Bible Encyclopedias
Bihari

Phonetics

The stress-accent of Bihari follows the usual rules of modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars. In words of more than one syllable it cannot fall on the last, whether the vowel of that syllable be long or short, pronounced, half-pronounced, or not pronounced. With this exception, the accent always falls on the last long syllable. If there are no long syllables in the word, the accent is thrown back as far as possible, but never farther than the syllable before the antepenultimate. Thus, ki-sa-n(a) (final a not pronounced); pa-ni; hd-m a -rd; de-kh a -la-h t . In the last word there is a secondary accent on the penultimate, owing to the following imperfect vowel (see below). When the first syllable of a word has not the main stress-accent, it also takes a secondary one, as in de-kh a -li-ainh i . When the letter a follows a syllable which has the accent (secondary or primary) it is only half pronounced, and is here denoted by a small a above the line. In Mth. (but not in Mg. or Bh.) a final short i or u is often similarly very lightly pronounced, and is then represented by the same device. Before such an " imperfect " t or u the preceding syllable has a secondary accent, if it has not already got the main one.

When a word ends in a preceded by a single uncompounded consonant, the a is not pronounced; thus, kisana, sounded kisan. This vowel is sometimes pronounced with a drawl, like the a in ball," and is then transliterated et. When a has this sound it can end a word, and in this position is common in the second person of verbs; thus, dekha, see thou. This sound is very frequently heard in Bhojpuri, and gives a peculiar tone to the whole dialect, which at once strikes the casual hearer. The usual short form of the letter a is a, but when this would lead to confusion it is shortened in Mth. and Mg. to a sound like that of a in the German Mann, and is then transliterated d. In Bh. it is always shortened to a. As an example, from pain, water, is formed the word paniya, but (in Mth. and Mg.) from the word marab, to strike, we have Mth. mdr a li, Mg. mdr a l i i, I struck, because mar a li (-ii) would mean " I died." In Bh. marali actually has both these meanings. The letters e and o may be either long (e, o) or short (e, o). In Skr. the diphthongs di and du (here transliterated ai, (75) are much longer than the Bihari ai and au, which are contractions of only a+i and a+u respectively. We may compare the Sanskrit, or tatsama, aa with the English " aye," and the tadbhava ai with the English " I." In counting syllables in Bihari, ai and au count each as two syllables, not each as one long syllable. The Skr. r appears only in tatsamas. Nasalization of vowels is extremely frequent. In this article it is represented by the sign - over the vowel, as in milli, marali and dekhalahu. As regards consonants, d and dh, when medial, are pronounced as strongly burred r and rh, and are then transliterated as here shown. There is a constant tendency to change these to an ordinary dental r and rh; thus, ghoda, pronounced ghora or ghora. The semivowels y and v are always pronounced like j and b respectively, unless they are simply euphonic letters put in to bridge the hiatus between two concurrent vowels; thus yauvana pronounced jauban, and maliya for mali-d, ghor a wa for ghor a -d. The sibilants š and s are both pronounced as a dental s, but (a relic of the old Mg. Pr.) are both invariably written as a palatal s in the Kaithi character. Thus, the English word " session " (sesan) is written sesan and pronounced sesan. The cerebral s, when uncompounded, is pronounced kh. When compounded, it generally has its proper sound. Thus, sastha, sixth, is pronounced khasth. As a general statement we may say that Bihari spelling is not fixed, and that there are often many ways of writing, and sometimes two or three ways of pronouncing, the same word.

The main typical characteristics of Mg. Pr. are that western Pr. s becomes s, and that western Pr. r becomes 1. We have seen that the change of s to š occurs in Bengali but not in Bihari, and have given reasons for the change back to s in the latter language, although the Mg. Pr. š is retained in writing. In both Bengali and Bihari, a western r is not now represented by 1, but is represented by r. This deviation from the Mg. Pr. rule is only apparent, and is due to the letter r representing two distinct sounds. In Skr., in the western Prakrits, and in the modern western languages, r is a cerebral letter, with a cerebral sound. In the modern eastern languages, r is a dental letter, with a dental sound. Everywhere, both in old times and at the present day, l was and is a dental letter. The meaning, therefore, of the change from western Pr. r to Mg. Pr. 1 was that the western r lost its cerebral sound, and became a dental letter, like 1. That dental character is preserved in the r of the modern eastern languages. In fact, in Bihari r and 1 are frequently confounded together, or with n, another dental letter. Thus, we have kali or kari, black; ghar or phal, fruit; Skr. rajju-, B. leju-ri, a string; Lakhnaur, the name of a town, quite commonly pronounced Nakhlaul; and the English names Kelly and Currie both pronounced indifferently kari or kali. Compare Assamese saril for Skr. sarira-. The genius of the Bihari language is adverse to the existence of a long vowel in a tadbhava word, when it would occupy a position more than two syllables from the end. Thus, ghora, but ghorawa; maral, but mar a li. This is subject to various subsidiary rules which will be found in the grammars. The principle is a most important one, and, indeed, pervades all Indo-Aryan vernaculars of the present day, but it is carried out with the greatest thoroughness and consistency in Bihari. The whole system of declension and conjugation is subject to it. When a preceding i or e is shortened, the two together become ai, and similarly a shortened a+u or o become au. Declension. - Bihari has a stronger sense of gender than the other languages of the Eastern Group. In the modern language the distinction is in the main confined to animate beings, but in the older poetry the system of grammatical, as distinct from sexual, gender is in full swing. Except in the case of the interrogative pronoun, there is no neuter gender - words which in Skr. and Pr. were neuter being generally, but not always, treated as masculine. The plural can everywhere be formed by the addition of some noun of multitude to the singular, and this is the universal rule in Mth., but in Mg. and Bh. it is generally made by adding n or (in Bh.) nh or ni to the singular, before all of which a final vowel is shortened. Thus ghora, a horse, ghoran, horses.

As for cases, the Apabhrarhsa locative -hi (-hi) and the ablative -hu (see Prakrit) terminations have survived in poetry, proverbs and the like, and each of them can now be used for any oblique case; but in ordinary language and in literature -hi and -hi have become contracted to e and e, the former of which is employed for the instrumental and the latter for the locative case. Thus, ghar, house; ghar, by a house; ghare, in a house. The old termination -hu has also survived in sporadic instances, under the form d, with an ablative sense. Cases are, however, usually formed, as elsewhere, by suffixing postpositions to a general oblique case (see Indo Aryan Languages). The oblique case in Bihari is generally the same as the nominative, but nouns ending in n, b, 1 or r, and some others, form it by adding a (a relic of the old Mg.Pr. genitive in -aha). Thus, maral, the act of striking, obl. mdr a la (Mg. Pr. mari-allaha). Another set of verbal nouns forms the oblique case in ai, e or d; thus, Bh. mar, the act of striking, mare-la, for striking, to strike. In Mg. every noun ending in a consonant may have its oblique form in e; thus, ghar, a house, ghar-ke or ghare-ke, of a house. The aior e- termination is another relic of the Apabhrarn s a -hi, and the d is a survival of the Ap. -hu. The usual genitive postposition is k, which has become a suffix, and now forms part of the word to which it is attached, a final preceding vowel being frequently shortened. Thus, ghora, gen. ghorak. Other genitive postpositions are ke, kar and ker. These, and all other postpositions, are still separate words, and have not yet become suffixes. The more common postpositions are 1 Acc.- Dat. ke; Instr.-Abl. s¢, se; Loc. mc., me. The genitive does not change to agree with the gender of the governing noun, as in Hindostani, but in Bh. (not in Mth. or Mg.), when the governing noun is not in the nominative singular, the genitive postposition takes the oblique form ka; thus, raja-ke mandir, the palace of the king; but raja-ka mandir-m g , in the palace of the king. In Mth. and Mg. pronouns have a similar oblique genitive in a. There is no case of the agent, as in Hindostani; the subject of all tenses of all verbs being always in the nominative case.

Every noun can have three forms, a short, a long and a redundant. The short form is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. Occasionally both weak and strong forms occur for the same word; thus, short weak, ghor; short strong, ghora; long, ghor a wa; redundant, ghorauwa. This superfluity of forms is due to the existence of the pleonastic suffix -ka- in the Prakrit stage of the language (see Prakrit). In that stage the k of the suffix was already elided, so that we have the stages: - Skr. ghota-ka-s, Pr. ghod-a-u, B. ghora (by contraction) or ghor a -wa (with insertion of a euphonic w). The redundant form is a result of the reduplication of the suffix, which was allowed in Pr. Thus. Skr. *ghota-ka-ka-s, Pr. ghoda-a-a-u, B. ghorauwa (contracted from ghor a -wa-wa-a). The long and redundant forms are mainly used in conversation. They are familiar and often contemptuous. Sometimes they give a definite force to the word, as ghor a wa, the horse. In the feminine they are much used to form diminutives.

As in other languages of the Eastern Group, the singulars of the personal pronouns have fallen into disuse. The plurals are used politely for the singulars, and new forms are made from these old plurals, to make new plurals. The old singulars survive in poetry and in the speech of villagers, but even here the nominative has disappeared and new nominatives have been formed from the oblique bases. All the pronouns have numerous optional forms. As a specimen of pronominal declension, we may give the most common. forms of the first personal pronoun.

The important point to note in the above is that the oblique form singular is formed from the genitive. It is the oblique form of that case which is also used when agreeing with another noun in an oblique case. Thus, hamar ghar, my house; ham a ra ghar-me, in my house; ham a ra-ke, to me. In Mth. the nominative plural is also the oblique form of the genitive singular, and in Bh. and i M ig. it is the oblique form of the genitive plural. In Bengali the nominative plural of nouns substantive is formed in the same way from the genitive singular Jsee Bengali). The usual forms of the pronouns are ham, I; td, !tit, thou; Mth. ap a nah x , Bh. raura, Your Honour; i, this; o, that, he; je, who; se, he; ke, who ? Mth. ki, Mg., 1 The origin of the postpositions is discussed in the article Hindostani.

Bh. ka, what? keo, keu, any one; Mth. kicch u , Mg. kuchu, Bh. kuchu, anything. The oblique forms of these vary greatly, and must be learned from the grammars.

Conjugation in Maithili and Magahi

It is in the conjugation of the verb that the amazing complexity of the Mth. and Mg. grammars appears. The conjugation of the Bhojpuri verb is quite simple, and will be treated separately. In all three dialects the verb makes little or no distinction of number, but instead there is a distinction between non-honorific and honorific forms. In Mth. and Mg. this distinction applies not only to the subject but also to the object, so that for each person there are, in the first place, four groups of forms, viz.: - I. Subject non-honorific, object non-honorific.

II. Subject honorific, object non-honorific.

III. Subject non-honorific, object honorific.

IV. Subject honorific, object honorific.

English) substitutes the oblique form of the verbal noun for the present participle, as in mare hi, I am a-striking. The perfect is usually formed by adding the word for " is " to the past; thus, Mth. mdr a li ach e , I have struck, lit. struck-by-me it-is. A pluperfect is similarly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb.

There are numerous irregular verbs. Most of the irregularities are due to the root ending in a vowel or in a weak consonant such as Pr. v). Thus root pith, obtain, past participle paol, first singular, past tense, pauli. More definitely irregular are a few roots like kar, do, past participle kail. These last instances are cases in which the past participle is independently derived from a Skr. past participle, and is not formed as usual by adding the pleonastic suffix -al or -il (Skr., Pr., -alla-, -ilia-, see Prakrit) to the Bihari root. Thus, Skr. ki to-s, Pr. kaa-u, ka-ill-u, B. kail, instead of kar-al. There is a long series of transitive verbs formed from intransitives and of causal verbs formed from transitives, generally by adding In Mth. all the forms in which the object is honorific end in -nhe. Mg. closely follows this, but the forms are more abraded.

Forms in which the object is non-honorific may be, as in the case of nouns, short, long or redundant. The long forms are made by adding ai (or in the second person -dh) to the short forms, and the redundant forms by adding k to the long forms. Again, if the object is in the second person, the ai of the long and redundant forms is changed to au. Finally, in the first person the non-honorific and honorific forms depending on the subject are the same, and are also identical with those forms of the second person in which the subject is honorific. We thus get the following paradigm of the Mth. past tense of the verb marab, to strike. The Mg. forms are very similar. Besides the above there are numerous optional forms. Moreover, these are only masculine forms. The feminine gender of the subject introduces new complications. It is impossible here to go into all these minutiae, interesting as they are to philologists. They must be learnt from the regular grammars. On the present occasion we shall confine ourselves to describing the formation of the principal parts of the verb.

In Mth. the usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is, as in Bengali, based on the root ach (Skr. rcchati), the initial vowel being generally dropped, as in chi, I am; chalah u , I was; but ach e , he is. In Mg. we have hi or hiki, I am; halu, I was. The finite verb has three verbal nouns or infinitives, viz. (from the root mar, strike), Mth. mar': or Mg. mar; marab; and maral. All three are fully declined as nouns, the oblique forms being marai or mare, mar a ba, and mar a la, respectively. There are two participles, a present (Mth. mdrait = Pr. marentu) and a past (Mth. maral = Pr. mari-allu). The Mg. forms are very similar. The old Mg. Pr. present and imperative have survived, but all other tenses are made from verbal nouns or participles. The past tense (of which the conjugation for a Maithili transitive verb is given above) is formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle. Thus, maral+i, struck+by-me, becomes mdr'li, I struck. In the case of intransitive verbs, the suffixes may represent the nominative and not the instrumental case of the pronoun, and hence the conjugation is somewhat different. The future is a mixed tense. Generally speaking, the first two persons are formed from the verbal noun in b, which is by origin a future passive participle, and the third person is formed from the present participle. Thus, marab+ah u , about-to-be-struck+by-me, becomes mcir a bah u , I shall strike, and mdrait+dh, striking+he, becomes mar a tdh, he will strike (compare the English " he's going," for " he is on the point of going "). A past conditional is also formed by adding similar suffixes to the present participle, as in mdritahu, (if) I had struck. This use of the present participle already existed in the Pr. age (cf. Hema-candra's Grammar, iii. 180). In Mth. the present definite and the imperfect are formed by conjugating the present or past tense respectively of the auxiliary verb with the present participle; thus marait chi, I am striking. Mg. (like vulgar ab (Skr. apaya-, Pr. ave-). Compound verbs are numerous. Noteworthy is the desiderative compound formed by adding the root cah, wish, to the dative of a verbal noun. Thus, ham dekhd-ke cahait-chi, I am wishing for the seeing, I wish to see.

Conjugation in Bhojpuri

The Bh. conjugation is as simple as that of Mth. and Mg. is complex. In the first and second persons the plural is generally employed for the singular, but there is no change in the verb corresponding to the person or honour of the object. The usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is derived in the present from the root ba( or bar, be, as in bate or bare (Skr. vartate, Pr. vaitai), he is. The past is derived from the root rah (Skr. rahati, Pr. rahai), as in rah or (contracted) rah. I was. The verbal nouns and participles are nearly the same as in Mth.-Mg., the first verbal noun and the present participle being mar and marat, as in Mg. The old present and imperative, derived from the Mg. Pr. forms, are also employed in Bh. Thus, mare (Pr. marei), he strikes. This tense is often used as a present conditional. When it is wished to emphasize the sense of a present indicative, the syllable -la is suffixed. The same suffix is employed in Rajasthani, Naipali and Marathi To Form The Future, And In Bh. It Is Often Also Used With A Future Sense. The Past Tense Is Formed, As In Mth. Mg., By Adding Pronominal Suffixes To The Past Participle; Thus, Marari (Mara Li), I Struck, As Explained Above. Similarly, For The First And Second Persons Of The Future We Have Mar A Ii, I Shall Strike, And So On, But The Third Person Is Man (Pr. Marehi), He Will Strike, Marihen (Pr. Marehinti), They Will Strike. The Periphrastic Tenses Are Formed On The Same Principles As In Mth. As An Example Of Bh. Conjugation We Give The Present, Past And Future Tenses In All Persons. There Are A Few Additional Optional Forms, But Nothing Like The Multiplicity Of Meanings Which We Find In Mth. And Mg.

It will be observed that the termination of the present changes in sympathy with the old present to which it is attached. In some parts of the Bh. area, especially in the district of Saran, u is substituted for a l in the past. Thus, marui, I struck. The maru- is merelythe past participle without the pleonastic termination -alla- which is used in Bihari, as explained under the Mth.-Mg. conjugation.

Irregular verbs, the formation of transitive and causal verbs, and the treatment of compound verbs, are on the same lines as in Mth.

Bihari Literature

In all three dialects there are numerous folk-epics transmitted by word of mouth. Several have been published at various times in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenliindischen Gesellschaft. The only dialect which has any real literature is Maithili. The earliest writer of whom we have any record is Vidyapati Thakkura (Bidyapati Thakur), who lived at the court of Raja Siva Sifnha of Sugaona in Tirhut in the 15th century. He was a voluminous Sanskrit writer, but his fame rests chiefly on his dainty lyrics in Maithili dealing with the loves of Radha and Krishna. These have exercised an important influence on the religious history of eastern India. They were adopted and enthusiastically recited by the reformer Caitanya (16th century), and through him became the homepoetry of the Bengali-speaking Lower Provinces. Their language was transformed (we can hardly say translated) into Bengali, and in that shape they have had numerous imitators.

A collection of poems by the old Master-singer in their Maithili dress has been published by the present writer in his Chrestomathy of that language. The most admired of Vidyapati's successors is Manbodh Jha, who died in 1788. He composed a Haribans, or poetical life of Krishna, which has great popularity. Many dramas have been composed in Mithila. The fashion is to write the body of the work in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but the songs in Maithili. Two dramas, the Parijata-harana and the Rukinini-parinaya, are attributed to Vidyapati. Among modern writers in the dialect, we may mention Harsanatha, an elegant lyric poet and author of a drama entitled Ugi-harana, and Candra Jha, whose version of the Ramayana and translation of Vidyapati's Sanskrit Purusa-pariksa are deservedly popular. AuTH0RITIEs. - The Linguistic Survey of India, vol. v. part ii. (Calcutta, 1903), gives a complete conspectus of Bihari in all its dialects and sub-dialects. See also G. A. Grierson, Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Sub-dialects of the Bihari Language, parts i. to viii. (Calcutta, 1883-1887 - these deal with every form of Bihari except standard Maithili); and S. H. Kellogg, A Grammar of the Hindi Language, in which are treated High Hindi. also the Colloquial Dialects of. .. Bhojpur, Magadha, Maithila, &c. (2nd ed., London, 1893).

For Maithili, see G. A. Grierson, An Introduction to the Maithili Language of North Bihar, containing a Grammar, Chrestomathy and Vocabulary; part i. Grammar (Calcutta, 1881; 2nd ed., 1909); part ii. Chrestomathy and Vocabulary (Calcutta, 1882). For Vidy,,dpati Thakkura,see J.Beames," The Early Vaishnava Poets of Bengal,," in Indian Antiquary, ii. (1873), pp. 37 ff.; the same, " On the Age and Country of Vidyapati," ibid. iv. (1875), pp. 2 99 ff.; anon. article in the Banga Darsana, vol. iv. (1282 B.S.),pp. 75 ff.; Saradacarana Maitra, Introduction to Vidyapatir Padavali (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1285 B.S.); G. A. Grierson, Chrestomathy, as above; " Vidyapati and his Contemporaries," Indian Antiquary, vol. xiv. (1885), pp. 182 ff.; " On some Mediaeval Kings of Mithila," ibid. vol. xxviii. (1899), pp. 57 ff.

For Bhojpuri, see J. Beames, " Notes on the Bhojpuri Dialect of Hindi spoken in Western Bihar," in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii. N.S., 1868, pp. 483 ff.; A. F. R. Hoernle, A Grammar of the Eastern Hindi compared with the other Gaudian Languages (here " Eastern Hindi " means " Western Bhojpuri "), (London, 1880); J. R. Reid, Report on the Settlement Operations in the District of Azamgarh (Allahabad, 1881) - contains in appendices full grammar and vocabulary of Western Bhojpuri).

No special works have been written about Magahi. (G. A. GR.) Bihari-Lal, a name famous in Hindustani literature as the author of the Sat-sai, a collection of approximately seven hundred distichs, which is perhaps the most celebrated Hindi work of poetic art, as distinguished from narrative and simpler styles. The language is the form of Hindi called Braj-bhasha, spoken in the country about Mathura, where the poet lived. The couplets are inspired by the Krishna side of Vishnu-worship, and the majority of them take the shape of amorous utterances of Radha, the chief of the Gopis or cowherd maidens of Braj, and her divine lover, the son of Vasudeva. Each couplet is independent and complete in itself, and is a triumph of skill in compression of language, felicity of description and rhetorical artifice. The distichs, in their collected form, are arranged, not in any sequence of narrative or dialogue, but according to the technical classification of the sentiments which they convey as set forth in the treatises on Indian rhetoric.

Little is known of the author beyond what he himself tells us. He was born in Gwalior, spent his boyhood in Bundelkhand, and on his marriage settled in his father-in-law's household in Mathura. His father was named Kesab Ray; he was a twiceborn (Dwija) by caste, which is generally understood to mean that he was a Brahman, though some assert that he belonged to the mixed caste, now called Ray, sprung from the offspring of a Brahman father by a Kshatriya mother. A couplet in the Sat-sai states that it was completed in A.D. 1662. It is certain that his patron, whom he calls Jai Shah, was the Raja of Amber or Jaipur, known as Mira, Jai Singh, who ruled from 1617 to 1667 during the reigns of the emperors Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. A couplet (No. 705) appears to refer to an event which occurred in 1665, and in which Raja Jai Singh was concerned. For this prince the couplets were composed, and for each doha the poet is said to have received a gold piece worth sixteen rupees.

The collection very soon became celebrated. As the couplets are independent one of another, and were put together fortuitously as composed, many different recensions exist; but the standard is that settled by an assembly of poets under the direction of Prince A`zam Shah, the third son of the emperor Aurangzeb (16J3-1707), and hence called the A`zam-shahi; it comprises 726 couplets. The estimation in which the work is held may be measured by the number of commentators who have devoted themselves to its elucidation, of whom Dr Grierson mentions seventeen. Two of them were Musalmans, and two other commentaries were composed for Musalman patrons. The collection has also twice been translated into Sanskrit.

The best-known commentary is that of Lallu ji Lal, entitled the Lala-chandrika. The author was employed by Dr Gilchrist in the College of Fort William, where he finished his commentary in 1818.

A critical edition of it has been published by Dr G. A. Grierson (Calcutta, government of India Press, 1896). (C. J. L.)