English Translation of “Bharathiya Samskruthi” (2019) | Page 46
Dr. Griearson considers Prakrut and Paishacha languages as belonging to Indo – European “Kho” (mountain) category language. But Bloch, Morgenstiernece and some others reject Griearson’s argument that Prakrut is quite different from Sanskrit, so it belongs to a third group5. They feel it belongs to Sanskrit group. Some others think that Paishacha language is a “chaos” language6 and does not belong to a special separate group. But such languages as Magadi, Arda-Magadi, Pali, Sauraseni and Maharashtri, which belong to Prakrut group are different variants of the Vedic-Sanskrit language. These languages are called middle- Indo-European languages. The grammarians have divided Prakrut into ancient prakrut or Chulika Paishachi and Pratichya. The name Pali was given by Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka to Magadi or Arda-Magadi language around 8th century AD. According to some scholars Pali originated either in Ujjain or Taxila7, but spread across the Vindhya and into NorthEastern regions. Prior to the Vedic age, the Darada or Pischacha tribes people migrated to Kekaya, Kuru-Panchala, Magada, Gouda and Nepal in the Eastern region and another group migrated to Southern region of Vindhya, Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka . Thereby initiating the development of Gouda and Dravidian languages. From middle Indo-Aryan languages8 the so called modern Indo-European languages of India came into existence like Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarathi, Urdu, Nepali, Kashmiri, Brajabasha, Punjabi, Lahandi, Rajasthani and Assamese. II Munda –Mon-Khmer languages This group of languages are found in central and Eastern parts of India. Neilson V. Smith and others are of the opinion that these languages of Austric group either belong to Austroasiatic or Austronesian category of languages. But Dr. Harvis E. Cole says Munda languages are closely linked to Finno-Ugrian and so there is no separate group called “Austric” group. _______________________ Footnotes 5. Bloch, Lefarmation de langue Masathi; Morgentierence, Reports of Linguistic Missions to Afghanistan and North-Western India, 1926-32. Oslo. 6. Master, J.R.A.S 1943. 7. B. C. Law, History of Pali Literature, Vol. I. 8. Bloch, L’ Inde-Aryan du Veda aux Temps. Modernes. 1934.
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