On the language of the Bāṇāsurakathā poem and its relation to Kashmiri

Anton Kogan (Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian Academy Of Sciences); kogan_anton@yahoo.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 16/3-4, 2018 - p.293-303

Abstract: The language of Bāṇāsurakathā (“The story of the demon Bana”), a poem written in Kashmir in the mid-15th century, is traditionally considered to be an early form of Kashmiri. However, certain facts of historical phonology and lexicon lead us to doubt this viewpoint. In the present article an attempt is made to throw maximum light on the issue. The author concludes that the language of the main body of the poem should be classified as Indo-Aryan, and is furthermore undoubtedly stylized and artificial. At the same time, the text contains numerous fragments in early Kashmiri, which should be regarded as the earliest extant datable written record of Dardic material. A number of Indian elements attested in the poem were most probably borrowed from a New Indo-Aryan language, spoken in the Vale of Kashmir before 13th–14th centuries.

Keywords: Kashmiri language, Dardic languages, Indo-Aryan languages, Prakrits, Apabhraṃśa, artificial languages, language shift

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