Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
OF THE
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
OF
HINDI AND ASSAMESE LANGUAGES
CHAPTER - II
2.00 A brief description of the growth and development of Hindi and Assamese languages
2.1. A brief history of the growth and development of Hindi language :
There are numerous languages prevailing in the world. Although
languages are developed in different parts of the world, yet they are having
some type of relationship with language of some other parts in their aboriginal
form. The linguists after careful analysis have tried to classify the languages
The linguists have ciassified the languages of the world into twelve
families:
V) Eural-Altaik family.
X) American family.
XII) Others.
with the Indo-European family. Dr. Dhirendra Verma has called the Indo-
There are differences of opinion among the scholars about the place of
intensive study of the languages of this family, the scholars have arrived at a
decision that Europe was the place of origin of this family of languages.
European) ofif# § I2
[This fam ily prim arily spread over India and Europe and their
European family]
(a) Celtic.
(b) Italic.
(d) Greek.
(e) Baltoslavik.
(f) Albanian.
(g) Armenian.
(i) Tokharian.
Out of these ten languages, the Khatti and Tokharian languages being
obsolete now, there are only eight members of the family surviving. It is
family out of the existing eight sub-families of Indo-European family. The users
of the Aryan language of India can be traced in its various stages of Indo-
(a) Iranian
Some scholars include Darad in the Iranian branch. Two other languages
tl
C*t) r- f e # wm # ofe
ot # t l5
(a) The Iranian - under which come Old Persian, Avesta, Pahlavi and
Persian;
(b) The Darad - under which come Kashmiri, Shina, Chitrali etc. and
(e) Indian - under which ali the Aryan languages of India come.
parts :
“t e r fM , t e r t e t , fjRi#, g#
gf^rT, wm, sfR mrit ^rpw wm est #
w # £r wgm t e I r6
[Only twelve languages viz Sindhi, Lahanda, Punjabi, Gujrati, Rajasthani,
Pashchimi Hindi, Purvi Hindi, Bihari, Oriya, Bengali, Asamiya and Marathi are
European family, our study is related only to two major Modern Indo-Aryan
languages viz Hindi and Asamiya (Assamese). Below we try to narrate briefly
the origin and development of these two languages - Hindi and Assamese.
how to stop; but from place to place it changes its course. If some one tries to
stop it, it comes out by breaking the barrier. In Hindi there is a proverb which
3TTS I"
respectively)
India is the country rich in ancient culture. Indian people use different
India, which had been used by our ancient sages, scholars and great poets.
The best example of this language can be found in the Rik Veda, the most
ancient and the first ever written a book. Sanskrit is also known as the Deva-
bhasha, meaning language of the gods. This language is about 3500 years
progress for some three thousand and five hundred years within India itself.’’7
History of this language began with the coming of the Aryans to India.
Hindi can be regarded as the successor of this Aryan language, the history of
(arfPr * m )
( m t 'tr# ? h )
(srngftc}? ma)
2.3:1 Old Indo-Aryan Languages : (5JI#T w rfft Vftf ^IWI)
vedic samhitas. The period of these vedic samhitas dates back around 1200
B.C. The language of these samhitas is to some extent different from the
language used by the common people as it was a poetic language. This form
of old Indian language, which has been analysed by Paninie in his Astadhyayee,
Scholars opine that Vedic Sanskrit was the language of that time when
the Aryans lived around Punjab and was in the oldest form. Then the Aryans
began to spread up eastward and when it moved towards the east the Vedic
literary use, which belonged to scholars and sages. According to Dr. Bholanath
Tiwari - Tm W m sn#T
3 ftvtcT 11”8
ones is known as the Laukik Sanskrit In this Laukik form of literatures like the
the language accepted as the standard form by the learned section of the
society. These thinks prove that the ideal language of Panini’s grammar was
Gune refuted this theory. Practically speaking, there is always difference between
language used in conversation and in literature. From this point of view, the
Laukik Sanskrit was definitely different from the language used in conversation.
But the language used by the learned people in their conversation was not a
different one. Both i.e., languages in writing and in their conversation were
In the conclusion we can say that although with the coming of rigid
yet nobody could stop the language of conversation from development. With
the spreading of Aryans through out the whole of North India, the Old Aryan
language proceeded on with development and changes. Along with it, the
differences due to time and place began to grow more and more, and within
sixth century B.C., the Old Indo-Aryan language arrived at its middle stage.
gave the Laukik Sanskrit a literary form. This, being a Jana Bhasha, a popular
language, began to develop without any hindrance. This Jana Bhasha came
to be known as the Mid Indo-Aryan language. The time of this language was
for about one thousand and five hundred years spreading from 500 B.C. to
1000 A.D. During this period Indo-Aryan languages entered into a new era
and created new languages with new development. In practice, Lok Bhasha,
i.e. language of the common people began to grow and develop. As a result
of this newer development, a new form of language came into being which
ci||eb<u||fcfaHI$ IT I
It is remarkable that Prakrit was not derived either from Vedic or from
Laukik Sanskrit, but it grew out of the Jana-bhasha or it was developed out of it.
The period of development of Prakrit during these one thousand and five hundred
The materials for the study of Pratham Prakrit and its development are
Bhattacharjee remarked that the term Pali came from Sanskrit term - Pankti.
Some other scholars believed that the term Pali might came from Palli, meaning
a village. For them Pali was a language of village people and Sanskrit was of
a town :
form of Prakrit. Gautam Buddha and his disciples preached to the people
also the Prakrit as used in the inscriptions. M ost o f these inscriptions are
Prakrit). Datas about this language can be had from two sources :
The salient feature of this language is that as it was meant for the
common people, the local dialects were used in different places in them.
study of linguistic development also these are of immense help, since they
days there were at least four dialects like the Paschimottari; Dakshini Paschimi,
termed as Sanskrit, the term Prakrit was used ordinarily to denote the Dwitiya
originated from the term Prakrity (common people) and therefore, it means a
language of the common people. The name Prakrit was given to this language
people :
knowledge that during this period there had been extensive discussions on the
During the Dwitiya Prakrit period, the use of Prakrit along with Sanskrit
began to grow more and more. In this period the use of Prakrit in the dramas
along with Sanskrit is available in a very huge proportion. The high class
people in the dramas spoke in Sanskrit, while the common people spoke in
Prakrit. Women, on the other hand spoke in Prakrit. There had been a large
languages and almost all the Modern Indo-Aryan languages were born out of
some Apabhramsha languages. The period from 500 A.D. to 1000 A.D. is
known as the Apabhramsha era. During this period there had been development
India which grew out of the mixture of Prakrit and Modern Indo-Aryan language,
out of which most of the modern Indian languages were originated. The following
are the seven kinds of Apabhramsha and the name of Modern, Indian languages
28
(Assamese)15
Modern indo-Aryan literature had begun since 1100 A.D., Yet Indian languages
had their birth around 1000 A.D. In practice, no language becomes the language
of literature from the times of its birth. It takes about a hundred or hundred
and fifty years for its recognition. After being recognised and settled, people
Pahadi, Marathi, Purvi Hindi, Bihari, Bengali, Oriya and Asamiya are taken
under the Modern Indo-Aryan languages. But the scholars like Dr. Suniti Kumar
Chatterjee, Dr. Dhirendra Verma, Dr. Dwarikaprasad Saxena except Dr. Grierson
TRcff cfit #
'm t s t A spprciT $ I r 16
[Only Sindhi, Lahanda, Punjabi, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Pashchimi (Western)
Hindi, Purvi (Eastern) Hindi, Bihari, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, and Marathi -
languages.]
The following chart of Dr. Grierson gives a clear idea of the Modern
Indo-Aryan language :
fm (2)1
Kathya Shourseni Prakrit Kathya Magadhi Prakrit
________1_________________________
p) wl
Pashchimi Gaudiya Uttari Gaudiya
1
f(5) T lj Tm (5)1
Sindhi Gujarati Punjabi Pashchimi Hindi
__________________________________________ T__________________
' f ( 9 ) i ( 1 0 ) i(1 1 ) i (12) f (13) (W J-
Rajasthani Bangru Vernacular Brajbhasha Kannauji Bundheli
4 , (15)
(2)
Kathya Magadhi Prakrit
{TTB3 l __________
Daxini Gaudiya Purvi Gaudiya
^ ( 18)
(P I) 4422) 4423) 1(24)
Marathi Bihari Bangla Oriya Asamiya
f(19) (20)1
Daxini Konkani
(4 )
Uttari Gaudiya
{(25) J(2 6 ) {(27) n 17
Garhwan luimayoom Nepali
Hindi, Purvi Hindi, Rajasthani, Pahadi and Bihari, or their 17 dialects like Kauravi,
Pahadi, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maitheli etc. have one common name Hindi which
Apabhramsha.
Hindi, which was born around 1000 A.D., now is one thousand years
old. It took the shape of the Modern Indian language gradually after transforming
out of Apabhramsha the last form of Mid Indo-Aryan languages. The shourseni
and the Ardh Magadhi Apabhramsha, which were used by the people residing
from Ganga ghati to prayag or kashi, gave birth to almost all forms of Hindi.
Therefore, it was natural that Hindi was developed into a full-fledged language
before the literatures published during the 10th century A.D. The example of
premature Hindi is available in the following lines collected from Hem Chandra
Shabdnushasan:
17. Tiwari, Udaynarayan - Hindi Bhasha Ka Udgam Aur Vikas, R-227 (quoted)
31
< to g 3 to t3 !f ^ ttt W % | |
t o to # ^ to # , to # w i to I
t o # t o t o i t o , f t o ^ t o t o 11”18
to % t o A t o t o r ? t o % to te r 3 t o ^ to to t o ? ^i to to to
to acmr to to e to to i ^ to tof ^ ?to!)
It can be safely concluded that Hindi literature began around 1000 A.D.
and along with it Hindi had taken a full shape as a language. Since then, there
had been development of Hindi. The growth and development of Hindi during
the last one thousand years has been divided into three periods :
with its different spoken forms and dialects and developing them. Apabhramsha
result there are mixture of words from almost all the different dialects of Hindi
during this period. Moreover, there was an enormous use of tadbhava terms
and at the same time foreign words also enriched the terminology of Hindi.
During those days local Deshaja words were also abundant and Hindi owned
them and made itself a strong language. Primarily the words from Dingal,
Maithili, Braj, khadiboli, Punjabi, Awadhi and Dakshini were mostly used in
Patras);
(iii) The Charan Kavyas, which were born in the Ganga-valley got
changes.
Apabhramsha around 1000 or 1100 A.D. In language also the form was very
Apabhramsha was given up and pure Hindi form began to grow around 1500
Of the Hindi litterature of the ancient period the names of certain writers
Banda Newaj, Shah Miraji etc. are worth-mentioning. The following is the list
(iv) Khalikbari;
The development of Hindi took vigorous turn during the middle ages.
On one hand the dialects of Hindi had their full development and a good
number of literary works were composed. On the other hand the influence of
Of the languages of this period the chief was Braj and Awadhi. In
addition to them, there were others like Maithali, Dakhsini Hindi, Urdu, Dingal
The highest number of books in Braj and Awadhi of Hindi were composed
during this period. Of the poets of Braj-Surdas, Nand Das, Hit Harivansh,
Padmakar, Ghananand, Bodha, Thakur etc. were very famous. In the same
Navi, Nur Muhammad, Goswami Tulsidas etc. were famous ones. The famous
books written in Awadhi during this period are the Padmawat by Jaysee and
the Ram Charit Manas by Tulsidas. On the other hand, the Sur-Sagar by
Surdas, the Vinay Patrika and Gitawaii of Tulsidas etc were major works of
Brajbhasha. During this period of Braj and Awadhi language, the works of
Muslim writers like Jaysee’s Padmawat and Rahim’s Dohas are famous one.
In addition to these, many Muslim poets during the 18th and 19th centuries
these poets names of Mir, Sauda, Isha, Ghalib, Jonk, Dag etc. are worth
mentioning.
forms of middle period dialects and from the point of literary use the Khadiboli
Hindi began to suppress other dialects. Now there is the full fledged
development of Hindi in this period. Till now stress was given only in composing
poetry; but now prose writing has been carried in a large scale. The most
important fact about Hindi of this period is that the khadiboli had been accepted
as the established one, where from the ancient Tadbhav and Deshaja words
were ousted and new and newer technical words were being used. As a
technical ideas. In addition to it, it has been recognised as the national language
of India and a State language of ten states of India like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal. Now, standard Hindi has three distinct
styles :
(iii) Hindustani.
field of technical terms that terminology has quick changes. As a result these
has also been coined in Hindi. In this manner, there has been multipurpose
Hindi was born in India but its naming was done by the Iranians and
Indian Muslims. Scholars believe that the term Hindi has been derived from
the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which is a name of a particular river in India. There
had been interchange of sounds and that was why Sindhu termed into 'Hindu'
(TT > !?, > T) which in course of time became Hindi, meaning India (Bharat).
The affix ik was added to it and it became Hindik (fe?<Dch) which became
Indik in Greek and India in English. The ‘K’ sound in Hindik gradually
disappeared and a new term Hindi came into existence which originally meant
of India. On the basis of this idea, Jaban-E-Hindi began to mean the language
Hindi. The oldest use of the word Hindi is available in the Jafarnama of
“M # *p v E iH 1 ^ 'F R c f k c fifT T f f c 3 T F f
■ w m wr £ $ I w ^ 3 # #
I off? m I ^ wp r20
[The foreign Muslims called the Indian Muslims as 'Hindi' and the course
of time their language was also termed as Hindi. This language was equally
used both by the Hindus and the Muslims. In short, the word 'Hindi' denoting
the language is the contribution of the Muslims and it is very much ancient one.]
Poet Iqbal in his "Tarana” used Hindi to mean the people of Hindustan :
wm\"
20. Tiwari, Udaynarayan - Hindi Bhasha Ka Udgam Aur Vikas, R-138.
36
In its wide sense, Hindi is the common name of the seventeen dialects
used in the Hindi speaking area. In the linguistic sense, only the Pashchimi
Hindi and Pun/i Hindi can be recognised as Hindi under which eight dialects
national language of India, and along with it, it is the state language of several
The geographical area, Hindi of which has been reconised as the Prime
fe r * | l ” 22
north to the Narmada Valley in the south and from Bhagalpur in the east to
21. Verma, Ramlal - Hindi AurAsamiya Vyakaranik Kotiya (Vyatireki Adhyayan), P-2
22. Prasad, Basudev Nandan - Adhunik Hindi Vyakaran Aur Rachna, P-8
37
Amritsar in the west. This is known as the Hindi speaking area. It is being
councils daily.]
Within these two areas the dialects of Hindi are also used.
Pradesh and Bihar come primarily under the Hindi area as recognised by Dr.
Bholanath Tiwari, while some areas of Punjab like AboHara, Fajilka etc. and
John Beams has laid much importance on Hindi of all the Indo-Aryan
f % r a % s t r a w % s fa # § s t t m s fir % s r t ^
m% w j# s ftr 11”24
[Although there are several dialects in Hindi, but it has one standard
form which was developed in and around Delhi. This form known as khadiboli
Up-Bhashaven Dialects
etc.
Although language and script are two separate things, yet they are one
and from the point of their use they are inseparable. The Hindi script is
Devnagri which is also known as the Nagri script. The old Nagri script is
developed from the Kutil script, which was already developed from the northern
style (Uttari Shaile) of the Brahmi script. The Kutil script developed during the
ninth century A.D. while Modern Nagri script developed around 15th or 16th
century A.D.26
The name Devnagri comes from the Nagar Brahmins of Gujrat, who
script because almost the sounds of different languages of the world can be
pronounced through them. But we can say that there is the necessity of some
2.10 Importance of H in d i:
John Beams has given the highest importance to Hindi of all the Modern
and ideas for ages together. It is not only a language of the northern India, but
Hindi has been regarded as the lingua franca of the whole of India.
fast. Hindi has attracted the attention of most of the countries of the world out
side India like Burma, Sri Lanka, Marititus, Fiji, Malaya, Surinnam, Africa and such
other countries. In addition to it, more than one hundred universities out side India
teach Hindi language and literature with enthusiasm. Due to its development and
propaganda in their extension centres. Almost all the best books in different
languages of world have already been translated into Hindi. In addition to that
T fh O T lftrtT # % t? R T 1 1 ”2 7
Now Hindi has become the state language of the state Assam and the
official language of India and at the same time it has become the lingua-
franca for the whole nation. The number of speaker of this language is about
50 to 60 crores and as such it has become the second most popular language
of the world. From the point of creation of literature, Hindi stands on equal
footings with other most advanced languages of the world. As a result there
family. It is now not only the official language of Assam, but also the lingua-
w M m 55 I28
[Assamese is the chief language of all the Indo-European languages
prevalent in Assam. Assam has been carrying the evidence of evolution right
from the ancient times with its own scripts and written literature. Assamese
works as lingua-franca among the tribals who donot understand the different
tribal languages and now it becomes more or less the lingua-franca for whole
came under the Shans (Tans) of the then Burma (now Mynman), the name
was changed to Assam. Later the Shan people became known as the Ahom.
Some scholar believed that the term Asam is the corrupted form of Ahom.
Then the term Asamiya i.e. Assamese is formed with the addition of the suffix
iya to Asam, which is now used to mean the people and the language of this
place:
and hence the word Asamiya derived from Asama plus adjectival affix iya
wm I”30
[About the origin of the word Assam, Sir Edward Gait, Dr. Grierson and
Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee opined that it is related to the name Ahom of the
Shan. The word Asamiya has been formed by adding the affix ‘iya’ to word
Assam (iya < iha Pratyay + Ek swastik) and the term in course of time began
in the eastern part of Assam to the District of Goalpara situated in the western
Assam Valley district with Lakhimpur in the extreme east and Goalpara in the
of this province which constitute 57 percent of the total population of the area.
for their day-to-day business among different tribes which have their own
Valley and the lingua-franca for most of the tribals residing in the tribal areas
the people of Bhutan border who maintain business relationship with Assam.
also came into being in the pattern of Assamese which are nothing but the
mixture of Assamese with other local language more particularly with English
one dialect of one tribe is not known to the other tribe there. Milles Bronson
- m cp # 1 7 PfP-HT% T fH R - Wm 0TT&
it is originated from the Apabhramsha growing out of the Magadhi Prakrit. The
and the Southern directions of India. From this Magadhi Apabhramsha, the
language like Assamese and Bengali in the North East and Oriya in the South
began to grow :
into northern Bengali and Assamese to the south into Oriya and between the
In this manner, it is found that there are four forms of the Magadhi
Apabhramsha : Rarh, Barendra, Banga and Kamrupi. Of these four the Kamrupi
Apabhramsha gave birth to a new language in the North Bengali and Assam.
The description of Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller during the first half of the
“This is evident from the remarks of Hiuen Tsang who visited the
kingdom of Kamrupa in the first half of the seventh century A.D (in 643 A.D.)
during the reign (of Kamrupa) are of small stature and their complexion, a
inferred from the language of the Tamrapatras issued by the Hindu kings who
“But the copper-plate inscription of Kamrupa kings from the fifth through
thirteen centuries A.D. written though in Sanskrit, throw some light as to the
Charita written by Hem Sarswati during the year 1300 A.D. This can be regarded
The old Assamese trends through these periods and finally we got the
the litterateurs during the old period Harihar Vipra and Hem Saraswati are
prominent ones. At the same time, Madhab Kandali who translated the
Ramayana into Assamese was the most important poet of the period. He was
the Assamese idiom of early times whom the saint Sankardeva paid respectful
the first Assamese writer who introduced prose in his novel type of one-act
play known as the Ankiya Naats. His other great works are the Kirtan Ghosha
36. Medhi, Kaliram - Assamese Grammar and Origin of Assamese Language, P- 70.
45
and the Dasam, a rendering of the first part of the chapter X of the Bhagawat
Purana into Assamese. Madhabdev was his great disciple and success or to
his religious world. He wrote the Naam Ghosha and the Bhakti Ratnawali. In
addition to these two great writers a host of prominent writers like Ananta
Kandali, Ram Sarswati and Bhattadev also enriched Assamese literature with
their writings. The important fact about this period is that prose writing developed
during i t :
sixteenth century which no other literature of the world reached except the
Besides these the tradition of writing history also got its way along with
the state language by the Ahom kings, they began to keep their historical
period are the Kathaguru Charit, the Mantra puthies, the Medical books on
The Modern period of Assamese literature began in the year 1931 with
The Missionaries established a press at the Sivasagar district and made it the
published it in 1839 A.D. The second such attempt to compile grammar was
made by Nathan Brown in 1848 A.D. with his Grammatical Notes on the
monthly magazine named the Arunoday. This attempt of the Missionaries for
the development and for making the language a standard one is quite praise
worthy:
and books and periodicals in the language of eastern Assam were multiplied.
Thew the tradition of the Ahom court supported by the mission press established
the language of eastern Assam as the literary language of the entire province."38
t e r 3TR> T te T R R T T p ^ t TFT l” 3 9
Assamese language can be classified into two from the point of spoken
language or dialects :
Upper Assam) and the Western Assamese (language spoken by the people of
lower Assam). In the lower Assam there are two Sub-dialects, viz, the Goalpariya
dialect, which is used in the district of Goalpara along with its sub joining
areas and the Kamrupiya dialect which is used by the people of undivided
Kamrup district. Again there are two more Sub-dialects in the Goalpariya viz,
Kamrupiya dialect also be divided into three classes - Western Kamrupi, Middle
39. Ibid, P - 11
47
the Copper Plates of the Hindu Kings, of which the example of scripts found in
one thousand years old like other Modern Indo-Aryan languages. Now the
Assamese language achieved the 40,h position among the world languages. Its
literature is also growing at par with other Modern Indian languages. It is also
2:12 Conclusion :
Now, we can come to the conclusion that both Hindi and Assamese
languages are from the Indo-European family and are successors to Sanskrit
of the Magadhi Prakrit. As such there are several similarities and dis-similarities
as well.
Hindi is the official language of India and at the same time the state
language of ten states In addition to these, Hindi also functions as the lingua-
france of different states On the other hand, Assam ese besides being the
regarded as the second important language of the world. The number of Hindi
speaking people is around fifty five crores. On the other hand, Assamese
stands at the 40th position out of 2800 languages of the world and the number
world. On the other hand, Assamese as a regional language also almost equal
to Hindi.
♦ ♦ ♦