Lallu Lal (1763–1835) was an academic, author and translator from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He was an instructor in the

Hindustani language Hindustani (; Devanagari: , * * * * ; Perso-Arabic: , , ) is the ''lingua franca'' of Northern and Central India and Pakistan. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, the ...

at Fort William College in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...

, Calcutta. He is notable for ''Prem Sagar'', the first work in modern literary

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

Biography

Lallu Lal was born into a Gujarati Sahsra Audichya Brahmin family from

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

. He had knowledge of Persian and Hindustani. He came to

Murshidabad Murshidabad fa, مرشد آباد (, or ) is a historical city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi River, a distributary of the Ganges. It forms part of the Murshidabad district. Duri ...

, Bengal, to earn a living, and served the Nawab of Murshidabad for seven years. He was noticed by John Gilchrist, who brought him to the Fort William College in Calcutta. There, Lallu Lal translated and authored several literary works into modern vernacular Hindi. He retired from the Fort William College in 1823–24 CE, after serving there for 24 years.

Works

Lallu Lal's most notable translation is ''Prem Sagar'' (1804–1810), the earliest prose in Khari Boli dialect of Hindi. Along with Kazim Ali Javan, he translated '' Singhasan Battisi'' and ''

Shakuntala Shakuntala (Sanskrit: ''Śakuntalā'') is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the '' Adi Parva'' of the ancient Indian epic ''Mahabharata'' and dramatized by many writers, the most famous adaption be ...

'' into Hindustani. Along with Mazhar Ali Vila, he also translated ''

Baital Pachisi ''Vetala Panchavimshati'' ( sa, वेतालपञ्चविंशति, IAST: ) or ''Betaal Pachisi'' ("''Twenty-five (tales) of Betaal''"), is a collection of tales and legends within a frame story, from India. It is also known as inter ...

'' and ''Madhunal'' (1805) into Hindustani. Lallu Lal's original work included ''The Grammar of Brij-bhasa'' (1811), in Urdu script. He also authored ''Lala Chandrika'', a commentary on Bihari's '' Satasai''. In addition, he compiled ''Lataif-i-Hindi'' or ''The New Cyclopedia Hindoostanica of Wit'' (1810) in Urdu and

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

scripts. It is a collection of around 100 witty stories and anecdotes.

Prem Sagar

''Prem Sagar'' or ''Prem Sagur'' ("Ocean of Love") was one of the first modern

books that was typeset and published, composed between 1804 and 1810, and published in 1810. A translation of Chaturbhuja Misra's Braj Bhasa book, its story is based on the tenth book of the ''

Bhagavata Purana The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in S ...

'', the legend of

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

. Lallo Lal mention that book has been composed in the "Khadi Boli of Delhi-Agra". The language is termed as "translated into Hinduvee from the Brij Bhasha" on the face page. The earliest Hindustani language literature made heavy use of Persian words, and resembled modern

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

. Lallu Lal was among the first writers to use words of Indo-Aryan origin in Hindustani language literature. His ''Prem Sagar'' is the earliest work, whose language resembles modern

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

ized

. Linguist

Jules Bloch Jules Bloch (May 1, 1880 in Paris – November 29, 1953) was a French linguist who studied Indian languages, and was also interested in languages in their cultural and social contexts. Doctor of Letters in 1914, he was director of studies at the ...

describes the importance of Lallu Lal's work as follows:

References

Bibliography

* The Prema-Sâgara or, Ocean of Love. Ed. by Frederick Pincoff. Westminster, Archibald Constable, 1891 * Théologie hindoue. Le Prem Sagar, océan d’amour. Traduit par Е. Lamairesse II., 1893, Saint-Amand, 1899 * The Prem Sagar in English. Allahabad, 1900

External links

The Prem Sagur of Lallu Lal

The Prem Sagur of Lallu Lal
translated into English by W. Hollings (1848) * Lullov-Lal, The Prem Sagur or the history of Krishnu, according to tho tenth chapter of the Bhaguvut of Vyasudevu, transl. into Hindu from the Bruj Bhasha etc. Calcutta, 1842 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Lallu Hindi-language writers Gujarati people People from Agra 1763 births 1835 deaths 19th-century Indian male writers 18th-century Indian translators 19th-century Indian translators