M iJ K H ODP A 3D H Y A V ProQuest Number: 10731648 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731648 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 BRAJABULI LITERATURE. ITS OOftlTEfflT AMD LANGUAGE WITH SPECIAL SEPEREHOE TO BENGAL by Tar a pa da M u k ho pa d hy a ya Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph.D ., University of London 1959 ABSTRACT The subject of this essay is the Vaisnava literature of Medieval Bengal composed in the Bra^abuli language# It is .discussed in its three aspects: religion, literature and language. The songs, composed according to the conventions prescribed by the highest authority of the CaurTya Vaisnava school are primarily religious; and they are at the same time literary products some of them of great beauty. In them religious sentiment is expressed in terms of human emotion anc passion* The language in which the poems are composed is use exclusively by the Vaisnava poets of the Caitanya sect and ha£ especial features of its own# Therefore for a proper under­ standing of the works of the Vaisnava poets, these three aspec must be all taken into consideration. The present essay is e attem pt to do s o . A summary of the previous work on Brajabuli is given in Chapter I. A survey of the extant materials of Brajabuli and the materials on which the present work is based, is given in the second chapter. In Chapter III is given the etymology, history and interpretation of the word ’Brajabuli1. Chapter I co n ta in s a summary of B ra ja b u li lit e r a t u r e o f th e p rovin ces other than Bengal. In Chapter V the development of Brajabuli literature of Bengal is discussed# Chapters VI, VII, and VII introduce the religious aspects, each dealing with a separate topic; the history of the Krsna legend, the Rasa aspect, and t story respectively# The form and style of the poems, like th language, has peculiar features which are considered in Chapter IX. Chapter X contains a summary of the earlier theories on the origin of the Brajabuli language* Chapters XI, XII and XIII, contain linguistic analysis under three main heads; Noun, Pronoun and Verb. Chapter XIV contains an interpretation of the linguistic facts described in the preceeding three chapters* BRAJABULI LITERATURE, ITS CONTENT AND LANGUAGE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BENGAL A b stra ct Table of Contents Transliteration Chapter I* Previous Worh on Brajabuli ......................... > Chapter II. Materials Available for a study of Brajabuli. Chapter III. The Name B r a ja b u li ................................................................. Chapter IV. Brajabuli Literature in Provinces other than B en g a l. Chapter V. The Brajabuli Literature of Bengal ............. Chapter VI. Subject Matter of Brajabuli Literature A. History of the Krsna Legend ............................ Chapter VII. Subject Matter of Brajafiuli Literature B. The Rasa A sp e c t .................. .................. ................... Chapter VIII. Subject Matter of Brajabuli Literature C• The Story.••••••••••••.• • Chapter IX. The Form and Style of the Brajabuli Poems.... Chapter X. Theories about the History of the Brajabuli Language. Chapter XI. Grammar of the Language of the Poems A. Noun. ....................................................... Chapter XII. Grammar of the Language. of the Poems B. Pronoun .......................................... Chapter XIII. Grammar of the Language of the Poems C. Verb .................................................. .. Chapter XIV. The Brajabuli Language .................. ................ Bibliography -o0o~ S' TRANSLITERATION. a (or ) a (orr) i (>) 1 (*) u (*3)*3) u ( ^ ) V• W e ) ai C43) 0 C«) au ( £ ) • k (**) lch (*T ) g (*t) gb (* 0 n ( 6 ) c (F ) ch (*) d (<5t) db (37) n (-2P) t• r f ) •th (^'} d• ( 3 ) rjib (IT) n• (W) t (v5) th (ST) a (*) db (* ) n w P (9T ) ph (%») V (T) bb (tf) m .(#) y ( y ): r (if) 1 («?) b (D & (*n fS• (V ) 8 (ST) b C5) V ('?) vh (?) / O \ tV m• (■N ) >h• V o / (^ ) ks• (*) -0O0 CHAPTER I OH -BSAJAaHEI The , discussion of previous: v/ork on Brajabuli may be con- i . ... , veniently.trdated under three headings* linguistic, literary and religious, the first dealing wit-h linguistic analysis already undertaken, the second with previous literary, research and the third with the religious background and subject matter* L inguistic Previous observations on and analysis of Brajabuli have mainly been made incidentally in the introductions to other works* Tftey are usually brief and by no means thorough and definitive. Only on one occasion has Brajabuli formed the entix’e subject matter and title of an article# . This was in, a ten page pamphlet, of that name^ Brajabuli, written by Sukumar Sen in 1926. On all other, occasions the observations have been *a few remarks in passing* • The f ir s t 'few remarks in passing1 were made in the 19th century by a Brajabuli p oet, Guruprasad Sengupta in the introduction to his collected poems Padacintamapimafcff (published 1876)* The relevant section is quoted at length below: “There is no dictionaiy or grammar of the Brajabol language, the lyrics of the great poets fmahajana| being its only source. In composing ny lyrics I have followed the practice of lry predecessors regarding pronunciation* Iri their works 1* There is a possible fourth division comprising earlier theories about the origin of Brajabuli* This topic, however, is reserved for a later chapter where the subject is discussed in full* See pp. the proiiunciation of particular-vowels varies in accordance . .with: the needs of ,’fhyme and versification, thus, for example, t h e 1!' of •-girala* is sometimes pronounced long (difghaV and sometimes short (toasva).* ■ “The rules I was abl§ to. discover .from n\y reading of the . old? lyrics are as- followsi- ' , (a) The of ,bhelat i s to be -pi^onounced as .a short (hr a sv a) - Vowel in some cases and as a Ibng (dfrgha) vowel, in others* . <b) Though in w riting a word (saVda) may contain several long vowels (aksara)., in reading, only the last of these long vowels is pronounced so* e.g., in ‘etgorala*, *o* only is pronounced long, in *adhun^na!, only the . penultimate vowel is long* (c) \In the case of two separate-words, if in writing the initial vowel of the first word is long and the final short and if the initial vowel of the. foliating word is short, then in pronunciation the initial vowel of the first word w ill be short and the initial vowel of the following- • ' word heavy * (guru).* 3»aBB,:sar5saiJ^ o • J .(d)-. The final long vowel * f * of. feminine words is often 5 pronounced short, e. g*, hiari1 pronounced fn a fi'; *kdmim pronounced ,kaminit* “ ’ (e) 1 ana1 and .*jnaha* are sometimes. short and sometimes long*. :7 .(f) The fhxal vowels. occurring at the end of lines are not retained''unless iiiunediately preceded by a consonantal clu ster e .g ., 'yaba* pronounced *y#b1 j 'raba* *x*£b* etc. (g) The ’a* of *nat and ‘nahi* is either short or long. •':; .' ■ • • ‘o’, e.gy payala = - (h) The *y* of Brajabuli verbs should be pronounced/* paola*,,, V^yala*- *y£ola* etc. (i) Final *e* and ’a*, when occurring in the middle of a line is. often;pronounced shoi?t - e.g. as in 'niralchiy^*, •tiy a * , , lbandhuy^*, *garime.* These suggestions of Sengupta on the pronunciation of Brajabuli may be valuable for the; light they shed on Brajabuli pronunciation'in the 19 th century but as a guide to the pronunciation of the lyrics of 16th , 17th and 18th century they, are of doubtful value. Presumably they were based on the pronunciation of contemporary. Brajabuli. singers,. for as Sengupta admits in the above extract there was at his time no authority or definitive work,of reference in existence to which recourse might be had. " The sole source of his knowledge were earlier lyrics. Probably;the first grammatical analysis was undertaken by Satish. Capdra Ray in a short essay entitled *?^dayal£r- Bhagff in the, fifth volume of tthe Padakalpataru,. 'Padavalar means the language of the padas (vaippav ay songs written in Bengali and Brajabuli) but it is quite clear that his subject was Brajabuli. His short analysis, consists of five paragraphs and dealing .• with a specific topic: pronunciation, declension, conjugation, formative su ffix es and compounds. His comments on pronunciation -ai*©-presumably based upon ,contemporary Brajabuli pronunciation, but since he edited the largest anthology, Padakalpatami, his comments are perhaps valuable. He ■comments that the heavy (guru) ,vo\vels ^, u, e, ai, o,'au, and.those proceeding consonantal clusters ,are not invariably pronounced heavy. fy* is pronounced as fj* and the 'oh1 of such words as ’kaichana* 'yaichana* is pronunced like the Hindi. *8* or the English *s*. In the, declension of the noun he applied the principles of Sanskrit grammar, giving examples of the seven cases and their suffixes. He comments that the pronominal forms of Brajabuli are' mainly,derived from Bengali, M aithili,= and Brajabhasa, though he traced the origin of some forms from Sanskrit e . g . , 'harna* from 1 asmad', '.tuhfi/ from ’yusmad* etc. In conjugation he sfeta- out the suffixes for three persons and four tenses.