Sindhi is an ancient language; over seventy percent of Sindhi words are Sanskrit. The fact that Sindhi is mostly written in the Arabic script, gives some people the impression that it is a Persio-Arabic tongue..

DR ANNEMARIE Schimmel, Harvard professor of Islamics, and versatile linguist writes: “Since every word in Sindhi ends in a vowel, the sound is very musical.” The treasures of the ancient Sindhi literature, of the immortal Sufi poet-saints, Shah, Sachal, Sami or the saints of Modern India: Sadhu TLVaswani, sung in sweet, melodious, rhythmic Sindhi tunes, fills the hearts and souls of the listeners with sheer rapture, joy and ecstasy. The Sindhis of India don’t have a land, nation or state to call their own. They are a scattered community, spread all over India, and in most countries of the world. If there is one thing that will help them retain their identity, it is the language. Unfortunately Sindhis have neglected their mother tongue, and if we don’t use the language, we will lose it. Language is the root of our community. Language is the soul of our community. If the soul is lost, how long can the community last?

Diwan Thakudas Pribhdas, advocate of Hyderabad said: “The language is probably, so far as its grammatical construction is concerned, the purest daughter of Sanskrit. It has a sprinkling of Dravidian words, and has in later times received large accessions to its vocabulary from Arabic and Persian.”

Sindhi language has evolved over a period of two millennia; with waves of invasions by Greeks, Arabs, Arghuns, Tarkhans, Scythians, Turks, Mughals and so on. Sindh, on the north west of undivided India, had always been the first to bear the onslaught of the never-ending invaders, and as such absorbed Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, English and even Portuguese words. The language of the people of Sindh has a solid base of Prakrit and Sanskrit, showing great susceptibility towards borrowings from Arabic, Persian, and Dravidian (such as Brahui in Baluchistan) . Sindh was the seat of the ancient Indus valley civilization during the third millennium BC as discovered from the Mohen-jo-Daro excavation. The pictographic seals and clay tablets obtained from these excavations still await proper deciphering by epigraphists

Sindhis in India have made their mark. Eminent Sindhis include Jairamdas Doulatram, LK Advani, Parso T Malani, Nari Hiranandani, Ashok Advani, Hindujas, Rahejas. Sindhi’s have 17 colleges and 19 hospitals and many others institutions.

Dr Lila Harchandani of Hyderabad, Sind, in her book ‘The Scattered Treasure’ has an interesting logic to back her theory. According to her some scholars confused the words Prakrita (meaning=natural) with the word Purakrita (meaning-formed first), which misled them. In the same way, she says, due to affinity towards Hinduism, litterateurs like Kishinchand Jetley translated a couplet from Sindhi poet, Shah Abdul Latif’s poetry into Sanskrit and concluded that the similarity shows the derivation of Sindhi from Sanskrit. She rightly argues that it could be the other way round too and cites two authorities to elucidate this point. One is Siraj-ul-Haq of Pakistan who states:

“The history of Sindhi is older than that of Sanskrit and its related civilization or culture are derived from the civilization or culture of Sindh and from Sindhi language…Sanskrit is born of Sindhi – if not directly, at least indirectly.”

Sindh is where Persian and Indian cultures blended, for the area was introduced to Islam in 712 AD. Thus, very little of Sindhi literature of the earlier period has survived. The Summara and Summa periods are virtually blank except for the few poems of Hamad, Raju and Isack. The heroic ballads of this period set to music by Shah Abdul Karim (1538-1625) are the earliest records of the Sindhi language.

Real flourish of Sindhi poetic talent came during the last stages of the 18th century. Although the time was not appropriate for cultural developments as invaders repeatedly plundered the country during this period. Several works like Shah Abdul Latif’s ‘Shah-Jo-Rasalo’ , the magnum opus of Sindhi literature, were produced.

It describes the life of a common man, the sorrows and sufferings of the ill-starred heroes of ancient folklore. Sachal, another eminent poet closely followed Shah Abdul Karim. He was a Sufi rebel poet who did not adhere to any religion and denounced religious radicals. The poet, Saami, was a complete contrast to Kari, more pious than poetical, yet possessing a charm of his own. There was an excess of songsters in Sindhi who recited similar ideas and themes in varied tones. The notable among them are Bedil, his son Bekas, and Dalpat. Gul Mohamad introduced Persian forms of poetry replacing the native baits and kafees. Mirza Kaleech

Other Articles by Ramesh Manghirmalani

Beg who composed on the same lines contributed a lot to Sindhi literature.

Dayaram Gidumal and Mirza Kaleech were two of the early prose writers. The former was a great scholar and he was famous mainly for his metaphysical writings. The noted lexicographer and essayist, Parmanand Mewaram, wrote essays that educated and instructed both young and the old. This peer group also comprised of Bherumal Meherchand, Lalchand Amardinomal and Jethmal Parsram and Acharya Gidwani, NR Malkani and Dr HM Gurbuxani.Tikamdas Wadumal Mansukhani, Bar-at-law from Qeens College, become first Mayor of Karachi, ZA Bhutto and Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada were legal associates in Karachi.

Courtesy: http://www.merinews.com/catFull. jsp?articleID= 137849

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