পৃষ্ঠা:অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব.djvu/২৬

অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব kinds of literature are classed as Vedic”. Their language, mixed up with the local dialects, underwent an artificial but literary development as the result of scholastic study among the priests and educated people till it came under the iron sway of the grammatical rules formulated by the great grammarian, Panini, about the fourth century before Christ. This language is Sanskrit. As the result of a long course of literary treat- nent and grammatical refinement it eventually gained the general accep- tance as the correct form of literary language. But a literary language thus definitely fixed ceases to undergo any change. Thus it is that this language, Sanskrit, has remained unaltered during the long period of about twenty-five centuries, although it is now quite dead and in a metamorphic state. The literature of this period is so varied and vast that one is simply struck with wonder at its extent. No nation in the world could compete with India in the richness and beauty of at least some specimens of this exhaustive lore. The major portion of this literature is, however, devoted to religious subjects. 2. Secondary Prakt. এn shap contrast to the literary language of a country stand the local dialects. While the former is fixed, the latter still continue to have a life and growth of their own and to change in accordance with the laws of human speech. While the literary language, although no doubt origi- nally the dialect of some particular district, gains currency throughout the whole country among the educated classes, the local dialects continue to be spoken by the common people, who in Ancient as in Modern India, must have formed an overwhelmingly large proportion of the population”. Thus the Vedic and pre-Vedic dialects of the Aryans and the corresponding Primary Prakrts continued their life and growth and changed in the course of centuries into Secondary Prakrts. Their development may be divided into the following three stages : ) all Our knowledge is confined chiefly to the Hindu literature which seems to indicate an unbroken succession and development of the Sanskrit language from the Vedic to the Pouranic times. But this is not really the case. It is evident that from at least the seventh century B.c. to the fourth century A.D. a vast literature in Pali, as the sacred language of Buddhism and Jainism, came into being. The rise of Buddhism and Jainism marks an important epoch in the religious and linguistic history of India. These two religions are revolt against Brahmanism and also against the supposed 1 “Ancient India"by Rapson, p. 13.