Kaithi, Caste & Politics (One language, Two scripts - a book review)

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INDOLOGY, "V.C.Vijayaraghavan <vij@b...>" <vij@b...>

wrote:

> Can you give an extent of the Sanskrit texts in Tamil, Telugu,

> Malayalam and Grantha scripts? In terms of the percentage of the

> known texts found till say the end of 18th Century? Was Devnagari

> never used at all and only the local scripts were preferred?

 

The transfering of Sanskrit texts from south india Grantha to Nagari

script is rather extensive. Grantha script variants were used

througout South East Asia, even in Philippines grantha copperplates

are found. Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language but showing Dravidian

substratum in its kinship etc., uses the southern Grantha script.

Nowadays, Brahmi script itself is considered invented in Ceylon.

In any case, the earliest known writing in Brahmi comes from Sri Lanka.

Some Tamil scholars even argue that the linking of k, ng and c, nj etc.,

has origins in the South, then expanded as c, ch, j, jh, & nj so on

because in the North the pronunciation of nja as in njAna is

not J (Harvard-Kyoto) but something else.

 

The first Sanskrit grammar in European langauges is in Grantha script.

The saiva aagamas printed in Tamil Nadu have been gathered,

and reprinted in nagari. So, also many Srivaishnava ubhaya vedanta

works. Have seen Svapnavaasavadattam printed in Srirangam,

and now into nagari. Michael Witzel mentioned to Vishal Agarwal a veda text

going from malayalam grantha into northern nagari.

INDOLOGY/message/2561

 

The transfering from grantha to nagari happens at accelerating

phases in 20th century. With the advance of computers and Unicode

fonts, sanskrit texts like Bhagavatham (originally written in

Tamil Nadu by imbuing in Alvar paasuram poetry about Vishnu

and Krishna) get the original grantha transcription on computers.

I'm sure Sanskritists worldwide will give encouragement to

the flouring of endangered scripts and languages of India.

 

In the North, Nagari script was mainly for Sanskrit texts,

and Kayasthas (not many were Sanskrit experts) used Kaithi

for day-to-day affairs, and the local people languages

(Hindi-Urdu) was written in Persian script. With the rise

of Hindu nationalism, Nagari pracharini sabha efforts

in conjunction with the British colonial administration

led to the enforcement of a single script for Sanskrit

and Urdu/Hindi. The fixing of Nagari to Urdu/Sanskrit makes

Sanskrit word entry into Uru-Hindi easy.

 

Pl. read the book - King, One language, two scripts

for details of how Kaithi was dismantled, and Nagari

became the Urdu/Hindi letters. This is also mentioned in

Sumathi Ramaswamy, Sanskrit for the Nation, Modern Asian studies,

& in prof. Tapan Raychaudhuri, Shadows of the Swastika:

Historical perspectives on the politics of Hindu communalism,

MAS. 34.2 (2000) pp. 259-279 where the old links with

nazis are described.

 

With increasing forces of globalization, english medium

schools, trade and travel, if the goal is to increase

light Sanskrit reading among Indian masses, grantha, roman,

and nagari scripts have to be fostered.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan