( 0.4. ) • Speaking of the claims of the vernaculars to being made the media of real instruction, I cannot help saying a word in deprecation of the over shadowing influence of Sanskrit over book Bengali, an influence which fills even books intended for primary education with Sanskrit duplicates of current Bengali names of the commonest things. I hope to be excused if I say that I see this overshadowing influence in the very title (Bangiya Sahitya Parishad) of your Academy. Bangiya assemes Banga to be the Bengali word for Bengal. To the living language of Bengal, however, Banga is a stranger. It knows indeed Bangades as the equivalent of East Bengal, while all Bengal it knows as Banta. While I was a school boy, the Bengali language in so called Grammars of the langugae used to be called Gaudiya Bhasha. Matters have improved since, but not as much as could be desired. In an article entitled Bengali spoken and written, which I contributed to the Calcutta Review for October 1877, I discussed at some length the relation between the two phases of the language, and while I write this letter I feel tempted to give extracts from the article. I desist, however, for such extracts would take up much space, and I annex instead a pretty long extract from another article entitled Hindi, Hindustani and the Behar dialects contributed by me to the Calcutta Review for July 1882. This extract bears on the coinage of 18W te:S. With regard to your second question I beg to say that it appears to me by no means desirable that vernacular text-books should be prescribed for the F. A. and B. A. examinations in addition to the text-books in the classical languages. The proposal is open to the following objections:- I. What John Stuart Mill said with regard to History in his inaugural speech as Rector of St. Andrews University applies with full force to Bengali for Bengali speaking students, to Hindi for Hindi speaking students, &c., Vernacular literature requires no teaching in colleges. -- 2. ** Vernacular text-books in addition to those in tC classical languages would add to the burdens of the pupils. ʻ , W 萨 3. Apart from their intrinsic worth, classical language textbooks have a linquistic interest whichvernacular text-books cannot have, for students who speak the vernacular. 4. Books of high intrinsic worth are but rare in the verica languages. ܥ t Yours faithfully, A · SYAMA CHARAN GANGUL.
