| History of South Asia | ||||||||||||||
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Chalcolithic (3500–1500 BC)
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Bronze Age (3300–1300 BC)
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Macedonian Empire | (330–323 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Maurya Empire | (321–184 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Seleucid India | (312–303 BC) | |||||||||||||
| Sangam period | (c. 600 BC – c. 300 AD) | |||||||||||||
| Pandya Empire | (c. 300 BC – AD 1345) | |||||||||||||
| Chera Kingdom | (c. 300 BC – AD 1102) | |||||||||||||
| Chola Empire | (c. 300 BC – AD 1279) | |||||||||||||
| Pallava Empire | (c. 250 AD – AD 800) | |||||||||||||
| Maha-Megha-Vahana Empire | (c. 250 BC – c. AD 500) | |||||||||||||
| Parthian Empire | (247 BC – AD 224) |
| Ghaznavid Dynasty | (977–1186) |
| Ghurid Dynasty | (1170–1206) |
| Delhi Sultanate | (1206–1526) |
| – Mamluk Sultanate | (1206–1290) |
| – Khalji Sultanate | (1290–1320) |
| – Tughlaq Sultanate | (1320–1414) |
| – Sayyid Sultanate | (1414–1451) |
| – Lodi Sultanate | (1451–1526) |
| Ahom Kingdom | (1228–1826) |
| Chitradurga Kingdom | (1300–1779) |
| Reddy Kingdom | (1325–1448) |
| Vijayanagara Empire | (1336–1646) |
| Bengal Sultanate | (1352–1576) |
| Garhwal Kingdom | (1358–1803) |
| Mysore Kingdom | (1399–1947) |
| Gajapati Empire | (1434–1541) |
| Ladakh Kingdom | (1470–1842) |
| Deccan Sultanates | (1490–1596) |
| – Ahmadnagar Sultanate | (1490–1636) |
| – Berar Sultanate | (1490–1574) |
| – Bidar Sultanate | (1492–1619) |
| – Bijapur Sultanate | (1492–1686) |
| – Golkonda Sultanate | (1518–1687) |
| Keladi Kingdom | (1499–1763) |
| Koch Kingdom | (1515–1947) |
| Portuguese India | (1510–1961) |
| Dutch India | (1605–1825) |
| Danish India | (1620–1869) |
| French India | (1759–1954) |
| Company Raj | (1757–1858) |
| British Raj | (1858–1947) |
Since the
The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the
The oldest language surviving Sanskrit grammar is Panini's Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar") dating to c. the 5th century BCE. It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines (rather than describes) correct Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for Vedic forms that had already passed out of use in Pāṇini's time.
Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment.
Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Paninian" Sanskrit, while broadly similar, are separate[2] varieties, which differ in a number of points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar.
Prakrit (Sanskrit prākṛta प्राकृत, the past participle of प्राकृ, meaning "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", i.e. "vernacular", in contrast to samskrta "excellently made",[citation needed] both adjectives elliptically referring to vak "speech") is the broad family of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects spoken in ancient India. Some modern scholars include all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated from the history of Sanskrit by wide divisions of caste, religion, and geography.
The Prakrits became literary languages, generally patronized by kings identified with the kshatriya caste. The earliest inscriptions in Prakrit are those of Ashoka, emperor of the Maurya Empire, and while the various Prakrit languages are associated with different patron dynasties, with different religions and different literary traditions.
In
The three
Pali is the Middle Indo-Aryan language in which the Theravada Buddhist scriptures and commentaries are preserved. Pali is believed by the Theravada tradition to be the same language as Magadhi, but modern scholars believe this to be unlikely.[citation needed] Pali shows signs of development from several underlying Prakrits as well as some Sanskritisation.
The Prakrit of the North-western area of India known as
The
Hindustani is right now the most spoken language in the Indian subcontinent and the fourth most spoken language in the world. The development of Hindustani revolves around the various Hindi dialects originating mainly from
The establishment of British rule in the subcontinent saw the clear division of Hindi and Urdu registers. This period also saw the rise of modern Hindi literature starting with Bharatendu Harishchandra. This period also shows further Sanskritization of the Hindi language in literature. Hindi is right now the official language in nine states of India— Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh—and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Post-independence Hindi became the official language of the Central Government of India along with English. Urdu has been the national and official language of Pakistan as well as the lingua franca of the country.
Outside the India, Hindustani is widely understood in other parts of the Indian subcontinent and also used as a lingua franca, and is the main language of
Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from
Marathi gained prominence with the rise of the Maratha Empire beginning with the reign of Shivaji (1630–1680). Under him, the language used in administrative documents became less persianised. Whereas in 1630, 80% of the vocabulary was Persian, it dropped to 37% by 1677[9] The British colonial period starting in early 1800s saw standardisation of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey. Carey's dictionary had fewer entries and Marathi words were in Devanagari. Translations of the Bible were first books to be printed in Marathi. These translations by William Carey, the American Marathi mission and the Scottish missionaries led to the development of a peculiar pidginized Marathi called "Missionary Marathi" in the early 1800s.[10]
After Indian independence, Marathi was accorded the status of a scheduled language on the national level. In 1956, the then Bombay state was reorganized which brought most Marathi and Gujarati speaking areas under one state. Further re-organization of the Bombay state on 1 May 1960, created the Marathi speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati speaking Gujarat state respectively. With state and cultural protection, Marathi made great strides by the 1990s.
| Proto-Dravidian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-South-Dravidian | Proto-South-Central Dravidian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proto-Tamil-Kannada | Proto-Telugu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-Tamil-Toda | Proto-Kannada | Proto-Telugu | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-Tamil-Kodagu | Kannada | Telugu | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-Tamil-Malayalam | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Proto-Tamil | Malayalam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tamil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languagesSri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of southern Afghanistan, and overseas in other countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore.
The origins of the Dravidian languages, as well as their subsequent development and the period of their differentiation, are unclear, and the situation is not helped by the lack of comparative linguistic research into the Dravidian languages. Many linguists, however, tend to favor the theory that speakers of Dravidian languages spread southwards and eastwards through the
It was not until 1856 that
Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the 6th millennium BCE. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were the culture associated with the
Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods, Old Tamil (400 BCE – 700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present).[15]
The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from around the 6th century BCE in caves and on pottery. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the
Old Tamil preserved some features of Proto-Dravidian, including the inventory of consonants,[20] the syllable structure,[21] and various grammatical features.[22] Amongst these was the absence of a distinct present tense – like Proto-Dravidian, Old Tamil only had two tenses, the past and the "non-past". Old Tamil verbs also had a distinct negative conjugation (e.g. kāṇēṉ (காணேன்) "I do not see", kāṇōm (காணோம்) "we do not see").[23] Nouns could take pronominal suffixes like verbs to express ideas: e.g. peṇṭirēm (பெண்டிரேம்) "we are women" formed from peṇṭir (பெண்டிர்) "women" + -ēm (ஏம்) and the first person plural marker.[24]
Despite the significant amount of grammatical and syntactical change between Old, Middle and Modern Tamil, Tamil demonstrates grammatical continuity across these stages: many characteristics of the later stages of the language have their roots in features of Old Tamil.[15]
The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil, which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century,[15] was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme,[25] the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals,[26] and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic.[27] In grammar, the most important change was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil (கில்), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ (ன்). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟ (கின்ற) – which combined the old aspect and time markers.[28]
Middle Tamil also saw a significant increase in the Sanskritisation of Tamil. From the period of the
Middle Tamil is attested in a large number of inscriptions, and in a significant body of secular and religious literature.
The
Contact with European languages also affected both written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with the introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the
Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from
A revival of Tamil literature took place from the late 19th century when works of religious and philosophical nature were written in a style that made it easier for the common people to enjoy. Nationalist poets began to utilize the power of poetry in influencing the masses. With the growth of literacy, Tamil prose began to blossom and mature. Short stories and novels began to appear. The popularity of
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Kannada is one of oldest languages in South India.[46][47][48][49] The spoken language is said to have separated from its proto-language source earlier than Tamil and about the same time as Tulu.[50] However, archaeological evidence would indicate a written tradition for this language of around 1600–1650 years. The initial development of the Kannada language is similar to that of other south Indian languages.[51][52]
By the time Halmidi shasana (stone inscription) Kannada had become an official language. Some of the linguistics suggest that Tamil & HaLegannada are very similar or might have same roots. Ex: For milk in both languages it is 'Haalu', the postfix to the names of elders to show respect is 'avar / avargaL'.
During this era, language underwent a lot of changes as seen from the literary works of great poets of the era viz Pampa, Ranna, Ponna.
Vijayanagar Empire which is called the Golden era in the history of medieval India saw a lot of development in all literary form of both Kannada and Telugu. During the ruling of the King Krishnadevaraya many wonderful works. Poet Kumaravyasa wrote Mahabharata in Kannada in a unique style called "shatpadi" (six lines is a stanza of the poem). This era also saw the origin of Dasa Sahitya, the Carnatic music. Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa wrote several songs praising Lord Krishna. This gave a new dimension to Kannada literature.
The first written record in the Kannada language is traced to Emperor Ashoka's Brahmagiri edict dated 200 BCE.[53][54] The first example of a full-length Kannada language stone inscription (shilashaasana) containing Brahmi characters with characteristics attributed to those of protokannada in Hale Kannada (Old Kannada) script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, dated c. 450, indicating that Kannada had become an administrative language by this time.[55][56][57] Over 30,000 inscriptions written in the Kannada language have been discovered so far.[58] The Chikkamagaluru inscription of 500 CE is another example.[59][60] Prior to the Halmidi inscription, there is an abundance of inscriptions containing Kannada words, phrases and sentences, proving its antiquity. Badami cliff shilashaasana of Pulakeshin I is an example of a Sanskrit inscription in Hale Kannada script.[61][62]
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Telugu is hypothesised to have originated from a reconstructed
From 575 CE, we begin to find traces of Telugu in inscriptions and literature, it is possible to broadly define four stages in the linguistic history of the Telugu language:
The first inscription that is entirely in Telugu corresponds to the second phase of Telugu history. This inscription, dated 575, was found in the districts of
Around the same time, the
The third phase is marked by further stylization and sophistication of the literary language.
]Telugu underwent a great deal of change (as did other Indian languages), progressing from medieval to modern. The language of the
The period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the influence of the English language and modern communication/printing press as an effect of the British rule, especially in the areas that were part of the Madras Presidency. Literature from this time had a mix of classical and modern traditions and included works by scholars like Kandukuri Viresalingam, Gurazada Apparao, and Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao.[71]
Since the 1930s, what was considered an elite literary form of the Telugu language has now spread to the common people with the introduction of
At present, a committee of scholars have approved a classical language tag for Telugu based on its antiquity. The Indian government has also officially designated it as a classical language.[72]
Though
The region to the east of Tamil Nadu stretching from Tanjore in the south to Andhra Pradesh in the north was known as the Carnatic region during 17th and 18th centuries. The Carnatic war in which Robert Clive annexed Trichirapali is relevant. The music that prevailed in this region during the 18th century onwards was known as Carnatic music. This is because the existing tradition is to a great extent an outgrowth of the musical life of the principality of
Telugu words end in vowels which many consider a mellifluous quality and thus suitable for musical expression. Of the trinity of Carnatic music composers,
Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken in the western Himalayas (
Meitei language has its own script, the
According to the "Report on the Archaeological Studies in Manipur, Bulletin No-1", a Meitei language copper plate inscription was found to be dated back to the 8th century CE. It is one of the preserved earliest known written records of Meitei language.[82]
In the 18th century CE, the usage of
In modern era, the "
In the year 1972, Meitei language was given the recognition by the National Sahitya Akademi, the highest Indian body of language and literature, as one of the major Indian languages.[88][89]
On 20 August 1992,
Starting from the year 2021,
In September 2021, the
The Austroasiatic family spoken in East and North-east India. Austroasiatic languages include the
On the
Juliette Blevins has suggested that the Ongan languages are the sister branch to the Austronesian languages in an Austronesian-Ongan family because of sound correspondences between protolanguages.[101]
The Nihali language is a language isolate spoken in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Affiliations have been suggested to the Munda languages but they have yet to be demonstrated.
The
The best-known inscriptions in Brāhmī are the rock-cut Edicts of Ashoka, dating to the 3rd century BCE. These were long considered the earliest examples of Brāhmī writing, but recent archaeological evidence in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu suggest the dates for the earliest use of Tamil Brāhmī to be around the 6th century BCE, dated using radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating methods.
This script is ancestral to the
Brāhmī is generally believed to be derived from a
Older examples of the Brahmi script appear to be on fragments of pottery from the trading town of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, which have been dated to the early 400 BCE. Even earlier evidence of the Tamil -Brahmi script has been discovered on pieces of pottery in Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu. Radio-carbon dating has established that they belonged to the 6th-century BCE.[102]
The origin of the script is still much debated, with most scholars stating that Brahmi was derived from or at least influenced by one or more contemporary
The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient
Scholars are not in agreement as to whether the Kharoṣṭhī script evolved gradually, or was the work of a mindful inventor. An analysis of the script forms shows a clear dependency on the
The study of the Kharoṣṭhī script was recently invigorated by the discovery of the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, a set of birch-bark manuscripts written in Kharoṣṭhī, discovered near the Afghan city of Haḍḍā (compare Panjabi HAḌḌ ਹੱਡ s. m. "A bone, especially a big bone of dead cattle" referring to the famous mortuary grounds if the area): just west of the Khyber Pass. The manuscripts were donated to the British Library in 1994. The entire set of manuscripts are dated to the 1st century CE making them the oldest Buddhist manuscripts in existence.
The Gupta script was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the
Siddhaṃ (Sanskrit, accomplished or perfected), descended from the Brahmi script via the Gupta script, which also gave rise to the Devanagari script as well as a number of other Asian scripts such as Tibetan script.
Siddhaṃ is an abugida or alphasyllabary rather than an alphabet because each character indicates a syllable. If no other mark occurs then the short 'a' is assumed. Diacritic marks indicate the other vowels, the pure nasal (anusvara), and the aspirated vowel (visarga). A special mark (virama), can be used to indicate that the letter stands alone with no vowel which sometimes happens at the end of Sanskrit words. See links below for examples.
The writing of
Siddhaṃ was influential in the development of the Kana writing system, which is also associated with Kūkai – while the Kana shapes derive from Chinese characters, the principle of a syllable-based script and their systematic ordering was taken over from Siddham.
Descended from the Siddham script around the 11th century.
In 1972 the Sahitya Akademi, the highest body of language and literature of India recognized Manipuri (Manipuri Sahitya Parisad. 1986:82)
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