Preface
- The study of language, literature, history and culture of the ancient Sindh reveals that ‘Rig Veda’ was the earliest book written on the bank of the river ‘Sindhu’ by about 1000 to 1200 B.C, after the arrival of the Aryans in the Indus Valley. One of the ‘mandals’ of this book narrates the golden past of the ‘Land Sindhu’ and also of its life stream ‘Sindhu’, which was perhaps, named after the name of the land, through which it passes.
All the narratives as such indicate that some chapters of the history of evolution of Sindhi language are missing in this book, titled ‘Evolution of Sindhi language’ as also pointed out by Mr. Sirajul Haque Memon, the most prominent Sindhologist and renowned research scholar of Sindh Studies’, in the preface of this book, which he had very kindly written on my request.
2 (a) I confess that the position and the status of Sindhi language in the ancient past, during the periods mentioned below should have been searched and studied by me, and should have been included in the first edition of this book which was written in Sindhi language and published by Sindhi Language Authority in 2006.
The missing periods are:
- i) Position and status of Sindhi under the rule of Achaemenian and other empires who ruled over ancient Sindh from 519 B.C to 499 AD.
- ii) Position and status Sindhi under the rule of the Rai Dynasty from 499 AD upto 642 AD.
It is worth mentioning that Dr. Ali Akbar Jaffery, an Iranian scholar, who was recognized as an authority on the ancient history of Civilization and Culture of Iran, and was well versed with Sindhi language, history and culture of ancient Sindh, had said much on the relations between ancient Iran and Sindh in his paper, which he had contributed under the title ‘Sindhis in Ancient Iran’ on the occasion of the seminar on ‘Sindh through the Centuries’, organized by the Department of Education and Culture, Government of Sindh, at Karachi from 3-5th March, 1975.
(b) In addition to these periods of Sindh’s history, efforts should have been made to study the reports and narratives left by the Chinese travelers, scholars, religious students, missionaries and traders such as ‘Fa-Hsiun’, ‘Sung-Yun’, Hsuan-Chung’ or ‘Hsiun-Tsang’, and others, who visited the regions of Gilgit- Baltistan, present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Indus Valley during the periods from 519 BC. upto the rule of Rai Dynasty (499 AD-642 AD) in ancient Sindh. History records show that some scholars were sent by the queen Dowager of the Wei dynasty of ancient China to collect the religious books written on and about Buddhism. Some of these Chinese travelers, managed to get the inscriptions carved on the rocks, near the bank of river Indus and the Hunza river. These inscriptions can be seen from the Shatyal bridge, near the village Sazin at Chilas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. These inscription give lot of information about the names of kings, places, princes, queens and temples etc. The language of some of these inscription resembles to the classical Sindhi and Hindko languages. These are all the missing chapters in the study of ‘Evolution of Sindhi language’.
3 (a) It reminds me of a young Sindhi girl from Karachi, who was working for her Ph.D programme on ‘Sindh Studies’ at one of the universities of USA. She had come to Karachi to visit her parents and also to collect the data required for her research project. The topic of her research project was perhaps related to the problems of political history of Sindh. She had interviewed some knowledgeable persons at Karachi where she was suggested to contact me and take my interview, to get the information about the problems faced by Sindhi language after creation of Pakistan. She contacted me and then came to Hyderabad at my residence. She interviewed me for about six hours, and she asked lots of questions about the history, evolution and development of Sindhi language. I presented her a copy of my book ‘Evolution of Sindhi language’ written in Sindhi language which contained most of the information she required for her research project.
(b) When she returned to USA, she shared the collected data with her research guide, and also translated some paragraphs for her guide from my book. Perhaps her guide suggested her to request me for the translation of the text of my book. She then talked to me on phone and conveyed the message of her guide.
- This is how, I decided to get this book translated into English and requested Dr. Fahmida Hussain, Chairperson Sindhi Language Authority to very kindly place the proposal of the translation of this book in the meeting of BOG of Sindhi Language Authority, and get approval from it. She placed the proposal in the next meeting of the BOG. All the members willingly approved the proposal, and on my request assigned the task of translation into English to Dr. Amjad Siraj who had already translated many other books into English, including the master piece work, titled ‘Sindhi Boli’ written by our great Sindhologist and renowned scholar, Mr. Sirajul Haque Memon.
- (a) From the core of my heart, I express my gratitude to Dr. Amjad Siraj, who inspite of his heavy engagements of his profession as a Surgeon, spared some time from his busy schedule and translated the book within the shortest period of time.
I am also grateful to Dr.Fahmida Hussain, who not only edited the full text of the translated material, but also took personal interest and supervised the process of its publication.
(b) I personally know that every person working in the department of publication and translation of the Authority has put in his/her efforts in the publication of this book of mine. I am grateful to all of them.
- I know that this publication needs revision and addition of the missing chapters as pointed out by Mr.Sirajul Haque Memon in the preface written by him.
I hope the needful will be done as and when time will allow me. I have every hope that English version of this publication will be very useful to those researchers who are working on the problems and prospects of Sindhi language at various institutions in the country and abroad.
Hyderabad Dr. G.A Allana
28.02.2015 A devotee of Sindhi Language
