TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

The observation of the various grammatical features which, asssembled
and compared with each other, indicate the dialect areas mentioned just
now, also lends itself for a comparison with the supposed waves of
immigration of speakers of Indo-Aryan into N.India.
Since the beginning of this century, the idea of a first and a second wave
of immigration has been discussed, a series of "invasions" (better: a
gradual trickling in, by the movement of certain clans, and ultimately,
tribes), resulting in the outer band and the inner band of New Indo-
Aryan languages.
This is, of course, easily challengeable. Outer band features can have
their origin, e.g. in the Middle Ages; they represent remnants of an older
situation, but do not necesarily date back to the Vedic period, while the
"centre" (the later Hindustani/Hindi/Urdu) developed innovative,
unifying features which just did not reach the outlying regions. 326
In the case of ancient N. India, we do not know anything about the
immigration of various tribes and clans, except for a few elusive remarks
in the RV, ŚB or BŚS. This text retains at 18.44: 397.9 sqq. the most
pregnant memory, perhaps, of an immigration of the Indo-Aryans into
Northern India and of their split into two groups: prāṅ Ayuḥ pravavrāja.
tasyaite Kuru-Pañcālāḥ Kāśī-Videhā ity. etad Āyavam. Pratyaṅ
amāvasus. tasyaite Gāndhārayas Parśavo 'raṭṭā ity etad Āmāvasyavam."
Ayu went eastwards. His (people) are the Kuru-Pañcāla and the Kāśī-
Videha. This is the Āyava (group) (His other people) stayed at home in
the West. His people are the Gāndhāri, Parśu and Araṭṭa. This is the
Amāvasyava (group)."
This again does not agree with the inner and outer band: The Gāndhāri,
Parśu 327 and Āraṭṭa but also the Kāśī-Videha should belong to the outer
band while the Kuru-Pañcāla form the (innovative) Centre. Instead, the
text makes a differentiation between the peoples of the Panjab and the
326 A good example of such developments is Japan where the capital and thus the centre of
administration has shifted several times from the Western Kansai (Yamato, Kyoto area) to
the Eastern Kanto (Kamakura, Edo/Tokyo), and back. Innovations which developed
during one of these periods spread concentrically outwards, towards the Eastern and
Western ends of the archipelago, starting from of the capital of the time: they now form
multiple, overlaying patterns of various dialect features. A particular innovation sometimes
reached the ends of the archipelago, but as often, it did not. In such a situation, it naturally
helps to know where the development in question started, -something we still had to find
out for the Vedic period.
327 Regarded by some as Persians, see Cardona, Pāṇini, p. 276; cf. ann. 327,339.
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