me. In Eastern Hindi this is still
the case, the old instrumental being represented by the oblique form
without any suffix. The other two languages define the fact that the
subject is in the instrumental (or agent) case by the addition of the
postposition _ne_, &c., an old form employed elsewhere to define the
dative. It is really the oblique form (by origin a locative) of _na_
or _no_, which is employed in Gujarati (q.v.) for the genitive. As
this suffix is never employed to indicate a material instrument but
here only to indicate the agent or subject of a verb, it is called the
postposition of the "agent" case.

The genitive postpositions have an interesting origin. In Buddhist
Sanskrit the words _krtas_, done, and _krtyas_, to be done, were added
to a noun to form a kind of genitive. A synonym of _krtyas_ was
_karyas_. These three words were all adjectives, and agreed with the
thing possessed in gender, number, and case; thus, _mala-krte_
_karande_, in the basket of the garland, literally, in the
garland-made basket. In the various dialects of Apabhramsa Prakrit
_krtas_ became (strong form) _kida-u_ or _kia-u_, _krtyas_ became
_kicca-u_, and _karyas_ became _kera-u_ or _kajja-u_, the initial _k_
of which is liable to elision after a vowel. With the exception of
Gujarati (and perhaps Marathi, q.v.) every Indo-Aryan language has
genitive postpositions derived from one or other of these forms. Thus
from _(ki)da-u_ we have Panjabi _da_; from _kia-u_ we have H. _ka_,
Br. kau, E.H. and Bihari _k_ and Naipali _ko_; from _(ki)cca-u_ we
have perhaps Marathi _ca_; from _kera-u_, E.H. and Bihari _ker_,
_kar_, Bengali Oriya and Assamese -_r_, and Rajasthani -_ro_; while
from _(ka)jja-u_ we have the Sindhi _jo_. It will be observed that
while _k_, _ker_, _kar_, and _r_ are weak forms, the rest are strong.
As already stated, the genitive is an adjective. _Bap_ means "father,"
and _bap-ka ghora_ is literally "the paternal horse." Hence (while
the weak forms as usual do not change) these genitives agree with the
thing possessed in gender, number, and case. Thus, _bap-ka ghora_, the
horse of the father, but _bap-ki ghori_, the mare of the father, and
_bap-ke ghore-ko_, to the horse of the father, the _ka_ being put into
the oblique case masculine _ke_, to agree with _ghore_, which is
itself in an oblique case. The details of the agreement vary slightly
in P. and W.H., and must be learnt from the grammars. The E.H. weak
forms do not change in the modern language. Finally, in Prakrit it was
customary to add these postpositions (_kera-u_, &c.) to the genitive,
as in _mama_ or _mama kera-u_, of me. Similarly these postpositions
are, in the modern languages, added to the oblique form.

The locative of the Sanskrit _krtas_, _krte_, was used in that
language as a dative postposition, and it can be shown that all the
dative postpositions given above are by origin old oblique forms of
some genitive postposition. Thus H. _ko_, Br. _kau_, is a contraction
of _kahu_, an old oblique form of _kia-u_. Similarly for the others.
The origin of the ablative postpositions is obscure. To the present
writer they all seem (like the Bengal _haite_) to be connected with
the verb substantive, but their derivation has not been definitely
fixed. The locative postpositions _me_ and _mai_ are derived from the
Skr. _madhye_, in, through _majjhi_, _mahi_, and so on. The derivation
of _vicc_ and _bikhe_ is obscure.

+-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+
| | Apabhramsa.| Panjabi.| Hindostani.| Braj | Eastern |
| | | | | Bhasha.| Hindi. |
+-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+
| I, Nom. | hau | mai | mai | hau | mai |
| Obl. | mai, mahu, | mai | mujh | mohi | mo |
| | majjhu | | | | |
| WE, Nom. | amhe | asi | ham | ham | ham |
| Obl. | amaha | asa | hamo | hamau, | ham |
| | | | | hamani| |
| THOU, Nom. | tuhu | tu | tu | tu | tai |
| Obl. | tai, tuha, | tai | tujh | tohi | to |
| | tujjhu | | | | |
| YOU, Nom. | tumhe | tusi | tum | tum | tum |
| Obl. | tumhaha | tusa | tumho | tumhau | tum |
+-------------+------------+---------+------------+--------+---------+

The pronouns closely follow the Prakrit originals. This will be
evident from the preceding table of the first two personal pronouns
compared with Apabhramsa.

It will be observed that in most of the nominatives of the first
person, and in the E.H. nominative of the second person, the old
nominative has disappeared, and its place has been supplied by an
oblique form, exactly as we have observed in the nominative plural of
nouns substantive. The P. _asi_, _tusi_, &c., are survivals from the
old Lahnda (see _Linguistic Boundaries_, above). The genitives of
these two pronouns are rarely used, possessive pronouns (in H. _mera_,
my; _hamara_, our; _tera_, thy; _tumhara_, your) being employed
instead. They can all (except P. _asada_, our; _tusada_, your, which
are Lahnda) be referred to corresponding Ap. forms.

There is no pronoun of the third person, the demonstrative pronouns
being used instead. The following table shows the principal remaining
pronominal forms, with their derivation from Ap.:--

+--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+
| | Apabhramsa. | Panjabi. | Hindostani.| Braj | Eastern |
| | | | | Bhasha.| Hindi. |
+--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+
| THAT, HE, Nom. | ? | uh | woh | wo | u |
| Obl. | ? | uh | us | wa | o |
| THOSE, THEY, Nom. | oi | oh | we | wai | unh |
| Obl. | ? | unha | unh | uni | unh |
| THIS, HE, Nom. | ehu | ih | yeh | yah | i |
| Obl. | ehasu, ehaho| ih | is | ya | e |
| THESE, THEY, Nom. | ei | eh | ye | yai | inh |
| Obl. | ehana | inha | inh | ini | inh |
| THAT, Nom. | so | so | so | so | se |
| Obl. | tasu, taho | tih | tis | ta | te |
| THOSE, Nom. | se | so | so | so | se |
| Obl. | tana | tinha | tinh | tini | tenh |
| WHO, Nom. | jo | jo | jo | jo | je |
| Obl. | jasu, jaho | jih | jis | ja | je |
| WHO (pl.), Nom. | je | jo | jo | jo | je |
| Obl. | jana | jinha | jinh | jini | jenh |
| WHO? Nom. | ko, kawanu | kaun | kaun | ko | ke |
| Obl. | kasu, kaho | kih | kis | ka | ke |
| WHO? (pl.), Nom. | ke | kaun | kaun | ko | ke |
| Obl. | kana | kinha | kinh | kini | kenh |
| WHAT?(Neut.), Nom. | kim | kia | kya | kaha | ka |
| Obl. | kaha, kasu | kah, kas| kahe | kahe | kahe |
+--------------------+--------------+----------+------------+--------+---------+

The origin of the first pronoun given above (that, he; those, they)
cannot be referred to Sanskrit. It is derived from an Indo-Aryan base
which was not admitted to the classical literary language, but of
which we find sporadic traces in Apabhramsa. The existence of this
base is further vouched for by its occurrence in the Iranian language
of the Avesta under the form _ava-_. The base of the second pronoun is
the same as the base of the first syllable in the Skr. _e-sas_, this,
and other connected pronouns, and also occurs in the Avesta. Ap. _ehu_
is directly derived from _e-sas_.

There are other pronominal forms upon which, except perhaps _koi_ (Pr.
_ko-vi_, Skr. _ko-'pi_), any one, it is unnecessary to dwell. The
phrase _koi hai_? "Is any one (there)?" is the usual formula for
calling a servant in upper India, and is the origin of the
Anglo-Indian word "Qui-hi." The reflexive pronoun is _ap_ (Ap. _appu_,
Skr. _atma_), self, which, something like the Latin _suus_ (Skr.
_svas_), always refers to the subject of the sentence, but to all
persons, not only to the third. Thus _mai apne_ (not _mere_) _bap-ko
dekhta-hu_, "I see my father."

C. _Conjugation_.--The synthetic conjugation was already commencing to
disappear in Prakrit, and in the modern languages the only original
tenses which remain are the present, the imperative, and here and
there the future. The first is now generally employed as a present
subjunctive. In the accompanying table we have the conjugation of this
tense, and also the three participles, present active, and past and
future passive, compared with Apabhramsa, the verb selected being the
intransitive root _call_ or _cal_, go. In Ap. the word may be spelt
with one or with two _ls_, which accounts for the variations of
spelling in the modern languages.

The imperative closely resembles the old present, except that it drops
all terminations in the 2nd person singular; thus, _cal_, go thou.

In P. and H. a future is formed by adding the syllable _ga_ (fem.
_gi_) to the simple present. Thus, H. _calu-ga_, I shall go. The _ga_
is commonly said to be derived from the Skr. _gatas_ (Pr. _gao_),
gone, but this suggestion is not altogether acceptable to the present
writer, although he is not now able to propose a better. Under the
form of _-gau_ the same termination is used in Br., but in that
dialect the old future has also survived, as in _calihau_ (Ap.
_calihau_, Skr. _calisyami_), I shall go, which is conjugated like the
simple present. The E.H. formation of the future is closely analogous
to what we find in Bihari (q.v.). The third person is formed as in
Braj Bhasha, but the first and second persons are formed by adding
pronominal suffixes, meaning "by me," "by thee," &c., to the future
passive participle.

Thus, _calab-u_, it-is-to-be-gone by-me, I shall go. We thus get the
following forms. It will be observed that, as in many other Indo-Aryan
languages, the first person plural has no suffix:--

Sing. Plur.
1. alabu calab
2. calabe calabo
3. calihai calihai

In old E.H. the future participle passive, _calab_, takes no suffix
for any person, and is used for all persons.

The last remark leads us to a class of tenses in P. and W.H., in which
a participle, by itself, can be employed for any person of a finite
tense. A few examples of the use of the present and past participles
will show the construction. They are all taken from Hindostani. _Woh
calta_, he goes; _woh calti_, she goes; _mai cala_, I went; _woh
cali_, she went; _we cale_, they went. The present participle in this
construction, though it may be used to signify the present, is more
commonly employed to signify a past conditional "(if) he had gone." It
will have been observed that in the above examples, in all of which
the verb is intransitive, the past as well as the present participle
agrees with the subject in gender and number; but, if the verb be
transitive, the passive meaning of the past participle comes into
force. The subject must be put into the case of the agent, and the
participle inflects to agree with the object. If the object be not
expressed, or, as sometimes happens, be expressed in the dative case,
the participle is construed impersonally, and takes the masculine (for
want of a neuter) form. Thus, _mai-ne kaha_, by-me it-was-said, i.e. I
said; _us-ne citthi likhi_, by-him a-letter (fem.) was-written, he
wrote a letter; _raja-ne sherni-ko mara_, the king killed the tigress,
lit., by-the-king, with-reference-to-the-tigress, it (impersonal)
-was-killed. In the article PRAKRIT it is shown that the same
construction is obtained in that language.

In E.H. the construction is the same, but is obscured by the fact that
(as in the future) pronominal suffixes are added to the participle to
indicate the person of the subject or of the agent, as in _calat-eu_,
(if) I had gone; _cal-eu_, I went; _mar-eu_ (transitive), I struck,
lit., struck-by-me; _mar-es_, struck-by-him, he struck. If the
participle has to be feminine, it (although a weak form) takes the
feminine termination _i_, as in _mari-u_, I struck her; _calati-u_,
(if) I (fem.) had gone; _cali-u_, I (fem.) went.

Further tenses are formed by adding the verb substantive to these
participles, as in H. _mai calta-hu_, I am going; _mai calta-tha_, I
was going; _mai cala-hu_, I have gone; _mai cala-tha_, I had gone.
These and other auxiliary verbs need not detain us long. They differ
in the various languages. For "I am" we have P. _ha_, H. _hu_, Br.
_hau_, E.H. _batyeu_ or _aheu_. For "I was" we have P. _si_ or _sa_,
H. _tha_, Br. _hau_ or _hutau_, E.H. _raheu_. The H. _hu_ is thus
conjugated:--

Sing. Plur.
1. hu hai
2. hai ho
3. hai hai

The derivation of _ha_, _hu_, _hau_, and _aheu_ is uncertain. They are
usually derived from the Skr. _asmi_, I am; but this presents many
difficulties. An old form of the third person singular is _hwai_, and
this points to the Pr. _havai_, he is, equivalent to the Skr.
_bhavati_, he becomes. On the other hand this does not account for the
initial _a_ of _aheu_. This last word is in the _form_ of a past
tense, and it may be a secondary formation from _asmi_. The P. _si_ is
not a feminine of _sa_, as usually stated, but is a survival of the
Skr. _asit_, Pr. _asi_, was. As in the Prakrit form, _si_ is employed
for both genders, both numbers and all persons. _Sa_ is a secondary
formation from this, on the analogy of the H. _tha_, which is from the
Skr. _sthitas_, Pr. _thio_, stood, and is a participial form like
_cal_a; thus, _woh tha_, he was; _woh thi_, she was. The Br. _hau_ is
a modern past of _hau_, while _hutau_ is probably by origin a present
participle of the Skr. _bhu_, become, Pr. _huntao_. The E.H. _bateu_,
is the Skr. _varte_, Ap. _vattau_. _Raheu_ is the past tense of the
root _rah_, remain.

The future participle passive is everywhere freely used as an
infinitive or verbal noun; thus, H. _calna_, E.H. _calab_, the act of
going, to go. There is a whole series of derivative verbal forms,
making potential passives and transitives from intransitives, and
causals (and even double causals) from transitives. Thus _dikhna_, to
be seen; potential passive, _dikhana_, to be visible; transitive,
_dekhna_, to see; causal, _dikhlana_, to show.

D. _Literature._--The literatures of Western and Eastern Hindi form
the subject of a separate article (see HINDOSTANI LITERATURE). Panjabi
has no formal literature. Even the _Granth_, the sacred book of the
Sikhs, is mainly in archaic Western Hindi, only a small portion being
in Panjabi. On the other hand, the language is peculiarly rich in
folksongs and ballads, some of considerable length and great poetic
beauty. The most famous is the ballad of _Hir_ and _Ranjha_ by Waris
Shah, which is considered to be a model of pure Panjabi. Colonel Sir
Richard Temple has published an important collection of these songs
under the title of _The Legends of the Punjab_ (3 vols., Bombay and
London, 1884-1900), in which both texts and translations of nearly all
the favourite ones are to be found.

AUTHORITIES.--(a) General: The two standard authorities are the
comparative grammars of J. Beames (1872-1879) and A. F. R. Hoernle
(1880), mentioned in the article INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES. To these may be
added G. A. Grierson, "On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the
Modern Indo-Aryan Languages" in the _Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal_, vol. lxiv. (1895), part i. pp. 352 et seq.; and "On Certain
Suffixes in the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars" in the _Zeitschrift fur
vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen
Sprachen_ for 1903, pp. 473 et seq.

(b) For the separate languages, see C. J. Lyall, _A Sketch of the
Hindustani Language_ (Edinburgh, 1880); S. H. Kellogg, _A Grammar of
the Hindi Language_ (for both Western and Eastern Hindi), (2nd ed.,
London, 1893); J. T. Platts, _A Grammar of the Hindustani or Urdu
Language_ (London, 1874); and _A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi
and English_ (London, 1884); E. P. Newton, _Panjabi Grammar: with
Exercises and Vocabulary_ (Ludhiana, 1898); and Bhai Maya Singh, _The
Panjabi Dictionary_ (Lahore, 1895). _The Linguistic Survey of India_,
vol. vi., describes Eastern Hindi, and vol. ix., Hindostani and
Panjabi, in each instance in great detail. (G. A. Gr.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Hindostan" is a Persian word, and in modern Persian is
pronounced "Hindustan." It means the country of the Hindus. In
medieval Persian the word was "Hindostan," with an _o_, but in the
modern language the distinctions between _e_ and _i_ and between _o_
and _u_ have been lost. Indian languages have borrowed Persian words
in their medieval form. Thus in India we have _sher_, a tiger, as
compared with modern Persian _shir_; _go_, but modern Pers. _gu_;
_bostan_, but modern Pers. _bustan_. The word "Hindu" is in medieval
Persian "Hindo" 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 "Hindu" is now
established in English and, through English, in the Indian literary
languages; but "Hindo" 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 _o_ and with _u_,
are current in India at the present day, but that with _o_ 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 "Hindi" 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).

[2] Sir C. J. Lyall, _op. cit._ p. 9.

[3] This and the preceding paragraph are partly taken from Mr
Platts's article in vol. xi. of the 9th edition of this
encyclopaedia.

[4] In some dialects of W.H. weak forms have masculines ending in u
and corresponding feminines in _i_, but these are nowadays rarely met
in the literary forms of speech. In old poetry they are common. In
Braj Bhasha they have survived in the present participle.

HINDOSTANI LITERATURE. The writings dealt with in this article are those composed in the vernacular of that part of India which is properly called Hindostan,--that is, the valleys of the Jumna and Ganges rivers as far east as the river Kos, and the tract to the south including Rajputana, Central India (Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand), the Narmada (Nerbudda) valley as far west as Khandwa, and the northern half of the Central Provinces. It does not include the Punjab proper (though the town population there speak Hindostani), nor does it extend to Lower Bengal.

In this region several different dialects prevail. The people of the towns everywhere use chiefly the form of the language called _Urdu_ or _Rekhta_,[1] stocked with Persian words and phrases, and ordinarily written in a modification of the Persian character. The country folk (who form the immense majority) speak different varieties of _Hindi_, of which the word-stock derives from the Prakrits and literary Sanskrit, and which are written in the Devanagari or Kaithi character. Of these the most important from a literary point of view, proceeding from west to east, are _Marwari_ and _Jaipuri_ (the languages of Rajputana), _Brajbhasha_ (the language of the country about Mathura and Agra), _Kanauji_ (the language of the lower Ganges-Jumna Doab and western Rohilkhand), _Eastern Hindi_, also called _Awadhi_ and _Baiswari_ (the language of Eastern Rohilkhand, Oudh and the Benares division of the United Provinces) and _Bihari_ (the language of Bihar or Mithila, comprising several distinct dialects). What is called _High Hindi_ is a modern development, for literary purposes, of the dialect of Western Hindi spoken in the neighbourhood of Delhi and thence northwards to the Himalaya, which has formed the vernacular basis of Urdu; the Persian words in the latter have been eliminated and replaced by words of Sanskritic origin, and the order of words in the sentence which is proper to the indigenous speech is more strictly adhered to than in Urdu, which under the influence of Persian constructions has admitted many inversions.

As in many other countries, nearly all the early vernacular literature of Hindostan is in verse, and works in prose are a modern growth.[2] Both Hindi and Urdu are, in their application to literary purposes, at first intruders upon the ground already occupied by the learned languages Sanskrit and Persian, the former representing Hindu and the latter Musalman culture. But there is this difference between them, that, whereas Hindi has been raised to the dignity of a literary speech chiefly by impulses of revolt against the monopoly of the Brahmans, Urdu has been cultivated with goodwill by authors who have themselves highly valued and dexterously used the polished Persian. Both Sanskrit and Persian continue to be employed occasionally for composition by Indian writers, though much fallen from their former estate; but for popular purposes it may be said that their vernacular rivals are now almost in sole possession of the field.

The subject may be conveniently divided as follows:--

1. Early Hindi, of the period during which the language was being
fashioned as a literary medium out of the ancient Prakrits,
represented by the old heroic poems of Rajputana and the literature of
the early _Bhagats_ or Vaishnava reformers, and extending from about
A.D. 1100 to 1550;

2. Middle Hindi, representing the best age of Hindi poetry, and
reaching from about 1550 to the end of the 18th century;

3. The rise and development of literary Urdu, beginning about the end
of the 16th century, and reaching its height during the 18th;

4. The modern period, marked by the growth of a prose literature in
both dialects, and dating from the beginning of the 19th century.

1. _Early Hindi._--Our knowledge of the ancient metrical chronicles of Rajputana is still very imperfect, and is chiefly derived from the monumental work of Colonel James Tod, called _The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan_ (published in 1829-1832), which is founded on them. It is in the nature of compositions of this character to be subjected to perpetual revision and recasting; they are the production of the family bards of the dynasties whose fortunes they record, and from generation to generation they are added to, and their language constantly modified to make it intelligible to the people of the time. Round an original nucleus of historical fact a rich growth of legend accumulates; later redactors endeavour to systematize and to assign dates, but the result is not often such as to inspire confidence; and the mass has more the character of ballad literature than of serious history. The materials used by Tod are nearly all still unprinted; his manuscripts are now deposited in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London; and one of the tasks which, on linguistic and historical grounds, should first be undertaken by the investigator of early Hindi literature is the examination and sifting, and the publication in their original form, of these important texts.

Omitting a few fragments of more ancient bards given by compilers of accounts of Hindi literature, the earliest author of whom any portion has as yet been published in the original text is Chand Bardai, the court bard of Prithwi-Raj, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. His poem, entitled _Prithi-Raj Rasau_ (or _Raysa_), is a vast chronicle in 69 books or cantos, comprising a general history of the period when he wrote. Of this a small portion has been printed, partly under the editorship of the late Mr John Beames and partly under that of Dr Rudolf Hoernle, by the Asiatic Society of Bengal; but the excessively difficult nature of the task prevented both scholars from making much progress.[3] Chand, who came of a family of bards, was a native of Lahore, which had for nearly 170 years (since 1023) been under Muslim rule when he flourished, and the language of the poem exhibits a considerable leaven of Persian words. In its present form the work is a redaction made by Amar Singh of Mewar, about the beginning of the 17th century, and therefore more than 400 years after Chand's death, with his patron Prithwi-Raj, in 1193. There is, therefore, considerable reason to doubt whether we have in it much of Chand's composition in its original shape; and the nature of the incidents described enhances this doubt. The detailed dates contained in the Chronicle have been shown by Kabiraj Syamal Das[4] to be in every case about ninety years astray. It tells of repeated conflicts between the hero Prithwi-Raj and Sultan Shihabuddin, of Ghor (Muhammad Ghori), in which the latter always, except in the last great battle, comes off the worst, is taken prisoner and is released on payment of a ransom; these seem to be entirely unhistorical, our contemporary Persian authorities knowing of only one encounter (that of Tirauri (Tirawari) near Thenesar, fought in 1191) in which the Sultan was defeated, and even then he escaped uncaptured to Lahore. The Mongols (Book XV.) are brought on the stage more than thirty years before they actually set foot in India, and are related to have been vanquished by the redoubtable Prithwi-Raj. It is evident that such a record cannot possibly be, in its entirety, a contemporary chronicle; but nevertheless it appears to contain a considerable element which, from its language, may belong to Chand's own age, and represents the earliest surviving document in Hindi. "Though we may not possess the actual text of Chand, we have certainly in his writings some of the oldest known specimens of Gaudian literature, abounding in pure Apabhramsa Sauraseni Prakrit forms" (Grierson).

It is very difficult now to form a just estimate of the poem as
literature. The language, essentially transitional in character,
consists largely of words which have long since died out of the
vernacular speech. Even the most learned Hindus of the present day are
unable to interpret it with confidence; and the meaning of the verses
must be sought by investigating the processes by which Sanskrit and
Prakrit forms have been transfigured in their progress into Hindi.
Chand appears, on the whole, to exhibit the merits and defects of
ballad chroniclers in general. There is much that is lively and
spirited in his descriptions of fight or council; and the characters
of the Rajput warriors who surround his hero are often sketched in
their utterances with skill and animation. The sound, however,
frequently predominates over the sense; the narrative is carried on
with the wearisome iteration and tedious unfolding of familiar themes
and images which characterize all such poetry in India; and his value,
for us at least, is linguistic rather than literary.

Chand may be taken as the representative of a long line of successors, continued even to the present day in the Rajput states. Many of their compositions are still widely popular as ballad literature, but are known only in oral versions sung in Hindostan by professional singers. One of the most famous of these is the _Alha-khand_, reputed to be the work of a contemporary of Chand called Jagnik or Jagnayak, of Mahoba in Bundelkhand, who sang the praises of Raja-Parmal, a ruler whose wars with Prithwi-Raj are recorded in the Mahoba-Khand of Chand's work. Alha and Udal, the heroes of the poem, are famous warriors in popular legend, and the stories connected with them exist in an eastern recension, current in Bihar, as well as in the Bundelkhandi or western form which is best known. Two versions of the latter have been printed, having been taken down as recited by illiterate professional rhapsodists. Another celebrated bard was Sarangdhar of Rantambhor, who flourished in 1363, and sang the praises of Hammir Deo (Hamir Deo), the Chauhan chief of Rantambhor who fell in a heroic struggle against Sultan 'Ala'uddin Khilji in 1300. He wrote the _Hammir Kavya_ and _Hammir Rasau_, of which an account is given by Tod;[5] he was also a poet in Sanskrit, in which language he compiled, in 1363, the anthology called _Sarngadhara-Paddhati_. Another work which may be mentioned (though much more modern) is the long chronicle entitled _Chhattra-Prakas_, or the history of Raja Chhatarsal, the Bundela raja of Panna, who was killed, fighting on behalf of Prince Dara-Shukoh, in the battle of Dholpur won by Aurangzeb in 1658. The author, Lal Kabi, has given in this work a history of the valiant Bundela nation which was rendered into English by Captain W. R. Pogson in 1828, and printed at Calcutta.

Before passing on to the more important branch of early Hindi literature, the works of the _Bhagats_, mention may be made here of a remarkable composition, a poem entitled the _Padmawat_, the materials of which are derived from the heroic legends of Rajputana, but which is not the work of a bard nor even of a Hindu. The author, Malik Muhammad of Ja'is, in Oudh, was a venerated Muslim devotee, to whom the Hindu raja of Amethi was greatly attached. Malik Muhammad wrote the Padmawat in 1540, the year in which Sher Shah Sur ousted Humayan from the throne of Delhi. The poem is composed in the purest vernacular Awadhi, with no admixture of traditional Hindu learning, and is generally to be found written in the Persian character, though the metres and language are thoroughly Indian. It professes to tell the tale of Padmawati or Padmini, a princess celebrated for her beauty who was the wife of the Chauhan raja of Chitor in Mewar. The historical Padmini's husband was named Bhim Singh, but Malik Muhammad calls him Ratan Sen; and the story turns upon the attempts of 'Ala'uddin Khilji, the sovereign of Delhi, to gain possession of her person. The tale of the siege of Chitor in 1303 by 'Ala'uddin, the heroic stand made by its defenders, who perished to the last man in fight with the Sultan's army, and the self-immolation of Padmini and the other women, the wives and daughters of the warriors, by the fiery death called _johar_, will be found related in Tod's _Rajasthan_, i. 262 sqq. Malik Muhammad takes great liberties with the history, and explains at the end of the poem that all is an allegory, and that the personages represent the human soul, Divine wisdom, Satan, delusion and other mystical characters.

Both on account of its interest as a true vernacular work, and as the
composition of a Musalman who has taken the incidents of his morality
from the legends of his country and not from an exotic source, the
poem is memorable. It has often been lithographed, and is very
popular; a translation has even been made into Sanskrit. A critical
edition has been prepared by Dr G. A. Grierson and Pandit Sudhakar
Dwivedi.

The other class of composition which is characteristic of the period of early Hindi, the literature of the _Bhagats_, or Vaishnava saints, who propagated the doctrine of _bhakti_, or faith in Vishnu, as the popular religion of Hindostan, has exercised a much more powerful influence both upon the national speech and upon the themes chosen for poetic treatment. It is also, as a body of literature, of high intrinsic interest for its form and content. Nearly the whole of subsequent poetical composition in Hindi is impressed with one or other type of Vaishnava doctrine, which, like Buddhism many centuries before, was essentially a reaction against Brahmanical influence and the chains of caste, a claim for the rights of humanity in face of the monopoly which the "twice-born" asserted of learning, of worship, of righteousness. A large proportion of the writers were non-Brahmans, and many of them of the lowest castes. As Siva was the popular deity of the Brahmans, so was Vishnu of the people; and while the literature of the Saivas and Saktas[6] is almost entirely in Sanskrit, and exercised little or no influence on the popular mind in northern India, that of the Vaishnavas is largely in Hindi, and in itself constitutes the great bulk of what has been written in that language.

The Vaishnava doctrine is commonly carried back to Ramanuja, a Brahman who was born about the end of the 11th century, at Perambur in the neighbourhood of the modern Madras, and spent his life in southern India. His works, which are in Sanskrit and consist of commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras, are devoted to establishing "the personal existence of a Supreme Deity, possessing every gracious attribute, full of love and pity for the sinful beings who adore him, and granting the released soul a home of eternal bliss near him--a home where each soul never loses its identity, and whose state is one of perfect peace."[7] In the Deity's infinite love and pity he has on several occasions become incarnate for the salvation of mankind, and of these incarnations two, Ramachandra, the prince of Ayodhya, and Krishna, the chief of the Yadava clan and son of Vasudeva, are pre-eminently those in which it is most fitting that he should be worshipped. Both of these incarnations had for many centuries[8] attracted popular veneration, and their histories had been celebrated by poets in epics and by weavers of religious myths in _Puranas_ or "old stories"; but it was apparently Ramanuja's teaching which secured for them, and especially for Ramachandra, their exclusive place as the objects of _bhakti_--ardent faith and personal devotion addressed to the Supreme. The adherents of Ramanuja were, however, all Brahmans, and observed very strict rules in respect of food, bathing and dress; the new doctrine had not yet penetrated to the people.

Whether Ramanuja himself gave the preference to Rama against Krishna as the form of Vishnu most worthy of worship is uncertain. He dealt mainly with philosophic conceptions of the Divine Nature, and probably busied himself little with mythological legend. His _mantra_, or formula of initiation, if Wilson[9] was correctly informed, implies devotion to Rama; but Vasudeva (Krishna) is also mentioned as a principal object of adoration, and Ramanuja himself dwelt for several years in Mysore, at a temple erected by the raja, at Yadavagiri in honour of Krishna in his form Ranchhor.[10] It is stated that in his worship of Krishna he joined with that god as his _Sakti_, or Energy, his wife Rukmini; while the later varieties of Krishna-worship prefer to honour his mistress Radha. The great difference, in temper and influence upon life, between these two forms of Vaishnava faith appears to be a development subsequent to Ramanuja; but by the time of Jaideo (about 1250) it is clear that the theme of Krishna and Radha, and the use of passionate language drawn from the relations of the sexes to express the longings of the soul for God, had become fully established; and from that time onwards the two types of Vaishnava religious emotion diverged more and more from one another.

The cult of Rama is founded on family life, and the relation of the worshipper to the Deity is that of a child to a father. The morality it inculcates springs from the sacred sources of human piety which in all religions have wrought most in favour of pureness of life, of fraternal helpfulness and of humble devotion to a loving and tender Parent, who desires the good of mankind, His children, and hates violence and wrong. That of Krishna, on the other hand, had for its basis the legendary career of a less estimable human hero, whose exploits are marked by a kind of elvish and fantastic wantonness; it has more and more spent its energy in developing that side of devotion which is perilously near to sensual thought, and has allowed the imagination and ingenuity of poets to dwell on things unmeet for verse or even for speech. It is claimed for those who first opened this way to faith that their hearts were pure and their thoughts innocent, and that the language of erotic passion which they use as the vehicle of their religious emotion is merely mystical and allegorical. This is probable; but that these beginnings were followed by corruption in the multitude, and that the fervent impulses of adoration made way in later times for those of lust and lasciviousness, seems beyond dispute.

The worship of Krishna, especially in his infant and youthful form (which appeals chiefly to women), is widely popular in the neighbourhood of Mathura, the capital of that land of Braj where as a boy he lived. Its literature is mainly composed in the dialect of this region, called Brajbhasha. That of Rama, though general throughout Hindostan, has since the time of Tulsi Das adopted for poetic use the language of Oudh, called Awadhi or Baiswari, a form of Eastern Hindi easily understood throughout the whole of the Gangetic valley. Thus these two dialects came to be, what they are to this day, the standard vehicles of poetic expression.

Subsequently to Ramanuja his doctrine appears to have been set forth, about 1250, in the vernacular of the people by Jaideo, a Brahman born at Kinduvilva, the modern Kenduli, in the Birbhum district of Bengal, author of the Sanskrit _Gita Govinda_, and by Namdeo or Nama, a tailor[11] of Maharashtra, of both of whom verses in the popular speech are preserved in the _Adi Granth_ of the Sikhs. But it was not until the beginning of the 15th century that the Brahman Ramanand, a prominent _Gosain_ of the sect of Ramanuja, having had a dispute with the members of his order in regard to the stringent rules observed by them, left the community, migrated to northern India (where he is said to have made his headquarters Galta in Rajputana), and addressed himself to those outside the Brahman caste, thus initiating the teaching of Vaishnavism as the popular faith of Hindostan. Among his twelve disciples or apostles were a Rajput, a Jat, a leather-worker, a barber and a Musalman weaver; the last-mentioned was the celebrated KABIR (see separate article). One short Hindi poem by Ramanand is contained in the _Adi Granth_, and Dr Grierson has collected hymns (_bhajans_) attributed to him and still current in Mithila or Tirhut. Both Ramanand and Kabir were adherents of the form of Vaishnavism where devotion is specially addressed to Raama, who is regarded not only as an incarnation, but as himself identical with the Deity. A contemporary of Ramanand, Bidyapati Thakur, is celebrated as the author of numerous lyrics in the Maithili dialect of Bihar, expressive of the other side of Vaishnavism, the passionate adoration of the Deity in the person of Krishna, the aspirations of the worshipper being mystically conveyed in the character of Radha, the cowherdess of Braj and the beloved of the son of Vasudeva. These stanzas of Bidyapati (who was a Brahman and author of several works in Sanskrit) afterwards inspired the Vaishnava literature of Bengal, whose most celebrated exponent was Chaitanya (b. 1484). Another famous adherent of the same cult was Mira Bai, "the one great poetess of northern India" (Grierson). This lady, daughter of Raja Ratiya Rana, Rathor, of Merta in Rajputana, must have been born about the beginning of the 15th century; she was married in 1413 to Raja Kumbhkaran of Mewar, who was killed by his son Uday Rana in 1469. She was devoted to Krishna in the form of Ranchhor, and her songs have a wide currency in northern India.

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