Pahari

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History is an witness that some languages have played a very vital role in binding haumanity cutting across nations, tribes,boundries etc. one of such language which is neglected today is Pahari language.

The word Pahari has been derived from Pahar which means HILLS and MOUNTAINS. In Sikh history we are familier with a word Pahari Rajas.


Pahari is a language spoken by more than ten million people spreading from Nepal through Himachal Pardesh , Poonch,Rajouri, and Uri of the J&K state, Pakistan administered Kashmir, through out in the North Pakistan ,up to the river Indus and Chitral, is one of most anicient languages spoken in central and south Asia. In ancient times Sharda script was used to write this language,which was developed by Budhist monks of Kashmir. But unfortunately it suffered due to the division of Kashmir. There are 22 vowel sounds in Pahari Language all of them are monothongs, dipthongs and frithongs are non exitent, there are 38 consonants in Pahari. It has two prominent universities Sharda in Muzaffarabad capital of POK and Taxila in Northen Pakistan which was then Budhist capital. It is widely known that students from China, Korea , Japan and other countries came to Sharda and Taxila to study and get enlightened.

Pahari in Budhist time Was written in Sharda Script. It is argued that Gurmukhi , Punjabi still has 8 letter from the Alphabet of Sharda and in Kashmir people still keep books in that form. currently the alphabet is known as Lundi. Sharda Pahari can still be readily seen on Budhist temples and other famous Budhists caves and spring sites. Aftesr Sharda's and Taxila's destruction Pahari started dwindling and being replaced by new establishment.The facing the plight of the elite and those at the helm of affairs.Presently it is written in Hindi or Lundi script.

The Pahari culture is unique and different from non Pahari culture. Pahari Language historically and in its current use stand side by side with Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu as a lingua franka language. Due to the geographical changes and division of Paharis along different rulers and religion it has assumed different names such as Poonchi, Hindko, Pothwari, Kahangani, Chibahali, Kanghri, Mirpuri etc.


The effect of other languages on Pahari is immense and the indroduction of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian vocally in Pahari naturally effects the accent of language accordingly.However leaving aside some negligble minority most of the population inhabiting the Southern foothills and western Himalayas converses preferably in Pahari.Pahari is rich with classical and modern litrature in shape of poetry short stories pahari raga the classical pashri of music (both vocal and instrumental) and Pahari style of painting(a style miniature paintings).


Mian Mohammad Baksh a genious poet and saint par excellence of 19th century wrote apart from 17 other poetic works 'Mathanvi Safr' 'Isque urf Qissa saif ul malook va Bad al Jamal',just in a period of hundred years this beautiful poetic rendering of mystic thoughts has achieved the status of a classic of Pahari language.

It is worth mentioning that Pahari language possesses rich cultural heritage as the names suggests the language has the same sweetness and beauty of mountains, hills, springs and above all Humanity.