The Origin and Development of Bhojpuri

It was in the Oriental Conference at Patna when I had a chance to come in close contact with Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji and other great linguisticians for the first time that an ardent desire to study my mother tongue, Bhojpuri, on scientific lines arose in my mind.  Back from Patna, I approached Dr. Dhirendra Varma of the University of Allahabad who introduced me to Dr. Babu Ram Saxena.  He was then writing his thesis on THE EVOLUTION OF AWADHI.  Dr. Saxena in consultation with Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji advised me to prepare a monograph on the 'Bhojpuri dialect' on the lines of his 'Lakhimpuri'.  The work that I produced after this advice was written out 1932 and published in the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vols. XX, XXI and XXI, Part III, under the title 'A Dialect of Bhojpuri (1934-35).  During the years 1933 to 1935, I made extensive tours throughout the Bhojpuri area – Ballia, Shahabad, Saran, Champaran, Gorakhpur, the Nepal tarai, Basti, Azamgarh, Banaras, Mirzapur and other places – and collected specimens of Bhojpuri.  Grammatical peculiarities were noted down and detailed systematic grammars of the different dialects were prepared.  The exact limits of the Bhojpuri-speaking area were investigated and accordingly a map was prepared which is appended herewith.  During this period, the following contributions were published in the 'Hindustani' – journal of the Hindustani Academy, Allahabad, namely: 'The Bhojpuri Proverbs' (Bhojpuri Lokoktiya) (April, 1939, and July, 1939), 'Bhojpuri Idioms' (Bhojpuri Muhaware) (April, 1940, October, 1940, and January, 1941), and 'The Bhojpuri Riddles' (Bhojpuri Paheliya) (October-December, 1942)…. The present thesis aspires to make some new contributions to Indian dialectology.  The chief amount them are: (1) Historical and comparative treatment of the materials; (2) Phonology in a manner quite different from Hoernle's treatment; (3) Affixes in fuller detail than in Hoernle; (4) Pronouns; (5) Compounds (6) Verbs.  The sources of information utilized by me for the thesis are the materials collected by me during my tours, plus those listed on pages 22 to 24 of the thesis and a few forms in the writings of Kabir and other writers.