Bhojpuri

Varanasi, March 29, 1984

In the morning, Baba spoke on the racial and cultural characteristics of the Bhojpuri area of Kashi Raj.

In the Vedic age, this land around Varanasi was known as Kashi Rajya. The word ‘Kashi’ was derived from the root word ‘kash’ meaning ’that which shines’ and in ancient times ‘Kashi’ was the popularly used word to describe this place. In Medieval times, both Kashi and Varanasi were in popular usage.

During post-Buddhist times, the scriptures of Natha cult mention Varanasi in reference to the twelve Shiva-lingas, and during the time of Buddha and even a bit earlier the word Varanasi was frequently used. And about 3000 years ago Varanasi is mentioned in the Udalayasan, a book written in Magadhi

*Varuna is the name of a river flowing in Varanasi and ‘Asi’ is the name of an area of Varanasi and also of a ghat (bank) on the river Ganga.

According to some people, the word Varanasi is a compound of Varuna + Asi.

If so, it should be pronounced Varunasi, but it is not pronounced like this Vara- Basi is actually a compound of two words-va’ra and anasa.

Anasa means rebirth, and Va’ra means ’to check’ in Sanskrit. Varanasi thus means ’to check rebirth’. People still consider it to be a holy place because it was a place where Shiva lived. They believe that if a person dies here he or she will not be re-born.

The boundary of Kashi Rajya was as follows: In the north it extended to the Himalayas ; in the south as far as the Vindhya, where the Sona and Gharghara rivers meet; in the west to Prayag and in the east as far as the junction of the Sona and Narayani rivers. (The Sona river was so named because its water is gold in colour, sona means gold).

The capital of Kashi Raja was Kashi.

Several eminent and intelligent kings ruled over Kashi Rajya and King Bhoja was one of them. He wrote a commentary on Samkhya philosophy. Since a cosmopolitan town is not a good strategic choice for a capital, the capital was shifted eastwards to the south of the Ganga, near Dumraon which is in Buxar subdivision of the present district of Arrah.

It was in the district of Bhojpur, hence the language of the people was known as Bhojpuri.

The people of Bhojpuri region belonged to the Austrico- Caucasian race, that is, to the Nordic sub-group of Caucasians, and were Austric Indicas.

Austrics had three groups-Indica, Malaysian and Australian, and were people of medium size.

On the north of the Ganga, Mongolian blood was most influential while on its southern side, the impact of Negroid blood was predominant. As a result, people of the north are fair, while people of the south are dark.

The climate in this area is good, but in ’tarai-land’ the water lacks iodine. On both sides of the Ganga, the water is good but from the view point of health the best water comes from ‘Bhabhua’.

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Varanasi was the land of Shiva, and Arrah was named after Aranya Deva Shiva. Harishchandra ruled over the area south of the Ganga, which was called Rohatas and named after are fair called Diara in Assam and Bengal and Tarai in Garhwali and this on Rahitashva.

The southern portion of the Himalayas is Bhojpur the land is flat and is called Madhya desh or Madesh, Kumayuni. On the southern side of Nepal which is a part of complexioned and the reverse is the case in the southern region.

In older times the language was called Kashika language, but after the capital was shifted to Bhojpur it came to be known About four thousand years ago the Sanskrit as Bhojpuri. language was transformed into seven Prakrta languages or peo- ple’s languages.

Magadhi Prakrta was one of them and was used It was also one of towards the east of Prayag. Magadha was the most famous name in the area, thus it was called Magadhi.

From Prayag to Sirhind, the people’s language was Shaurseni Prakrta. the languages which Lord Krishna spoke.

Sirhind, situated near Chandigarh, is the water barrier of north India. Rivers on the eastern side of Sirhind merge into the Ganga and eventually flow into the Bay of Bengal. Rivers on the western side merge into the Indus and finally drain into the Arabian sea. The word Sirhind means the head of India.

From Sirhind to Hindukush, the people’s language was Paeshachi Prakrit. Further north, in the Kashmir valley, Uzbekistan, Baluchistan and southern Russia, the language was Pa’shca’tya Prakrta.

Towards the south-west of Baluchistan, in the Indus Valley, where the language spoken was Pahlavii Prakrta or Saendhavii Prakrta.

In Gujrat and Rajasthan it was Malwi Prakrta.

In Maha- rashtra and Goa it was Maharastri Prakrta, while Magadhi Prakrta was the language of the people in the entire eastern side of India, that is, from Prayag to Salkia, where the Brahmaputra River enters India.

Usually, a language survives one thousand years, while a script lasts for two thousand years.

Magadhi Prakrta was outlived by her 2 daughters-western Demi-Magadhi and eastern Demi-Magadhi.

The former gave birth to 4 daughters: Bhojpuri, Magahii, Nagpuria and Chattis- garhii.

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Eastern Demi Magadhii had five daughters: Maethili, Angika, Bam’la, Oriya and Assamia as mentioned earlier. Similarly Shaurseni Pra’krta gave birth to Demi-Shaurseni, whose daughters are Avadhi, Bundeli, Bagheli, Braj and Hariyanvii. Hariyanvii was the language of the people of Delhi and nearby areas. It blen- ded with Arabic and Persian when Turks came to India, and a new language known as Sirhindi Hindustani, usually used in the market place evolved. Most of the soldiers of the Muslim kings were Turkish, though some Persians also served the army of that time and Sirhindi Hindustani became the language of men who wore ‘Vardi or a military uniform and as a consequence, the language became known as Urdu. Correctly speaking Urdu was not a people’s language as the people’s language remained Hariyanvii. Hindi evolved as an offshoot of Hariyanvii. Bhojpuri has its own intonation and style of pronunciation. There are three styles of Indo-Aryan alphabetical intonations- Vivrta, Samvrta, and Tiryaka. In Bhojpuri, the style is Sam- vrta, where ‘a’ is long. Rarely is ‘Vivrta’ used and ‘Tiryaka’ is never used. A mixture of ‘a’ and ‘o’ is indicated in Tiryaka style.

There were different phases in the Aryan colonisation in India. In the first phase Aryans came to India through the Khyber Pass and only travelled as far as Jammu. In the second phase they migrated to Sirhind and in the third phase they rea- ched Prayag. After contact with the Austric people, the-Aryans were transmuted into Austric-Aryans. The land east of Prayag was fertile and attracted the Aryans and they proceeded up to Kashi. However Varanasi was the culminating point of Aryan culture.

Aryan Rsis or sages advised the people not to travel to places outside the sphere of Aryan infiuence, that is, they were ad- vised not to go east towards Magadha. Brahmans who violated the instructions and went east towards the Sarayu river were ostracised and scorned as outcaste Brahmans, and were called Sarayuparin Brahmans or second grade Brahmans.

Varanasi was the culminating point of Aryan civilisation. In East of Kashi Rajya Ssnskrit words are more common than Tad- bhava words, that is, in Varanasi Tadbhava Sanskrit words were more common. In Bhojpur and Jaunpur, however, Tadbhava words are more prominent, but they are pronounced in Bhojpuri intonation,

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Since Namboodaries* went to Kerala from Bengal both through land and sea.

They carried the cultural traditions of north In Bengal women utter a particular sound at the end of cer- India, that is north of Vindhya, and it led to a blending of cultures. an anga-vastram or wrapper or Ca’dar is a common dress in tain social festivals and in Kerala the same is followed. Wearing both north and south India.

Cultural blending is a unique phenomenon but there are many Yajurvedis.

The length of a sacred thread menon in India. In Kashi-Rajya, Atharvavedis are rarely found manifests this difference.