Linguistic Survey of India- Vol.IX .Western Hindi Part-I

Abstract

The home of Western Hindi closely agrees with the Madhyadesa, or Midland, of • ancient Sanskrit geographers. The Madhyadesa was the Geogra&h.oai Habitat. the country between the Saraswati on the west, and what is now Allahabad on the east. Its northern boundary was the Himalaya Range, and it's southern the Narbada River. Between these limits lay, according to tradition, the holy land of Brahmanism. Itiwas 'the centre of Hindu civilisation, and the abode on earth of its deities. Western Hindi ddes pot extend so far east as Allahabad—its eastern -limit is about Cawnpore,—but in other respects the area in which it is spoken is almost exaptly the same as the Madhyadesa. It is. spoken as a vernacular over the, western portion 'of ’ the United Provinces, in the eastern districts of the Panjab, in Eastern Rajputana, in Gwalior and -Bun.delkh.and, and in the north-western districts of the Central Provinces. Moreover,' its most important, dialect, Hifidostani, is spoken and understood and is even •amongst* some classes of the population a--.vernacular, .over'the- whole' of the Indian Penipsula'. Western Hindi has five .dialects,—Hindostani? Bang&ru, Bi’aj Bhakha, Kanauji, and D ia le c ts: Bundeli. Hind&stani, as' <a- local vernacular, is spoken in Hindostam. Western Rohilkhand, 'the Uppey Gangetic Doab, .and the Panjab District of Ambala. It has also been carried over' the whole of India by Musalman conquerors, and has received considerable lit,erary'culture.' Under-these conditions it has .three main varieties^ Literary Hindostani proper; employed by both Musalmans and Hindus for literary purposes and as a lingua franca.} Urdu, employed chiefly by . Musalmans and by Hindus who have adopted the Musalman -system of education'" and a modern development, called Hindi, employed only by Hindus who have been-educated on a Hindu system. tTrdu, itself, has two varieties, the standard literary form of Delhi and Lucknow, and the Dakhini, spoken, and used as a literary medium, by Musalmans of Southern India.