Annual Report. [February, 1910. 



300 Dhads have recently been published by Pandit Ramkaran 

 of the historical Duptar of Jodhpur. 



In the Muhammadan State of Tonk and in Bharatpore there 

 are Mahammadan Bhats who compose Bardic songs. 



In the Marhatta country the Bardic songs or Povada s are 

 composed by a caste called Gandhalis. The great Sivaji im- 

 mediately after storming the fort of Singhar sent for a Gan- 

 dhali and asked him to write a Povada. Povada is still extant. 

 It is a long and spirited ballad in which Sivaji is the hero. The 

 Launias are generally love songs, but they often celebrate histori- 

 cal incidents. Anandafandi is a well-known writer of Launias. 

 The Katars sung or recited rapidly like the whirl of a sword are 

 also historical songs among the Marhattas. 



From the above it will be plain that these songs are written 

 in Marhatti, Gujrati, Hindi, and in all the various dialects of 

 Raj put ana, but the Rajputs and the Bards of Rajputana 

 invariably say that their songs are either in Pirigal or in Dirigal. 

 Pirigal is a well-known word. It is the name of the first and 

 most celebrated writer in Sanskrit on Prosody. From his name 

 the art of Prosody has come to be termed Pingal. In Rajputana 

 all songs in religious, amorous, and descriptive subjects are said 

 to be Pingal, and all Bardic historical songs Dingals. It was 

 extremely difficult to understand the difference between the two. 

 Some say the distinction is that of style, others again that the 

 distinction is in versification only, and every one is prepared to 

 support this theory by facts. What is called Dirigal by one 

 scholar is called Pingal by another. I was told at Jaipur that 

 the great work entitled Vamsabhaskara composed at Bundi by 

 Barhat Surajmal, recently published from Jodhpur in nine 

 volumes, is composed in the best Dirigal, but at Jodhpur it is re- 

 garded as Pingal. But it is believed that the explanation of Diri- 

 gal as given by Mahamohopadhyay Morardanji is most reason- 

 able. He says that its substratum is Marubhasa or Marwari, 

 which is an Ungad bhasa, unpolished language. He compares it 

 with Dagar, a stone in its natural state, or a lump of earth. It 

 takes words from Sanskrit, various Prakrits, and various 

 vernaculars, but corrupts them in an awful manner to suit the 

 rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and what is called Varnamaitrl or 

 similarity of sounds. The rules of versification are the same in 

 Pirigal as in Dingal. The style also is the same. So according to 

 Morardan, it is a language current among the bards based upon 

 Marwari in which Sanskrit, Prakrit, and vernacular words are 

 corrupted to suit the ear. As an instance of the corruption, he 

 says that the word Dagar has been corrupted into Dingal to alli- 

 terate with Pingal. Though it is an Ungad bhasa, unpolished lan- 

 guage, it has many kosas or dictionaries. The Hambir Nama- 

 mala is learnt by rote by every bard. A copy of the Pirigal- 

 kosa, a more recent work, has been secured for the Gov- 

 ernment of India, and a larger kosa work of two Carans, 



