Origin and Development of Nepali Language

PRIVAT GIRI, darjeelingtimes.com: Nepali language is widely spoken in the state of Sikkim, northern districts of West Bengal, many pockets of north-eastern States, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and its speakers can also be found in many major towns and cities of the country. It is one of India’s eighteen official languages recognised under the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution. West Bengal has also recognised it as one of its official languages for the district of Darjeeling since 1961 and Sikkim has given a similar status to it after its integration with India in 1974. The language is also in extensive use in the southern part of the kingdom of Bhutan. The birth and growth of Nepali language took place in the Indian sub-continent long, long before the emergence of political India and political Nepal of today. Therefore, while tracing the history of Nepali language, it is essential to refer to Nepal as well as India.

Before Nepali came to be known as Nepali, the language, during different stages of its development, was called by various other names like the Khas-kura, Parbate or Parbattiya and Gorkhali. The word “NEPALI” gained currency more in Darjeeling than in Nepal. When the rulers of Nepal preferred to call it ‘Gorkha Bhasha’ and founded the Gorkha Bhasha Pracharini Samiti, its speakers in India particularly Darjeeling got its name changed to Nepali from Khas-kura, Parbate or Gorkhali in the curriculum of the Calcutta University in the first decades of the last century. Nepali Sahitya Sammelan was established in 1924 at Darjeeling. It was only in the thirties that the Nepal government officially changed the name of the language to Nepali. Nepali is originally an Indo-Aryan language but as it passed through different stages of its history, it incorporated number of words from the speeches of Tibeto-Burman family, Maithili, Rajasthan, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese and English.

To understand better the origin and development of Nepali language, it is really important for us to identify why Nepali was generally known as Khas-kura or Parbate or Gorkhali during different phases of its history. In his ‘Notices on the Language, Literature and Religion of Nepal and Tibet’, published in 1828, Brian H. Hodgson, a scholar of repute and British resident in Nepal, counted thirteen distinct and strongly marked dialects in the mountainous parts of the limits of the modern kingdom of Nepaul and listed them as the Khas, the Mangar, the Gurung, the Sunwar, the Kachari, the Haiyu, the Chepang, the Kusunda, the Murmi, the Newari, the Kiranti, the Limbuan and the Lepchan. Except the first one, all other speeches belong to the Tibeto- Burman family. Khas was the language spoken in the great kingdom or empire of the Khasas which was established by the 12th Century and included Western Nepal, parts of Uttar Pradesh in India and parts of south-west Tibet. Probably the name Khas-kura was used for the language by the Tibeto-Burman speaking Mongoloids; particularly by the Newars of the Nepal valley (previously Nepal denoted only the Kathmandu valley).

The speakers of the Khasa language moved eastward between 1255 and 1533 and gave rise to number of distinct dialects. The Khasa migrated eastwards after the decline and disintegration of the Khasa Empire with the advent of high caste Brahmans and Rajputs from India who found refuge in Western Nepal after the Muslim conquest of Rajputana and Western India. A number of petty principalities arose on the ruins of the Khasa Empire. However, the speech of the Khasas was adopted by the new immigrants though influence of their speeches on Khas language cannot be denied. One of such princedoms was called Parbat. Many scholars opine that the dialect of Parbat was the predominant one and this explains as to why Khas-kura came also to be known as Parbate.

With the help of the high caste Brahmans, the descendants of the princes claiming Rajput origin brought more territories under them. Dravya Saha dislodged the tribal chief of Gorkha in 1559 and subsequently this new principality expanded at the cost of its neighbours. His descendant, Prithivinarayana Saha, conquered the kingdoms of Nepal valley in 1768-69 and shifted his capital from Gorkha to Kathmandu. Thus his enlarging kingdom came to be known as Nepal. He and his descendents seized more and more territories to the east and the west of the Nepal valley and by 1809 the kingdom of Nepal took its present shape. The Khasa speech was spoken in Gorkha. The ascendency of Gorkha gave a new importance to this language as it came into a wider official use. The language then came to be called Gorkhali by the people of subdued regions.

It will be mistake to think that Khas-kura spread only as the result of conquests of Gorkha. There are records to suggest that it spread to other principalities even before they were conquered. The language during its transition from Khas-kura to Parbate to Gorkhali to present Nepali has immensely transformed incorporating words from multiple dialects. The difficulty of communication between different settlements separated by steep mountain terrains and deep ravines had made Nepali a serious of dialects rather than a language. The process of standardisation of Nepali is still going on.

This article is the summary of the Introductory chapter of Kumar Pradhan’s “History of Nepali Literature” published by Sahitya Akademi. Writer is a Research Scholar of Sikkim University

Courtesy & Source: http://www.darjeelingtimes.com/opinions/general/5790-origin-and-development-of-nepali-language.html