152 RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGICAL INQUIRIES.
Paragraph 2.—Modern Idioms of Hindustan.
1. The modern Hindustani is the language of the Mogul
empire. It is a modification, formed, chiefly by an adoption
of Persian words, of the Hindi or Hinde vl.
2. The Hindi or Hinder! is the popular language of
Upper India. It is called also the Brij-bhfikhfi. It is
known to contain a great proportion of Sanskrit words',
hut to have a .grammatical construction very different from
that of the Sanskrit, having lost a great part of its inflec-
tions, as the Italian has lost those of the Latin.
Most of the northern dialects of India are modifications,
more or less remote, of the Hindi.
In the western parts of India two particular languages
prevail, the Panj&bl and the Sindhl. Of these ! find the
following accounts:—
1. The P anjabi is a dialect oirthe Hindustani j' ït'ii the
modem dialect of the towns in the Panjfib: the villagers
speak the Iathkl a low vernacular dialect. On the frontier
of the Sikhs the Panjabi is said to be mixed with -wo"rds; of
other dialects. It is however fundamentally the language
of the Sikhs, who, through hatred*-of the! Moslims, have
laboured to change their speech. Towards Shawalpur the
Panj fib! partakes of the Sindhl.
The Panjabi appears to be no new importation into the
Land of the Five Rivers, brought, as from some of the above
remarks might be supposed, by settlers in the towns. It
is observed, on the evidence afforded by Bactrian coins,
that we may thence infer the existence Of a dialect mainly
derived from the Sanskrit, in Bactriana,— least in the
Panjab ”—in the time of Eucratides, the Greek king of
that country. At the present day this dialect is diluted
with words derived from the Arabic and Persian, introduced
together with Islèm.*
2. The Sindhi Language is spoken through the whole
* Additions to Bactrian Numismatics, by J. Prinsep, Esq., Bengal Asiatic
Journal, 79, p. 038;
MODERN IDIOMS OF HINDUSTAN. 153
province of Sindh, and it is said to be understood as far
northward as the territories of Bahawal-Khan, the Derajat
and Multan ; it prevails westward in Kuch-Gandava, Shal,
Mastang, and Plshln.
According to Mr. Wathen, who has written a grammar of
the Sindhl,' this language is merely a dialect of the Brij-
bhakM., or pure Hindi of Upper India, from which it
differs in being more regular in the inflections of its words.
In one particular, the possession of the auxiliary verb
thiyun,.to be* which is wanting in the Hindi, it approaches
the Hindustani* or more modern form.*
3. The Marathi or tUe language op the Mahrattas;
^-rtThe Gurj ara, or the idiom of Guzerat, is one of the northern
Indian languages, and may be considered as a sister
dialect of the Hindi; but the Marathi, or idiom of the
Mahrattas, which borders on it towards the South, makes a
notable approximation to the dialects of the Dekhan, particularly
to the Telugu.'f'
The nation termed Maharashtras, or briefly and corruptly
Mahrattas, was formerly confined, according to Mr. Cole-
brooke, to a mountainous tract to the southward of the
rixor Nermada, and extending to the province of Kókfin.
Their language is more widely spread, but is not vernacular
far beyond its original limits.J Mr. Hamilton says, “ the
best modern accounts lead us to suppose that the original
country of the Mahrattas included Khandesh, Baglana, and
a part of Berar, extending towards the north-west as far
as Guzerat and the Nermada river, where are the Grassias
and BhllS.” The original Mahratta country is of great
natural strength, interspersed with mountains, defiles, and
natural fortresses.
The Mahrattas are Hindoos, but not of the military caste,
however warlike or rather predatory have been their habits
* Wathen’s Grammar of the Sindhi, Asiatic Journal, Bengal, No. 65, and
Captain James M’Murdo on the country of Sindh, Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain, vol 1.
t Observations on the Marathi Languages, by the Rev. Dr. Stevenson,
Asiatic Journal, vol. vii.
t Asiatic Researches, vol vii.
VOL . IV. S