INDIC. Sanskrit and the pre-Sanskrit Vedic language. The former name is often made to cover both divisions, Ina, like English in relation to Anglo-Saxon, though conveniently used, it is not accurate. There was no Sanskrit language till after the Vedic period. Whether Sanskrit is derived from the Vedic may be doubted. It is closely connected with that earlier language, but it is quite possible that the two are dialectic variations from the start. Evidence given by the Linguistic Survey of India seems to show that there were two main Aryan invasions of India, entering by two different routes and at different times; that those speaking the Vedic language were the first colliers, afterwards pressed to the wall by the ancestors of those who in course of time spoke what we call Sanskrit. Opposed to Sanskrit is Prakrit (q.v.), a general term for various dialects recognised at an early date as being not Sanskrit and :„'et not foreign. The lan guage of Hinayana Buddhism, Pali (q.v.), was one of these patois. It is closely related to the Vedic language, and may be as old. Correspond ing to the patois I'rakrit dialects of antiquity are the modern provincial dialects. Bengali. Panjabi, etc., reflecting, however. more or less the effect of Sanskrit. A European offshoot of this divis ion is the Gypsy language of Europe, many of whose words (verbal roots) are still identical with those of Sanskrit. (See GyrsiEs.) The
oldest literary remains of this group are from B.C. WOO to 1200, though some scholars assign a much greater antiquity to the Vedas, the ear liest Indic literature.
Ina.mc. This group, the name of which is de rived from Iran (Eran), the great plateau in cluding Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, can be traced from quarters contiguous with the Indic group, and is closely connected with the latter. In fact. Indic and Iranic (Aryan in the narrower sense) are both dialects of the same lan guage rather than separate languages. Especially is this true of the Old Bactrian (Avestan or %end) division of Iranic (see AVESTA ) , the sacred literature of which extends back to .about the seventh century B.C. Opposed to this division is the Old Persian (q.v.), sometimes called the Western dialect in antithesis to Avestan as the Eastern. Old Persian is the language of the cuneiform inscriptions of the Persian kings, and this alone survived as a spoken language. being gradually modified into Pahlavi (q.v.) and New Persian. See PERSIAN LANGUAGE.