192 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [June, 



On the Relation of the Uriya to the other Modern Aryan Languages, — 



by John Beame s, Esq., B. C. S., JBalasore. 



[Received 6th April, 1870 j read 4th May, 1870.] 



A book has recently been published by Babii Kantichandra Bhatta- 

 charyya, a Pandit in the Government School at Balasore, under 

 the title ^f^<H ^$3 ^t^1 ^L^ u Uriya, not an independent language." 

 This little work, though profoundly destitute of philological 

 arguments, has created some stir among the natives of the province, 

 who are somewhat disgusted at finding their native language treat- 

 ed as a mere corruption of Bengali. The local excitement on the 

 subject, has led me to look into the question more closely than I 

 had before, though in the course of reading for my " Comparative 

 Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages" I had come upon many 

 peculiarities, both of phonetics and inflection, which had caused me 

 long ago to make up my mind as to the right of the Uriya to 

 be considered a language per se. It may not be uninteresting to 

 others to see an attempt made to analyze the structure of this 

 little known form of speech ; and at the risk of anticipating state- 

 ments which would give to my grammar an air of greater novelty, 

 I venture to put down a very brief outline of my views. 



At whatever period in the history of the world the Aryan race 

 entered Orissa, it must be admitted as highly probable that those 

 who did so, formed the vanguard of the immigration. Improbable 

 as it seems to one who looks on the effeminate and apathetic Uriya 

 of to-day, his ancestors must necessarily have been the pioneers of 

 their race. In folk-wanderings, however, ' it is not the hardiest or 

 most enterprizing race that moves first. On the contrary, when the 

 ancestral home got too fidl of people to be able to support them 

 all, and it became evident that some must go elsewhere, the difficulty 

 would be to determine who should be the victims ; and that diffi- 

 culty would naturally be solved by kicking out the weakest first. 

 They being pressed on from behind by continually frcsh-i^suhig 

 swarms from the parent hive, would in the end be driven further 

 and further, till they reached the extreme limits of the habitable 

 area at their disposal. This is the history of the Celts in Europe 

 and the Uriyas in India. Having reached the head of the Bay of 



