2 Tale by Inshci Allah Khan. [No. 1. 



the court speak pure Hindee and even the educated hear in their 

 zananahs and in their childhood a language containing a great admix- 

 ture of Hindee words. The Persian Urdoo which they write is there- 

 fore even to them foreign and artificial and conveys no force. Another 

 mischief is that by removing the written language wider and wider 

 from the idiom of the people they preclude the millions from obtain- 

 ing information, and prepare the ruin of the literature which of late 

 years they have been cultivating. In the British territory (particu- 

 larly at Agra, Dehlee and Benares) this abuse is not carried so far and 

 many learned natives are of opinion that the Hindee element ought 

 to be developed in Urdoo in preference to the Persian. This no doubt 

 is the right view, it being the only way of making literature popular 

 and it is in order to further it that I publish this literary curiosity. The 

 Asiatic Society is perhaps to be blamed for not paying more attention 

 to the vernacular languages of India than it has done of late years ; 

 and to those who blame us for this neglect this very elegant composi- 

 tion will not be unwelcome." 



This tale is a specimen of a class of compositions frequent in the 

 East, not unknown in Ancient Greece, and characteristic, I believe, 

 of every literature, when the period of its decline has arrived. The 

 common feature to which I allude is that of writing under needlessly 

 imposed and difficult conditions, such as the omission throughout of 

 some letter, or a construction in which sense would be preserved if the 

 order of the words were reversed. These curiosities cannot all be 

 considered useless. As the fetters of rhyme have led to increased 

 richness of style and variety of expression, so the compositions alluded 

 to may have promoted philological learning, however little they may 

 have contributed to the advancement of real knowledge and the 

 increase of ideas. The piece before us seems to possess the greatest 

 merit that works of its class can have. It is a magazine of Hindee 

 words and phrases, and considering that the author is able to offer the 

 usual praise to his God and Prophet without the introduction of one 

 Arabic word, it must be considered as a good display of the powers of 

 the language he has selected. 



As many of the words used are not in Thompson's Hindee Diction- 

 ary, or the 3rd edition of Shakespeare's, I intend to make a list of the 

 desiderata, and place it at the end of the paper. 





