The origin of the Kartlian or Kartvelian language is still involved
in some doubt, but the general opinion of philologists seems to
be that it does not belong to the Indo-European family, although
it has been powerfully influenced by Zend, Sanskrit, Persian, and
Armenian. The ancient speech of the country is preserved to us in
the ecclesiastical rituals and books of devotion, which are written
in characters differing very considerably from the civil alphabet,
the "war hand," the invention of the latter being ascribed to King
Pharnavaz I., a contemporary of Alexander the Great. The Khutsuri,
or ecclesiastical character, bears a striking resemblance to Armenian;
an excellent specimen of it may be seen in the British Museum Library,
in the famous Moscow Bible of 1743, recently purchased. The number
of letters is the same in both alphabets, viz. thirty-eight, and the
modern alphabet is as follows:--
a
b
g
d
e
v
z
é (short)
th (not English th but t followed by sound of h)
i (English ee)
c
l
m
n
i (short)
o
p
zh
r
s
t
u (oo)
vi (vee)
ph (p followed by sound of h)
k
gh (guttural)
_ (something like a guttural k)
sh
ch
tz
dz
ts
dch
kh
khh
j
h
ho
The orthography is purely phonetic. There is very little difference
between the language of the sacred books and that of to-day, not
nearly so much as between Anglo-Saxon and English; but many foreign
words have been introduced in modern times.
The earliest specimens of Georgian literature which have come down to
us are translations of the Scriptures, and theological works written
under the influence of the Greek clergy, who, until the eleventh
century, occupied almost all the high ecclesiastical offices in
the land.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries of our era the relations
between Georgia and Greece were of the most intimate character. The
young nobles of the court of King David the Renewer and his immediate
successors frequented the schools of Athens, and brought back with them
Platonic and Aristotelian teachings which exerted a very powerful
influence on the intellectual and social life of that period,
and prepared the way for the golden age of Georgian literature,
which dawned on the accession of Queen Tamara. Sulkhan Orbeliani,
in the preface to his dictionary, compiled early in the eighteenth
century, says that he consulted translations of Proklus, Platonicus,
Nemesis, Aristotle, Damascenus, Plato, Porphyry, and many other Greek
writers. If these MSS. were still extant, they might prove valuable
to classical scholars.
During the stormy times that soon followed, the countless lyrical
pieces which were produced were nearly all lost, but the epic which is
now looked upon as the greatest masterpiece in the language has escaped
with but a few mutilations. This is "The Man in the Panther's Skin"
(Vepkhvis Tkaosani) by Shota Rustaveli.
History tells us very little about Shota Rustaveli. We only know
that he was born in the village of Rustavi, near Akhaltsikhe, that he
received his education in Athens, returned to his native land, where
he wrote his great work, was secretary to Queen Tamara, then became
a monk, and died in the monastery of the Holy Cross, near Jerusalem,
where his portrait may still be seen. Tradition says that the poet
was passionately enamoured of his royal mistress, and this assertion
seems to be borne out by many passages in the poem.
During nearly seven centuries of ceaseless struggles for freedom,
the Georgians have kept this great work fresh in their minds. It has
inspired them with hope and courage in the darkest hours, and at the
present day it is as great a favourite as it ever was. Not only are
many of its verses household words in cottage and hall, but there are
not a few Georgians, especially among the women, who know every word
of it by heart; indeed, there was a time when no woman was allowed
to marry unless she could repeat the whole poem. The reason for this
extraordinary popularity is to be found in the fact that the poem
is a thoroughly national one in its smallest details. Although the
heroes and heroines are described as Arabians, Indians, Chinese,
they are all Georgians to the very finger tips.
The plot is of the simplest description possible. Rostevan, a
patriarchal Eastern king, who has renounced the throne of Arabia in
favour of his daughter Tinatina, is out hunting one day with Avtandil,
one of his generals, when he sees a weeping youth of wondrous beauty,
dressed in a panther's skin. The king orders his guards to seize
the stranger, but the latter kills several of them and mysteriously
escapes, whereupon the old king falls into a fit of sadness so deep
that Tinatina at length promises her hand to the knight who will
satisfy her father's curiosity. Avtandil sets out to seek the man
in the panther's skin, wanders about for three years, meeting with
wondrous adventures, before he finds the object of his search, who
turns out to be Tariel, a young knight enamoured of Nestan Daredjan,
daughter of the king of India, and then returns to claim the hand of
his queen.
In Avtandil we have a Christian chevalier of the East who is worthy
of comparison with our Rolands and Red Cross Knights, while Tariel
is a wild Mussulman, whose passion drives him to excesses worthy of
Amadis of Gaul.
The interest is powerfully sustained all through the poem, and its
dramatic unity is never lost sight of; yet, however interesting the
narrative may be, it is chiefly as a picture of life in Georgia in
the days of Tamara that "The Man in the Panther's Skin" is valuable.
Tinatina, who is none other than Tamara herself, is described as
follows:--
"One daughter only had the aged king,
And she was fair as is the Eastern sun.
He upon whom her gaze but once did rest
Was ravish'd of his heart and soul and thought."
Tinatina is a beautiful type of womanhood, such as we might expect
to find in the literature of Western Europe, but hardly in a little
country standing alone amid the wild hordes of Asia. Her wisdom,
her strength of character, the purity and loyalty of her love, have
made her the model of many a generation of Rustaveli's countrywomen,
who have ever behaved nobly alike in joy and sorrow.