The phenomenon of Sanskrit versus Prakrit [Prakrit here implies organic language(s)/ dialects spoken by peoples of diverse linguistic groups in the subcontinent] can be seen in the stretches of time spread over millennia.

Sanskrit despite all its impressive literary output and its being a sign of high culture remained an exclusive preserve of priestly class and upper castes. It failed to evolve as a people’s language.

Vedic Sanskrit like its speakers interacted with indigenous language(s) in a state of perpetual conflict but tried to remain detached from the Harappa people. Vedic Sanskrit and its speakers because of their alien roots saw the indigenous language(s) and dwellers as their adversaries and thus tried to keep any kind of borrowing from them at the minimal level. This historical attitude had underpinnings of both sense of superiority and sense of inferiority.

Sense of superiority was born of their triumphal march against the Harappa society and sense of inferiority was a product of acute realisation that despite their apparent defeat the subjugated were far more advanced socially and intellectually as they had an urban civilisation that had built an intricate politico-economic structure which was beyond the full comprehension of the victorious Arya. That’s why in one of the hymns Indra, the supreme Vedic god, makes an offer to the vanquished indigenous king to jointly rule the kingdom. Sanskrit, in other words, in all its forms co-existed with Prakrit in a state of tense unease.

Sanskrit continued to be used as late as 12th century but the process of its decline and decay was unstoppable. It disappeared in the aftermath of Turkic invasions from the North from the land considered its birth place,i.e. Northern Punjab, Swat Valley and Kashmir.

The phenomenon of Sanskrit seems to be a precursor of what has become a kind of a standard practice of modern nation state; proclamation of the language of a dominant group as the official or national language.

An important turning point in the linguistic landscape was the invasion and occupation of Multan in the 7th century by Arabs in Punjab. It paved the way for a significant Semitic linguistic influence over the indigenous language due to acceptance of Islamic faith by a sizable section of local populace.

Tenth and eleventh centuries ushered in an epoch-making era that greatly transformed Punjab in terms of language and faith. Multan was snatched from Sunni Arabs by Qaramtian Arabs in the 10th century and in the 11th Mahmud of Ghazni trampled Northern Punjab, Lahore and Multan. This era turned out be the crucible which moulded the Punjabi language into its contemporary form. Conversion to new faith and ensuing religious practices and the new administrative set-up inundated the local language with loanwords from Arabic. Consequently we find the first book of our contemporary language in the shape of Ismaeli religious hymns called ‘Ginan’ from Multan.

Mahmud of Ghazni whose mother language was Turkish employed Persian as his court language. His occupation of Punjab triggered the process of ‘Persianisation’ of linguistic landscape as his administration in Lahore introduced Persian as its official language which was later patronised and promoted by Sultans and kings in Delhi. Persian in the following centuries became ensconced as a court language and the language of literati.

Arabic as a religious language and Persian as court language tried to push the local language, in this case Punjabi, to the margins. Punjabi withstood this cultural onslaught despite heavy borrowing from Persian and Arabic. One of the important reasons was that apart from the people’s cultural resistance a large number of pro-people poets, scholars, saints and Sikh Gurus defying all the odds employed Punjabi as a vehicle of creative expression. Even poets whose families had settled in Lahore in the recent past composed poetry in Punjabi such as Mas’ud Sad Salman. Unfortunately his frequently mentioned ‘Hindwi Diwan’ had been lost. The period between 13th to mid-19th century was no doubt the golden era of classical Punjabi literature. Persian though heavily patronised remained the language of upper crust mostly foreign in origin as it was inexplicably associated with power and power structure erected by Central Asian and Iranian elites. Its oppressive character is laid bare by a well-known adage in the cry of a mother: “aab aab kar moyun bachra, farsiyan ghar galay/ jay mein jaandi paani mangiya, bhar bhar dendi pialay [You cried Aab Aab [water, water in Persian] and died [of thirst] my son/ had I known that you cried for water, I would have given you bowl after bowl) “.

Punjabi as a people’s language not only competed with Persian but also evolved a dynamic literary culture of high quality which was accessible to both people and intelligentsia in equal measure, a spectacularly unique phenomenon. Persian continued to be the language of power till mid-19th century till it was consigned to the dust-bin of history by new invaders, the British colonialists who occupied Punjab in 1849 after wars with Punjab’s army abandoned and stabbed in the back by powerful quislings [Colonial period will be dealt within a separate column].

Persian was so much in vogue that even Guru Nanak, the great son of soil, also wrote some of his verses in it. That Punjabi co-existed with Persian, competed with it and flourished without official patronage expressed its internal strength and dynamic character.

Persian reflected the worldview and culture of Central Asians and Iranians entrenched in the power structure who boasting their hoity-toity standards kept quite a safe distance from what they considered the hoi polloi. Punjabi language on the other hand upheld literary counter culture created by socially conscious writers whose mainstay was the dynamic tradition of people’s resistance encapsulating human ideals of emancipation, social justice, equality and egalitarianism.

The situation ‘Persian versus Punjabi or language of power versus people’s language’ lasted for quite long, from 11th to mid-19th century. Punjabi despite all the odds not only held its ground but also developed as a highly articulate language during this era. It stubbornly defended itself as a vehicle of popular expression. Official Persian backed by foreign and semi-foreign elites failed to turf out Punjabi from its homeland because its literary life rested on the wellsprings of people’s potential which expressed itself as the voice of resistance. — soofi01@hotmail.com

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