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It all began about forty years ago. Shri Parimal Chandra Mitra, then a 'Kanungo' and Assistant Settlement Officer was engaged in surveying land in the district of Midnapur. West Bengal. He recalls that there was a dispute regarding a small piece of land which sustained an entire family of Santhals A group of dishonest people argued that the land really belonged to them. Shri Mitra, not being able to follow the arguments of the Santals, gave his verdict in favour of the former. Some local bhadraloks next day attracted his attention to the glaring injustice and accused him of ruining a poor Santhal family Shri Mitra, as a conscientious government servant, experienced the shock of his life, and decided to learn the language of the Santhals with whom he was in daily contact.
He began to learn the Santhali spoken language with a tenacity which has characterised all his efforts. As he progressed, he wanted to have some systems and rules of grammar underlying the structure of the spoken Santhali language. There were, of course, already available some efforts in this direction by European missionaries in the 19th and early 20th Century. But they did not satisfy him. On the pages of a small exercise book, bought in a village shop, began the painstaking jottings of a young government surveyor eager to learn the mystery of the language of these so-called uncivilised people who had no scripts, but had distinct language to express their world of experiences. After a few years, some- time in the early sixties, this unknown man mastered all his courage to see and seek the advice of the greatest living linguist of India. Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterji gave him more than three hours of his precious time, questioned, probed and scolded and at least blessed this obscure young man to follow his lonely path. With tears in his eyes, this scholar of seventy years told me that was the finest reward for his labour of love and indeed, it was a labour of love, an extremely uphill task which found little encouragement either from the establishment or from the government.
Shri Mitra has about forty research papers devoted to his study of the Santhali language. He has already published two books: Santhal Bhasa: Bhitti O Sambhabana (Santhali Language: its foundation and potential), 1985, written in Bengali language, and the other written in English, 'Santhali: The Base of World Languages, 1988. The very title of the present work. Santhali: A Universal Haritage, indicates clearly his direction of thought he attempts to study the Santhali language as a constituent part of culture of the Santhals.
The short discussion about the evolution of languages of the world mentioned in this book, is an integral part of the work in continuation of my previously published books 'Santhali: the Base of World Languages' and 'Santhal Bhasa: Bhitti O Sombhabona.'
Discussions have been made here on languages, like- Ancient Greek, German, French, Latin, Zend-Avesta, Old- Persian, Vedic and Post-Vedic Literatures, showing their birth from Kol (Santhali) language in origin.
Readers will find that the Gaul tribes or Gothic people of Greece, the 'Celt' of England, the 'Goll' of France, the ancient people of Persia, the Kol people of India, and all the people of the world, primarily originated from the same place (as mentioned in the previous books) and all were from the same speech group of people.
Discussions have been made, as to how and why, this language of primitive people had been distinctly and disunitedly separated, creating many out of one.
It is a fact, that scholars at large are not intimately conversant with the Kol (Santhali) language. But scholars with adamantine aptitude may acquire the ability to learn quickly and easily the language. An in-depth study and research will sufficiently convince any scholar that the Kol language was not only the base of world languages but also it had made its great impact on the advancement of civilization for all the people, as already discussed by the author in his earlier books published. I am also free from any doubt that with the progression of research in this direction, many an untold fact of history will be revealed; setting aside the present knowledge of the people of 20th century.
Primal Chandra Mitra is a prolific writer and contributor of a large number of valuable research articles, both in Bengali and English, on languages, especially on Santhali, the most primitive language of India, nay, the world, as his present publication "Santhali the Base of World Languages". Endeavours to establish quite successfully.
As a retired Deputy Magistrate in the W.B.C.S. cadre and District Special Officer in charge of Tribal Welfare Department of the Govt. of West Bengal for long, he had the rare opportunity to go deep into the social ways of life of the tribal people, especially the Santhals and this had imbued him to make an in depth study of the language and culture of this neglected section of Indian society from the closest proximity.
The present work which is in close footstep of his earlier Bengali work 'Santhal Bhasa': Bhitti O Sambhavana', is nothing but the culmination of his long endurance and perseverance for his most painstaking but no less scholastic endeavour for the linguists and scholars at large.
On the face of it, the dissertation of Shri Parimal Chandra Mitra under the nomenclature "SANTHALI: THE BASE OF WORLD LANGUAGES" is a very bold and challenging endeavour which, on the acceptance of his bone of contention as expressed through the nomenclature by the linguists and scholars at large, might cause ripples, if not tremors in the field of linguistic research and wash away or shake the very foundation and edifice of our century old contention that the Indo-European languages lay at the very root of our languages and in the case of India, it was Iranian and more specifically, Indo-Iranian was the base of all languages and that the Re-Vedic language and Avestan were just the offsprings of the old Iranian mother. In the said context of history of our language, Shri Mitra's work is surely a deviation and off-the-track, due to his non-traditional manner of thinking and adopting quite a novel approach of the kind.
But Shri Mitra's persevering and painstaking research project of nearly four decades duration on Sinthali or Kol language, belonging to the very primitive Austric group of languages and hitherto fore undertaken only by a few, is highly laudable and deserves appreciation, especially in the context of the peculiar and very intricate vocabulary it possesses as also the lack of a proper script, reflecting adequately the phonetic aspect of this language unlike just the reverse in other Indian languages, marked by the presence of a highly developed vocabulary and an equally so written script However, to establish his bone of contention in the dissertation, as noted above, from both historical and linguistic aspects, Shri Mitra seems to have gone all the way, having left no stone unturned and used all the ammunitions in his arsenal to pierce his target.
A summarised discussion on the inception of ancient languages of the world mentioned in this book, is an integral part of the work.
Discussions have been made about the place of inception of human beings of the world and the way by which they spread throughout different parts of the globe, since pre-historic ages. The most reasonable conclusion is irresistible that the inception of mankind began from Europe, more specifically from Germany; notwithstanding the probability of its inception from any other part of the Globe.
However from this discovery, it reveals that all the languages of the world have been rooted from one primitive language, which has since been identified and located as the living speech language of Kol (Santhal) people in India.
The recorded proofs of this language have been adduced, starting since the era of Pictographs and linear inscription onwards.
Presently we are not in a position to ascertain any other recorded proof of more antiquity of which Kol language might be a derived form.
Some historical facts as came to the notice and knowledge of the author, hitherto unknown have also been included.
Interested scholars may kindly think, if the existing traditional linguistic theory requires a radical change in the contention of this author as brought home to the Scholars at large for their judgment, through this work.
In transliterations of examples, the meaning of Kol word- moh>m Compassion; has been mentioned as per dictionary.
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