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Ram:
Thanks for the site. It is
great.
Regarding Assamese and other
languages coming from Sanskrit, please read the history of the Indian languages
carefully. It is tricky. Sanskrit, by definition, is a dead language, which
means it ended in itself. As such none of the Indian regional languages are
derived from Sanskrit. None. Assamese, Bengali, Oriya and all the
Indo-Aryan languages in India are derived from different Pakrit languages like
Magadhi, Sauraseni, etc. Now these Pakrit languages are derived from some Vedic
and pre Vedic languages. Sanskrit itself was one language which was derived from
some pre Vedic language. However, Panini standardized Sanskrit and made many
changes phonetically (we lost X sound) and grammatically. However due to
Panini's strict rules, Sanskrit remained as a fixed written language, fixed in
time forever. That is why it is called a dead language.
From above, it should be very clear
that Sanskrit cannot be the mother language on any of the Indo Aryan languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marthi etc. Sanskrit can be strictly speaking a
cousin language.
But if a dead language can have
power, it is Sanskrit which have been influencing the Indians greatly.
Many educated Indians (I mean scholars) make the mistake again and again. How
many times you will hear Indians stating that all Indian languages are derived
from Sanskrit etc. Technically this is not correct. Please. Sanskrit is
dead.
If we consider, Panini's time
(6th/7th century BC, Panini was from Afghanistan-Kandahar) to be the time of
Sanskrit the way we see it today, Assamese language is much older than that.
Historically it is my argument that the Assamese XO sound was there in Assamese
since 3000 BC when Narakaxur (contemporary to Rama and Sita) established the
first Aryan-Axur kingdom in Pragjyotishpur. (Otherwise
historically it cannot get into Assamese later). If you read
Kaliram Medhi, Dimbeswar Neog and others, you will find that Assamese language
has still retained, besides the XO sound many characterisc of old Indo-European
language like Persian etc which were lost in Sanskrit and others. With all
these data, one can in fact make a convincing argument that Assamese is older
than Sanskrit, a point made by Medhi and Neog. Assamese still has many pre Vedic
words which were lost in Sanskrit.
(When you read Banikanta Kakaoty,
please read with caution. Being a student of Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, he did
not contradict anything of his master. Compared to him, I think Neog, Medhi and
Bharali are much more original Assamese scholars.)
The bottom line is, even Bani Kanta
Kanoty has never stated that Assamese originated from Sanskrit. If he did, read
his wording again, because he cannot mean that. But if you find any reference, I
would like to see, and would appreciate if you would forward these.
As you can see, in Assam there is
hardly any scholars left today. Have you seen any leadership role being played
by Oxom Xahityo Xobha? The one genuine scholar left in Assam, Dr Golok Ch
Goswami is probably so frustrated that he decided not to speak in such mundane
latters. But what I am saying, he supports me specially regarding the X sound
and the use of W for W-kar in Roman script.
Another point is that Assamese has
only one O and one Ah. Hindi and Sanskrit have
A=Horso Ah, then AA=Dirgho Ah. So when
they write A, the sound is always short Ah like U=Up. Assamese
say Onil, in Hindi they say Anil with
Ah. All the Assamese names like Anjana, Ajanta, Archana,
Anil etc, in Assamese we pronounce with O. But
the same words are pronounced with Ah by the mainland Indians
in Hindi, Sanskrit. That is why when we write Asom, an
Assamese might pronounce Osom, but Hindi and Sanskrit will
pronounce Usom. See the spelling of the word
Dalda in Hindi. It is written as Dolda but
pronounced as Dalda.
All these are happening because
(litikai) Assamese are trying to follow the Hindi, Sanskrit group blindly
without real that Assamese language is a much more simpler language like Pail,
and that it has its separate originality and beauty.
We need to retain the lost
originality of the Assamese language. We need to stand up and say, we no longer
follow you mainland India blindly. We have our originality which we need to
retain.
Anyhow these are is my
points. I hope I am not confusing you.
Rajen
Barua.
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