A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages (4 Vols.)

by R.L. Turner

Indo-Aryan is the term applied to that branch of the Indo-European languages which was brought into India by the Aryans and of which the oldest recorded form is to be found in the hymns of the Rgveda. From this there developed on the one hand a literary medium, called sanskrit which has been the vehicle down almost to the present day of a vast literature and on the other hand a great range of spoken forms which used by hundreds of millions have emerged as the chief language (excluding the Dravidian of southern India) of the whole of Pakistan, India, Nepal and Ceylon: Sindhi, Lahnda or Western Panjabi, Nepali, Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Bihari, Maithilli, Awadhi, Hindi and Urdu, Rajasthani dialects Gujarati. Sir Ralph Turner, occupied the chair of sanskrit at the school of Oriental and African studies University of London from 1922 until 1954. He was director of the school from 1937 to 1957. The hounrary degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred on him by the Hindu University of Benares in 1952 by the University of Ceylon in 1958 and by the University of London in 1967.