Table Of ContentCENSUS OF INDIA
1971
T :ONOGRAPH NO.7
FOREWORD
P. PADMANABHA
OF INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICE
REGISTRAR GENERAL SURVEY OF MANDEALI
AND CENSUS
COMMISSIONER, INDIA. AND KULUI IN
NOTE
HIMACHAL PRADESH
B, P MAHAPATRA
ASSTT REGISTRAR
GENERAL (L)
INVESTJGATION AND
REPORT
M.R.RANGANATHA
CONTENTS
FOREWORD-Shri P. Padmanabha
NOTE-Dr. B P. Mahapatra
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Pages
PART- I INTRODUCTION 1-16
PART-II MANDEALI-
I. PHONOLOGY.
1. PhoneDllcs 17-29
2. Morphophonemics '. 29-30
II. MORPHOLOG Y .
1. Nouns 31-36
2. Pronouns 36-41
3. AdJectJves • 42-46
4 Verbs 46-58
5. Indechnables • 58-59
III SYNTAX 60,69
PART-III KULUI-
I. PHONOLOGY:
1. PhonemICS 70-84
2. Morphophonemlcs 84-85
II. MORPHOLOGY'
1 Nouns 86-89
2. Pronouns • 90-96
3. Verbs 96-lO9
4. Indechnables 109-110
III SYNTAX 111-118
PART-IV TEXTS-
I. MANDEALI
1. Word lIst 119-135
135-137
2. Sentences List
137-143
3. Connected Textsl
II. KULUI-
1. Word List 143-158
158 161
2. Sentences List
"
162-165
3. Connected Texts
-III. COMPARATIVE WORn LIST
• 165-168
Mandeah and KulUl
1 RGI/77 2
FOREWORD
Western Pahan Language area in the north western regions
of IndIa for reasons of topographIcal sItuatIOns and history of
movements of speech communities presents situatIOns of wide
dIalectical divergence. Language Division of the Office of the
Registrar General, India undertook studIes on the language
sItuatIOns of several such regIons of the country. This study of
Mandeali and KulUI dIalects of Western Pahari IS an attempt to
present the language sItuatIOn in HImachal Pradesh.
The ear her authors includmg Sir G. A. Grietsonand Rev. T.
Graham Bailey who studIed the Pahari dIalects almost a hundred
years ago from a purely lIngUIstic angle provIde the basis for
recent studIes under the changed sociolingUIstic conditIOns of the
country. Fresh attempts are made to see the Pahan dialects from
the point of Hindi whIch is now the official language of the State
of HImachal Pradesh. The study thus fmms a part of the Hmdi
Survey ProJect, which is m progress covering several States of
IndIa.
I must express my thanks to Dr. M. R. Ranganatha, the
author of thIS report, to Dr. B P. Mahapatra, Asstt. Registrar
General (Languages) for the preparation of the technical note tel
the report, and to Miss J. RaJathi, Shri Madhusudan Ghosh and
Shri Sachindranath Mukhef]i of the Office of the Assistant Regis
trar General (Languages) for the great assistance they rende
red in the preparatIOn and prInting of this report.
NEW DELHI P. PADMANABHA
September 1, 1980 Registrar General, I ndw
v
NOTE
HImachal Pradesh with a total area of 55,673 sq. km. "has
been constItuted by merger of some hIll States whIch formerly
formed part of Punjab. Pahari dIalects are spoken In eight of
the ten dIstrIcts of thIs sub-hImalayan regIon m an unbroken
chain from South to North and according to the LSI "These
dIalects have no standard form, and beyond a few folk-epIcs, no
literature" .
According 1'0 Rev. T. 'Graham Bailey, the first authority on
these dIalects "The greatest possIble interest attaches to the
linguistic process by which one language shades off into another.
In addition to all thIS there are gradual changes by WhICh a
dialect merges mto the one geographIcally next to It. ThIS IS
amply exemplrfied m the chain of dIalects from Simla Vla Kulu
or MallQI to the Banihal pass or Klshtawar. The whole subject
is fascmatingly mterestmg.
In the Census of 1901 most of the mhabitants of the Simla
States returned themselvs as speakmg Pahan, wIthout specIfymg
the dialect."
After almost a hundred years the SItuation IS not very much
dIfferent from what Bames, Batley and Gnerson had to say about
the Pahan dIalects. In '1961 Census "Pahan, Hmdl and
Mandeah have been returned by 65 I per cent of the populatiOn.
These langu~es are the pnncipal mother tongues of the Pradesh
and are dIstrIbuted m all the dIstrICts". But what stands In the
way of selecting one of the Pahan dIalects as a 'norm' IS the
dIverSIty of the dIalects and emergence of a well defined commu
lllcatlOn pattern Accordmg to Bames "the dIalects are by no
means umform." Another factor IS the attItude of the Pahari
speakers who have been returnmg the "stable" mother tongues
ere the begmning tIll date. The Pahan dIalects functIonally
grouped under Hmdi III 1971 Census returned each by more. than
10,000 speakers are: BhadrawahI, Bharmaun/GaddI, Cham
beali, ChurahI, Garhwah, GOJrI, Jaunsan, Kangn, Kului,
KumaullI, Mandeab, Pahari (and) SIrmaun '
As per 1961 Census whIch provides the dIstrict wise break
up of mother tongues (of HImachal Pradesh), "The speaket S of
Pahan are to be found throughout the Pradesh but are mamly
concentrated In Mahasu' and Mandl dIStrICtS ... In lYfahasu
DIStrICt 80'07 per cent of the populatIOn speaks Pahan ....
Mandeali IS the dIalect of Mandl dIStrIct ... In other dIstrIcts the
proportIOn of Mandeall speakers vanes from 0'13 to 0'35
(vii)
(viIi)
per cent. These are emigrants from Mandi district. .... Suketi
IS chIefly spoken in Sundarnagar and Katsog TehsIls of Mandi
DIStrIct ... BharmaunfGaddl, Bhateah, Chameah~ Churahl a.nd
Pangwali are dIalects of Chamba DIstrIct Bharmaun/Gaddi
is spoken in Sub-Tehsils Brahmaur ana Pangi and Tehsils
Chamba and Bhatttyat.. . Bhateali .. of TehsII BhattIyat,
Churahl of TehSll Chaurah and Pangwah of Sub-tehstl Pangl. ."
The pIcture that emerges from these factors IS that as III so
many other parts of India HImachal Pradesh too is another area
presentmg a dialect contmuum and In need of a Pahari norm.
However, In the changed sociolmguistic SItuatIon of the State, a
survey of this kmd IS useful to understand the development of
the Pahari languages Vis-a-VIS HmdI, whIch IS the offiCial
language of the State.
Accordmg to the CommiSSIoner for Linguistic Mmorities
(17th report '74-'75) "the medIUm of InstructIon IS HmdI.
there was little demand from lIngUIStIC mmonties for lllstructlOn
through the medIa of mmorIty languages. However, there IS very
strong demand .. for prOVIding optIOn for the stUdy of mInorIty
languages as language subjects .... Pahan speakers wanted,
introductlOIi of Pahan. "
As such, HImachal Pradesh whose official language is
HindI IS taken as one of the UnIts where the present HindI
Survey of the Language DiVIsIOn IS III pI ogress. For purposes of
plannmg and research, protectIon and IntegratIon of the
ImgUlstIc mmontles and for understandmg the trends of
change, such studIes ate Illdispensa ble.
The present report of Dr M. R. Ranganatha dealmg wIth
Mandeali and Kului IS presented four parts: Part I-Introdu
III
ctIOn, Part II -Mandeali, Part III-Kl1IUI and Part IV-Texts.
The,report, beSIdes gIvmg an account of the structural detaIls of
Mandeali and Kulm dIalects has also contn buted to the under
standmg of the ImgUIstIc SItuatIOn In general the State of
III
Himachal Pradesh.
Language Division, B. P. MAHAPATRA
Oalcutta, .september, 1, 1980. Asstt. Registrar General
(Languages)
\
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The task of expressing my feelIngs of Indebtedness to my fnends, colleagues
'Scholars and well-wishers who helped me III the completion of this work
-is indeed very plea<;ant The work Illvolved, III the course of the collectlOn of
data, VISItIllg for off and unknown areas and contactIng unknown peoples
The help I received In this connectIon has been so vaned and from such
different quarters that I find It difficult to make mdlVldual mentIOn of all of
them. I, therefore, hereby gratefully acknowledge all sllch help and thank
everyone concerned However, I must mention s('me of them llldlvidually
FIrSt and foremost I am Indebted to my lllformants Shn Khem Chand
Sharma, Shn Sundar Lal Sharma and Shr! Kul Bhushan Sharma, whose
untmng enthUSiasm and understandlllg made my data collectIOn a very
smooth affair. Khem Chand and Sundar Lal worked as lllformants for
Mandeah and Kulbhushan for Kulm In fact the entire family of Shn Kul
bhushan Sharma lllcluding hiS parents and uncle Shn Bans! Lal Sharma was
very cooperatIve and helpful I am thankful to the whole family
I am grateful to my fnend Dr Mantnm Prasad for hl~ suggestIons and
-help dunng my first field tnp Himself beIng a Mandeah speaker and a
trained hngm5t hiS observatIOns on the phonetIc aspects of Mandeah were
very helpful I am also Indebted to Prof Pnya Vrat, Prof Yogeshwar Sharma
and Shn Butasnana Shastry for spanng some of their valuable tune to check
the Mandeall data collected by me
I am Indebted to Col R S Chopra for hiS very kInd help In tImes of
my need I must make specIal mention of my fflend Shn Shyam Lal Sanghal
for hIS very cooperatIve and helpful company throughout my stay at Mandl.
MentIOn may also be made of my fflends Shn Prem Smgh Chopra, Shn
Surendra Chandra Sharma and Shr] Agarwal for theIr frIendly questures
My ffIend Shn Ram Chandra Arora of Frontler Ashok Hotel at Kulu took
palllS and found for me my Kulul mformant I am Indebted to him for the
same
<
I must expre5S my feelmgs of Immence gratttude to the benevolent
Supenntendent of Cemus OperatIOns of Himachal Pradesh, Shn R C Pal
SIngh, WIthout whose active Illterest, help and cooperatIon the work, probably,
would not have been undertaken and completed III the HImachal Pradesh
HIS two stalwart assistants Shn Durga Slllgh Thakur and Shn R R Sharma
gUIded me III acquamtIng myself With the soclO-politlcal background of the
people III the area beSides rendenng offiCial help I am grateful to both of
them I should mentIOn my Illdebtedness to my fnend Shn Chulll Lal Sharma
for hIS personal help and cooperatlOn dunng my stay at SImla I am also
thankful to Shll S M Bhatnagar, Shn Jamlt Singh, Shn Sher Slllgh and other
members of the Staff of the Supeuntendent of Census OperatIOn, Himachal
Pradesh
I am very grateful to the D C of Mandl, Shn R S MahaJan, I A S
and hiS staff who rendered me whatever assistance I needed I am grateful
to the Tehsiidars of Mandl, Sundernagar, chlcho, Jogmdernagar, Sarkaghat
..and Karsog for their help and cooperatIOn
(x)
I am extremely grateful to Shn Asok MItra, the arch architect of the
Census OrgamzatIOn, who as RegIstrar General provIded me an opportumty
to work III this great orgamzatIOn and to Shn A. Chandrasekhar, the present
Registrar General who took particular lnterest In our work, VISited our office
personally and gave uS encouragement and hope I must thank my teacher
Dr H S BllIgm who went through the MandealI portIOn and suggested
many Improvements I must thank my colleagues Shn R A SIngh, Dr A.
Kulshreshtha and MISS J RaJathl who read some of the chapters, discussed and
suggested Improvements
I
Last, but not the least, I am extremely grateful to Shn R C NIgam,.
LIngUist, Language DlvlslC?n for all the pe,rsonal help and encouragement
I have receI\\ed from him HIS' particularly calm and considerate approach,
to our short-comings and the delay In the complehon of the work has been velY
encouraging As regards the report Itself many of the Ideas expressed III the
IntroductIOn, I have gamed through him only The plan and layout of the
Survey Programme also are hiS It IS no exaggeratIOn If I WrIte that thC'. work
IS hiS and I rave been only an Instrument
