Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/58

36 language spoken in those places, the Hindi, thus became rich in Tadbhavas. In the remote marshes of Bengal and the isolated coast-line of Orissa the Aryan pulse beat but feebly. Life was ruder and less civilized, and non-Aryan tribes mustered in great force in the plains as well as in the hills. The extremities lagged behind the heart, words which had a meaning in the courts and cities of Northern and Western India were not known to or required by the nearly naked Bengali crouching in his reed hut in those outlying regions.

What the colloquial languages of Bengal and Orissa were like previous to the sixteenth century we have no means of knowing. The only literature consisted of a few poetical works, whose authors did not care to keep close to the popular speech. We may, however, assume that in a country where the civilization was defective, the language would be poor. When the English came into India by sea, instead of, as former conquerors had come, by land, they were forced by circumstances to fix their capital in Bengal, thus reversing the whole system of