HINDtfSTSN UNDER THE COMPANY. [ 1800 — 1857 .] 
107 
CHAPTER X. 
HINDUSTAN UNDER THE COMPANY. [1800—1857.] 
The years commencing with the downfall of the Maratha power 
and ending with the Mutiny form another convenient period in 
dealing with the literary history of Hindustan. It was the period 
of renascence, of the practical introduction of the printing-press into 
Northern India, and of the foundation of the modern school which 
now shows such commendable activity. It was, moreover, the period 
of the birth of that wonderful hybrid language known to Europeans 
as Hindi, and invented by them. In 1803, under Gilchrist’s tuition, 
Lallu Jl Lcil wrote the Prem Sagar in the mixed Urdu language of 
Akbar’s camp-followers and of the market where men of all nations 
congregated, with this peculiarity, that he used only nouns and 
particles of Indian, instead of those of Arabic or Persian, origin. The 
result was practically a newly-invented speech; for though the 
grammar was the same as that of the prototype, the vocabulary was 
almost entirely changed. This new language, called by Europeans 
Hindi, has been adopted all over Hindustan as the lingua franca 
of Hindus, for a want existed which it fulfilled. It has become 
the recognised medium of literary prose throughout Northern 
India, but as it was nowhere a vernacular it has never been success¬ 
fully used for poetry. The greatest geniuses have tried, and it 
has been found wanting at their hands. Northern India therefore at 
the present day presents the following unique state of literature,—its 
poetry everywhere written in local vernacular dialects, especially 
in Braj, in Bais’warl, and in Biharl, and its prose in one uniform 
artificial dialect, the mother tongue of no native-born Indian, forced 
into acceptance by the prestige of its inventors, by the fact that the 
first books written in it were of a highly popular character, and 
because it found a sphere in which it was eminently useful. 
The star of literature during the half-century under notice shone 
brightest in Bundel'khand and Baghel’khand\ atBandras, and in Audh, 
but it shone with marked differences in the quality of its light. In 
Bundel’khand and Baghel’khand the poets were the legitimate contin- 
uators of the traditions of the eighteenth century, Pannd, the capital 
