‘I was born in Devanchhap, a hillock in Ilam. When I was a child, my father moved to Assam to take care of cattle and I accompanied him. After living in a buffalo shed for a few months, noticing the neighbours going to school, I also became interested and got myself enrolled. The first signs of a moustache had already appeared when I began learning the ABC. I had already studied Nepali in the hills before leaving for Assam. After learning to read, the first Nepali texts I tackled were Ramayana, Rameshwamegh, and Dronparwa; and in Sanskrit it was Rudri, Chandi, etcetera. I studied while I took the goats out to graze. It was around then that R.N. Pradhan’s Prem Lahari came out. Although I was only around nine years old, I read the book twice or thrice, I don’t know why, and told my friends I could also write like that. A couple of them retorted, ‘Then write!’ I suddenly began wailing. Tears streamed down my eyes. I ventured into literature perhaps because there was pain intermixed in those tears.’
These days, Mahananda Sapkota-ji lives in Biratnagar but I managed to meet him when he was in the capital as a representative of UNESCO to participate in a National Commission Conference. We were inside the living room of his rented ground-floor flat in Kupondole, close to the Bagmati river, and I was relishing our conversation. After he said, ‘The wound inflicted by tears can be harsh,’ I asked, ‘Sapkota-ji, you described all this but you didn’t mention the year of your birth.’
‘Oh, that’s the part I don’t remember.’
‘Well, how old are you now?’
‘This feels like a legal interrogation.’
‘No, I’m not a lawyer. Are you still in a phase that requires you to hide your age?’
He was probably amused, so he replied with a soft smile, ‘It’s not because I need to hide my age. Because I’ve witnessed many people lying about their age, I felt it wasn’t necessary to mention mine. Anyway, my kin have estimated my age to be somewhere between 55 and 70.’
‘That’s your relatives’ estimation; what would be your guess?’
‘It’s similar.’
Since he mentioned that he was about nine years old when Prem Lahari was released, which was approximately 52 years ago, Sapkota-ji must be about 61 years old. But, according to a friend who works with him, Sapkota-ji is 68 years old. Sapkota-ji, who doesn’t mention his age, probably developed this habit about eight years ago. Putting this topic aside, I asked, ‘So after coming to Assam, you enrolled in a school. And then…’
‘At school, it was compulsory to learn the Assamese language. The astonishing thing was that when it came to the Assamese language, I always came out first, leaving behind even those students whose native language was Assamese. After studying in Assam up to Grade Six, I moved to Darjeeling to pursue further studies. I completed my schooling there. My teacher was Dharanidhar-ji, even though we were about the same age. (I’m proud to say that I’m Dharanidhar’s disciple.) I didn’t pursue a job in Darjeeling due to ongoing riots and Mahatma Gandhi’s influence. I returned to Assam and got involved in my familial occupation, the cattle shed. Since I was studying astrology those days, I also began practising it.’
‘Are you still involved in predicting the future?’
‘No, these days, I’m a critic of goal-oriented astrologers.’
‘So Sapkota-ji, after that tearful incident, what kind of progress did you make in your writing?’
‘Oh, it didn’t quite take off like that. One of the first traditional novels to be published in Nepal, Prem Lahari actually had some literary merit. After the book’s success, some people wrote Ananda Lahari and Madan Lahari. These two books were written mainly with the intention of making money, cheaply, without any literary sentiments. My response while reading these was quite negative; so, I wrote Mann Lahari in a traditional meter, criticising those writers. This was my first published work, released in 1923. It has a reformist bent.’
‘Sapkota-ji, these days you are involved in researching and refining Nepali grammar. How did you get here from Mann Lahari?’
‘I had some interest in grammar from the beginning. I had been exchanging letters with Paras Mani-ji discussing grammar for a long time.’
‘We haven’t achieved uniformity when it comes to grammar even to this day. Yours is different from Baral-ji’s, and a couple of others follow their own grammatical rules. How did this happen? What is the actual defect that prevented Nepali writers from using grammar in a uniform way?’ I had been curious about this for a very long time.
As if intending to address my curiosity properly, he provided a comprehensive response, ‘The reason behind this is not because of writers (who care about literature) but because of those who care more about language. Nepali grammar doesn’t quite reflect an organic Nepaliness. Our grammatical rules are influenced more by Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. This is the biggest flaw. English has had more of an influence, nudging out even some useful traits from Sanskrit. The Sanskrit etymologist, Yaska, had laid out only four major parts of speech; but in English there are eight. And without contemplating whether Nepali has indirect speech or not, they followed whatever is practised in Sanskrit. They’ve also incorporated random suffix rules, causing stress for children. Because of these baseless grammatical rules, some writers began using their own grammar. That is my take. Nepali grammar should follow the lineage of the Nepali language.’
‘And what do you consider to be Nepali language’s lineage? Some scholars are still sceptical.’
‘Why isn’t there a lineage? Whenever there’s been an upliftment of Nepali language, those historical phases connect to establish a lineage of the Nepali language. To that end, the foundation of Nepali grammar can be traced either to Sanskrit or to vernacular usage. We aren’t able to let go of Sanskrit and neither are we able to follow it blindly. There are Nepali words constructed during the Shauraseni Prakrit epoch, even though the Nepali language began developing during the Apavramsa period in India as one of its marginal languages.’
‘When did this upliftment happen? Which year, approximately?’
‘I was getting to that. Neog, a giant figure in Assamese literature, in his book New Light on the History of Assamese Literature, has noted that Assamese language began developing in the seventh century. The proof that Nepali language also began developing in the seventh or eighth century can be gleaned if we compare Prakrit Nepali with ancient Nepali.’
‘In your opinion, is the tradition of Nepali language more closely linked to Prakrit and Sanskrit or some other language?’
‘Hariaudh, a pioneer of modern Hindi, has demonstrated the Hindi language’s alignment with Prakrit. Using that logic, if the Nepali language indeed developed as one of India’s provincial languages, we could demonstrate that Nepali is also closely aligned with Prakrit. That’s why the tradition of Nepali language is mixed with Sanskrit (since Prakrit and Sanskrit are very similar). Modern Nepali grammar should be written without omitting this tradition, and also by considering the rhythms and sentence styles of colloquial Nepali.’
‘It would be best if someone like you could kickstart a writing project like that.’
Arranging his lungi, Sapkota-ji resumed, ‘A couple of people in Biratnagar have also made this request. I’m unable to write quickly due to old age and disease and I don’t have the financial means to hire someone who might transcribe my speech. While conceptualising the book, Nepali Vyakaranko Prastawana, I wanted to begin publishing a series of articles in a government daily. But they published the first article full of typos and they misplaced the second one. So that project remains incomplete. Besides, these days I’m immersed in another important task. I have been revising my work on Nepali etymology, so I don’t have much free time. I still plan to work on Nepali Vyakaranko Prastawana if I can get a hold of contributions in grammar made by Guru Hemraj Pandey, King Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh, and Parasmani; and if I get someone who can transcribe my speech. Due to a lack of resources, I feel like my hands are tied.’
‘I’m sure your forthcoming book on Nepali etymology will prove to be quite significant. Do you mind sharing some of its important aspects?’
When someone came to announce that the meal was ready, Sapkota-ji asked them to hold on and began replying, ‘Scholars have already accepted that dictionaries that exclude etymological references are incomplete. Even if words are clearly defined, without etymological links, there will be gaps in knowledge. Because etymology can shed a light on a word’s primary meaning, development, adaptations, as well as introduce a language properly, I began investigating the etymology of Nepali words. I’ve already composed a rough draft, and have been revising. ‘Due to old age and disease, my pen…
‘...does not move fast, hence the work has slackened.’
‘Right. And words from other languages such as English, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Portuguese, Sanskrit, and Prakrit have infiltrated the Nepali language. Other than that, we can also find traces of European, American, Japanese, Tibeto-Burman, and related dialects in Nepali. And we ought to differentiate what’s original and what’s derived. In Sanskrit, rather than derivations, the focus is on root words. Instead of tracing the origins, we can lean on Sanskrit. But when it comes to Nepali, rather than a word’s etymology, we can identify words that came from Sanskrit, Prakrit, and those other languages. We understand those words better than we understand the origins of the language. Some Sanskrit words have produced several Nepali words. For example, the Sanskrit word bhroon denotes pregnancy or child. That word has produced seven other Nepali words: bhroon, bhūndi, bhūndé, bhuni, bhuné, bhura, and bhuri. They all have different connotations. Words that originated from other foreign languages have not produced a variety of words. I have included all this in my forthcoming book.’
‘How long will it take to get this book out to the people?’
‘I plan to complete it this winter and present it to His Majesty sometime in the spring.’
‘Have you received help from anywhere meant for this project?’
‘Apart from His Majesty, I haven’t received help from any literary organisation or collective. There is only one friend who assists me in my literary endeavours. His name is Mugali Thapa Bhakta Bahadur, who is known in Biratnagar as Munsi Kaji.’
Mahananda Sapkota (1896–1977) was a social worker, etymologist, linguist, and poet. He spent most of his childhood and youth in India and later returned to Nepal. He received the Madan Puraskar for his book Nepali Nirbachan ko Ruprekha in 1970.
