Page:Growth of Asamiya Language.pdf/47

LINGUISTIC EVIDENCES OF TRANSITIONS TO ASAMIYA 37 of the Kalita civitation of Asam, that go back as far as the indo- Iranian days, are the sules of removing impurity. "The vendid of Zenc. Avesta, Ch. V-XII, deal with impurity arising from the dead, and the way of dispelling it, Ch. XVI with unclcarness of women during menses and Ch. V, with deflement during child-birth. (The secred Books of the East, vol. IV. The Zend Avesta by J. Dirmesteter)". When a man dies....the Drug Non or Corpse Drug falls upon the dead from the regions of hell, and whoever thenceforth touches the corpse becomes unclean, and makes unclenn whomsoever he touches....The Dry is expelled from the living, whom she has seized through their contact with the dead, by a process of washing with ox's uriae (Zead Gomez, Sans. Gomay) and with water combined with g-did (a sort of washing)". "The menses are sent by Ahriman, especially when they last beyond the usual time; therefore a woman, as long as they (menses) lust, is unclean and possessed of the demon; she must be kept confined apart from the faithful whom her touch would defile...Her food is hot given to her from hand to hand, but is passed to her from a distance.... Whoever has touched a Dastin (menstruous) woman must wash his body and his clothes with gomes and water" A woman dur- ing the first three days after delivery is in danger of death. She is not allowed gyen to drink water unless she is in danger of death. A great fire is lighted to keep away the fiends who use their utmost efforts to kill her and her child. These and such rules, strictly followed in Aryan and Aryanised familles of Asam, apparently came through the Mediterranean cum Alpine cum Nordle people about the time when the Indo-Aryans and Iranians were not separated, the Kalitas representing that early race and leading other people in this country. Cleansing with cowdung and ox's urine is a rule which must have been practised from time inmemorial. SEVEN LINGUISTIC EVIDENCES OF TRANSITIONS TO ASAMIYA It would not only be ungrateful but would also be impossible to deny that the Aryans "gave the shape into which contributions of other races were filed". However meagre might be the contributions of the Nordics to the material culture of India, it is to their gift of the Inde. European speech in the vast Vedie literature that Bharat has found her voice, almost the first flowering of human speech, "puspita vaca". Scholars generally agree that the Vedie language was not artificial at all as many may suppose; but was really a form of the then spoken dialect of the country.