Sauhrdyamangalam. Studies in Honour of Siegfried Lienhard on his 70th Birthday. Edited by. Mirja Juntunen, William L. Smith, Carl Suneson

Sauhrdyamaligalam

Sauhrdyamangalam Studies in Honour of Siegfried Lienhard on his 70th Birthday Edited by Mirja Juntunen, William L. Smith, Carl Suneson Siegfried Lienhard The Association of Oriental Studies Stockholm

Printed with financial support from Konung Gustav VI Adolfs Fondför Svensk Kultur Kungl Patriotiska Sällskapet Längmanska Kultuifonden Published by the Association of Oriental Studies, Stockholm Contents Editors' Preface 1 MATS LINDBERG Llnahrt 3 NALINI BALBIR Formes et usages de la concatenation en prakrit 5 HEINZ BECHERT Zur Kontroverse um die Aoristformen im Päli 27 ERNEST BENDER Na(aräja Viparyasta 37 PER-ARNE BERGLIE Tue Brahman Who Tapped on the Skulls of the Dead 41 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LIBRARIES the authors Photograph of Siegfried Lienhard: Mia Äkermark Printed by Graphie Systems, Stockholm 1995 ISBN 91-970854-4-B GIULIANO BOCCALI Tendencies in the Origins of Classical Kävya 55 OSCARBOTTO Corpus Juris Sanscriticum: Stato dei Lavori 69 COLETTE CAILLAT Le vrai brahmane, etre "inoffensif', mähm:ze avlhannü, Süyaga<Ja 1.2.2.5 71 RN. DANDEKAR Soma is not Fly-agaric 81 ERIK afedholm Dhätuprasäda 91

INGEMAR GRANDIN Modernization and Revival in a Newar Tradition: The Songs of Ram Krishna Duwal 117 MINORUHARA A Note on the Whiteness of Laughter 141 J.W. dejong Asita et Naradatta 161 POLKE JOSEPHSON Zara8ustra' s Authority 17 5 BERNHARD KÖLVER Poems within Poems: SikhariJJfS in Amaru 189 CARL SUNESON On the Term vämalokäyatika Pound in Two Central Asian MSS of the SaddharmapuJJtfarfkasiitra and its Chinese Interpretation 343 ALBRECHT WEZLER Erotische Vexierbilder. Oder: Mit welchen 'Types of Ambiguity' muß man im Kävya rechnen? 361 AKIRA YUY AMA Classifying Indic Loanwords in J apanese 381 Siegfried Lienhard: Curriculum vitce 395 The Publications of Siegfried Lienhard: A Bibliography Compiled by Mirja Juntunen 398 WALTERH. MAURER Foreshadowings of Transmigration in the f!.gveda 207 ROQUE MESQUITA Der Apavarga-Begriff bei Sridhara. Eine vedäntische Erlösungslehre? 215 GERHARD OBERHAMMER Bemerkungen zur Transzendenz des Brahma bei Sailkara 259 CLAUSOETKE Buddhadeva' s Views on Present, Past and Future 267 OLE HOLTEN PIND Päli and the Päli Grammarians: Tue Methodology ofthe Päli Grammarians 281 IRMA PIOV ANO A propos of Some Minor Texts on Social and Religions Law 299 R.K.SHARMA Primary Derivatives with Tempora! Connotations 305 W.L.SMITH Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili 311

R.K. Sharma the philosophical concept of time. That is why he spells out time (kala) also in the long!ist of items which are not tobe grammatically described (asisya) cf. 1.2.53-57 (tad asieyam. - kiilopasarjane ca tulyam). 15. He suggests general directions of the present, the past of today and yesterdays (adyatana and anadyatana) visible and invisible (aparokea and parokea) and so the future of today and tomorrows (adyatana and anadyatana). But he is perhaps more specific about the central syntactical relationships (kiirakas) involved in the primary derivative formations. Bibliography Nyäsa-padamaiijarf-sahitä Käsikävrttilj, ed. by Shree Narayan Mishra, 6 vols., Varanasi 1985. Pataiijali's Vyäkara~a Mahäbhä~yam with Pradipa, Uddyota, Sabdakaustubha (on Ähnikas V-IX only) and Räjalakshmi commentary ( on Navähnikas only ), by Guru Prasad Shastri, Varanasi 1938. The A~(ädhyäyf of Pä~ini, ed and tr. by Sri a Chandra Vasu, 2 vols., repr. Delhi 1988. The Siddhänta Kaumudi of Bha{!ojidik~ita, ed. and tr. by Srlsa Chandra Vasu, 2 vols., repr., Delhi 1982. R.K. Shanna, Pä(lini on linguistic description, JAOS 109.4 (1989), pp. 635-637. 310 W.L. SMITH Stockholm Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili. The literary idiom variably known as Brajabuli, Brajboli and Vrajävall (among other spellings) was füst described by Sir George Grierson in his Jntroduction to the Maithill Language of North Bihär in the following unflattering terms: "(the Maithili poet Vidyäpati)", he writes" was the first [...] of the singers who [...] wrote in the language of the people; and his (songs) soon became exceedingly popular. They became great favorites of [...] the Vaishl).ava reformer [...] Chaitanya, and through him, songs proporting to be by Vidyäpati have become as weil known in Bangäli households as the Bible is in an English one. And now a curious circumstance arose, - unparalleled I believe in the history of literature (my italics). To a Bangäli, Vidyäpati wrote in a difficult and strange, though cognate language, and his words were hard 'to be understanded of the people': so at first a few of his hynms were twisted and contorted,!engthened out and curtailed, in the procrustean bed of the Bangäli language and meter, into a kind of bastard language neither Bangäli nor Maithilf (II p. 34)". lt is this "bastard language" which is now generally known as Brajabuli. Around forty years later Suniti Kumar Chatterji expresses a sirni!ar opinion in his Origin and Development of Bengali; Vidyäpati' s poems, he writes, "exerted an enormous influence on Vai~l).ava poets in Bengal" [...] "(his poems) were admired and imitated by Bengali poets from the 16th century downwards, and the attempts of the people of Bengal to preserve the Maithill language, without studying it properly, led to the development of a curious poetic jargon, a mixed Maithilf and Bengali with a few Western Hindi forms (my italics), which was widely used in Bengal in composing poems on Rädhä and Kr~IJ.a. This mixed dialect came to be called 'brajabuli', or the speech of Vraja, from the fact that the poems composed in it described Kr~IJ.a' s early life and his love with Rädhä which had for its scene the Vraja 311

district, round about Brindävan, near Mathurä. This 'Braja-buli' is of course entirely different from the Western Hindi dialect, called 'Braj-bhäkhä'; which is current round Mathurä (I p.103)". Not long afterwards the literature of this "curious poetic jargon" became the subject of Sukumar Sen's A History of Brajabuli Literature, perhaps the most quoted authority on the subject. "Brajabuli'', Sen writes in the first sentence of this work, "is a Mischsprache. Maithili is the basic part, while Bengali, with oddments of Hindi and Brajbhäkhä, form the superstructure. Brajabuli is really a dialect - only it is literary - of Bengali, and in the sense that it had originated and developed in Bengal and had been cultivated exclusively by Bengali poets. Another form of Brajabuli almost indistinguishable from that of Bengal, originated in Assam at about the same time. But there the growth of Brajabuli was extremely restricted, and as the Assamese speech is just a member of the [same] group od dialects [it] does not require any special treatment. [... ] What we have just said about the Assamese Brajabuli is applicable mutatis mutandis to the Brajabuli of Orissa [... ]Assamese Brajabuli seems to have developed independently through direct connexion with Mithilä". These off band and rather puzzeling remarks are all that Sen has to say on the linguistic nature of Brajabuli and all that he has to say on the voluminous Brajabuli literature of Assam as well. 1 The first Bengali to write a Brajabuli lyric was a poet titled Yaforaj Khän, who mentions king Husain Shah, ruler of Bengal between 1493 and 1519, hence he must have written this first Brajabuli lyrics around the beginning of the l 6th century 2 The great popularity of this idiom in Bengal is, however, primarily due to the fact, as Grierson and Chatterji point out, that Caitanya (1486-1533), the founder of the Gauqiya Vai~Q.ava sect, was very fond of Vidyäpati's Kr~Q.a songs in Maithili. These were expropriated by the Bengali sect and were given a major role in its liturgy after 1582 3 This greatly encouraged the production of new songs which were written both in Middle Bengali and, in imitation of Vidyäpati, "Brajabuli". An eighteenth century anthology, the Padakalpataru, contains over 3,100 lyrics. The first Brajabuli poem written in Orissa was by one Rämänanda Räya, the political agent of the Orissan ruler Pratäpa Rudra, who reigned between 1 2 3 Sukumar Sen, A History of Brajabuli Literature, Calcutta University, 1935, p. 1. Jbid. p. 23. D. Zbavitel, Bengali Literature, A History of Indian Literature, vol. IX, fase. 3, Wiesbaden 1976, p. 177. 312 Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili 1504 and 1532. lt was introduced to Assam by Sailkaradeva (1449-before 1559) founder of the Vai~l).ava sect officially known as Eka-forai:za-niimadharma, "The Religion of the Sole Refuge of the Name". Sailkaradeva wrote both lyrics and plays in Brajabuli or Vrajävali, the designation Assamese scholars prefer in order to distinguish it from its Bengali counterpart; in accordance with this usage the Assamese variant of Brajabuli will henceforth be referred to as Vrajäva!I in this paper. Dates given for Sailkaradeva' s earliest Vrajäva!I composition vary. Thirty-four of his lyrics, known as Bargfts; "Great Songs", have survived and six one-act plays, called ahkfya niita. As dramas were performed in Vai~l).ava monasteries or sattras during investiture ceremonies, a!arge number of additional Vrajäva!I plays came tobe written during ensuing centuries. In Vrajavalf Bhii9iir Vyiikarai:z iiru Abhidhiin 4 by Näräyal). Candra Goswämi, abbot of a sattra in Mäjuli Assam, a work in the Indian linguistic tradition, the abbot notes that scholars have not yet come to a conclusion as to what kind of language Vrajävali is; some, he notes, say it is an Kunstsprache (krtrim upabhiieii), others see it as a Mischsprache (mifra bhiieii) while a third opinion holds that it is an independent language (svatantra bhiieii). lt is not difficult to understand such differences of opinion. Maithili, Assamese and Bengali all belong to the eastern branch of the lndo-aryan language family and their medieval literary representatives possessed a considerable number of syntactic features in common. None of the three literary languages were standardized and all exhibited a!arge range of variant forms, and these are not always registered in the available reference works. Tue Standard study of Maithili, Subhadra Jha's The Formation of the Maithilf Language (FML 5 ), does not record all the forms found in EM (and, it can be added,!acks an index), while Grierson's An Introduction to the Maithilf Language of North Bihar (IML) is based on Vidyäpati's poems collected from oral sources, and hence describes a later stage of the language. Similarly all the forrns occuring in OA and MB are not recorded in the standard studies of these two languages, Suniti Kumar Chatterji' s The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language ( ODBL) and Banikanta Kakati' s Assamese, its Formation and Development (AFD). Another complication is that the available texts are of varying reliability. There is, for examp!e, no satisfactory edition of Vidyäpati. Few of the manuscripts are very old and a minority of 4 Layärch Buk Hai, Guvähä\i 1990. 5 For details on this and the following works see the bibliography where a!ist of the abbreviations used can be found. 313

those which have have been printed are critically edited. Here a comparison will be made between Assamese Vrajävali, Bengali Brajabuli and Old Maithili.The description of Vrajävali is based upon the language of Saii.karadeva' s six plays in A V; that of Brajabuli is based on the language of the "two earliest and most highly regarded of Brajabuli poets, Govindadäsa (GD) and Jfiänadäsa (JD) and two anthologies, the Padakalpataru (PKT) and the Bai$i:zab Padäbali (BP). For Early Maithili Vidyäpati's Kr~IJ.a songs (VGS) and three Maithili plays, the Pradyumna vijaya nätaka of J agatprakäsamalla (PV), the Rukmii:z! parii:zaya of Ramäpati (RP) and Mudita kubalayasva nätaka of Bamsamar.ii Ojhä (MK) are used to complement the data supplied by FML and IML (for details see bibliography). Vrajävalf In the following descriptions * indicates forms identical in OA and EM, and MB and EM respectively, while '![ marks forms not found in EM. Orthography The pronunciation of Assamese has naturally affected the way in which Vrajävali was written. lt should be kept in mind when considering the following grammatical sketch that in Assamese c and eh represent a voiceless alveolar fricative [s], j and jh a voiced alveolar fricative [z] and initial Sanskrit s, $ and s an unvoiced velar fricative [x]; y is a vowel glide in intervocal positions (AFD 95f.). Gender In EM gender the endings of the past and the future tenses are marked for gender, taking -a in the masculine and -i in the feminine but this, however, is loosely observed (VGS 147). In Vrajävali the feminine endings in -i seem most often tobe selected for euphonic reasons. OA does not mark gender. se avatära bheli thika (RH 132) He became an avatar. jagajiu calali madhäi (RH 155) Mädhava, the World-Soul, went. Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili Number Number is optionally expressed with saba*, sava*, sabe, "all". Modem Maithili regularly forms plurals with sabha (FML 499). gopi gopi saba gopi saba ka räja räja saba riija saba keri cowherd cowherds of the cowherds (RH 139) king kings of the kings (RV 52) Occasionally other suffixes, especially gai:za * (FML 498), are employed: gopigaqa cowherds (KG 89) Case The stem form of nouns can assume all case functions (FML 506ff., VGS 149) -ahi/-ahf: this inflectional ending (FML 514 iv) is occasionally used to mark adverbs begahi jäi (KG 92) he flees swiftly / with speed -e* (ye/ ve after vowels) marks the nominative, locative and instrumental (FML 514 iii). afzkare bhäna (KG 57) Sar\kara says upabäse sarira bhela klesa (PP 34) his body became thin from fasting asokamule rahala (PP 35) they remained at the foot of an Afoka tree hämu jogabale saba jäno (RV242) 1 know all through yogic power. 314 315

-ka*, less often -ko,-ku and kü, are used mark direct and indirect object, possession and direction towards, and are used with postpositions (FML 545) An identical ending in OA (AFD 659) marks the dative (but see 662). rämaka carana cinti (RV 235) thinking of Räma' s feet kona strika devaba (PH 194) Which wife shall I give it to? kuq<f.inaku ävata muräru (PH 36) Muräri comes to Kur:u;lina. hariko pekhaye napäi (KG 59) (She) cannot see Hari. Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili -to 'l[ is an infrequent ablative ending used in comparisons, often with adhika, "more". säta satrato adhika (RH 125) more than seven enemies saba strito adhama (PP 46) lower than all warnen AFD 656 mentions the use of the locative ending in -t in comparisons but does not register -to; it, however, is common in OA, as, for example, prii1jato adhika riime dekhile tomiika, "Rama considers you more than (his) life" (Sailkaradeva, Uttariikii1Jqa v. 7004). -kera, -kerii, -keri, -kara, -karu, -kahu are used sporadically to mark the genitive (FML 545). Pronouns Ist person 2nd person pitäkeri äsa (RV 274) the hope of bis father harikahu caraqa cintie (RH 143) having thought of Hari' s feet -ta* marks locative, instrumental and direct object. hämu, hä1ni, hämu hämära, hämäri hämäka, hii.mäku hämäta'i[ majhu mohi, moi*, 1nohe toho, tohö, tuhu, tuhü, tuho, tuhö, meri'll. mora* moka* mota'i[ tohära, tohäri, tohora*, teri IJ[. terä 'j( tohäka 'II. tohoka 'II tohäta 'I[ tuältujä* tajhu (RV), taju (KG) toi purbba janamata (RV 242) in an earlier birth kr~qata sarana lela (KG 89) (She) took refuge in K1wa. -te marks the instrumental. lt is infrequent. sonite ku{hära malina (RV 251) the axe stained with blood -r 'l[ is used infrequently to mark the genitive. This is an AO ending (AFD 657). kr~ijara carana cinti (KG 59) having thought of Kr~Qa' s feet In OA the first person pronouns are mai, oblique base mo-, moho-, pi. iimi, iimii- (AFD 669f.). The latter, also used as a singular, occurs only three times. moi, mohi and mohe are used in the oblique (cf. FML 596) with the exception of the phrase iita äpariidha sahaba aba moi (PH 192 & 217),"now I will endure so many crimes". karahu mohe träna (RV 260) Save me. karahu kusuma mohi däna (PH 180) Give me the flower. ägahi lehujiu moi (RH 159) Take my life first. 316 317

majhu (ODB 543) and mora* are genitive. dura kara hari kumati mora (PH217) Harl dispels my bad thoughts. meri, a genitive, is not registered in FML, though Jha does note mere <*mama + kera ( 600). It seems tobe a loan from BB (LB 161) and is not marked for gender. lts "masculine" counterpart does not occur. piu meri bairi adhika bheli (PH 188) My beloved became worse than an enemy. Tue second person is represented in OA by tai, ob!. base to- / toho- (inferior) (AFD 674) and tumi, ob!. base tomä- / tohmä- (AFD 675); the!atter occur ten times in all, as tomäka (RV), tumi-saba (PP), tomära-saba-ka (RV) etc. tohäka is formed in analogy with OA ämära/ ämäka; tohoka is OA. Neither iscommon. tuä, tuyä, tajhu (ODB 543) and taju are genitive. kayalu taju äsä (KG 82) I had hopes of you In EM (FML 601) toi is nominative, dative and ablative. Here it is genitive: säphala janama toi (RV 117) Y our birth is successful. äju jäna/o moti toi (PH 191) Today I knew your mind. Like meri, teri is a loan from BB (LM 167). The "masculine" form terä occurs once. terä darasana kaicana hoi (RH 135) how is your appearance Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili The ending in -ta is OA and not frequent; hämäta occurs a total of six times and tohäta four; it is used as a general oblique, as: hämäta kona prayojana (RH 190) what use to me?.lrikmza tohäta parijäta khoja/a (PH 206) Kw.1a looked for your pärijäta flower. jata sampatti hämäta thika (PH 219) as much wealth as is mine Plurals are represented by forms like hämu-saba (RV, RH) toho-saba (KD), torä-saba (PP, RV), se-saba* (RV), tärä-saba (PP). Such forms are not registered in FML but can be found elsewhere, as ham sabh, "we", ham sabh ke, "our", IML 64; hamarä-sabahi-ka, PV 190. Tue plurals torä-saba, "you". torä-saba-ka, "your" correspond to tohrä sabh, tohrä sabh ke in IML 66. 3rd person/ demonstrative relative se*, so <j(, o, tä, tähe i*,i* ihä* X je*,jo 'J[,jähe tlihera, täkara, tanikara ihära 'J[ ähera'j[ jäkara, jäkara täheka, tanika ihäka* äheka 'll jähera, jäheri, jaka* ihäta 'll X jäsu In OA the 3rd person pronoun is represented by se, "that one", ob!. base tä-1 tähä- (AFD 679ff.). The demonstrative so seems to be a borrowing from BB where it is the correlative of jo (LB 190). The emphatic form sohi is more common than the non-emphatic so. sohi and se are employed with equal frequency. bäsava äge sohi kona hoi (PH 210) Who is he before lndra? se samaye saba äsi kahu (KD 14) all having come at that time sohi paramesvara sesab sahite käma-keli kaya thika (KG 88) Thal great god has played amorously with them. tanikara is derived from EM tanhikara; and tanika from EM tanhika. The latter is registered in IML 620. 318 319

1 tanikara näma sankhacüra (KG 67) His name is Sankhacüra. täheka pekhi (KD 9) having seen him täheka brttänta sunaha (KG 60) Listen to his story. W.L. Smith Jha records iha as accusative of the non-personal proximale demonstrative i, f etc.(fml 624), but omits ihiika and ihiira. iha also occurs in Bhojpuri (CGG 437) and the oblique base ihii-in MB (ODB 831). ihiika is employed in MK and PV, where it is used as a honorific, as ihiika putra sanaka niime hame (PV 208), "I am your son called Sanaka"; ihiika ii}iiii upayukta ho (MK 112), "your command is fitting"; cf. ehiika, "your" (hon.) FML 606. ihiira and ihiita are 0 A. The infrequent forms iihera, iiheka are not registered in AFD which does, however, note the Eastern Assamese iik, iir, iit 688. The forms iika and äta occur in OA and the Candrakänta Abhidhän 6 notes äher and iihän (honorific ). ähera guni suni (PH 180) having heard of his qualities äheka rak~ä karaha (PH 200) save hirn The OA relative is ji, oblique base ja-/ }iihii- (AFD 690). jo is apparently a BB form (LM 190) and used in free variation withje. 6 320 je däna mägaha täheka devaba (RV 237) 1 will give the gift you ask for. jo gopikaja~e layäjäi se bälä trähi (KG92) Save the cowherd girl whom the demon is carrying off. je juyäi tä karaha (PH 211) Do what is appropriate. aicana kumära jähera grhe tähera bhägyaka mahimä ki kahaba (RV 247) What can 1 say of the great good fortune of him in whose harne there is such a son? Chief ed. Mahesvar Neog, 3rd ed. Guwahati University 1988. Pronominal adjectives aicana/ aichana; aice/ aiche kaicana/ kaichana*; kaice/ kaiche kata* jata* jaicana/ jaichana/ jaicel jaiche Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili such what sort of howmany as many as as, like These correspond to EM ai'sana, ai'se; kai'sana, kai'se; kata; jata; jai'sana, jai'se; (FML 656; VGS 161-2). Verb There are five tenses in Vrajävali: the simple present, the present in -ta, the past in -1-, the future in -b- and the present progressive. P r e s e n t (FML 686) lst person -1, -a' -ay e '-u' -o, -15 -oho'-aiiu, -aiii5, -iiu, -iia (after vowel stems) cinto caranaka toi (KD 21) 1 meditate on your feet. hämusaba brajakajäiia (RV 216) We go to Vraja. tohäri präna coränu (RH 214) 1 cause you to lose your life. hämu bujhaye näpäri (RV246) we cannot understand. 2nd person -a, -aha, -ae, -aye, -asi; -va, -s, -si (after vowel stems) toho kähe jäva (RV264) Where are you going? tu/zu rämaka caritra jänaye nähi (RV 139) You do not know the story of Räma. toho jäne nähi (RV 264) You don't know. 3rd person 321

-a, -u, -e, ai, -aye, -aya, -ave; -ve (after vowel stems); -i, -y (after stems in -ii). caranaka miijhe maiijira karu role (PH 177) The anklets on bis feet sound. murcchita hoi punalj cetana päi (RH 214) He swoons then regains consciousness. brahmanisaba bola (PP 44) the brahman women say gopisabe tiihe nähi jiinave (KG 69) The cowherd girls don't know that. Present in -ta Brajabuli, Vrajäva/i and Maithili tense of BB, and its use as a present in Vrajavall would seem tobe due to the influence of Western Hindi; BB also has an alternate ending in -atu, (LB 217), as gävatu hae, "he sings". In contrast to BB (and the other Vrajavall tenses which are marked for gender) no formally feminine form in -ati occurs. lt can also be noted that equivalents of this tense appear in a!arge number of NIA languages (CGG 507), though not in OA. Past in -1- In OA -il- is used (AFD 785f.) Ist person These endings are not frequent. -alu, alü, alo, alo, -oho; -o, -valu (after vowel stems). madhäi ävata änanda mane (RH 144) Mädhava comes with a happy heart. äcarya hayä munita puchata (RV246) Astonished, they ask the muni. An alternate ending in -atu is sporadically used in verse portions of the plays. kr$~aka häte delö (RH 186) 1 put it in Kr~Qa's band. hämu adhama bhe/ö (PP 46) 1 was lowly. 2nd person -ala; -lahü, -vala (after vowel stems). karatu kautuka nrtya kesava (KD 26) Kesava dances delightedly. kahatu fonkara kr$~adäsä (KG 79) Sar\kara, Kr~Qa's slave, says This tense corresponds in form to the EM tense called by Jha "future indicative" (FML 696) which in our other texts is, as its name indicates, used as a future: se jadi gahata kara jiva tejaba tatakä/e (RP 77) Ifhe takes my band (in marriage), 1 will leave this Jife immediately. kaiionaka kahaba hama ke patiäeta (VGS 68) To whom shall 1 speak, who will believe me? teraha din bhitara toharii ucita svämi mi/ata (MK 139) Within three days you will obtain a suitable husband. The tense in -ta is also identical in form and usage to the present participial de/aha nähi tohö parijäta (PH 192) You didn't give (me) the parijäta flower. tuha ki nimite palävala (PH 215) Why did you flee? all persons -ala. -ali; -la, -!aha, -lahü,-li, -vala (after vowel stems). hämu anna niihi änala (PP 35) We didn't bring food. riijäsaba sacakita bhelaha (RV 257) Tue kings were astonished. haripada pekhaye napävali mäi (PP 40) The wo man couldn' t see Hari' s feet. purandara biina aba lelaha (PH 214) Indra now took an arrow. 322 323

kar, "do", has optional irregular past stems in kay- and kav-. biraha-tiipa tattakii/a dura kava/a (KG 66) They soon got rid of the pangs of separation. frikr~~a rukmf iahita yuddha kayala (RH 157) Kr>Q fought with Rukmi. hhela, hheli, hhelo, hhelaha represent the irregular past of ho- "be". Much less frequent is the OA form hhaila. Another form, hhayo, is rare, as johi hhayo avatara (RH 106) "He who became an avatar". This is a BB form, perhaps not a direct loan but borrowed through EM; it is used, for example, by Vidyäpati (VGS 167). gel- is the irregular past base of ja-, "go". The forms gela / geli / gelaha occur in both EM and OA. An OA form, gaila, also occurs a half dozen times. Gender is at best only sporadically observed. The formally feminine endings are chiefly used for stylistic reasons. hrä~ä bheli dehä (PH 188) Her body grew thin. ca/ali saizge gopa (PP 34) The cowherd went along. Future in -h- In OA -ib- is used (AFD 795f.). Ist person Like their counterparts in the past, these endings are not frequent -aha, -ahu, -ahohu;- hu, -vaha (after vowel stems). kr~naka iinabu (RH 130) 1 will fetch Kr>l)a. all persons -aha; -vaha, -vaha (after vowel stems). frikr~na ava ya ävaba (RH 139) Kr>!) will surely come. ihäta kico saizkä nähi karabi (RV 139) You will not be afraid of him. kiihe piilävaba bajradhäri (PH 215) Where will Indra flee? Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili The future ending in -ahi is generally used as a 2nd person negative imperative. It is most common with kar, "do". kicho saizkä nähi karabi (PH 218) Don't be afraid of anything. hämäka tejabi nähi (PP 44) Don't leave me. Present progressive all persons -aica, aici, -aice / -aica, aici, ai'ce ki nimitte krandana karaica (RH 151) Why are you weeping? padapaizkaja renu iisä kararce (KG 64) 1 am hoping for the dust of your lotus feet. beda sästrata hiimu sunaici (PP 44) We listen to the Vedas and the Sästras. This tense, not frequent (25 occurrences), seems to correspond to that which Jha calls "present indicative" (FML 711), in the examples Jha cites, however, he translates it as a progressive tense (as holaicha, "is speaking") Copula Two copulas are found: ach-* and thika. The first is far less frequent. thika, though not mentioned in FML, is registered in IML 112 and appears a few times in VGS (asjlvana thika chara (101) "life is worthless"). It is common in other EM texts in which a feminine form in -! is also used as, patn! harne thik! (PV 194) "I am your wife". In Vrajävall thika is employed both as a simple copula and as an auxiliary with the perfective participle and, less commonly, the participle in -1. 324 325

se bhumika bhara harana nimite avatiira haye thika (KD 27) He has become an avatar in order to remove the burden of the earth. du~{a dvijaka badhe kona dosa thika (RV268) What fault is there is slaying an evil brahman? yata sampatti hiimiita thika saba dvärakiika lägi pathäiiu (PH 219) 1 send all the property 1 have to Dvaraka. Imperative 2nd person -a*, -aha*, -ahu, -u; -hu*, -va* (after vowel stems). dehu mohi ohi sik~ii (KD21) Give me that instruction. hämära sange pa{häva (RV 138) Send (them) with me. A third person imperative in -k /-ok also occurs a few times, most commonly with rah, as ikathii rahok (PP 41), "Jet this matter be". This is an OA form (AFD 783). Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili Perfective participle -a, -i, -e, ie, -ayii, iiyii, iyii, -ive; -yii, -ve (after vowel stems). kaja, ka)'e, kave, kae, kari, karie äsi, asijä, lisie gayä, gaiyä '[, giyä 'II hayä, huyä 'I.. hui 'II, hae bahuri niivala (RH 141) < kar, "do" <li,"come" <jli, "go" <ho "be" He didn't come back. äiicore äkhi mukha muci kalzö nisväsa phokiiri bolaye lägala (RH 126) (She) wiped her eyes and face with her hem, sighed and began to speak. gaiyä brähmanaka praniimi älingi dharie abhyantara prabesa karävala (RH 131) He went, bowed to the brahman, embraced him, and holding him, led him inside. bayanaka pekhi ciinda bheli dura (RH 112) When he saw her face, the moon went away. This form is called the conjunctive in FML 706. When employed as an abso!utive it is often followed by kahu / kahü / kaho / kahö (FML 707). Inflected passive The inflected passive ends in -i* or -ie (FML 747). tuhu sama puru~a katiha niihi päi (RH 112) A person like you is never found. Verba! noun in -ite* The EM verbal noun in -ite is only listed in passing in FML 710 and though not found in VGS or PV, does occur in our other texts. It is also found in OA (AFD 828,829). It is used to express purpose, simultaneity and with auxiliary verbs. sftära sayambara dekhite ihii iivala thika (RV 247) He has come to see Si:tä' s svayamvara. gopiilaka mukha nirekhite nayanaka nira dhäre bahi jäi (KG 10) Looking at Gopiila's face, her tears flow in streams. cetana labhi kahu (RH 139) having regained consciousness hrdaye thäna labhi kahö (KG 64) having gotten a place in (your) heart huiyii is OA and much less frequent than hayii; bhae is rare. In the EM plays the situation is reversed; bhae is preferred to variants in ho- / haräjakumiirl murchita hayä parala (RH 126) The princess fainted and feil. gfyii is often used to mark the imperative and futnre (cf. ODBL 652), while gayii is employed as an absolutive. sachita kaha gfyä (PH 208) Tell Saci äti satvare rukami~lka samlpe gayä kahujäniivala (RH 123) He went swiftly to Rukmil)l and explained. 326 327

Similarly in PV gae is used to mark the future and imperative, while jäe is employed as an absolutive: hariko gopini pekhaye napäi (KG 59) The cowherd girl cannot see Hari. Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili grhaka sa,,,miirjana karu gae (PV 260) Clean the house! anyatrajäe rahaba (PV192) Let's go elsewhere and stay there. Periphrastic passive (FML 748) This construction is negated. hari guna kahana najäi (RH 116) Hari's qualities cannot be described. Auxiliary verbs rah- "remain", "keep on" (FML 730). lt is used with the perfective participle. cä- "want", is used with the verbal noun in-ite. According to Jha it corresponds to "ought" (FML 733) räkacaka häte dite ciiva (RV 239) Y ou want to put him in a demon' s hands. läg-" begin", is used with the perfective particip!e. kr~qaka avahelä kaya lägala (KG 69) They began to slight KrsQa jä- is combined with intransitive verbs piu präqa /u/ijäi (KD 19) Beloved, my heart is breaking. kevala kr~qacarana cinti rahala (KG 98) He only kept thinking of KrsQa's feet. tuhu thira huyä rahaba (RV257) You should remain calm. pari krandana kaya rahala (RV233) Having fallen down, she went on weeping. pär- "be able" is employed with the perfective participle and, less commonly, the verbal noun in -ite. lt is usually negated. All the examples given by Jha in FML ( 748) are negated. strlka coraye nähi pära tuhü (PH 196) You cannot steal a wornan. padapafzkaja tejaya nähi pärie (KG 64) (Your) lotus feet cannot be abandoned. tähera paräkrama sahite näpäri (RV 268) His might cannot be withstood. pä- "get to", "be able" is used with the perfective participle, preferably that in -ae, -aye. Vrajävalf and Maithili As can be seen in this grammatical sketch, the language of Sailkaradeva's plays is Maithili, a somewhat simplified and strearnlined Maithili, but Maithili nonetheless. lt uses stray OA forrns but these are statistically insignificant, and the OA forms which are employed (as bhaila, gaila, gfyä) are in all cases less frequent than their EM counterparts. Because a!arge number of forrns are identical in EM and OA, an impression can be gatten that the proportion of OA elements in Vrajävali is far greater than it actually is. The influence of BB is limited to the use of the present tense in -t and a few pronominal forrns as so and meri. lt is not clear whether this influence was direct or indirect. A number of EM forrns seem to be deliberately avoided, as for example 3rd person pronoun oblique stems in hin- and hun- and all tense endings with the consonant th. The verb thika is consistently preferred to äch-, which, though common in EM, is also a feature of OA, giving the impression that thika is preferred precisely because it does not occur in OA. The EM verbal noun in -aba- (FML 710) is rarely used, perhaps again because of its similarity with an OA counterpart in -ib (AFD 824). On the other 328 329

hand, the very common EM postposition saiio, corresponding to Hindi se, is avoided while OA hante, "frorn", is occasionally used. Another notable difference is that verbs with vowel sterns prefer the vowel -a- in the affix and usually insert the glides -v- or -.Y- (especially with sterns in -a and -ä) in the past tense; future tense and the present tense in -t, as päyala, ävaba. In our other Maithili texts such verbs optionally ornit the glide and use other vowels in the affix, as äela (RP), päola (MK, RP); jäeba (PV); jäeba, jäbe (MK), deba, dioba (PV). In the past tense used by Vidyäpati the first vowel of the affix in vowel Sterns is al ways different than that of the base as p'i- "drink", piula, "drank" (VGS 167). Finally, it can be noted that the vocabulary consists of 75-80% of tatsamas and semi tatsamas. Pure Assamese words are few. Brajabuli Gender Only sporadically observed. Number Brajabuli prefers the plural suffix gai:za*. Case The case endings in Brajaboli are largely the same as in VrajävalL Here, however, the general oblique in -ahi / -ahiis rnuch rnore productive..foyana teji hari kuiijahi gela (GD 230) Leaving his bed, Hari went to the grove. gandahi sakala beyäpa (PKT2614) All is pervaded by perfume. dukha konahi dela (JD 74) Who caused the sorrow? Pronouns Ist person häma, häme hä1nära, hämäri 3rd person so, se*, ttihe, tiii täkara, täkari, tähiira 'i[, tähäri g( täka Brajabuli, Vrajäva/f and Maithili moiii, muii.i*, moi *, 1nui *, moj, niora*, mori, more* mo*, niajhu 2nd person tuhu, tuhü, tohe, tohii, tohäri, tuhäri, tohori tora*, tori, teri CJ[. tore* tujä relative jo,je, yähe yiikara mui is the "standard" MB 1 st person pronoun; muiii is "instrurnentalnominative" (ODBL 541). The other forms have been already discussed. Exarnples: bahuta minati kari toi (BP 104) having entreated you much puchaba muiii priyäsakhi päfo (JD 36) 1 will ask my dear friend. mohe heri rahala bimukhe (JD 66) She remained staring at me, displeased. täka kaiche mati bheli (GD 252) how did you!hink of him Pronominal adjectives aichana; aiche kaisana/ kaichana; kaiche kata* yata* yaichana; yaiche taichana; taisana of such a sort what sort of howmany as many of which sort of this sort 330 331

Brajabuli, Vrajäva/i and Maithili Verb pres. (come) äosi, äoje past. tiol-a li, tiyal-a /i (go) ytiy, ytii, ytio gela, geli iiolü yayala'i! fut. tioyaba ytioba,ytiba* t-pres äota yäota PP pres. past. fut. t-pres PP ho kar- (do) kara, karai, kare, karasi, karaha, karaye ytiiye'j! karala, karalahu, kaya/a, kayali, kayalu, kaila* kaela karaba, karabi karata, karatahi, karatahl kari, kae her- (see) ti- ya- (be) ho, hoi, hoy, hai hayala, bhaila 'I! bhela, bheli haoba, hoyaba hoyata, hota bhai'i! herai, heraje, herasi, heraha herala, heralu, herala heraba, herabi herata, heratahi heri, heraje cal (go) cala,calai, cale, calaha, calu calala, calali calabi calata, ca/atahi cali Present tense The present tense is as in Vrajavall, though the Bengali poets have a far greater partiality for the 3rd person ending -ai. tapa saba mefaye (JD 25) All suffering is assuaged. tuhü htima abajtina (PKT2728) I know you now. ye saba kahasi majhu äge (JD 48) all which you say before me sakhrga~a teji calu ekasari (JD 62) Leaving her friends, she goes alone. An extended 3rd person form in -ahi is also found. heraite locane galahi lora (GD 252) the tears run from her eyes as she looks Past tense Tue first person endings -alu, -alil, -anu are more frequent than their Vrajavall counterparts. tiju muiii pekhanu räi (GD 260) Today I saw Rädhä. mandira chori bane äolü (GD 207) I left the hause and came to the forest. Extended forms in -lahi, -lahu, -lihu, -liha are also found. nägara paralahi phgphara ( P KT 2723) The Iover became distracted. hama rahalihü (BP 38) 1 remained. Vowel stems optionally take o in the affix, as äyala / äola. Tue Brajabuli poets are not as fond of the feminine endings. In Sailkaradeva' s plays, for example, bhela and bheli are found in the proportion 2: 1 while in GD the proportions are 40: 1 andin JD 8: 1. Future The future ending in -abi 1-obi is used for the second person. gu~a-lefa nä ptiobi I yaba tuhü karabi bictira / (BP 104) When you judge me, you will not find a trace of virtue. kaiche gohtiyabi hari bine dina /(BP 92) How will you spend your days without Hari? The affix of vowel stems optionally takes take o before future endings, as yäoba, haoba etc. 332 333

Present in -t In the present the vowel o is optionally used in the affix of vowel stems: deota/ deyata; gäotal gäyata (GD). The ending -ati does not occur. As in Vrajävall this tense is used as a present. royata sakhiga(za dina riiti (JD 74) Tue friends weep day and night. tira rahi herata raliga (JD 13) Remaining on the bank, they watch the fun. There is also an extended 3rd person form in -tahil -tahi. kamini karatahi puru~a-iicära (P KT 2727) The woman is acting like a man. gobindadäsa kaha/ japatahf tuyä gu~a-mälä (GD 230) Gobindadasa says, she is reciting the!ist of your good qualities. Perfective participle The range of forms is more limited than in Vrajävali. haye, haiyä 'I!. haiye 'I!, bhai kari, karije, kae heri, herijä, herije piii, päfiä, päiyä 'J!, päiye 'I! abanata iinana kae (BP 38) with downcast face päfiii abakase (PKT2618) having gatten an opportunity koi lei äola (PKT2687) someone brought < ha, "be" < kar, "do" <her, "look" < pä, "get" bhai, the irregular perfective participle of ha- only occurs in combination with gel-, the irregular past base of yä-, "go". 334 heraite bhaigela bhora (GD 229) As 1 looked 1 went mad. duhu tanu pulakita bhai gela (JD 30) Their two bodies became horripilated. Brajabuli, Vrajävalf and Maithili Other The postposition saiie is employed frequently. täkara saiie hari kayala pa)'ä(za (JD 35) Harl goes off with her..fyiima bana saiie äota (PKT2680) Syama comes from the forest. sakhii saiie kahatahi (GD 97) he says to his friend The other forms are generally similar. As can been seen, while these two literary dia!ects are very similar to each other, they are far from identical; nevertheless, they resemble one other more closely than either does the language of any of the other texts used here. Both Vrajävall and Brajabuli later degenerated. In the case of the first, a change can already be seen in the language employed by Mädhavadeva, Saii.karadeva's immediate spiritual and literary heir, who wrote very short plays called jhumura on popular themes. In the language of two of these, the Pimparä Gucura- ("Removing Ants") and Bhümi-lutijlä- ("Rolling on the Ground") Jhumura, which total only eighteen printed pages (AV 323-341), one finds a much greater number of Assamese elements than in Saii.karadeva' s plays which are fifteen times their length. Mädhavadeva, for example, uses various forms of the OA Ist person pronoun ämi, he frequently uses the 2nd person pronoun twni, tohmä-; the OA past in -il along with OA personal endings, as in kailä (A V 340) "you did"; futures in -ib, as cäribo (A V 330), "I will leave"; the declined verbal noun in -ibä, as sahibäka na-päri (A V 340), "cannot be endured"; qualifiers, as du-khäni adhara (A V 326), "two lips", and so forth. The degree of the Assamese admixture in the works of later playwrights varies. Some contain songs (gft) in Assamese (the opposite of what one might expect), while the prose sections are written in Vrajävall, as in the anonymous Prabhäsayäträ-näta (AM 205-31), where, however, only contain a negligible number of Assamese elements are found. As the centuries passed and learning declined, Vrajävall became more and more corrupted. The same fate also befell the the plays' Sanskrit slokas which often became unintelligible 7 In eastern Assam aizkfya nätas continued to 7 Kesavananda Dev Goswami, Post Saiikaradeva Vai~nava Faith and Culture of Assa1n, 335

be written until the present century, and it is only recently that Vrajävali has been abandoned in favor of the Assamese 8 Most Bengali poets composed lyrics in both in Middle Bengali and Brajabuli, and füese were collected side by side in anthologies, a situation which encouraged the two idioms being contaminated by one another. As time passed, Brajabuli declined in the same way as Vrajävali did in Assam and for similar reasons: ignorance and indifference. Often it is difficult to say what idiom the later Bengali Vai~i:iava lyrics are composed in. A poem signed by Mädhava ( a name used by several later poets ), for example, (PKT 2599) contains 29 verbal, nominal and pronominal forms: eight are Bengali, nine Maithili and twelve common to both languages. Is this maithilized Bengali or bengalized Maithili? Poets writing in what is clearly Bengali display a fondness for certain Maithili forms, especially for the past tense in -al- (see PKT 2557 for a good example). Despite this later dec!ine, there no justification for labeling Vrajävali or Brajabuli as "artificial" or "mixed" languages. In the works written by their ear!iest and most skilled practitioners both idioms are simply variants of Maithili. While British, Assamese and Bengali scholars, as has been seen, have regarded Brajabuli as a "mixed" language or the like, Maithili scholars have had no problem in accepting it as Maithili. Jha consideres Gobinadadäs tobe the second greatest Maifüili poet after Vidyäpati (FML p. 38); Jayakanta Mishra emphatically agrees 9 He also unhesitatingly considers the ahk!ya nätas (to which he devotes a chapter of his history) to be Maithili works, and füinks it remarkable that the Assamese scribes preserved so well Maithili in the mss. 10 It should also be remembered that there is no such thing as a "pure" medieval NIA literary language. A certain admixture of forms from various sources is common, a tendency most notable in the styles of language used by Käbir and Gurü Nänak 11 However if Vrajävali and Brajabuli are, in fact, Maithili, why, then, would George Grierson describe the language of the Vidyäpati poems sung in Bengal as "contorted" and a "bastard" tongue, an opinion which influenced so many later scholars? One must Delhi 1988, p. 196. 8 lbid., p. 203 9 10 11 History ofmaithili Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1976, p. 130. Jbid., p. 194. For this reason C. Shackle prefers to call the language of the founder of Sikhism "the Sacred Language of the Sikhs" rather than Old Panjabi, A Guru Niinak Glossary, New Delhi 1981, p. viii. 336 Brajabuli, Vrajiivalf and Maithili presume that his description was based upon the language of "corrupt" bengalized versions of Vidyäpati. Although it is impossible to ascertain just which specific texts provoked this judgement, popular versions of the Maithili poet continue to circulate in Bengal, so to test this thesis we can compare a Vidyäpati lyric printed in a popular anthology 12 with the version printed in VGS 13 The VGS text is to the left below and the popular printing to the right. kämini karae sinäne herai'te hrdaya harae pacaväne 1 cikura galae jaladhiirii mukha Sa.Si tf.are jani roae ädhiira 1 titala vasana tanu lagü munihuka mänasa manamathajägü 1 te fonkiie bhujapase kämini karae sinäne herarte hrdaje hänala päcabii!je 1 cikure galaye jaladhiirii janu mukha-sa.si-r.jare roe andhärä 1 titala basana tanu laga 1 1nunihuka miinasa manobhaba jägü l kuca yuga cäru cakebä bändhi dhari dharia punu utj.ata taräse 1 nia-kule äni miläjana debä l kuca juga cäru cavekä teiii Saizkä bhuja-pä.se niiia kula milata äni kaiione devä t bandhi dharala janu uraba iikiise 1 14 (VGS 197) The girl is bathing, one seeing her is pierced by Kama's arrow. The streams of water run from her hair; it is as if the darkness weeps from fear of her moonlike face. The wet clothing sticks to her body, this arouses confusion even in the minds of ascetics. From fear she holds her twin breasts, pressing them in her arms, lest like cakora birds, they fly off in in fright into the sky and unite with their own kind. The "popular" version, as can be seen, does not deviate radically from the "original"; it has not been distorted in a "procrustean bed", it is far from a "bastard language" or a "curious jargon". Grierson's knowledge of Vidyäpati was based upon the songs he himself collected from oral sources, those which were performed by 19th century singers. His own version of the lyric quoted above goes as follows: 12 Bidyiipati ca(itjidiis o anyänya bai~~ab mahiijan gltikii, ed. Caru Bandyopadhyaya, Deb Sahitya Ku\ir, Calcutta, B.A. 1371, p.44. This is an attractively printed popular edition containing numerous colour illustrations. 13 These were not many: the above edition contains 41 lyrics bearing the signature of Vidyapati and only two of these have counterparts in VGS. 14 lbid. p. 44 337

kämini karu asaniine 1 heraite hirdaya hanala pacamäne J 1 titala basana tana lagu 1 manihuka mana samasta bhaya jiigu J 1 cikura bahai jala dhäre 1 jani fo i binu mohi lägata andhäre 1 1 kuca juga cäru cakeva 1 nfja kara kanzala äni tuä devii J 1 te säse bhuja pliase 1 b&ihi dharia uri lägata akäse 11 (IML II, p. 42) 1 ' As can be seen, the Brajabuli version of the lyric cited above corresponds more closely to that in VGS than Grierson's. The Vidyäpati lyrics Grierson was familiar with were, in other words, more distant from the original than the popular ones circulating in Bengal. Grierson's dismissal of these lyrics was thus perhaps prompted by a misconception: the erroneous presumption that the lyrics he himself had collected - lyrics which actually represent a later form of the language - more faithfully reflected the "original". A final question is that of why Vrajävali-Brajabuli had been used in the first place, One of the basic tenets of the new bhakti cults was, after all, that the message of devotion was to be spread in the common language of the people, and Maithili was certainly not the language of the people of Assam or Bengal. The Assamese scholar Birinchi Kumar Barua has the following to say on this question: lt is.difficult to guess why Shankaradeva made a departure from the popular language of h1s poems and chose Brajabuli for his devotional lyrics and his plays. The reason may be that Brajabuli had less use of compound consonants, a preponderance of vowels, an alliterative fineness of texture, and a subtlety of implication, and these and other traits may be said to have made it a more flexible medium for lyric compos1tions. In addition to this flexibility, some element of sacredness was associated with this artificial language, as it was traditionally considered to be the hallowed language of Vraja. 16 As Barua Stresses, one of the most attractive features of Maithili was the way it sounded: it was, as is said in India, a "sweet" language. Only in later 15 16 Grierson translates as foliows: 0 pretty one, bathe thyself. Lo, love searched for me and smote me on the heart. 1 The limp garments cling to thy body, and thou becomest as one who arouseth the passions. of saints. 1 The water falleth down in rivers through the locks of th~ half, an? 1t seemeth to me dark as a moonless night. 1 Thy bosom is hke two fmr chakwas. Cover them, 0 cover them with thy lotus hands. 1 And if though dread entangling them in the snare of thy arms, hold them fast. (Else assuredly) w!ll they fly away to heaven. (ILM II, p.79). Birinchi Kumar Barua, History of Assamese Literature, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi 1964, p. 30. 338 Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili centuries did Maithili' s association with Kr~i:ia lyrics convince some of the faithful that it was actually the language spoken by Kr~i:ia and Rädhä in Vri:idävana. The earlier generations ofreformers had visited the Vraj country themselves and knew better. The key factor in its adaption must have been Maithili's literary stature. Mithila or Tirhut had long served under its independent Hindu kings as the most important intellectual center for the Hindus of Northeast India. With their support Maithili had been forged into a highly developed language with a rich literature; around the year 1500, by way of contrast, Old Assamese and Middle Bengali were as literary idioms still in their formative Stages and ignored by most members of the educated classes. Maithili, however, had an established literary reputation and the Vai~i:iava reformers immediately realized its advantages: it had great prestige, it was mellifluous, it was already associated with Kr~i:ia thanks to Vidyäpati and, finally, by simplifying its grammar and equipping it with a more sanskritized vocabulary, it could be made relatively intelligible to audiences in Assam and Bengal. This proved a combination impossible to resist and Maithili became a favored vehicle for literature in that great swath of India stretching from Kathmandu to Puri. Abbreviations and bibliography AFD AM AV BB Banikanta Kak:ati,Assamese Its Fonnation and Development, revised and ed. by Golockchandra Goswami, Gauhati 1972 (1941) Ankamälä, ed. Satyendranäth Sarmmä, Gauhati 1973. An anthology of later Vrajävall plays. Ankävali, ed. Käliräm Medhi, Gauhati 1950. This is the standard critical edition of early Vrajävall plays. The titles of Sarikaradeva's plays are abbreviated as follows: KG Keli gopäla näfaka KD Käli damana yäträ PH Piirijiita hara~ia niifa PP Patni prasiida nii{a RV Räma vijaya näfa RH Rukmb:zl hara1ja näfa These six plays are written in both verse and prose. They total 275 printed pages. Brajbhä~ä 339

Brajabuli, Vrajävali and Maithili BP CGG EM FML GD Bai~~aba Padäbalf, ed. by Khagendra Näth Mitra, Sukumar Sen, Visvapati Caudhuri and Syämapad Cakrabartti, 9th ed. University of Calcutta 1972. An anthology containing both Middle Bengali and Brajabuli lyrics. A.F. Hoemle, A Comparative Grammar of the Gawjian (Aryo Indian) Languages, repr. Amsterdam, 1975 (1880). Early Maithili Subhadra Jha, Formation of the Maithilf Language, repr. Delhi 1985 (1958) Bimänbihäri Majumdär, Gobindadäser Padävali o tlihär Yug, University of Calcutta 1961.This work contains a critical edition of the songs of Govindadäsa who was bom 1520-30, and became a Vai~J)ava in 1577. The remarks here are based on the first 275 padas in this volume. Numbers refer to padas. PVN RP VGS Pradyumnavijayanä/aka of Jagatprakäsamalla ed. and trans. by Horst Brinkhaus in The Pradyumna-Prabhävatf Legend in Nepal, A Study of the Hindu myth of the draining of the Nepal Valley, Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien 32, Stuttgart 1987. Jagatprakä amalla, king of Bhaktapur, reigned 1638-1672. A dated manuscript of the play is from 1656. Rukmi~lpari~aya of Ramäpati, ed. J ayakänta Misra, llähäbäd 1961. Written c. 1750. Vidyäpati-Glta-Sarrzgraha or The Songs of Vidyäpati, ed. by Subhadra Jha, Banaras 1954. This is usually considered the best available edition of Vidyäpati. The introduction contains an elaborate grammatical sketch. IML George A. Grierson, An Introduction to the Maithil{ Language of North Bihtir, Part One, Grammar, Calcutta 1881. JD Jfiänadäsa Padäbali, Basumati-Sähitya-Mandir, Calcutta, n.d. Jfiänadäsa, one of the most highly regarded Brajabuli poets, tlourished in the first halfof the 16th century. LB Dhirendra Varma, La Langue Braj (Dia/ecte de Mathurä), Paris 1935. MB Middle Bengali MD Mudita-Kubalaya.fva Nä/aka ofbamsarnoj)i Ojhä in Präcfn Bangälä Maithilf Nä{aka, ed. Bijitakumär Datta, University of Burdhwan, 1980. This is a work from the early 17th century. NIA New lndo-aryan OA Old Assamese ODB Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, repr. London 1972 (1927). PKT [SriSrl] Padakalpataru, ed. SatlScandra Räy, Bangiya Sähitya Pari~at, Calcutta, B.A.1322-38 [1915-31]. This is a comprehensive l 8th century anthology. Numbers refer to padas. 340 341