Pahari Languages - History

History

The origin of Pahari language and its main region where it was bred and spread to other portion of region can be traced back to the ancient time when Jammu and Kashmir was a Hindu state. As Buddhism got birth and started to spread in region, its mean preaching center turned to be Jammu and Kashmir and there, the Buddhist Priest started to search a language other than Sanskrit which was dominating and mainly was considered of Hindu religion people. So Buddhist achieved success in forum of Pahari which in fact was as one language and of one state at that time. This was the golden of Pahari as one language (something that can be dated back to 400 BC). Buddhist adapted Pahari as a language of their preaching and various scripts were introduced to write the language. With the rise of Buddhism in whole Jammu and Kashmir and its corresponding areas, Pahari was developed and preached. When King Asoka took control of Kashmir, he also said to have contributed in the development of language and introduced another script of it.

That was the climax of Pahari language. However, with the fall of Buddhism and again rise of Hinduism in Kashmir, this proved to be fall of Pahari language, as there was no one to promote and serve. Pahari language was left on the mercy of local people and its script for writing disappeared very soon. It was adopted from parents to children and so on. It was vulnerable to all other languages; that is why with the arrival of Muslims, Sikhs, etc. the region contributed to change in its words, and Pahari turned more resembling to such languages. In Pakistan–administered Kashmir, where majority of people are Pahari speaking, a team was formulated to trace the background of Pahari language and clarify whether it was dialect of Punjabi or any other language. After long studies in 1969 it was declared a separate language.