of purity), which are brought into the province by immigrants from the north-west and the west, Bengali has, within recent years, come in contact with Khas-kurā or Parbatiyā (the so-called Nēpālī) at Darjeeling in the north.
On its borders, it meets with several aboriginal languages and dialects, Within the western boundary of Bengali is found Santali (Sāõtālī), a dialect of the Kōl[1] (Muṇḍā) group (of the Austro-Asiatic branch of the Austric family of speeches); and Hō and Muṇḍārī, also Kōl speeches closely related to Santali, are found to the west of Bengali. Besides, two Dravidian dialects, intimately connected with each other, are found to the west of Bengali: Malto, which is spoken in the Rāj-mahāl Hills, and Kuruk̲h̲ (Kū̃ṛuk̲h̲) or Oraon (Orāõ), which just touches Bengali at its extreme western fringe. In the north and the east, Bengali comes in touch with a number of speeches which are members of some six different groups of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Tibeto-Chinese family. To the north, we have Lepea or Róng, a dialect of the Tibeto-Himalayan group; Dhīmāl, Limbu and Khambu, which are 'pronominalised' speeches
- ↑ I have a preference for the old, familiar and accurate ‘Kōl,’ used by the Aryan-speaking neighbours of the Kōl peoples, as an ethnic and linguistic term, to 'Muṇḍā.' 'Kōl' comes from a Middle Indo-Aryan ‘Kōlla,’ which is found in Sanskrit (also as ‘Kōla'); and obviously in Sanskrit it referred to the aboriginal people of Central India, (Cf. New Indo-Aryan ‘Bhīl' from earlier ‘Bhilla,' found in Sanskrit and Prakrit.) The word ‘Kōlla, Kōl’ itself seems to be of Kōl origin, and in all probability it is an early Aryan transcription of the source-form, in what may be called ‘Old Kōl,’ of the modern Kōl words for man—Santali [hɔːṛ], Muṇḍārī [hɔṛɔ], Hō [hoː], Korwā [hoṛ], Kūrkū [koːroː]. There is no contempt implied in the use of the word among those who employ it, whatever the Sanskrit ‘kōla,’ never a popular word, might mean. A tract in Singbhum District in Chota Nagpur is known as Kolhan (<*Kōllānām)=(the land) of the Kōls: cf. Bhōṭān=(the land) of the Bhōṭs or Tibetans. The term ‘Kōl’ has an extensive employ, whereas ‘Muṇḍā’ is the designation of only one section of the Kōl people. Besides, it was used by Hodgson to denote this particular group of speeches, which, however, he classed as ‘Tamulian,’ i.e., Dravidian. (A. Nottrott and P. Wagner, ‘A Grammar of the Kol Language,’ Ranchi, 1905, pp. 2, iii; LSI., IV, pp. 7, 8.) ‘Muṇḍā’ has not been able to drive out 'Kolarian' entirely; ‘Kōl’ seems to be least objectionable, and it is near enough the unmeaning but popular ‘Kolarian.’
