Cracow Indological Studies Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (2021), pp. 159–194 https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.23.2021.02.07 Alaka Atreya Chudal alaka.chudal@univie.ac.at (University of Vienna) The Worship of the Goddess of Language: Ram Mani Acharya Dixit’s Eforts in Standardization of the Nepali Language in Benares ABSTRACT: This paper will focus on a 20 th century Nepali intellectual, Ram Mani Acharya Dixit (1883–1972), and his trans-border activities for the promotion of the vernacular by investigating his integration of the progress of a language with his nation, his apotheosis of the ver- nacular and his devotion in strengthening prose writing for the sake of the development of the divine mother tongue. Foregrounding his lin- guistic activities such as writing, publishing and printing in Nepal and India, with Benares in particular, it will try to answer questions such as: What was the motivating factor that inspired him to write and publish in the Nepali language? Was he in any way infuenced by the Hindi language movement that was at its peak in North India of the time? How infuential was Dixit’s role in standardizing Nepali? Besides this Nepali language standardization concern, the paper will also examine Dixit’s idea of serving mother, motherland, mother tongue and [Hindu] religion through service to a language. KEYWORDS: Standardization of Nepali, Nepali print history, deifcation and embodiment of the language, linguistic nationalism, Nepali language movement in Benares