On the Purge and Sanskritization of Khari Boli Hindi between 1939 and 1969

Modern Asian Studies / FirstView Article, pp 1-34
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X1100045X (About DOI), Published online: 25 March 2013


The Radheshyam Ramayan and the Sanskritization of Khari Boli Hindi
PAMELA LOTHSPEICH

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States of America Email: ploth@email.unc.edu

Abstract

This paper charts the linguistic shifts in a popular iteration of the story of Lord Ram, commonly known as the ‘Radheshyam Ramayan’ (composed in the first quarter of the twentieth century), across four versions of the text published in the devanāgarī script, between 1939 and 1969. It argues that the author, Radheshyam Kathavachak, likely revised his text over the course of many years, in large part to bring its language closer to śuddh (pure) Hindi on the Hindi-Urdu spectrum—a labour that was in the service of the Hindi language movement, if not also Hindu nationalism. Whilst the language in the 1939 printing is a mixed register of Hindi-Urdu, by 1959, the language has undergone a process of ‘Sanskritization’. That is, much of the vocabulary of Persian and Arabic origin, and also much vocabulary associated with the Braj tradition, have been replaced with words from Sanskrit. The progressive editing of text also shows a deep concern for the standardization and occasionally, elevation of literary Hindi, and simultaneously, the correction of defects in meter and style. The example of Kathavachak's ‘many Radheshyam Ramayans’ offers insight into the timing and pace of the Sanskritization of Hindi letters, suggesting that for some, the process may have been more protracted and anguished than is often thought.