Goethe; yet the German of Goethe is the older
tongue, because it retains more old inflections.

The third form is called _Pali_. In this is written the oldest Indian
inscription; one containing the name of Antiochus, one of Alexander's
successors. It is also the dialect of the chief Buddhist works.

A fourth form is the _Bactrian_. This occurs in the coins of Macedonian
and other Indianized kings of Bactria, and is best studied in the
"Ariana Antiqua," of Wilson.

A fifth is the _Zend_ of the Zendavesta, the Scriptures of the followers
of Zoroaster.

Others are called _Pracrit_. Some of the Sanskrit works are dramatic. In
the modern comedies of Italy we find certain characters speaking the
provincial dialects of Naples, Bologna, and other districts. The same
took place here. In the Sanskrit plays we find deflexions from the
standard language, put into the mouths of some of the subordinate
characters. It is believed that these Pracrits represented certain local
dialects, as opposed to the purer and more classical Sanskrit.

Every spoken dialect of Hindostan has a per-centage of Sanskrit words in
it; just as every dialect of England has an amount of Anglo-Norman. What
does this prove? That depends upon the per-centage; and this differs in
different languages. In a general way it may be stated that, amongst the
tongues already enumerated, it is smallest in the isolated Tamulian
tongues; larger in the Tamul of the Dekhan; and largest in the tongues
about to be enumerated; these being the chief languages of modern
Hindostan.

1. The _Marathi_ of the Mahrattas. Here the Sanskrit words amount to
four-fifths in the Marathi dictionaries.

2. The _Udiya_, of Cuttack and Orissa, with a per-centage of Sanskrit
greater than that of the Marathi, but less than that of--

3. The _Bengali_. Here it is at its _maximum_, and amounts to
nine-tenths.

4. The _Hindu_, of Oude, and the parts between Bengal and the Punjab,
falling into the subordinate dialects of the Rajput country.

5. The _Gujerathi_ of Gujerat.

6. The _Scindian_ of Scinde.

7. The _Multani_ of Multan; probably a dialect of either the Gujerathi
or--

8. The _Punjabi_ of the Punjab.

By going into minor differences this list might be enlarged.

None of the previous languages were mentioned in the last chapter; in
fact, they were those different Hindu tongues which were contrasted with
the Tamulian, and which, in the northern part of the Peninsula had
effe