KASHMIRI

Kashmiri language is the mother tongue of the Kashmiris and the contiguous areas stretching to Poonch,Rajouri and Baderhmah. The area of the Kashmiri language and its dialects covers approximately 15,000 square kilometers of Kashmir province. There are some small settlements in Utter Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, where it is still spoken with some variation in morphology. According to the Census Report of India 1981, about 28 lakh persons spoke Kashmiri. The report lists the following speakers of other dialects and languages:

a) Hindi 2,55,310 persons.

b) Punjabi 41,181 persons.

c) Shina 12,159 persons.

d) Urdu 3,830 persons.

e) Dogri 2,943 persons.

These figures exclude migrants to India and Pakistan before and after 1947. Sir George claims that Kashmir has any one true dialect,Kashmiri (which is written in Takri characters) and a number of mixed dialects such as Poguli, Siraji of Doda and Ramban. Most of these mixed dialects are spoken in “Transition Zones” of the borders of the valley and in consequence have been influenced by the local language such as Pahari and Lahandi in Poonch and Rajouri, Shina in Gurez and Balti in Drass regions, including such bi-lingual areas in all zones.

It is agreed that it has a Dardic origin as some Pishacha alphabets bear similarity to Kashmiri languages. During the Hindu period it was greatly influenced by Sanskrit. Some of the manuscripts nearly 600 years old are still preserved in the Archives Department and in the Libraries and Research Department of the State.During the Muslim period (1339-1819 A.D) covering a period of 500 years, Arabic and Persian exercised a great influence due to the State patronage on its development, enriching its vocabulary and various forms of literary art.

The language possesses nearly all the features that are peculiar to Pishacha and also those in which Pishacha resembles with the Iranian languages.Besides Grierson, Earnest Kohan, R.L.Turner and Jules Booch have insuccession asserted that the Dardic languages *Kashmiri, Shina, Khalash, Pushai and Tirabi) belong to the Indo-Aryan group, but these did not pass through Indian languages development,whileas George Morenstrience and H.B.Emaneau claim that the Dardic family is a separate branch developed from the Indo-Iranian group of languages. Mr. Mohammad Shuja Namas asserts that the Dard group is in between the Persian, Aryan and Indo-Aryan group in its stock of words and phrases. It is smaller group as compared to the other two, but possesses its own peculiarities. Sir Grieison rightly agues the Pishacha was the cover term used in Sanskrit to refer to these languages. Of these, Kashmiri is the only language of Durdistan that has reached the civilized world. Even today some of the basic terms that are reatained longest on any languages, however mixed, such as the earlier numerals and the words for father and mother are closely akin to corresponding Shina ords, and are, therefore, of Pishacha origin. Similarly,its consonant words with their complicated systems of pronunciation are entirely to Dard origin. The deeper tongue of this historical basis is observable in the Drass area which is accessible to the valley through the Zojila or Zojibal pass. On phonological and morphological analysis one has to agree with Sir Grierson, that its basis, its phonetic system,its accent, its syntax and its prosody is Pishacha. Local tradition also says, that the first permanent settlers in the valley Nagas, were out numbered by Dards (Pishachas) from the north, long before the Mauryan age providing a Pishacha base, which is due course of time came to be known as Kashmiri. Hence, it has to be classed as such and not as Sanskrit form of speech. The Pishachas were followed by Aryans from India or central Asia and with their advent to Kashmir, in due course of time,became the most celebrated home of Sanskrit study and its indigenous literature grew up mostly under the influence of Sanskrit models. Besides, the Indo-Aryan Prakrits an Aplawamsa from the midland and from the northern (Aplohramosa) Pujab,profoundly modified the Dardic basis of Kashmiri. To such an extent that the very genesis of Kashmiri turned into the controversy till Earnest Kohan first established his theory about the Dadric origin of Kashmiri. Many surnames,place names and cultural terms are now traced to Hebrew origin. Though , the topic deserves more scientific exploration,the Isralite influence of Kashmiri customs,habits, rituals and even in psychic trends cannot be brushed aside altogether.

Rinchan Shah, the Buddist Prince embraced Islam in (727 Hijra) 1323 A.D. who assumed the title of Sultan Sader-ud-Din and is considered to be the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir. Shortly, after Shahmir, dynasty came into power, proclaiming Persian as the court language of Kashmir. It continued as such till 1885 A.D. it result that not only the new converts to Islam,but the non-muslims elite also vied with one another in adopting Persian. The result was that Kashmiri was deprived of official patronage, non-the-less,it continued to flourish as a language of the common man.

Persian becoming the court language enjoyed the official patronage and, therefore, become fashion of the day. It must, however, be admitted that Persian, as a very rich literature and, therefore,it soon over shadowed the Kashmiri as a language which did not have even a script of its own. None-the-less, Kashmiri did survive in folk songs and folk lores as it evident from the Poetic composition of Lal-Ded, Nund Rishi and Habba-Khatun.

This is worth mention that our recorded history of literature also commenced from the 14^th century A.D. when Persian had began replacing the Aphbermisa Kashmiri in vocable, tunes, models and styles to the extent of borrowing the lore of pure Kashmiri. In the overpowering transformation, Kashmiri retained tenaciously peculiar to itself.

According to Professor J.L. Koul, Semi-Vowels, Shade of vowels,sounds of Kashmiri differs from other Indian languages in having silent or nearly silent vowles which may modify the pronunciations of preceeding vowels. Grieson lists as many a 30 vowels,quite a few of which are only medial. Hence, Professor Koul has come to the conclusion that we count 38 letters in Kashmiri, even though there are 45 of them, for it posseses many vowel sounds that are not easily recorded to writing.Grierson has further admitted that owing to extensive use of epenthesis its correct pronunciation is difficult to a foreigner. In addition to its intrinsic intricacy in phonetic structure, social-religious sentiment had given it two forms, christened by G.Grierson as Musalman Kashmiri “that abounds in words borrowed from Persian” and Hindu Kahmiri which is according to him free from admixture with Persian. This diference along with other regional variations are prevalent in Shopian and Lolab, in fact vanishing due to fusion of men to letters and standardization of the literary norms and nuances brought about by the Press and Radio. Due to the change of script a number of times phonological apertures have often been mismanaged. The earliest script used for Kashmiri as sharda not used only by some Pandits for writing horoscopes etc. It developed to its full use probably in the 10^th century. The formation of the Sharda alphatbets is one that differs from Devnagri letters and every letter has a name. It fell into partial disuse during the Shahmirs and Chak rule (1130-1685 A.D) and was completely replaced by the Nastaliq characters after the Mughal rule on Kashmir . All the words published before 1947, were printed in the same unreformed Nastaliq Script. It was replaced by the Naqash (Arabic) script in 1948 with a code phonetic demands. In 1955, the Script Revision Committee recommended readoption of the Nastaliq with certain modification of the additional letters and diacritien marks. This has now become the popular script even though Professor J.L. Koul , Professor Margoob Banihali and Professor Shafi Shouq, still want to make it over scientific by reforming it further. Except for controversy on the script till 1955, the language itself to be reorganized as one of the fourteenth Regional language in the constitution of India. The University of Kashmir established department of Kashmiri in 1947. The University Conducts three examination in Kashmiri i.e proficiency (Talib). High Proficiency (Mahir) and Honours (Kamil). M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D is also being persued at post-graduate level in the Department of Kashmir , University of Kashmir, Srinagar.