Wanderers, Kings, Merchants by Peggy Mohan

The lesson that I refuse to learn is to write the blog as soon as I read the book. it is so needed in order to translate the brilliance of a book - this one was one of those.

My introduction to the crazy role that language played in human history was gradual and was in the background. Peggy's book brought it front and centre, and I sat up.

Her childhood and life have played such a pivotal role in the way she looks at language, it is not just an interest, it is the way she has lived - with varied language influences.

The book starts with setting the context of integration to create new, the Tiramisu Bear - when a male grizzly bear mates with a female polar bear, a rare event, but sets the perfect stage for the journey of language in India. Things that I connected with and learned new:

1. Explorers were men, took local men as wives - language was different - Vedic men Dravidian women. No migration and pushing down either, just blending of dravidians and aryans in multiple permutations and combinations - moved, ‘married’ local women, blend of languages but patriarchal Aryans was not concerned with woman’s birth history as long he was Brahman and the male progeny were made to be brahmans. Male female linguistic separation were not present in other similar language blends, like the Caribbeans of Belize.

2. In celebration of their victory, kurus collected all versions of the rig Veda (orally preserved) and had it written - 700 years after they came. Retroflexion in the written rig Veda; aspirates and dental retroflex - signs of Dravidian influence in language. Retroflexion present in all Indian languages except Assamese. 'A compiler- sage is not an unbiased recorder but a scholar making choices as he listens to a flow of speech.'

3. Substratum - 'A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, even though it influences the other. Unconsciously remains while the less advantage community tries to learn the new prestige language'.

4. No women writers in rig Veda. Aryan men moved down and took local women - language of both different. Women weren’t allowed to learn or speak Sanskrit, the vedas. Shaakuntalam a play by kalidasa, the woman’s part is Dravidian accented Sanskrit and the male Sanskrit.

5. 'In all our focus on conquering armies and elite settlers it is easy to forget the little people who redo lightly upon the earth and left languages as they found them. Mixed languages are about power shifts not about little people migrating as individuals'. Makes so much sense.

6. 'We discern an older world of women and their children, intact in Kerala, and traceable in the north too. That is a glimpse of all of our history.' Can you imagine a patriarchy that accepts this as fact - hopefully in my lifetime.

And so much more, the journey of Sanskrit into Kerala, the separation of Hindi & Urdu and the influence of Turki on both languages, Nagamese & the Magadhans and finally English as a non-native invasive species that changed the nature of our world.

A good starter book to get a comprehensive look into language and if you prefer listening, Peggy's interviews are great too. Her ability, just like every good historian, to discern between conclusive and open-ended is one that I admired most in this book. It is so tough not to say, its true! its true!