DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16242#0043
THE PERIOD OF LYRICAL POETRY. 7
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i ; . •
all government orders should henceforth be written in
Persian.** This order and these measures had a sensible
effect on the literature and language of Bengal. Per-
sian words came into vogue, and the Bengali'language,
"in unconscious imitation of the language of tbe rulers,
improved in .compactness and solidity. While authors
and poets were slow in making use of Persian words or
idioms^ our ancestors in their every-day life and work, in
their familiar conversations, and more specially in their
deeds and documents, willingly exchanged the somewhat
cumbrous and verbose Bengali idiom for the more com-
pact Persian forms of expression. Even the poets them-
selves were not always free from the prevailing influence,
and the pages of Makunda Ram and other poets shew an
admixture of Persian words and idioms for which we would
vainly seek the works of preceding, poets. To be con-
i vinced how greatly the Bengali language has been sa?u- '
> * Professor Blochman in his translation of the Ain Akbari thus
comments on these changes : "He (Todar Mall) thus forced his
co-religionists to learn the court language of their rulers, a circum-
stance which may well be compared to the introduction of the
English language in the courts of Iudia. The study of Persian
therefore became necessary for its pecuniary advantages. Todar
Mall's order, and Akbar's generous policy of allowing Hindus to
compete for the highest honours—we saw on p. 441 that Man Sing
was the first commander of seven thousand,—explain two facts,
first, that before the end of the 18th century the Hindus had al-
most become the Persian teachers of the Muhammadans ; secondly,
that a new dialect could arise in upper India, the Urdu which with-
dut the Hindus as receiving medium, never could have been called
into existence. Whether we attach more influence to Todar Mall's
order, or to Akbar's policy, which once initiated, his successors,
willing or not, had to follow, one fact should be borne in mind that
before the times of Akbar the Hindus, as a rule, did not study Pei"-*
sian, and stood therefore politically below their Muhammadan
rulers."
• ■>
i ; . •
all government orders should henceforth be written in
Persian.** This order and these measures had a sensible
effect on the literature and language of Bengal. Per-
sian words came into vogue, and the Bengali'language,
"in unconscious imitation of the language of tbe rulers,
improved in .compactness and solidity. While authors
and poets were slow in making use of Persian words or
idioms^ our ancestors in their every-day life and work, in
their familiar conversations, and more specially in their
deeds and documents, willingly exchanged the somewhat
cumbrous and verbose Bengali idiom for the more com-
pact Persian forms of expression. Even the poets them-
selves were not always free from the prevailing influence,
and the pages of Makunda Ram and other poets shew an
admixture of Persian words and idioms for which we would
vainly seek the works of preceding, poets. To be con-
i vinced how greatly the Bengali language has been sa?u- '
> * Professor Blochman in his translation of the Ain Akbari thus
comments on these changes : "He (Todar Mall) thus forced his
co-religionists to learn the court language of their rulers, a circum-
stance which may well be compared to the introduction of the
English language in the courts of Iudia. The study of Persian
therefore became necessary for its pecuniary advantages. Todar
Mall's order, and Akbar's generous policy of allowing Hindus to
compete for the highest honours—we saw on p. 441 that Man Sing
was the first commander of seven thousand,—explain two facts,
first, that before the end of the 18th century the Hindus had al-
most become the Persian teachers of the Muhammadans ; secondly,
that a new dialect could arise in upper India, the Urdu which with-
dut the Hindus as receiving medium, never could have been called
into existence. Whether we attach more influence to Todar Mall's
order, or to Akbar's policy, which once initiated, his successors,
willing or not, had to follow, one fact should be borne in mind that
before the times of Akbar the Hindus, as a rule, did not study Pei"-*
sian, and stood therefore politically below their Muhammadan
rulers."