Bhojpuri basics

By: R. R. Diwakar

Bhojpuri is spoken in the western districts of Bihar such as Champa-ran, Saran, Shahabad, Palamau and Ranchi. Although the Ranchi district is mainly populated by Adivasis, the common language of the people is Sadari or Sadani, which is a form of Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri-speakers are also found in north-western Muzaffarpur and the Pirpanti and Golgong police stations of theBhagalpur district. There are more than ten million Bhojpuri-speaking people in Bihar. It is spoken also in the Varanasi and Gorakhpur divisions of Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri areas have helped much in the growth of Hindi literature. Although Bhojpuri has no such old written literature as Maithili has, the love with which its speakers cherish it is just as great. Bhojpuri is so called after the language of Bhojpur, a pergana of the Shahabad district.

The Bhojpuri people have a distinct and virile tradition and were famous in the past for their bravery. Bhojpuri is spoken in various forms and its grammatical structure differs in many respects from the other two languages in Bihar. It has peculiarities of declension and conjugation not found elsewhere. On the whole, its grammar is simpler than that of Maithili and Magahi.

Except in a few isolated instances, the form of the verb depends only on the subject. Bhojpuri is written in Kaithi, a script ascribed to the Kayasthas, the scribes of India, but this script is nowadays being given up by educated people in favour of Devanagri. A mass of oral literature is extant in Bhojpuri in the form of folk-songs, folk-tales and legends and it abounds in proverbs and riddles. In the works of such saintly poets as Kabir, Dharamdas, Dharnidas, Daryadas, and Lakshmi Sakhi, the influence of Bhojpuri is immense.

In recent times, many collections of folk literature have been published by Grierson, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Krishnadeva Upadhyay, Durga Shankar, Prasad Singh and W. G. Archer, and Sankata Prasad. The famous poem 'Batohia' written by Raghubir Narayan and the play entitled 'Bidesia' by Bhikari Thakur have made history by their popularity. Bhikari Thakur is the people's poet in Bhojpuri and in his poems are reflected the joys and sorrows, the toils and tears of the simple rural folk of his area.

Listen to Bhojpuri Songs