Tampering with history

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 98-06-21 06:40:38 EDT, lmfosse at ONLINE.NO writes:

<< After all, Tamil was changed, but
 into another Dravidian language. The Nambudiri brahmins did not create a
 whole linguistic family. >>

For a situation similar to the one Fosse is interested in, this may be of some
relevance. In his book, Sanskrit and Prakrit, 1993, p.115-117, Madhav
Deshpande states, "Franklin C. southworth (1971) puts forward the hypothesis
that Marathi developed through the interaction between the northern Indo-Aryan
settlers and local non-Aryan elements. He suggests that Marathi developed from
a creolized form of Prakrit and has its origin in the interaction between the
Upper-class Maharashtrian Prakrit and the Lower-class Maharashtrian Pidgin
Prakrit; this Pidgin itself is thought to have been derived from an
interaction between the Prakrit of the new-comers and the local non-Aryan
languages.
....
S.B. Joshi (1952)  shows that until the rivalry between the Yadava rulers of
Devagiri in the upper Godavari region and the Yadava rulers of Hoysal in
Karnataka became strong, the two languages, i.e., Marathi and Kannada were
used generally in the area now known as Maharashtra. Several OLd Marathi
inscriptions are found in Kannada script, while several Old Kannada
inscriptions are available in Devanagari. Joshi (1952) argues that with the
split between the two seats of Yadava power , there was also a split between
the political identity of Marathi and Kannada. The Yadavas of Devagiri came to
identify themselves with the local language, i.e., Marathi, and gave official
patronage to it."

Probably, the Marathi experts on the list can give more details about this
language change.

Regards
S. Palaniappan