Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/84

62 successors cannot make us wonder. I am concerned, as my subject indicates, with the Dravidian influence on the Bengali language; as such I give a few examples only to show that our early speeches were not also free from the Dravidian influence. Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya proves that much was done to maintain the purity of the classical Sanskrit; yet borrowing of words from Dravidian sources could not be altogether stopped. (1) In genuine colloquial Tamil (which is called Kudam) the word মালা signifies flower; this word to indicate a garland, does not occur in the Vedic speech and we first meet with মালা or মাল্য in the Upanishads, which were written in the land of the Kosalas and Videhas. (2) গুররা—মু properly গুররা of Telegu speech became ঘোড়া as a deśi word; this ঘোড়া was no doubt Sanskritised into ঘোটক for such a synonym of অশ্ব is unknown not only in the Vedic, but also in old Sanskrit. In the district of Barisal the Telegu pronunciation of the word as গুর্&zwnj;রা is maintained. (3) মলৈ signifies a mountain in the Tamil as well as in the Malayalam language; very likely in the 3rd century B.C., when the Aryans after some acquaintance with the people of the south, confounded the general name for a mountain, with the name of a particular mountain, a মলয় গিরি (tautology) was made the seat of the spring breeze flowing from south. (4) মীন as a word to signify 'fish' was unknown not only in the Vedic speech but also in very old classical Sanskrit, but this মীন or fish which was on the ensign of the Pandyas and was the name of the Dravidian tribe Minavar, became a synonym for মৎস্য and fish-god as well, very likely when the Pandyas established some relation with the northerners. 'Mina' of Tamil is also Min in the Kui dialect of the Kands, and Minu in the Canarese tongue. We meet also with many Dravidian words in Pāli; I cite only two examples here: