LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:6 June 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2015
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Brajavali Form of Early Assamese and Early Maithili:
A Contrastive Study

Subasana Mahanta, Ph.D.

Abstract

The role of Brajavali diction in the languages used in medieval Indian Vai??ava literature has been significant. This is not a language spoken in any region; it is a literary form comprising elements of various languages prevalent in different regions of Northern India --- Nepal, Orissa, Bengal and Assam were written in this form. However, regional differences of this form have also been evident. This paper is an attempt to make a contrastive study of Assamese Brajavali form and early Maithili. The study shows that the differences are more than the similarities between early Maithili and Assamese Brajavali. It arrives at a conclusion that Assamese Brajavali is a different language form than the early Maithili.

Introduction

The role of Brajavali diction in the languages used in medieval Indian Vai??ava literature has been significant. This is not a language spoken in any region; it is a literary form comprising elements of various languages prevalent in different regions of Northern India --- Nepal, Orissa, Bengal and Assam were written in this form. However, regional differences of this form have also been evident1. This mixed diction and style used by the Vai??ava Saints of Assam, S´a?kardevadeva, Madhavadeva and their follower in their lyrics and drama have been known as Brajavali. The basic structure of the Brajavali form prevalent in Assam was its own. This form as a medium of Vai??ava literature has emerged through merger of the ancient Assamese form with the elements of Brajabuli or Braj-bhakha, Kha?iboli, Avadhi and Maithili2.

There have been varied opinions about the origin, nature and characteristics of Brajavali. The opinion offered by G.A. Grierson that the origin of Brajabuli was Maithili has been recognized by the scholar for a considerable period. Bengali scholar Sukumar Sen3 opined that, the Brajabuli was created in the hands of Bengali poets while writing poems imitating Vidyapati’s Maithili Padavali. The scholar like Birinchi Kumar Baruah4, Kaliram Medhi5, Satyendranath Sarma6 used to accept this opinion of Sukumar Sen. Of course, at a later stage, Sukumar Sen changed his earlier opinion and tried to relate Brajabuli with Avaha??ha language.7 While discussing about Brajavali language and literature many scholars put importance to this opinion of Sukumar Sen. Whereas Jayakanta Mishra8, the Maithili scholar claimed ‘the lyrics and dramas written in ‘Brajavali’ in Assam as Maithili literature simply pointed out to certain similarities of Brajavali with early Maithili.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Subasana Mahanta
Associate Professor
Department of Assamese
Dibrugarh University
Dibrugarh 786004
Assam
India
subasanam9@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.