drawing on epigraphical sources the present paper purports to trace the origin and development of the neo indo-aryan pahāḍī language of western nepal, kumaon and Garhwal. the methodology involves diachronic study of inscriptions found in the above-mentioned three regions, and their inter-area relationship with one another especially in terms of palaeography, orthography, contents, diction, syntax and vocabulary. certain linguistic uses peculiar to the entire zone under reference were noticed in the very earliest inscriptions, some of which have survived to date. these records show the existence of proto pahāḍī and proto hindi (precursor of avadhī, and Braja/saurasenī) languages in the elevenththirteenth century ad and fully developed pahāḍī from the fourteenth century ad onwards. in conclusion, epigraphy, can add considerably to our knowledge of history of language, and help us deconstruct myths related to philology. maheshwar p. joshi, doon Library & research centre, dehradun, kumaun University, nainital, sri mallika kunja, malla joshi khola, almora 263 601, Uttarakhand, india common or similar words denoting kinship in the indo-european languages seemed to yield information regarding aryan social organization in their original homeland, before their numerous tribal groups separated for migration in various directions. that the word might have migrated with the social institution and concept of relationship, without substantial travel on the part of aryan people, was not considered a serious possibility. the english word daughter, german Tochter, thygatêr in Greek, dear in irish, Lithuanian dukte, doch in russian are of common derivation with the sanskrit duhitṛ. the sanskrit root duh means 'to milk', so the word was, according to this theory, originally dogdhrī = 'she who milks', to indicate that it was the daughter of the primitive aryan family who did the milking… Unfortunately this attractive conjecture still fails to explain why the aryan languages preserved a common word for 'she who milks' without a common word for 'milk'. it might be noted in passing that the pastoral life is usually admitted to be patriarchal; milking the cow comes at a comparatively late stage in herding what was male property, so that it would not be primitive aryan, nor at first the work of women. it has been remarked by derisive 1 this paper is a byproduct of my epigraphical studies, and to some extent inspired by the painstaking linguistic researches of prof. dr. claus peter zoller. admittedly, it would have not taken its present form but for a series of inquisitive e-mails from dr. krzysztof stroński, institute of Linguistics, adam mickiewicz University, poznań, poland. i am exceedingly thankful to prof. dr. klaus peter zoller for his valuable comments on this paper part of which relating to history and archaeology i have tried to address. however, being unqualified i cannot venture into linguistic nuances and therefore leave it to scholars to further the issues raised here. lp lii (2) maheshwar p. joshi philologists that there ex...
