The importance of language to one’s identity is borne out by the simple fact that a large number of states were formed on the basis of languages, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. However, given the linguistic diversity of our country, most states continue to have more than one language and dialects. Illustratively, Bihar with Magadhi, Bhojpuri and Maithili, Madhya Pradesh with Gondi, Malvi, Marathi and Hindi, Odisha with Oriya, Bengali and Telugu, to highlight a few.

What is a classical language?

Here are several features that scholars have put forward to define a classical language, William Stewart, a noted linguist who first put forward the view that black English is distinct enough from standard English to be a separate language, writes, “A 'classical' language has the properties of standardisation, autonomy and historicity, but is deprived of vitality.”

Globally, classical Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, and Latin have been termed as ‘classical languages’.

These have been recognised as such due to their overwhelming influence on other languages and cultures. Noted scholar Edward Sapir writes in Languages, “When we realise that an educated Japanese can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day Siamese and Burmese and Cambodian bear the unmistakable imprint of the Sanskrit and Pali that came in with Hindu Buddhism centuries ago, or that whether we argue for or against the teaching of Latin and Greek our argument is sure to be studded with words that have come to us from Rome and Athens, we get some inkling of what early Chinese culture and Buddhism and classical Mediterranean civilization have meant in the world’s history.”

The Indian government has been changing the criteria for ‘classical language’ since the inception of this tag in 2004. Twenty years later, the latest criteria formulated include: The high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500- 2000 years, a body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a heritage by generations of speakers, knowledge texts, especially prose texts in addition to poetry, epigraphical and inscriptional evidence, and the Classical Languages and literature could be distinct from its current form or could be discontinuous with later forms of its offshoots.

Sometimes the intermingling of different peoples produces a new language, for example, Hindavi, which later became Urdu. Even without the formation of a new language, there are tangible and substantive influences that can be seen. Let’s take the example of Marathi: Fadnavis and Chitnis are fairly well-known surnames among elite Maharastrians. Both these titles have their origin in Persian and mean a form of expert writer or keeper of records, and both of these were mid-ranking administrative positions during Maratha rule.

The evolution of Marathi

Linguists like Jules Bloch have contended with the question of Marathi’s historicity. He questions, for instance, whether the history of Marathi can be easily linked to other Middle Indian languages, the group of languages that are part of the same linguistic family as Sanskrit. Since it is but one of many modern Indo-Aryan languages, an account of its history necessarily must note hereditary linguistic changes and its own relationship with neighbouring languages.

Geographically, Marathi occupies the sea coast and the upper basin of rivers, triangulating from Daman to Karwar; it touches the domain of various other languages too: Kannada, Telugu and Gond in the south, on the north and west, Gujarati, Bundeli, Rajasthani and Bundeli, and Western Hindi before touching Eastern Hindi, Chhattisgarhi and Oriya in the east, lending itself to soft influences.

Krushnaji Pandurang Kulkarni, author of Marathi Bhasha Udgam Va Vikas, claims that all Prakrit languages, Apbhransha and Sanskrit, have helped in their own way to produce Marathi. Various communities speaking various Prakrit languages descended from Aryavart (northern parts of the Indian subcontinent) to Maharashtra at various periods and settled here. Marathi was born due to their mixed speaking.

According to MK Nadkarni, there are three main Marathi dialects: Deshi, Konkani (spoken in the region lying to the west of the ghats) and Warhadi. The region between the Ghats and Berar (now the Vidarbha region) was seen as the political centre of Maharashtra and is the region where most Marathi poets emerged, speaking the deshi dialect — seen as the standard form of the language. An example of this would be Dnyaneshwari, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, which was written in 1290 by Dnyandev and is regarded as the first literary text in Marathi.

Regarding its origins, it seems to have emerged from the old Maharashtri dialect, which as Nadkarni claims, must have been a spoken language during the 5th century CE, a century before Kalidas wrote the Setubandha in that dialect. He claims that if we suppose that Marathi has “undergone a course of cultivation for about four centuries before this date, as is probably the case, we may fix the date of origin of Marathi at somewhere in the 9th century AD (CE)”. According to him, Mukundraj (who lived in the latter part of the 12th century), author of the Viveksindhu and Paramamrita, is the earliest known Marathi author.

Periods of Marathi literature

Marathi literature stretches over seven centuries, from the Yadav dynasty to the present times. Based on this, Nadkarni categorizes it into four main periods, neatly aligned to the rise and decline of Maratha powers in the Deccan. In the first period (late 12th century to early fourteenth century CE), Marathi, or a more archaic form of it, was the language of the Yadav court, and poetry and writings during this time were concentrated on themes of theology, philosophy and religion. In addition to the two aforementioned Marathi authors, Namdev, a tailor by caste, was a popular poet during this period. The emergence of Alauddin Khilji ended the reign of the Yadav dynasty, and Persian gave way to Marathi as the language of the court. His rule lasted till the beginning of the sixteenth century when five separate kingdoms emerged: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmednagar, Berar and Bedar.

The second period lasted from the early 16th to the 17th century CE when poets of the region wrote on social and religious emancipation. The language used was less archaic and displayed Persian influence. The third (and most vibrant) phase, according to Nadkarni, stretched from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the close of Peshwa rule nearly 200 years later. Three famous poets of this time were Ramdas, Tukaram and Mukteshwar, who wrote on a spectrum of themes: including religion and identity. The fourth and final phase, beginning in the nineteenth century and carrying on till the present, was promoted by the art of printing, which democratised knowledge of history, philosophy, politics, and law.

Language plays a critical role in shaping the cultural and social identities of people and becomes a signifier of cultural heritage and unity. That being said, the act of language recognition may also be deeply political; where the recognition of a language can be leveraged as a powerful political tool to create and consolidate vote banks.

HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal