Saurashtra is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.
Saurashtra or Saurastri or Saurastram or Sourashtra, also known as Palkar, Sowrashtra, Saurashtram, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The Saurashtra community is referred Palkar, in Tamil they are called as Pattunoolkaarar. Saurashtrians migrated to South India basically as Weavers in the 17th century. They first settled in the Vijayanagar kingdom and later migrated down to regions around Madurai under King Thirumalai Nayak, who built the world famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple.
Two different names are said for the Saurashtra. "sou" in hindi means 100 and "rashtra" refers to region so in general sourashtra refers to a province of 100 regions. And the other meaning is, the Sanskrit term Saura means sun. As they built and worshipped Sun or Saura God they were called as Saurashtrians and the region they lived was naturally called as Saurashtra Province.
History
From 500 to 1000 A.D. Saurashtrians lived in Mandsar, Dasapura towns of the old Saurashtra Province which included portions of the present Gujarat and Maharashtra States doing spinning and weaving works. In Dasapura they built their own a Sun Temple and worshipped Sun God. However, their language has more similarities with Marathi and Konkani, both Indo-Aryan languages of Western India, than it does with Modern Gujarati, the language of present-day Gujarat. The reason for this is Gujarati came under the influence of Hindi, Persian, and Arabic, whereas Saurashtra, taking off from Gujarat before it had made any Muslim contact, was influenced by Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Telugu, and finally, Tamil. It has been acknowledged that Persian and Arabic have had only limited influence on Marathi and Konkani, and this is why they still retain a good amount of vocabulary and grammar derived from Sanskrit, as compared to other daughter languages of Sanskrit. It is possible that the vocabulary and grammar shared between Modern Saurashtra and Marathi is what was originally derived from Sanskrit.
In 1024 Mohamed of Ghazini attacked the area of Somnath in Kathiawar. He plundered, looted, destroyed the Temple of Somnath and carried away valuable jewels, gold, diamonds, etc. As the Saurashtrians were unable to bear the harassments, continued disturbances of their works and destruction of properties by Ghazini 17 times or so they left their beloved place and migrated to peaceful places in the North, Centre and South of India.Some migrated to the Surat town on the banks of River Tungabadhra and then to Devagiri of Yadava Kingdom. In Devagiri or Dauladabad they lived for about 2 to 3 centuries. As the dress, culture and movements of the people there were similar to theirs they adjusted themselves and lived there. Thereby some terms and words of Varaja language got mixed with the Saurashtra language.
In 1294 the Sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji and his General Malik Kafur crossed Vindhiya hills and Devagiri, waged battles with the Yadava King Ramchand. In the battle Yadava King was defeated and imprisoned. Alauddin Kiliji plundered all the properties of the people and left for Delhi. Due to this historical reason, Saurashtrians left Devagiri and migrated first to Marati Kingdom and then to Vijayanagar Empire. In that way many terms and words of Marati, Konkani and Kannada languages mingled with the Saurashtra language. Examples: Amti (curry), Limbu (Lemon), Angidi (Shop), etc.
They found safe haven in the Vijayanagar Kingdom, with its capital at Hampi in present-day Karnataka, which was then expanding southwards. Weaving being their traditional occupation, they were able to win the attention of the Emperor and were soon elevated to the position of royal weavers. Vijayanagar rulers had the practice of appointing Governors, known as Nayaks, to manage far-flung regions of the empire. When Madurai and Thanjavur were annexed to the empire, Governors were appointed to administer the new territories. A part of the Saurashtra community may have moved to Madurai and Thanjavur at the time to serve the Governors.
After the decline of Vijayanager Empire, the Saurashtrians had to migrate again since they no longer enjoyed the royal patronage they were used to, and so, once again, were on the move. As there were Saurashtrians already present in Madurai and Thanjavur, it was only natural that they migrated further south to join their folks living there. Saurashtrians enjoyed the status of royal weavers in Madurai also. Nowadays most of them have migrated all over India, but still densly populated in Madurai.
Writing System
The language has had its own script for centuries, and is said to have had many literary works. Unfortunately, all literary pieces barring a few modern ones have been irretrievably lost. This language is not taught in schools and hence has been confined to being merely a spoken language. Most Saurashtrians are bilingual in their mother tongue and Tamil — which displaced Telugu as the second language when they migrated to Tamil Nadu — and are more comfortable using their second language for all practical written communication.
Saurashtra Alphabets
Even Saurashtra peoples dont know the Script and also none reads or writes in that language. Only if this drawback is rectified, perhaps Saurashtra language can be saved in the future.
Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
No comments:
Post a Comment