HINDUR, also called Nalagarh, one of the Punjab hill states, under the government of the Punjab, India, lying between 30 54 30" and 31 H 15" N. lat., and between 76 39 and 70 56 45" E. long. Area, 256 square mile?. The country was overrun by the Ghoorkas for som3 years prior to 1815, when they were driven out by the British, and the raja was confirmed in possession of the territories. The estimated population in 1875 was 70,000; the estimated revenue 9000, and tribute 500. The principal products are opium and the usual grains.
HINDUSTAN. See India.
HINDŪSTĀNĪ,[1] or Urdu, is a dialect of the Hindi, one of the seven languages of Aryan stock spoken at the present day in North India, the others being the Panjabl, SindhI, Gujarati, MarathI, Bangall, and Oriya. The area over which it is spoken in North India may be said to be co-extensive with that of the Hindi, which is estimated at about 250,000 square miles, extending from the river Gandak in the east to the Sutlej in the west, and from the Himalaya in the north to the Vindhiya mountains in the south. It is also extensively used, though in a somewhat different phase, in a great part of the Deccan, and is more over tho lingua franca of most parts of India.
As the Hindi language consists of many dialects, it is necessary to state that it is the Braj Bhasha, or the dialect that is spoken in the districts of Agra and Mathura, and in the neighbourhood of Dehll, the ancient capital of tli3 Mahometan empire, which is generally regarded as the parent of Hindustani. The grammatical structure and also a vast number of the commonest vocables of the Braj were incorporated in the new dialect, and to these were added a vast number of Persian, Arabic, and even Turkish words. " Such words, however, in no wise altered or influenced the language itself, which, as regards its inflex ional or phonetic elements, remains still a pure Aryan dialect, just as pure in the pages of Wall or Sauda, as it is in those of Tulsl Das or Biharl Lai."[2] Peculiarities of com position, such as reversing the positions of the governing and the governed word (e.g., bap merd for merd bap), or of the adjective and the substantive it qualifies, or such as the use of Persian phrases with the preposition ba instead of the Hindi postposition of the ablative case (e.g., ba-khushl instead of khushi se, or ba-hukm sarkdr-ke, instead of sarkdr ke huktn se), are no doubt to be met with in many writings, and these, perhaps, combined with the too free indulgence on the part of some authors in the use of high-flown and pedantic Persian and Arabic words in place of common and yet chaste Hindi words, and the general use of the Persian instead of the Nagarl character, have induced some to regard Hindustani or Urdu as a language distinct from Hindi. But such a view betrays a radical misunderstand ing of the whole question.
As regards the introduction of foreign words into the various dialects of Hindi, it seems highly probable that it had its origin at an early period, perhaps as early as the 8th or 9th century of our era. But there is good ground for the opinion that, although the Hindi area was overrun as early as the 12th century, the Hindustani was not formed till the 16th century. "For many generations after the victories of Kutbu d-dln Aibak, the first Musalman sovereign of Dehll,the conquerors retained their own Persian, and the conquered their Hindi. The Musalmans had long been accustomed to speak pure Hindi, and it was not they who introduced Persian words into the language, but the Hindus themselves, who at the epoch above mentioned were compelled by Todar Mai s new revenue system to learn Persian.[3] And we learn from Mir Amman of Dehll (whose brief account of the origin of Urdu in the preface to his well-known Bdgh-o-Bahdr bears on the face of it every convincing mark of probability, and, scanty as it is, is remarkable a*, perhaps, the only attempt at a critical disquisition in the whole range of Hindustani literature) that at the date of the composition of his work (1802) the Musalman dynas ties had endured for a thousand years, and that as inter course increased the languages of the Hindus and Musal mans became to a certain extent mixed. By the arrival and stay of the Amir Tinmr the camp or bazar of the army was introduced into the city, whence the city bazar was called Urdu, a Tartar word signify ing "camp." "When Akbar ascended the throne, various races from all quarters, on hearing the kind patronage and bounty of that incom parable house, came and assembled in the royal presence, but the speech and dialect of each was different. From their being collected together, and owing to the trade, traffic, and intercourse which they carried on with one another, a single language, that of the Urdu (or Hindustani), was established."
system established, with toleration and the free use of their religion granted to the Hindus, was, there can be little doubt, the period of the formation of the language. But its final consolidation did not take place till the reign of Shah Jahan. After the date of this monarch the changes are comparatively immaterial until we come to the time when European sources began to mingle with those of the East. Of the contributions from these sources there is little to say. Like the greater part of those from the Arabic and Persian, they are chiefly nouns, and may be regarded rather as excrescences which have sprung up casually and have attached themselves to the original trunk than ingredients duly incorporated in the body. In the case of the Persian and Arabic element, indeed, we do find not a few instances in which nouns have been furnished with a Hindi termina tion, e.g., kharldnd, badalnd, gitzarnd, ddylmd, bakkshnd, kannnapan, &c. But the European element cannot be said to have at all woven itself into the grammar of the language. It consists, as has been observed, solely of nouns, principally substantive nouns, which on their admission into the language are spelt phonetically, or according to the corrupt pronun ciation they receive in the mouths of the natives, and are declined like the indigenous nouns by means of the usual postpositions or case-affixes.[4] A few examples will suffice. The Portuguese, the first in order of seniority, contributes a few words, as kamard or kamrd (camera), "a room;"
mdrtol, "a hammer;" nilam, " auction " (often corrupted
- ↑ Hindustani (lit. "Of or belonging to Hindustan") is the English name for the language. The natives generally call it Urdu or Urdu Zaban, " the camp language " (the word Urdu meaning, in Turkish, "a camp"), and the poets, Rekhta, " mixed ;" while the phase of the dialect which is peculiar to southern India is termed Dakhinl, or " southern." The term Hindi, on the other hand, is derived from the Persian Hind, "India," and, strictly speaking, is applicable only to the modern language of the Hindus. The old language, prior to the inroads of the Musalmans, is termed Jfindul, and is derived from Hindii. It may be added that the present article has reference only to the so-called High Hindustani, which differs considerably from the vulgar speech. This, in some parts of the area mentioned in the text, bears but little resemblance to the cultivated language, except in the possession of a few Persian or Arabic words. The High Hindustani is that which is uniformly employed in literature over the whole of the specified area. It is, moreover, the language in which the proceedings of the various Government courts and offices are carried on, and is spoken in its purity in all the large towns by the educated classes generally, by Hindus as well as Musalmans.
- ↑ Beames, Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages, vol. i. p. 32.
- ↑ Beames, Ibid. , vol. i. p. 30, note.
- ↑ It is supposed, however, that the strange dialect in which tTie Lascars, or "native seamen," and the DandTs, or "boatmen," hold converse, and in which orders are given to a native crew regarding the working of a ship, is compounded of Portuguese words assimilated to Hindustani in their terminations and inflexions. Of this there is no positive proof, and until the matter has been properly and satisfactorily investigated it would be injudicious to pronounce a decided opinion.
