History

Patterns of phonological change suggest that Nepali is related to the languages of northwestern India, and particularly to Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi. Comparative reconstructions of vocabulary have supported this appraisal, relating Nepali to proto-Dardic, Pahari, Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi.

Investigations of archaeology and history indicate that modern Nepali is a descendant of the language spoken by the ancient Khasha people. The word Khasha appears in Sanskrit legal, historical, and literary texts such as the Manu-smriti (1st century bce), Kalhana’s Rajatarangini (1148 ce), and the Puranas (350–1500 ce). The Khashas ruled over a vast territory comprising what are now western Nepal, parts of Garhwal and Kumaon (India), and parts of southwestern Tibet. Ashoka Challa (1255–78 ce) called himself khasha-rajadhiraja (“emperor of the Khashas”) in a copperplate inscription found in Bodh Gaya. His descendants used old Nepali to inscribe numerous copperplates during the 14th century.

After the Muslim conquest, the Rajputs of Chittaurgarh, the Brahmans of Kannauj, and many others fled to the foothills of the Himalayas for shelter. The pressure of the migrants and the rising ambition of the local powers caused the Khasha kingdom to fissure into smaller principalities. Some Khasha moved to the eastern parts of present-day Nepal, where their language became a common method of communication for the region’s linguistically diverse ethnic groups.

Eventually Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723?–75) unified the smaller principalities. During and after unification, the Nepalese were identified as Gurkhas or Ghurkhalis, while their language was referred to by the singular forms of those names. With the growth of linguistic nationalism, the name Nepali became increasingly popular among the Nepalese living in Nepal and India.

Varieties and lexicon

Nepali includes three regional dialect groups: the western, the central, and the eastern. There is also a distinct dialect used by the members of the royal family and the upper classes. This dialect has a special lexicon and a four-level honorific system, and it is increasingly being adopted by the educated middle class and the newly wealthy.

Nepali has a rich heritage of oral literature as well as a body of written literature that has been developed during last two and half centuries. The vocabulary and style of written Nepali are influenced by Sanskrit and recorded with the Devanagari script.

As a medium of law and administration, the register of legal Nepali has been developed and enriched with Persian and Arabic words. Technical terms for the various administrative branches of government have been devised and borrowed from Sanskrit and English as needed. Modern spoken Nepali has borrowed vocabulary from Hindi, Sanskrit, and English.

Nepali literature and its gradual germination can be approximately classified into five periods, namely:

• Pre-Bhanubhakta Era (from beginning to 1871 A.D.)
• Bhanu Bhakta Era (from 1872 A.D. to 1936 A.D.)
• Moti Ram Era (from 1940 A.D. to 1976 A.D.)
• Pre Revolution Era (from 1977 A.D. to 2007 A.D.)
• Post Revolution Era (from 2007 A.D. onwards)

The oldest surviving evidence in Nepali literature that has been unearthed has been ascribed to Ashok Chilla`s bronze plate, engraved in 1321 A.D. The oldest book to have been discovered is Khanda Khadya (1642), the authenticity of the composer of which however still remains in the dark. Some of the other such instances of ancient books bearing no name of one sole creator comprise Swasthani Bharatkatha (1658) and Baj Parikxya (1700). Amidst such a darkening state of affairs, the oldest surviving book whose writer has been acknowledged is the translated version of Bani Bilas Jyotirbid`s Jwarup Pati Chikitsha (1773) and Prayashit Predip by Prem Nidhi Pant, in Sanskrit. Both the books were tranlated by Prem Nidhi Pant in later times.

Before the Gurkha (also acknowledged as Gorkha) conquest of Nepal in 1768, Nepali literature and Nepalese writings were performed in Sanskrit and Newari, as well as Nepali (the latter essentially serving as the language of the Gurkha conquerors). These writings consisted of religious texts, chronicles, dedications, extolments and the likes. The still surviving material in Nepali, with the feasible omission of the memoirs (c. 1770) of the Gurkha king Prithvi Narayan Shah, possesses more historical interest as opposed to literary pursuits. Literary composing in the Nepali language commenced only during the 19th century.

Approximately in 1830, there shot to prominence a school of Nepali poets, who penned on themes ranging from the Hindu epics Ramayana to Bhagavata-Purana, in a language that was more Sanskritised than Nepali. This genre in Nepali literature bore witness of being heavily influenced by classical Sanskrit themes and poetic metres. They were succeeded in mid-century by Bhanubhakta, whose Nepali version of the Ramayana had accomplished unfathomable popularity for the everyday and conversational touch of its language, its religious genuineness and solemnity and its down-to-earth natural descriptions. The poet Lekhnath Paudyal during the early 20th century also had inclined towards this `everyday and conversational touch` and thoroughly utilised the rhythms of popular songs in a few of his poems.

Source:

• Indianetzone - Nepali Literature
• Britanika