Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

THE INFLUENCE OF POPULAR DIALECTS ON SANSKRIT

Author(s): S. M. Katre
Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 24, No. 1/2 (January -
April 1943), pp. 9-26
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41784402
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 THE INFLUENCE OF POPULAR DIALECTS

ON SANSKRIT *

BY

S. M. Katre

Our ancient scriptures tell us that every man is born burdened

with three debts which he should endeavour to liquidate during
his term of life to the best of his ability •' the three rnas to the
gods, to the ancestors and to the rats . Of these the 3rst two are
practically within the means of most of us : we maintain our
gods with due reverence and pomp. Witness for instance, the
worship of the Elephant-TPaced-God that we have initiated
yesterday; and the last census returns show a definite increase in
our population. But it is the debt to the rsis , both ancient and
modern, which is the most difficult to discharge, and which is
generally left unpaid. It is thus a matter of great importance
that this Institute which commemorates the revered name of a
modern raí • who made the study of the language of the gods a
o •

fascinating one during tie second half of the nineteenth ce

justly celebrates this occasion in honour of all rais, both
and modern. This is an occssion when every man can tak
of his own activities, consider the credit and debit sid
moral and spiritual life, and settle where possible the la
three debts to the best of his abilities. I am very grateful in-
deed for the honour the Institute has done me by inviting me to
deliver the present address to you this evening, and despite the
short notice I have gladly accepted it in the hope that I shall at
least partially redeem my rsi-rna by speaking to you on some of
the thoughts which have come to me in my own research acti-
vities as a result of suggestions thrown out in his many-sided
contributions by Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar. My only
regret is that the present duty has not fallen on more worthy

* Substance of the Address delivered on the occasion of the RsipañcamI

Day at the Institute on 15th September 1942.
2 [ Annals, B. O. R. I. I

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IO Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

shoulders, for if you will pardon my saying so, the choice of the
present lecturer has not been exceptionally wise or happy. I
see before me far worthier scholars than myself who can rightly
claim to be the epigoni of that great abhinavarsi and therefore in a
position to render far more valuable service to the cause which
he represented in his life and which is crystallized during the
past twentyfive years in the aotivities of this great Institue. If I
appear at all before you today it is with the full confidence that
the spirit of that rsi is present here among us, casting its
beneficent influence all around us, and inspiring us to discharge
honourably and with equity the spiritual debt due from us to
the entire rsihood.

My own introduction to the language of the gods happily

came through the two books of Sanskrit which Dr. Bhandarkar
made famous during the second half of the nineteenth century ;
and, but for these two books, I would not have pursued the
study of Panini and Patañjali in the orthodox manner. Even
apart from this, in spite of his many-sided contributions to the
general fund of Indology, Dr. Bhandarkar once more gave a
new direction to the moribund interest of the educated masses
of not only this province, but practically of the whole of India,
in Sanskrit and Sanskritic studies. He combined within
himself the best of the East and the West, and with his peculiar
synthetic spirit, evolved a new line of approach to our ancient
cultural heritage of which Sanskrit or the 4 language of the
gods ' is the chief vehicle of expression. There have been more
profound scholars in the East and the West, but none so
versatile and equally at home with the East and the West.
Naturally when one contemplates on the character and achieve-
ments of Sir Ramkrishna, Sanskrit occupies the central
position in any estimate, and this tradition is being continued
even now by the activities of this Institute in the magnificent
critical edition of the Great National Epic, the most stupendous
work ever to be undertaken during the present century, and
of the highest importance to Indian culture.

The first scientific demonstration that Sanskrit was a spoken

idiom is contained within the series of lectures with which

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 1 1

Dr. Bhandarkar inaugurated the Wilson Philological Lectures

in 1877 in the University of Bombay. Since then other scholars
have taken up that subject, and the chief contributions on the
topic have appeared in the J RAS during the turn of the
century up to the commencement of the last Great World War.
In fact I am given to understand that Mm. Prof. P. V. Kane, in
his Wilson Philological Lectures during 1913, has extensively
dealt with this topic. Sixty years after this memorable event,
in 1937, at the Ninth All-India Oriental Conference held at
Trivandrum, the learned General President, Prof. F. W. Thomas,
once again raised the subject, not in order to prove that
Sanskrit was a spoken medium, but in order to show that in
Sanskrit alone one could find the basis for a common language
for the whole of India. Nay, he even went further, and
declared that he did not feel that the idea of Sanskrit resuming
its place as a common literary medium for India was a hopeless-
ly lost cause, since the alternative was either that there should
be no such medium ( other than English ) or the dominance of
some particular vernacular, despite unavoidable reluctances.
Here we observe a foreign scholar, equally a master of Sanskrit
as of Tibetan and Chinese, giving his unbiased opinion, that
Sanskrit which was the language of the gods, may once again
become the common literary medium of the whole of India and
thus descend to earth like the sacred Ganga and purify the
accumulated dirt and sins of millenniums.

It is not necessary for me to indicate in any detail the uni-

fying cultural influence of this sacred polished language of
ancient India. The supremacy of the Aryan rule in general
superimposed a Sanskrit bias on the linguistic systems current
in India during the ancient and medieval periods. Not only
was the South of India converted to a Sanskrit bias : witness,
for instance, the Kanarese and Telugu Literatures of the 9th-
10th centuries A. D. which contain, on an average over 90 per
cent of pure Sanskritic vocables, so much so that these languages
have been classified by their grammarians as prakritic in origin-
bufc they also became the centres for the preservation of Sanskrit
culture when the North was overrun by foreign invaders profes-
sing a different culture and a different medium of communi*

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 12 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Instante

cation. Even the discident Pâli and Ardhamãgadhl, the religious

vehicles of Southern Buddhism and Jainism, had to yield
reluctantly to the reaffirmed supremacy of Sanskrit ; and so far
as Northern Buddhism was concerned, as also later Jainism,
Sanskrit once again became the literary medium. With the
spread of Sanskrit culture to Greater India, the influence of the
language was increasingly f< It even in the Pacific Islands ;
Tibetan and Chinese and even distant Japanese have been
modified by their contacts with Sankrit language and culture.
Thus, for a period of more than four thousand years, Sanskrit,
whether in its vedic garb, or in its severely refined classical
form as witnessed in Pataňjalťs Great Commentary, whether
in the language known today as Buddhist or Jain Sanskrit, or
even in the flowing but not strictly grammatical idiom of the
Epics, has maintained a firm grip on the cultural evolution of
our country and in the spread of that synthesised culture abroad
to China, Japan and the Pacific Islands. Not only that, the so-
called ť discovery 1 of Sanskrit by the Europeans has contributed
to the foundation of the new science of Comparative Grammar
which is still in its infancy, but which has given a new orienta-
tion to the rigorous study of not only the members of the Indo-
European family of languages but also of other families. It
has incidentally supplied the technical terms for certain linguistic
phenomena such as gutta and vrddhi. All this is but a minor
phase in the development of Sanskrit from its earliest appearanoe
in the vedic hymns to its being employed as medium in technical
sciences in the late medieval and modern periods.

When such is the field of Sanskrit and so great the extent

of its power and influence over every linguistic unit with
which it has come into contact for a period of more than four
thousand years, our eyes are generally blinded to the two-fold
aspect of 'give and take' which is inevitable in a such a slow but
steady process of transformation. We are inclined to take
into account only the influence of Sanskrit on other literary
mediums and look askance at any proposition which is contrary
to the hypothesis of loans from Sanskrit. This bias has led, for
instance, to the creation of a special medium which the early
linguists of the last century called the Gäthä dialect, particularly

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 1 3

in the compositions of the Northern Buddhists, wherein

4 correct Sanskrit is interspersed with 4 incorrect 9 Sanskrit.
Now what is this distinction in the two classes termed
4 correct ' and * incorrect 9 Sanskrit which separates them ?
I have only to refer you to Dr. Bhandarkar's lectures on the
Sanskrit and Prakrit languages wherein he quotes extensively
from Pataňjalťs Mahãbhãsya and arrives at the conclusion that
4 correct ' Sanskrit represents the medium as 4 current ' among
the sistas or the refined educated class. Thus we arrive at the
concept of a 4 current 9 Sanskrit in opposition to a 4 non-current 9
Sanskrit, both comprising what may be termed the speech
habits of the refined and educated Aryans of Central India in
general, with some local variations already indicated by
Panini and delineated in greater detail by Patañjali. A third
category is defined by Patañjali by the term apabhãsita- or
apabhraméa or apabhrasta , including forms actually 'current'
some time during the history of Indo- Aryan, but not among the
éistas. As regards the idea of 4 currency 9 both the Vãrttikakãra
and the Bhãsyakãra agree on the domain of linguistic usage as
consisting of the space-time context and this lively discussion
is introduced in the Mahãbhãsya by the värttika 4 astyaprayuktah 9
and ending with the värttika • sarve desãntare 9 and although
' deka 9 signifies 4 space 9 in general, the idea of time is also in-
herent in it. And it is still a wonder to me that this space-
context with its implied time-context which India discovered as
vital to a historical study of her linguistic systems, remained
dormant for nearly two thousand years, and did not take
its central place in modern linguistics (itself the result of
the 4 discovery 9 of Sanskrit ) until the discovery and decipher-
ment of Hittite and Tocharian and the consequent restudy of the
entire history of Indo-European in the light of their individual
development. Apart from the significance of this space-time
context in the historical development of Indo- Aryan languages
themselves, we have to observe the two types of sista Sanskrit
in opposition to the speech habits of the non-iistas, and to that
extent we have what may be designated the 4 standard 9 Sanskrit
as distinguished from the 4 popular 9 Sanskrit or 4 popular dia-

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14 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

lects ' of Sanskrit and to use a more technical term, of Old and
Middle Indo- Aryan.

It will be seen from the brief enumeration above that besides

the standard forms 4 current ' among the éistas in their space-
time evolution, the Aryan languages themselves possessed
4 current 9 non-šista forms which I wish to designate in this
lecture as the popular dialect forms ; in fact Patañjali goes so
far out as to indicate the proportion of the standard and popular
forms • ehaikasya hi šábdasya bahavcr - pabhraméâh . The question
which I wish to pose before you i9 this * How far have these
popular dialects in their space-time evolution influenced the
development of the Usta speech itself Î In other words, what is
the influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit ?

In order to approach this problem we have to take into consi-

deration first the nature of Sanskrit itself. This language of the
gods, technically designated by linguists as Old Indo-Aryan or
the first stage of the Aryan language brought within India,
itself consists of several strands of dialects which show their dia-
lectical characteristics in varying degree. For we have shown
above that the idea of 1 currency ' at any given period has to do
with regions, and what is * current ' in a particular region may
not be sista for the whole of India. Such peculiarities have been
noticed, for instanoe, in the Rgveda. Thus with reference to
the Infinitive forms in the Rgveda, Brunnhofer has observed
that the Ãtreyas in the $th mandala have none in the
Kãnva in the 1st and 5th mandalas almost none in - tum and
- tavai ; similarly the Vasi9thas in the 7th mandala have no
absolutive forms in - iva and - tvhya , and just one instance in
-tv'i ( if the khila hymn 7, 104, 8 is not taken into consideration ).
Scholars are divided in their opinion regarding the interpretation
of these phenomena ; Wackernagel believes that despite these
peculiarities the language throughout the ßgveda shows
unity, notwithstanding the diversity of composition. Are we to
consider these as stylistic or artistic peculiarities or as definite
signs of dialectical tendencies in the stream of language which
goes to constitute what we know today as Sanskrit ? For
myself, taking account of the entire history of the language

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 15

from its earliest appearance to its latest phases, it is evident that

from the space-time context consideration of linguit&tic facts, all
such regional or family peculiarities and the much more certain
chronological peculiarities together give us, from the analogical
considerations, tributaries forming the life-giving waters of the
major stream of language. A consideration of the language of
the ßgveda itself shows that the 10th mandala exhibits a later
phase than the rest of the text ; similarly that of the Yajur^eda
is younger than that of the ßgveda; and in this manner we
can discover linguistic strata from the ßgveda down to the
Sütras constituting the first phase of old Indo- Aryan. Never-
theless the so-called 10th mandala of the ßgveda exhibits
certain archaisms as well, and these archaisms appear to be con-
sciously attempted.
Now it is reasonable to assume that what is current in a
given region at a given period among the šistas may not have
currency elsewhere ; and the process by which such forms infilter
in other regions is one which must occur in point of time-context
dependent on several considerations such as the political or
cultural importance of the region concerned- In addition there
is the linguistic process affecting the already current speech
habit of the region in its time-sequence, and these together give
us what the Germans call the Sprachgut or the linguistic
material of that particular region at a given point of time. Thus
the new forms which have been evolved in the lOfch mandala of
the Jtgveda represent, for instance, the general linguistic
evolution of the language in its time sequence. But what of the
conscious archaisms ? Do they represent a conscious activity
the bards to appear more ancient and therefore more authorita-
tive, or do they contain within themselves, at least in a few
cases, the infìltering activities of èiçta forms current at an
earlier period in the same region, or of forms current in another
region at that period ? To answer these questions is not easy,
for we have not sufficient materials with us on which we can
base our conclusions. And we have not sufficient experience in
these matters in the entire domain of Sanskrit" literature,
for everywhere we have to face the difficulty oř assigning
correct chronological or regional limits to any given work
of such an ancient date. There is only one way open to us ; we

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1 6 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

can assume certain possibilities and see if they are borne out in
the entire evolution of Indo- Aryan from its oldest phase to the
latest. One of such possibilities is the following : forms which
were current in popular dialects, - that is, forms current among
the non -šista members of a given region at one period, may
receive recognition at a later period from the ¿istas of that region
and be thus given a place in the current expressions of the edu-
cated masses. This is a process which is taking place in all
linguistic groups ; witness, for instance, the evolution of Middle
Indo- Aryan into several well-defined regional Prakrit languages
like SaurasenI or Mãgadhl, with characteristics ultimately
derived from the speech habits of the non-¿¿§tos, developing a
literature of their own. Similarly Pali and Ardhamãgadhl which
may be called popular or vernacular speech forms in opposition
to the refined Sanskrit became the regular literary mediums of
religious exposition and reached the status of current speech
forms.

Thus we see that in the gradual evolution of Indo-Aryan,

when one praticular dialect reaches to the status of a literary
medium as current among the šistas , other dialects current
among the common people may be considered as popular speech
forms. Now the question of the interrelationship of these two
sets is of importance for us in order to evaluate the interaction
of the one on the other. While some type of Sanskrit remained
throughout the history of Indo-Aryan as the common literary
medium, uniting the whole of cultural India, influencing the
various regional languages in their entirety, what was the
process by which it gradually assumed its classical shape in
contradistinction to Vedic, and culminated in the so-called
popular Sanskrit seen in the epics, Buddhist and Jaina composi-
tions ? And in this process what was the part played by the
popular dialects ?
Now as regards classical Sanskrit in opposition to Vedic,
the first fact to be noticed is the normalising and simplification
of morphology ; of the different terminations of the various
cases several have dropped out ; the number of verbal forms
undergoes very great reduction, the perfect and aorist types
being limited to the indicative mood only ; verbs which admit

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 17

of stem shiftings, like the nasal presents, root aorists, etc. have
a tendency to disappear 5 similarly the large number of termi-
nations for the infinitives and absolutives undergoes reduc-
tion. Everywhere the normalizing process tends to reduce the
richness of the Vedic forms. The middle voice extends to
whole verbs when the present stem admitted it in the Vedic.
Thus there is a double process of restriction and expansion, o
conservation and innovation. This double process cannot be
ordinarily explained by any single line of development other
than on the basis of being influenced by a group of popular
dialects which are ultimately derived from the same common
source. Thus, for instance, the significance of vastra as ' sky ' by
an extension of analogy with its partial synonym ambara , or of
yuddha- * a pair 9 on analogy with dvandva- must have some
space-time context connected with them. The extension could
not have started in the original region where the partial
synonyms would be easily recognisable ; if we assume,
however, that in a region where ambara - alone was current at a
period when its partial synonym vastra - was being introduced,
the extension of the synonym to all the remaining significances
of ambara - could be easily understood and justified in that
context. Thus we should have regions, for instance, where
ambara and vastra coincide only in the sense of * garment or in
some other sense of either ambara or of vastra , and if our
material is sufficiently exhaustive we shall discover the
gradual process of this extension. What is possible within the
Usta forms current in different regions is possible to a greater
extent with popular dialects, for here, in the absence of a
literature which can fix the usages in a well defined limit, we
shall have a quick prooess of absorption and development ;
at the same time, the absence of a normalizing tendency will
keep those forms in their pristine purity to a greater length
of time than in the case a literary medium.

In this manner we see on the one hand the regularising

process, caused by the tendency to economy of effort in all
human activities, reducing the original rich morphological
nature of Vedic Sanskrit to its classical form, and introducing
3 [ Annals, B. O. R. i. ]

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1 8 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

rapid changes ; but in this prooess the literary medium draws

its inspiration from some definite region at one time or another
and the standard refined language derives its chief charac-
teristics from such contributory dialects and regional
languages. It is our duty to find out the extent and manner of
such changes introduced in the standard language through
constant interaction between it and the popular languages
which exist beside it in the different regions during the various
periods of history.
In my present address it is not possible to work out the main
theme of this investigation in all its details. Like Bhattoji
Dlkfita 1 have to declare at this juncture that only leading
features are indicated : din-mãtram iha daréitam. Let us then
turn our attention to the historical development of Sanskrit
from its first appearance downwards. It is well known that
Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages,
and that Primitive I-E. did not possess the cerebral series.
Yet even in the language of the (tgveda the cerebrals have
developed completely, while in the Primitive Indo-Iranian
period they did not exist. How was this series introduced in
Primitive Indo-Aryan ? The dental and cerebral series exist
also in Dravidian, and the cerebrals also occur in another
Indian family, the Kol or Munda. One fact should be noted
here : the cerebrals have not been introduced whole-sale in
Sanskrit ; on the other hand their extension is rather progressive.
In the first place cerebrals result from dentals and palatals
under certain conditions depending on changes anterior to
Sanskrit itself •• influence of a or and the lateral r on the
dentals ; similarly the palatals.;, ¿ and h as word-finals change
to cerebrals ; also the cerebral s resulting from the other sibilants
after an i or u or r. Of these changes the influence of lateral r
or the vocalic r has continued to function within the entire
o

history of certain MI-A. dialects, the cesebralization being

particularly noticeable on the Eastern side. We do not know
the exact prehistory of the remaining changes : they are anterior
to Sanskrit itself ; possible influence by DraVidian or Kol in
prehistoric times may explain some of these changes ? for the
interaction of Prearyan and Predravidian has been postulated

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 Influence oj Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 19
for a number of characteristics found in Indian languages
today, and I refer you to the work of the same name published by
the University of Calcutta some years back. But we can go back
from MI-A. to OI-A on the basis of one tendency at least which
has remained active in MI-A. : the cerebralization of dentals
in the presence of r or r ; thus Vedic vikatá - ivikrta - is paralleled
by Sk. krta- : Pk. ftaçfa-, mrta - : mada-, srta • saýa - etc. Similar-
ly the dhãtupãtha root aitate, attayati is connected with Sk.
arttar ,, and the BSk. anthati is derived from Sk. arthate , and
parallel to this we have in Pk. rddhi - : iddhit ardha - : addha - etc.
What is the explanation of this phenomenon ? We may believe
that the process which affected the OI-A. forms sporadically
became more regular in the MI-A. ; or else we may consider the
possibility of certain regional characteristics of popular
dialects affecting the standard literary medium to a certain
extent only, but affecting the MI-A. idiom developed within
those regions in a more regular manner. In fact even the first
alternative is, in effect, a modification of the second one. And
we shall not be far wrong in assuming this influence at the
basis of such double forms as bhan - and bhan -, an-, ari- in OI-A.,
the second being made 4 current ' by the éistas at a later period
through borrowing from some influential MI-A. dialect or
language. And so far as any form of OI-A. is concerned every
MI-A. form is 'popular7. Hence we can treat this primitive
aspect of Sanskrit consonantism as a result of the influence of
popular dialects on Sanskrit, whether these popular dialects
were Aryan or not ; moreover the very fact that the cererbal
series was not introduced wholesale within Sanskrit at a given
period argues in favour of this gradual influence.
Within Sanskrit itself the normalizing process which affected
the rich morphological aspect of the Vedic language has been
'selective'; for instance the absolutive termination of classical Sk.
is - tvã , whereas the Vedic -tvãna survived only in Pali and other
MI-A. languages regularly. This selective process ordinarily
cannot be haphazard ; for in such a case, it will not be possible
to have a uniform language ; and the uniformity with which
such selection holds for the whole of classical Sanskrit argues
for the space-time context to which I referred in the beginning.

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20 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

If a certain form current aťa particular time in a given region

becomes the standard form for the whole of Sanskrit because of
certain political or cultural aspects centering round that region,
at that period, the process of selection is automatically explain-
ed. The remaining forms have local currency and survive in
the lineal descendants of such local or regional languages or
dialects» while the standardised polished language preserves
only the particular form on the selective principle. Thus the
development of Sanskrit in its space-time context, when discern-
ible, will throw considerable light on this aspect of interaction
between the local mediums and itself. It is still a matter of
regret that, not withstanding more than a century of modern
scientific research in the West and East, we are still far from
achieving some measure of success in this enquiry which is so
vital to our national development. For Sanskrit contains with-
in itself the seeds of unifying Indian culture once again, and by
the process of synthesis which it symbolised within itself by
fusing the Prearyan and Predravidian cultures into a distinct
Indian culture which spread North and East and left its mark on
every aspect of life in those regions during the first thousand
years after Christ, it is still capable of unifying the divergent
tendencies visible today in our country and evolving a cultural
unity whioh may once again bring a new era of spiritual regene-
ration in the East and the West.

When we consider the popular Sanskrit of the Hindus,

Buddhists and the Jainas we notice a similar extension of
popular influence exerted by regional or local languages on th
standard medium and giving it a new orientation. Whereas
Prakrit literature appears to be a purely artificial production, a
kind of protestant reaction eschewing completely all forms which
might be considered as the 'refined Sanskrit, these popular idioms
with their learned borrowings of loanwords from Sanskrit and
partially standardised morphology reflect the actual state of
affairs so far as linguistic habits are concerned. It is not with a
Gãthã dialect that we have to do here ; on the other hand, we
notice here, before our very eyes, the process of interaction
between a refined standardised speech and the local or current
popular dialects, and evolving a mixed idiom where both

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 2t

standard and local features inter-mingle without consideration

of propriety. We are not hedged in here by the steel frame of
Panini and his two followers, the munitrayam or the triumvirate
of sages who built up a noble edifice without considering the
cost involved in their efforts to the lifeblood of the language
they were hedging in ; we are rather in the jungle where all the
diverse elements mix and commingle to evolve a new but rich
idiom, like the language of the gods seen in the Veda itself, and
which has left its lasting impress on all the modern languages
of India. It is not my intenion to tire you with citations from
this idiom to demonstrate the degree of popular influence on
Sanskrit. Suffice it to say that you will find an accurate des-
cription of the Buddhist Sanskrit idiom in Edger ton's papers
published during the past six or seven years ; and so far as Epic
Sanskrit is concerned work is still being continued in this
Institute as well as in the Deccan College and the University
of Dacca. This rich interaction between the standard form of
Sanskrit with the local varieties of MIA. has given to us a
pattern followed by the IA. vernaculars as against the prote-
stant Prakrit languages. For even in the earliest NIA. literature
now available to us, we notice the occurrence of Sk. loanwords
ranging between 40 to 80 percent of the total expressions used.
This close mixture of the two, whether in the MIA. or in the NIA.
stage, cannot take place without the one affecting the other. How-
ever conservative the authors may be in their approach to
Sanskrit, in actual Sanskrit usage they will be influenced by
their local idioms. Even editors or redactors revising the Mss.
of their authors, are prone to commit such unconscious localisa-
tions or provincialisms We have hundreds of such instances
in the local variants recorded, for instance, in the critical edition
of the Great Epic published by this Institute.
The tendency of our ancient commentators in Sanskrit is to
consider these local variations as unPãninian, but they have not
dared to oppose them as aéista ; they may be apaniniya but they
can never be aéista , for following the very argument of Patañjali
we may say • mahãn éabdasyaprayogavisayah...etãvantam šabdasya
prayogavi^ayam ananuniéamya 4 santy aprayuktã 9 iti vacariam keva-
Iam sãhasamãtram . ••• Such provincial forms which may be

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22 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

found in the works of Aévaghosa or Kãlidãsa cannot be brushed

away as ungrammatical ; in fact, where the readings are beyond
doubt, they have a unique value for us for studying the later
development of Sanskrit. And it is a pity that as yet no sustain-
ed effort has been made to study these divergences from the
Päninian norm in their space-time evolution. The only recent
study which I remember in this direction is th$t of the Paris
scholar, Prof. Louis Renou who, in his monograph on
Candragomin's Grammar, arrives at the conclusion that this
grammarian has incorporated certain new innovations which
have already taken place in Sanskrit subsequent to its standardi-
sation by the famous triumvirate before the 1st century B. C.
Our grammarians will generally look with askance at such
forms, and it is to the credit of Cajidragomin that he fearlessly
incorporated the features of the language current as it was.
during his own period in his grammar, and did not slavishly
follow his predecessors by merely changing the technical terms
and the order of the aphorisms.

As we have observed above, the slow changes in the morpho-

logy of Sanskrit have been effected through the selective process
exerted by the influence of some important local popular dialect
at a period when it assumed some political or cultural
importance. To a greater extent, and naturally, the vocabulary
of Sanskrit has been modified and extended by such influence.
I have indicated elsewhere in great detail, so far as the verbal
bases of Sanskrit are concerned, that a large percentage of them
have been incorporated into Sanskrit through hypersanskritiza-
tion of MIA. forms. Moreover a good percentage of the
substantives have also been derived in this manner. I shall
refer just to one instance of such incorporation, particularly in
late Sanskrit, as found recorded in a medieval Sanskrit lexicon •'
añgoñchah , angoñchanam in the lexicon form indicates ' a towel '
and it is derivable either from a Sk. - üñchati * rubs off ' a con-
tamination of uksáti ; uksáte * sprinkles 7 and uñchati ' gleans
protesati 4 sprinkles ', proñehati ' wipes out 9 ; or from MIA.
*anga-puñchana - > *anga-uñchana - through hyçersanskritisa-
tion. This is really a very important process from the point of

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 2.3

view of evolving Sanskrit as a national cultural language of

India , for the power of Sanskrit to increase its already rich
vocabulary by such hypeysanskritisations or even learned bor-
rowings or loanwords from the dialectical material actually
current in the land is a fact which favours its adoption as a
medium of interprovincial communication and a common
^janguage of the country as a whole. For whatever be its present
position, it is still the chief source from which the modern
vernaculars draw their life blood, and in this sense, according
to Prof. S. K. Chatterji, Sanskrit cannot be considered as a Mead*
language in the sense that Latin is ' dead ' And even if we
raise it to the status of a national language today, there can be
no objection because it is actually the source of Aryan-Dravi-
dian India.

It is interesting to note here that in a Chinese-Sanskrit

lexicon composed by Li Yen in the 8th century A. D. we find
recorded several Central Asian words like kurta ' shirt' as pure
Sanskrit words. These lexicons have been edited by Dr. Bagchi
of the Calcutta University and their linguistic importance has
been indicated in a paper read by Dr. Chatterji at the Tirupati
Oriental Conference. I only refer to these works here as indi-
cating the extensiveness of the field of investigation which we
have before us in order to understand the influence of popular
dialects in the evolution of Sanskrit subsequent to the activities
of the Munitraya and in spite of them. Similarly the Greek
loanwords in Sanskrit have ben discussed by Weber in his paper
contributed to the first volume of the Indian Antiquary in 1872.
Recently Paul Thime has indicated a number of Persian words
which have entered the lexicon of Sanskrit, and even Arabic has
contributed a number of important vocables to Sanskrit. Although
their number is small, their entry in the language of the gods is
significant, and points out to the fact already established above
that it has in itself the capacity of still growing and becoming
even a more important medium for the dissemination of Indian
culture, and perhaps the most powerful instrument of research in
the future regeneration of our country.

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24 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Another important aspect of Sanskrit vocabulary was brought

out by Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji during the Baroda session
of the Oriental Conference where he discussed the nature* of
some 4 translation compounds.' Thus in; toridi-cc/a both words
indicate the same idea, one being the translation of the other ;
similarly Sk. karetu may also be considered as a compound con-
sisting of two members the first of which may be taken as the
exact equivalent of the second, indicating an elephant. We may
compare the current expression in the local dailies , dangã-matti
as an even more significant translation compound of a similar
type. Thus Sanskrit has introduced a new category in its voca*
bulary on the basis of popular influence where both members
indicate a common idea, but may or may not belong to the same
source. Here is an evidence of popular influence which cannot
be doubted, and the number of such vocables is increasing in
proportion to the advance made in the etymology #of Sanskrit
vocabulary.
It has been demonstrated with considerable success that
many of the new culture words have been borrowed by Sanskrit
and Sanskritic languages from Dravidian or Austro-Asiatic.
Thus besides the IE. aim- # horse ' Sk. has borrowed a new word
ghota - or ghotaka - as early as the 4th century B. C., and one
famous ãcãrya of Kämasästra is already known as Ohotakamukha
to Vãtsyãyana. Similarly in addition to the Sk. word istakã
for brick, attested in Iranian also, Przyluski has demonstrated
that the modern IA word for 4 brick ' in India is ultimately
derived from Austro-Asiatic. We may hesitate to accept every
conclusion of such great importance to the concept of I A. culture
on such slender evidence ; but if the evidence accumulates on
allied cultural topics we cannot neglect the import of such
evidence. The words for plantain, betel leaf, etc. as also the
word for ' plough' and * mustard ' seem to have come to Sanskrit
through the same source. These are fairly early examples of
incorporation by Sanskrit. If the entire history of Sanskrit can
be unravelled by research we shall probably find a fairly good
percentage of such incorporation.
Thus while Sanskrit has influenced the linguistic, spiritual
and cultural life of more than two continents, it has in that

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 Influence of Popular Dialects on Sanskrit 25

slow but continuous process imbibed within itself traces of such

contact, and made its own a large part of the vocabulary and
grammatical features. It has itself developed from its original
shell and spread its branches all over India and the East, and
contributed not a little to European culture of the last three
centuries. In this enlargement of its original scope and
provenance it has broken from the shackles confining it, by the
activities of generations of Indians and outsiders. The extent
to which it has been influenced by the popular dialects is itself
a measure of the greatness of the language to make small
concessions while preserving in-tact all its chief characteristics.
It is this aspect of the Indian genius which has kept the torch of
Indian civilisation burning for well nigh four thousand years :
namely making small concessions which do not affect the
genius of the language or the culture but keeping solidly the
major aspects of both and thereby influencing the other streams
which come into contaot with it.

We are today faced with deep problems which are bound to

affect the very basis of our existence in this country. It is
necessary for us to face them with courage, foresight and
patience and unflinching idealism. Sanskrit offers for us the
surest medium not only to interpret the solution of many of
them, but also to bring together the many divergent elements
in a cultural unity which is the precursor of all other solu-
tions; and just as it succeeded in the ancient past to weld
together both Prearyan and Predravidian and bring into
existence a unique Indian culture, so also will it develop a new
cultural unity which will give to the post-war reconstruction
of the world a new orientation. But much work is necessary
for the accomplishment of that great purpose ; it is a matter for
congratulation that the activity of this Institute is progressively
achieving a part of this objective and let me hope that its
contribution to the cultural regeneration of our country will
be in proportion to the magnitude of its critical edition of the
Great Epic.

One such work which is essential for the study of Sanskrit

in its space-time context is a new dictionary on scientific
4 [ Annali, B« O. R* I. ]

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26 Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

principles and I have written about it in several papers recently

contributed to various journals. I am glad to find that there is
great activity in learned circles to cooperate whole heartedly
in this work of national importance. May this Institute which
commemorates the name of an abbinava Panini , a veritable rsi,
succeed in reviving the spirit of the ancient rsis and help in
unifying the present divergent tendencies in a cultural unity,
significantly embedded in the central theme of the Great Epic,
which shall bring the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth, and the
Song of the Lord to the heart of every living creature.

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