The Sanskritisation of Maraṭhi

Returning to the hypothesis that the Konkani spoken by the inhabitants of the present Marāṭhi territory, purged of its vaḍukar substratum became Marāṭhi, a comparison of older Marāṭhi texts with old Konkani texts and contemporary Salcete Konkani speech throws up abundant evidence for the same. Take for instance the phrase in Nāmadēva’s abhanga 1052 : “Kāḷāgē dādulā, kāḷāgē dādulā” (The dark man, the dark man) [Sakhre, 2002 : Sri Namdev Gatha, 300]; the word ‘dādulā’ has gone out of usage in modern Marāṭhi, while it is still in usage as ‘dādulô’ in Salcete Konkani. Again in abhanga 1085, Nāmadēva says “tyācī bhāṣā puṁḍalīka nēṇēṁ” (Pundalik does not know his language). [Sakhre, 2002 : 305] nēṇēṁ has become nēṇāṁ or nôṇāṁ (Salcete) in present Konkani, while the expression is not in use in modern Marāṭhi. What are very conspicuous in Jñānēśvarī are the Salcete Konkani final vowels; see, for instance abhanga 7 : “kānaḍā hô viṭhṭhalu karnāṭaku”; or the endings of the third person plural verb endings in short i, like zātāti, yetāti, kortāti, etc. This pre-sanskritisation Marāṭhi can be found in numerous inscriptions; and even in Sabhāsad Bakhar.

This to some extent solves the mystery of the language of the missionary texts found in Goa; some of them have been claimed to be in Konkani, others in Marāṭhi. Well, it seems they are in just different variations of Konkani, some of which were on their way to become Marāṭhi. Alternatively it is possible that two versions of Konkani were indeed in usage : one native, rustic, spoken Konkani, and the other a sanskritised version – read Marāṭhi – used for religious purposes by the brahman. Therefore, while Ribeiro’s Vocabulary sounds ‘Konkani’, Fr. Noronha’s Kristācēṁ Yātanāgīta sounds ‘Marāṭhi’; the reason is while the purpose of the first was to prepare the priests for confessions and sermons, the latter was to be a part of the liturgy. While Priolkar categorises Sancto Āṁtōnicīṁ Acaryāṁ as Konkani, he considers Sāṁtu Āṁtōnicī Jivītvakathā as Marāṭhi. While Thomas Stephen’s Doutrina Cristã (cathechism for children) is in Konkani, his Khrista Purāṇa (the lectionary) is in Marāṭhi. The missionaries used the term ‘lingua brahmanica’ for the sanskritised Konkani (Marāṭhi) and the term ‘lingua canarim’ for the native, un-sanskritised Konkani – the word ‘canarim’ is a sufficient indication to its vaḍukar (Kānnadā) substratum.