Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/78

56 In the mercantile and ordinary current hands, the vowels are only partially indicated, a or i in its full or initial form generally does duty for the whole. This is of no great consequence in ordinary correspondence where the context, as in Persian, supplies the key to the meaning. Sometimes, however, difficulties arise, as in the well-known story of the merchant of Mathura, who was absent from home, and whose agent wrote from Delhi to the family, to say his master had gone to Ajmer and wanted his big ledger. The agent wrote Bâbû Ajmer gayâ baṛî bahî bhej dîjiye. This was unfortunately read Bâbû âj mar gayâ baṛî bahû bhej dîjiye, “The master died to-day, send the chief wife”! (apparently to perform his obsequies).

It would be waste of time to analyze all these current hands, even if the resources of modern European printing-presses permitted us to do so. They are not calculated to throw any light upon the historical development of the art of writing among the Indian races, being the results merely of individual caprice.

§ 17. The three languages which use a peculiar character are the Panjabi, Bengali, and Oriya. Panjabi employs the character called Gurumûkhi, a name probably derived from the fact that the art of writing was at first only employed on sacred subjects, and was practised by pupils who recorded the oral instruction of their Gurus instead of, as had been the case in earlier times, committing his teachings to memory. The alphabet consists of thirty-five letters only, omitting the grammatical abstractions ऋ, ॠ, ऌ, ॡ, as also श and ख; ष is retained, but with a different pronunciation, as will be shown hereafter. स does duty for all the sibilants. There is a special character