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PAHARI (properly Pahari, the language...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 454 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PAHARI (properly Pahari, the See also:language of the mountains) , a See also:general name applied to the Indo-See also:Aryan See also:languages or dialects spoken in the See also:lower ranges of the See also:Himalaya from See also:Nepal in the See also:east, to See also:Chamba of the See also:Punjab in the See also:west. These forms of speech fall into three See also:groups—an eastern, consisting of the various dialects of Khas-kura, the language of Nepal; a central, spoken in the See also:north of the See also:United Provinces, in See also:Kumaon and See also:Garhwal; and a western, spoken in the See also:country See also:round See also:Simla and in Chamba. In Nepal, Khas-kura is the language only of the Aryan See also:population, the See also:mother See also:tongue of most of the inhabitants being some See also:form or other of Tibeto-Burman speech (see TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGES), not Indo-Aryan. As may be expected, Khas-kura is mainly differentiated from Central Pahari through its being affected, both in See also:grammar and vocabulary, by Tibeto-Burman idioms. The speakers of Central and Western Pahari have not been brought into See also:close association with Tibeto-Burmans, and their language is therefore purely Aryan. Khas-kura, as its speakers themselves See also:call it, passes under various names. The See also:English generally call it Nepali or Naipali (i.e. the language of Nepal), which is a misnomer, for it is not the See also:principal form of speech used in that country. Moreover, the Nepalese employ a corruption of this very word to indicate what is really the See also:main language of the country, viz. the Tibeto-Burman Newari. Khas-kura is also called Gurkhali, or the language of the Gurkhas, and Pahari or Parbatiya, the language of the mountains. The number of speakers is not known, no See also:census ever having been taken of Nepal; but in See also:British See also:India 143,721 were recorded in the census of 1901, most of whom were soldiers in, or others connected with, the British See also:Gurkha regiments. Central Pahari includes three dialects—Garhwali, spoken mainly in Garhwal and the country round the See also:hill station of See also:Mussoorie; Jaunsari, spoken in the Jaunsar See also:tract of See also:Dehra Dun; and Kumauni, spoken in Kumaun, including the country round the hill station of Naini Tal. In 1901 the number of speakers was 1,270,931.

Western Pahari includes a See also:

great number of dialects. In the Simla Hill states alone no less than twenty-two, of which the most important are Sirmauri and Keonthali (the See also:dialect of Simla itself), were recorded at the last census. To these may be added Chambiali and Churahi of the See also:state of Chamba, Mandeali of the state of Mandl, See also:Gall of Chamba and See also:Kangra, Kuluhi of See also:Kulu and others. In 1901 the See also:total number of speakers was 1,710,029. The See also:southern See also:face of the Himalaya has from See also:time immemorial been occupied by two classes of See also:people. In the first See also:place there is an Indo-See also:Chinese overflow from See also:Tibet in the north. Most of these tribes speak Indo-Chinese languages of the Tibeto-Burman See also:family, while a few have abandoned their ancestral speech and now employ broken See also:half-Aryan dialects. The other class consists of the great tribe of Khasas or Khasiyas, Aryan in origin, the K&o ux of the See also:Greek geographers. Who these people originally were, and how they entered India, are questions which have been more than once discussed without arriving at any very definite conclusion.' They are frequently mentioned in See also:Sanskrit literature, were a See also:thorn in the See also:side of the rulers of See also:Kashmir, and have occupied the lower Himalayas for many centuries. Nothing See also:positive is known about their language, which they have See also:long abandoned. Judging from the See also:relics of it which appear in See also:modern Pahari, it is probable that it belonged to the "See ch. iv. of vol. ii. of R. T.

See also:

Atkinson's Himalayan Districts of the North-Western Provinces of India, forming vol. xi of the" Gazetteer of the North-Western Provinces " (See also:Allahabad, 884), and the Archaeological Survey of India, xiv. 125 sqq. (See also:Calcutta, 1882).453 same See also:group as See also:Kashmiri, See also:Lahnda and See also:Sindhi. They spread slowly from west to east, and are traditionally said to have reached Nepal in the See also:early See also:part of the 12th See also:century A.D. In the central and western Pahari tracts See also:local traditions assert that from very early times there was See also:constant communication with See also:Rajputana and with the great See also:kingdom of See also:Kanauj in the Gangetic See also:Doab. A See also:succession of immigrants, the See also:tide of which was materially increased at a later See also:period by the pressure of the Mussulman invasion of India, entered the country, and founded several dynasties, some of which survive to the See also:present See also:day. These Rajputs intermarried with the Khasa inhabitants of their new See also:home, and gave their See also:rank to the descendants of these mixed unions. With the See also:pride of See also:birth these new-See also:born Rajputs inherited the language of their fathers, and thus the tongue of the ruling class, and subsequently of the whole population of this portion of the Himalaya, became a form of See also:Rajasthani, the language spoken in distant Rajputana. The See also:Rajput occupation of Nepal is of later date. In the early part of the 16th century a number of Rajputs of See also:Udaipur in Rajputana, being oppressed by the Mussulmans, fled north and settled in Garhwal, Kumaon, and western Nepal. In A.D. 1559 a party of these conquered the small state of Gurkha, which See also:lay about 70 M. north-west of See also:Katmandu, the present See also:capital of Nepal.

In 1768 Prithwi Narayan Shah, the then Rajput ruler of Gurkha, made himself See also:

master of the whole of Nepal and founded the present Gurkhali See also:dynasty of that country. His successors extended their See also:rule westwards over Kumaon and Garhwal, and as far as the Simla Hill states. The inhabitants of Nepal included not only Aryan Khasas, but also, as has been said, a number of Tibeto-Burman tribes. The Rajputs of Gurkha could not impose their language upon these as they did upon the Khasas, but, owing to its being the tongue of the ruling See also:race, it ultimately became generally understood and employed as the lingua franca of this polyglot country. Although the language of the Khasas has disappeared, the tribe is still numerically the most important Aryan one in this part of the Himalaya, and it hence gave its name to its newly adopted speech, which is at the present day locally known as " Khas-kura." In the manner described above the Aryan language of the whole Pahari See also:area is now a form of Rajasthani, exhibiting at the same time traces of the old Khasa language which it superseded, and also in Nepal of the Tibeto-Burman forms of speech by which it is surrounded. (For See also:information regarding Rajasthani the reader is referred to the articles INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES; See also:PRAKRIT; and See also:GUJARATI.) Khas-kura shows most traces of Tibeto-Burman See also:influence. The gender of nouns is purely sexual, and, although there is an oblique See also:case derived from Rajasthani, it is so often confounded with the nominative, that in the singular number either can be employed for the other. Both these are due to Tibeto-Burman influence, but the non-Aryan See also:idiom is most prominent in the use of the verb. There is an indefinite tense referring to present, past or future time according to the context, formed by suffixing the verb substantive to the See also:root of the main verb, exactly as in some of the neighbouring Tibeto-Burman languages. There is a See also:complete impersonal honorific conjugation which reminds one strongly of Tibetan, and, in colloquial speech, as in that tongue, the subject of any tense of a transitive verb, not only of a tense derived from the past participle, is put into the See also:agent case. In Eastern and Central Pahari the verb substantive is formed from the root ach, as in both Rajasthani and Kashmiri. In Rajasthani. its present tense, being derived from the Sanskrit present Icchami, I go, does not See also:change for gender.

But in Pahari and Kashmiri it must be derived from the rare Sanskrit particle *rcchitas, gone, for in these languages it is a participial tense and does change according to the gender of the subject. Thus, in the singular we have: Khas-kura. Kumauni. Kashmiri. Masc. See also:

Fern. Masc. Fern. Masc. Fern. I am . chu chu chi chu" thus ches See also:Thou See also:art . . chas ches chai chi chukh chekh He is .

. . I cha the ch chi See also:

chub cheh Here we have a relic of the old Khasa language, which, as has been said, seems to have been related to Kashmiri. Other relics of Khasa, again agreeing with north-vestern India, are the tendency to shorten long vowels, the practice of epenthesis, or the modification of a vowel by the one which follows in the 'See also:text syllable, and the frequent occurrence of disaspiration. Thus, Khas siknu, Kumauni sikno, but See also:Hindi sikhna, to learn; Kumauni yeso, plural yasa, of this See also:kind. Regarding Western Pahari materials are not so complete. The speakers are not brought into contact with Tibeto-Burman languages, and hence we find no trace of these. But the signs of the influence of north-western languages are, as might be expected, still more apparent than farther east. In sortie dialects epenthesis is in full See also:swing, as in (Churahi) kha-ta, eating, fem. khatiti. Very interesting is the mixed origin of the postpositions defining the various cases. Thus, while that of the genitive is generally the Rajasthani ro, that of the See also:dative continually points to the west. Sometimes it is the Sindhi See also:kite (see SINDHI). At other times it is jo, where is here a locative of the See also:base of the Sindhi genitive postposition jo.

In all Indo-Aryan languages, the dative postposition is by origin the locative of some genitive one. In vocabulary, Western Pahari often employs, for the more See also:

common ideas, words which can most readily be connected with the north-western and Pisaca groups.

End of Article: PAHARI (properly Pahari, the language of the mountains)

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