36 



On the Language, Manners, and Riles, of the [July 



Before proceeding I must premise, for the information of some 

 readers, that it has been a question among learned Orientalists, whe- 

 ther the refined Sanscrit was the parent of the common Hindi, the 

 latter being a corruption, or whether the Hindi formed the basis or 

 substratum of a common Indian language, adopted by the Brahmans 

 on their entry into Hindustan, but polished by improvements and 

 enriched by the addition of scientific and other terms, especially 

 astrological ones, brought with them on their emigration. Per- 

 haps from acquired partiality to the Sanscrit, there has been, with 

 scholars in that language, a tendency to adopt the first supposi- 

 tion, just as there was with the same individuals a disposition to 

 consider Telugu and Tamil as derived languages from the Sanscrit. 

 But the erroneous character of this last deduction, reflects a doubt 

 on the other part of the supposition as regards the Hindi', and 

 I confess that when reading Mr. Colebrooke, in particular, the proof 

 which he brought to bear in favour of Sanscrit being the original* 

 and Hindi the derivative, produced in my own mind a strong 

 doubt on that side of the question j while his admission of existing dif- 

 ficulties as insuperable on that hypothesis seemed to me to argue in 

 favour of Hindi being the parent, and Sanscrit the polished, improved, 

 and enriched, derivative. The very meaning of the term Sanscrit, im- 

 plying finished, polished, perfected, argues towards thejsame conclusion. 

 Even so our present polished English language, must be considered as 

 founded on the Saxon ; it would be absurd for any foreigner to term 

 the old Saxon an early corruption of the original polished English. 

 That view of the case which considers the Sanscrit to be a learned re- 

 finement on ruder dialects, if correct, leads to connection with another 

 opinion, one that is likely to have strengthening evidence constantly 

 added to it, which is, that there was one original substratum of an early 

 and rude language, running through the whole of Hindustan and the 

 peninsula ; broken by time and distance into local dialects, which how- 

 ever still retain a strong affinity with each other. Such being suppos- 

 ed to be the case, is the Khoond dialect a relic of that common lan- 

 guage, somewhat modified by time ? or has it been made up by inter- 

 course with people speaking the different languages, that have been 

 discovered to exist, as if naturalised in the Khoond dialect ? 1 am not 

 able to determine either way ; but, with some allowance for the latter 

 source, in some cases, I incline rather towards the former view of the 

 subject. I have read in some publication, concerning the Khoonds,that 

 they have among them a tradition of having emigrated from the south, 

 and from some mountain termed by them Dodah. This was the cause 

 of my conjecturing some connexion with the mountaineers of the Neil- 

 gherries, whose highest mountain is Dodabet, and wh^se chief people 



