Nobo। The Vedic language may be raced back to the time when the Indo- Aryans still dwelt together with the PersaAyans before they seted on the Kubha in Kabul and north-western borders of India. Beyond that nothing definite is non. The swead of the Indo-Aryan settlers from these localities into the Punjab and over Hindusthan as far as the Ganges can be followed from the hymns of the Rigveda and later vedic litera ture. It is probable that in the course of time some sort of unity among the different dialects of these Aryan immigrants was established by reason of their intermingling in their new homes in India. The languaw of the Rigveda was evidently the dialect adopted by them all. According to Prof. Max Miller the language of the Vedic hymns must have been at one time a spoken language in the North-West of India, but it should ibered that we know it in its poetic form only, and mostly as applied to religious subjects". Prof. Macdonell also holds the same view, “The spoken language of the Vedic priests probably differed from this dialect of the hymns only in the absence of poetical constructions and archaisms". John Beames, however, is not quite of this pinion. He remarks-“that this language (Sanskrit, i.e.. the language in which the of the religious, legendary and philosophical literature of the Aryan Indians is written, from the ancient hymns of the Vedas down to the latest treatises on ceremonies or metaphysics) was once the living mother-tongue of the Aryan tribes may safely be conceded : that it was ever spoken in the form in which it has been handed down by Brahminical authors may as safely be denied. | In any case we may accept the form of speech, practically identical with, though somewhat simpler than, that of the Vedic hymns, together with its contemporary dialects, as the spoken Vedic language. These dialects may be regarded as the rimary Vernaculars of Prakrts. The word Prakrt is derived from Prakrti, meaning “nature", “origin" and the Prakrt language signifies the “natural", “original”, continuation of the ancient language or unmodified or real language of the people. It is the natural popular dialect as opposed to Sanskrit, which is a refined or purified or cultured language. This term Prakrt" should not be onfounded with the language of medieval period known as “Prakrt to be described later on. It is used here in the wider sense of the spoken languages of the people, whether pre-vedic, Vedic later vernaculars of Northern India, | The artificial nature of the highly developed and cultured language, known as Sanskrit, deserves more than a passing remark. The language of the Vedas merged in the course of time into that of the Brahmanas and the latter into the language of the Sutras. These three | Science of Lanuae"--Max Muller, Vol I, 163.
- “History of Sanskrit Literature"--Macdonell, P. 20.
3 see his comparative Grammar; Introduction, $ 1.
