Saurashtra
ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬ ꢩꢵꢰꢵ‎ சௌராட்டிர மொழி సౌరాష్ట్ర భాష सौराष्ट्र भाषा ಸೌರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಭಾಷೆ
Word "Saurashtra" inSaurashtra Script
Native to	India
Region	Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka
Ethnicity	Saurashtrians
Native speakers	247,702 (2011 census)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Indo-Aryan Gujarati Saurashtra
Early form	Sauraseni Prakrit
Dialects	Northern Saurashtra Southern Saurashtra
Writing system	Saurashtra script (Brahmic) Tamil script Telugu script Devanagari script Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	saz
Glottolog	saur1248

Saurashtra (Saurashtra script:ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬ ꢩꢵꢰꢵ‎,Tamil script: சௌராட்டிர மொழி,Devanagari script: सौराष्ट्र भाषा) is anIndo-Aryan language spoken primarily by theSaurashtrians ofSouthern India who migrated from theLata region of present-dayGujarat to south ofVindhyas in theMiddle Ages.

Saurashtra, an offshoot ofShauraseni Prakrit,^[2] once spoken in theSaurashtra region ofGujarat, is now chiefly spoken in various places ofTamil Nadu and are mostly concentrated inMadurai,Thanjavur andSalemDistricts.^[3]

The language has its own script of the same name, but is also written in theTamil,Telugu, andDevanagari scripts. TheSaurashtra script is ofBrahmic origin, although its exact derivation is not known. Unlike most of the surroundingDravidian languages, Saurashtra isIndo-European. There is some debate amongst speakers of the Saurashtra language as to which script is best suited to the language.^[4] Census of India places the language underGujarati. As of the 2011 Indian census, the Saurashtra language had about 247,702 native speakers.^[5]

Saurashtra belongs to thewestern branch of theIndo-Aryan languages, a dominant language family of theIndian subcontinent. It is part of the greaterIndo-Europeanlanguage family. It is also classified as being part of aGujaratic languages that, alongside Saurashtra includes the languages likeGujarati (seeSIL Ethnologue).

According to the oral legends of the Saurashtra people, they migrated to South India from theSaurashtra region of modern-dayGujarat; however, scholars believe this account lacks historical basis, and that the Saurashtrans actually migrated from the area ofMandsaur.^[6]

The name "Saurashtra" itself is fromSanskritसौराष्ट्र (saurāṣṭra,transl. from Saurashtra), thevṛddhi form ofसुराष्ट्र (surāṣṭra,transl. Saurashtra), derived fromसु (su,transl. good) +राष्ट्र (rāṣṭra,transl. country, realm). Thus the name literally means "(of/from) a good country."[7]

The oldest available inscriptions in Saurashtra are found inMandasaur, which is a city in theMalwa region (present dayMadhya Pradesh). The language is the modern living and active form of ancientShauraseni Prakrit. However, it also shows some similarities withMaharashtri Prakrit, the ancestor ofMarathi andKonkani.^[2]

Saurashtra was once commonly spoken in the coastal areas ofMahi andTapti rivers, which extends throughout theMalwa region ofMadhya Pradesh andSaurashtra region of southernGujarat. It was also spoken by the people living alongKonkan region, which extends throughout the western coasts ofMaharashtra, Goa andKarnataka.^[2]

Saurashtra is an amalgamation of various present dayIndo-Aryan languages likeMarathi,Konkani,Gujarati and the older dialects ofRajasthani andSindhi. However, the current spoken form of Saurashtra is mixed with theDravidian languages likeKannada,Telugu andTamil and it might have originated in 16th or early 17th century.^[2]

Speakers of the Saurashtra language, known asSaurashtrians, maintain a predominant presence inMadurai,Thanjavur,Salem,Dindigul,Tiruchirappalli,Tirunelveli,Kanchipuram,Ramanathapuram,Kanyakumari,Chennai,Tiruvannamalai andVelloreDistricts ofTamil Nadu.^[3] They are also present in significant numbers inTirupati ofAndhra Pradesh andKarnataka.^[3]

In the course of migration, Saurashtrians moved in groups and settled in different regions ofSouth India and that caused a slight dialect variation between each group and is noticeable by a Saurashtrian speaker when interacting with another group. Saurashtra language has two dialects, which are broadly similar, with slight variations.

The two dialects are:

1. Northern Saurashtra^[3]
2. Southern Saurashtra^[3]

However, there are numerous variations and dialects of the Saurashtra language. The different dialects can be based on the location within northern and southern parts ofTamil Nadu. Those areMadurai,Thanjavur,Salem,Tirunelveli andKanchipuram dialects andTirupati dialect ofAndhra Pradesh.

Thephoneme inventory of Saurashtra is similar to that of many otherIndo-Aryan languages, especially that of theKonkani language. AnIPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Saurashtra is provided below.^[8]

Saurashtra for most of the part had been an oral language lacking any script of its own. Around the 17th to 18th centuries some attempted to write it inTelugu script. Around 19th century a script was invented. There were attempts to revitalize the script in the latter half of the 19th century, ignoring most of the complex conjunct characters.^[9]

The Saurashtra script is anabugida, that is, each letter represents a consonant+vowel syllable. There are thirty-four such letters. An unmarked letter represents a syllable with the inherent vowel [a]; letters can be marked with one of eleven vowel diacritics to represent a syllable with a different vowel. Vowel diacritics are attached to the top right corner of a base letter or written alongside it. There are also twelve letters for writing independent vowels (i.e. word-initial vowels). The four vocalic liquid letters r, ru, l and lu behave in the same way as vowels, so are often included in the vowel class.^[4]

Early Saurashtra texts use a number of complex conjunct forms for writing consonant clusters. However, when the script was restructured in the 1880s these were abandoned in favour of a virama diacritic, which silences the inherent vowel of the first consonant in a cluster.^[4]

The script uses a letter called upakshara, a dependent consonant sign which attaches nasals and liquids to aspirate them. That is, the letter m with upakshara attached represents [mha]. An aspirated nasal or liquid which is followed by a vowel other than [a] is written with the vowel diacritic attached to the upakshara, not to the base letter. Some analyses of the script classify aspirated nasal and liquids as a separate set of single discrete letters divided into two parts.^[4]

There is a script-specific set of numbers 0–9, some of which closely resembleDevanagari digits. The widely attested Indic punctuation marks danda and double danda are used to mark the end of a sentence or clause.Latin comma, full stop and question mark symbols are also used.^[4]

The letter order of Saurashtra script is similar to otherBrahmic scripts. The letters arevowels,consonants, and the compound letters which are formed essentially by adding a vowel sound to a consonant.

Recently, theSaurashtrian community has largely switched to the use of theDevanagari script.^[10] The alphabet chart containingvowels,consonants and the compound letters in Devanagari script are as follows:

The language itself is more similar to modern dayGujarati andMarathi as both originated fromPrakrit. However, in the course of migration toSouth India, the language was influenced byDravidian Languages such asTelugu andKannada and accumulated words from those language in its vocabulary asloanwords.

The literature of Saurashtra is not as large as the literature of other literary languages such asTamil,Sanskrit,Kannada, andTelugu. The earliest available Saurashtra literature that survives to this date is the Saurashtra translation of the greatSanskrit epic ofRamayana. It was written byVenkatasoori Swamigal (1800 AD), a Sanskrit scholar and disciple ofVenkataramana Bhagavathar who lived inAyyampettai ofThanjavur district.^[11]

Other important literary works in Saurashtra are:

• Bhagavad Gita (Bhagavat Giito) 1953 AD – written by T.R.Padman abhaiyer
• Thirukkural (Saurashtra Thirukural Payiram—Pitika Pragaranam) 1980 AD – translated bySankhu Ram^[12]
• Mahabharata (Paandavun Khetho) 2013 AD – written by Kasin Anantham^[13]
• Silappatikaram 2018 AD – translated by S.D.Gnaneswaran^[14]

Besides Thirukkural,Sankhu Ram has done many literary works in Saurashtra likeGnanamritha Geetham,Shiddhashrama Prabhaavam and so on. The first Saurashtra dictionary was brought out by T.M. Rama Rai, the author ofVachana Ramayana, in 1908. It was printed in Saurashtra script and was in the form of slokas. Apart from these he is also credited forNiti Sambu and Natanagopala Nayaki Swami's Kirthanas.^[9]

TheSahitya Akademi Award is given to authors writing in the Saurashtra language since 2007. A formerSanskrit Professor ofSourashtra College inMadurai, T.R. Damodaran won the award for his bookJiva Sabda Kosam, a compilation of 1,333 Saurashtra words with English andTamil meanings. However, Saroja Sundararajan, was also awarded forYogendran Monnum Singaru Latun (in Tamil, 'Yogendra Thalaivarkalin Manathiley Ezhuntha Azhagiya Alaigal'), a rendition of works ofAdi Sankara'sSoundaryalahiri,Kanagadhara stotra and Mahishasuramarthini stotra, Natana Gopala Nayagi Swami's 'Mooschi Deshad,' 'Subramanian Mahatmiyam' and songs ofSai Baba.^[11]

• Saraostus
• Saurashtra Kingdom
• Saurashtra (region)
• Saurashtra (state)
• Saurashtra people
• Saurashtra script
• Saurashtra (Unicode block)
• Gujarati languages

• Sourashtra World

Saurashtra language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Saurashtra language
• Indo-Aryan languages
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