Avadhi Ramayan

[Samar Abbas]

On Thu, 24 Dec 1998, M. Tandy wrote:
> Baburam Saxena says that Baisvari, or KosalI, are other names
> that have been used for the dialect of Avadhi which was spoken around
> Lucknow and adjacent areas.

 That is as wrong as saying that Ligurian, Umbrian and Tuscan are other
names for Italian. Baiswari, etc. are dialects of the Koshali language,
just as Ligurian etc. are dialects of Italian. One may argue whether these
have now evolved into separate langauges, but they are not synonyms.
Koshal was a large empire, like France, and had its own langauge Koshali,
just like French. As tradition is restored, we should be hearing a lot
more about this language. The subj: should have been `Koshali Ramayana' or
`Baisvari Ramayan' to be correct because that is what Tulsidas wrote in.

Samar