46 
[No. 1, 
An Introduction to the Mundari Language.—Bg Babu Bakhal Das 
Haldar, M. A. S., Special Commissioner under the Chota-Nagpore 
Land Tenure's Act. 
The Mundari is a dialect of the language which was at one 
time universally spoken by the aboriginal inhabitants* of the 
plains of Bengal, but has since been superseded by the language 
of the Hindus, when the latter occupied the country centuries 
ago. That aboriginal tongue is now to be met with in the 
western highlands comprising Birbhum, Manbhum, Singhbhum, 
the Cliutia Nagpur territories, and some parts of Central India, 
and is in its various forms known as Santali, Ho, Mundari, Korwa, 
Kuri, &c.; and traces of it may be found in the dialects of some 
hill peoples in Nepal, Bhutan, Asam, and Burma. In the modern 
Bengali, also, some aboriginal words may still be detected. The 
great dialectical differences in the old language had doubtless 
arisen from the fact that it was only spoken,-and never written, by 
a primitive people spread over an extensive area of country, a people 
whose mutual communications could not have been of a frequent 
nature. What the original name of the language was, is uncertain. 
The name ‘ Mundari’f is applied to the dialect used by a considera¬ 
ble portion of the inhabitants of the Chutia-Nagpur plateau. 
The Mundari people being extremely deficient in abstract ideas, 
have freely drawn terms from the Hindi. Some wordsJ have 
evidently been adopted in recent times, though it is remarkable 
that some Sanscrit words in their primitive forms are also to be 
met with in the Mundari. 
It is not without much diffidence that I submit the following 
Vocabulary for publication in the Asiatic Society’s Journal. It is 
a first attempt, and as such cannot, I fear, be faultless. If oppor¬ 
tunity permit, I shall be able to collect the various forms of the 
same words current in different parts of the country, and also to 
* Very probably a branch of Prichard’s Tiirdnian race, called by Latham 
* Mongolidae.’ The remarkable characteristic of the Turanian languages, noticed 
by Max Muller, occurs in the Mundari, viz. the root is never obscured. 
f ‘ Horo’ is the name applied by the Mundas to their own race and dialect. 
I Take, for instance, £ Jahir, or Jaer Bucli,’ applied to the tutelary goddess 
of a village, called in real Mundari, £ Lutkum Budi,’ £ Jahir or Jaer’ seems to be 
derived from jAlJi manifest. 
