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The Popular Literature of Northern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

George A. Griekson
George A. Griekson
Affiliation:
Lecture delirered at the School of Oriental Studies on November 6, 1918.
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Abstract

The languages of India Proper belong to two great families— in the North, the Indo-Aryan; and in the South, the Dravidian. The map here displayed shows the localities in which the former are spoken. These Indo-Aryan tongues again lull into two main groups, viz., those of the Midland—indicated on the map by red — and a number of Outer Languages, indicated by blue. These two groups differ from each other in an important characteristic, which has affected their respective literatures to no inconsiderable extent. In the Midland the languages are all analytical. Their grammars are very simple, they are cumbered by few grammatical forms, and they indicate the various relations of time and space by the aid of auxiliary words, just as we do in English. The Outer Languages, on the contrary, are synthetic. Their idioms depend chiefly on grammatical form, and, as in Latin or German, each has a more or less complicated system of declension and conjugation.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , October 1920 , pp. 87 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1920

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References

page 103 note 1 Tod, , Rajasthan (Calc. Ed.), i, 650. The passage thus freely translated by Tod occurs in the Mahōbā Samaya of the Prthīrāj Rānnu (verses 188 ff.), and is as follows:Google Scholar

page 104 note 1 The Braluniny duck, a snow-white bird. Under ordinary circumstances, they are believed to lie under a curse that no pair may ever pass the night together.

page 106 note 1 According to legend, besides Rukminī and Satyabhāmā, Krishna had more than sixteen thousand wives, by each of whom he had one daughter and ten SOIIH. He had the power of multiplying himself, so that each wife thought that she had him to herself.

page 107 note 1 “Hari” is a mime of Krishna. It is also said to be the cry of ttie Kōil, or Indian cuckoo.