Magadhi
मगही magahī
Native to	India
Ethnicity	Magahi people
Native speakers	12.7 million (2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Zone (Magadhan) Bihari Magadhi
Early form	Magadhi Prakrit
Writing system	Devanagari, Kaithi
Official status
Official language in	India (Jharkhand[2])
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mag
ISO 639-3	mag
Glottolog	maga1260[3]

The Magahi language, also known as Magadhi, is a language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magadh, from which the latter's name derives.^[4]

It has a very rich and old tradition of folk songs and stories. It is spoken in ten districts of Bihar (Gaya, Patna, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Nalanda, Nawada, Arwal, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Jamui) and eight districts of Jharkhand (Palamu, Chatra, Hazaribag, Koderma, Deoghar, Jamtara, west singhbhum,Saharsa ,Dhanbad, Giridih). In West Bengal, it is spoken in Malda district.^[5]In Odisha, it is spoken in [Kendujhar district].

Magahi or Magadhia language derived from the ancient Magadhi Prakrit, which was created in the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area south of the Ganges and east of Son River. It is believed to be the language spoken by Gautama Buddha. It was the official language of the Mauryan court, in which the edicts of Ashoka were composed.

The name Magahi is directly derived from the name Magadhi Prakrit, and educated speakers of Magahi prefer to call it "Magadhi" rather than "Magahi".

Though the number of speakers in Magahi is large, it has not been constitutionally recognised in India. In Bihar Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters.^[6] Magadhi was legally absorbed under Hindi in the 1961 Census.^[7]

History[edit]

The ancestor of Magadhi, Magadhi Prakrit, formed in the Indian subcontinent in a region spanning what is now India and Nepal. These regions were part of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area of Bihar south of the Ganges.

The name Magahi is directly derived from the word Magadhi, and educated speakers of Magahi prefer to call it Magadhi rather than Magahi.^[8]

Grammarian Kachchayano wrote of the importance of Magadhi, "There is a language which is the root (of all languages); men and Brahmans spoke it at the commencement of the kalpa, who never before uttered a human accent, and even the supreme Buddhas spoke it: it is Magadhi."^[9]

The development of the Magadhi language into its current form is unknown. However, language scholars have come to a conclusion that Magahi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya originated from the Mithila Prakrit or might be Bengali Prakrit during the 8th to 11th centuries. These different dialects differentiated themselves and took their own course of growth and development. But it is not certain when exactly it took place. It was probably such an unidentified period during which modern Indian languages begin to take modern shape. By the end of the 12th century, the development of Apabhramsa reached its climax. Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili and other modern languages took definite shape in their literary writings in the beginning of the 14th century. The distinct shape of Magadhi can be seen in the Dohakosha written by Sarahapa and Kauhapa. Magahi had a setback due to the transition period of Magadha administration.^[10] Traditionally, strolling bards recite long epic poems in this dialect, and it was because of this that the word "Magahi" came to mean "a bard". Kaithi is the script generally used for it. The pronunciation in Magahi is not as broad as in Maithili and there are a number of verbal forms for each person.^[11] Historically, Magahi had no famous written literature. There are many popular songs throughout the area in which the language is spoken, and strolling bards recite various long epic poems which are known more or less over the whole of Northern India. In Magahi spoken area folk singers sing a good number of ballads. Introduction of Urdu meant a setback to local languages as its Persian script was alien to local people.

The first success for spreading Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when Hindi displaced Urdu as the official language of the province. After independence, Hindi was given the sole official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950.^[12]

Speakers of Magahi[edit]

Magahi folk singers

Magadhi is spoken in the area which formed the core of the ancient kingdom of Magadha - the modern districts of Patna, Nalanda, Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura and Nawada. Magahi is bounded on the north by the various forms of Maithili spoken in Mithila across the Ganga. On the west it is bounded by the Bhojpuri, On the northeast it is bounded by Maithili and Angika.
A blend of Magahi and known as Kharostha (Khortha) is spoken by non-tribal populace in North Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand which comprises districts of Bokaro, Chatra, Dhanbad, Giridih, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Ramgarh.
The number of Magadhi speakers is difficult to indicate because of unreliable sources. For most of the magahi-speakers, Hindi is the generic name for their language. People of Southern Bihar and Northern Jharkhand are mostly speakers of Magadhi language.^[13] Current estimates indicate approximately 18 million Magadhi speakers.

Scripts and literary tradition[edit]

Magadhi is generally written using Devanagari script. A later-developed script of Magadhi is Kaithi.^[11]
There have been effort by scholars in the Magahi area to explore and identify a literary tradition for Magadhi. Magadhi has a rich tradition of folk literature, and in modern times there have been various activities in the publication of literary writing. Magahi Parishad was established in Patna in 1952, which was renamed Bihar Magahi Mandal. Magadhi, a journal, was started at the same time, which was renamed Bihan, meaning "tomorrow" or the coming dawn. Later Akhil Bhartiya Magahi Sahitya Sammelan was established by Dr Ram Prasad Singh in 1977 and published a well known magazine " Magahi Lok". Another very famous monthly journal was started by Magahi Academy, Gaya edited by Dr. Ram Prasad Singh. Another magazine "Magadhi" is published by Akhil Bhartiya Magahi Bhasa Sammelan. It is headed by Kavi Yogesh.^[14]Nalanda Open University offers various courses on Magahi.^[15]. Maghi language has a lot of poets who with their writings has influenced the common mass a lot. Among those poets the name of Maghi Kokil JAIRAM SINGH is indelible. He is one of the scintillating gems of Maghi Sahitya. His song "बदरिया गाव है कजरिया" created an unforgettable imprint on the minds of Maghi lovers. His recently published book "चिजोर" contains a variety of poems.

Weekdays[edit]

Fruits and vegetables[edit]

Family relations[edit]

Spoken trends[edit]

Addition of “Waa” or “eeya” to nouns and sometimes verbs

For male nouns:

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “सलमनवा के पास एगो मोटरसाइकिल है”

In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “सलमनवा भिजुन एगो मोटरसाइकिल हई”

English translation – Salman has a motorcycle.

For female nouns:

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “रिमिया रिया सेनवा के बहन है”

In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “रिमिया रिया सेनवा के बहीन हई”

English translation – Rimi is the sister of Riya Sen

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “लठीया चला के तोर कपरवे फोर देंगे”

In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “लठीया चला के तोहर कपरवे/कपरवा फोर देम ”

English translation – (I'll) throw the baton and crack your skull

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “जानते हो, मोहना का बाप मर गया है”

In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “जानअ ह, मोहना के बाप / बाबूजी / बाबा /बावा मर् गेलथिन”

English translation – You know, Mohan's dad has died

Apart from these all other females names and other nouns get "waa" in their ends.

Addition of "eeye" or "ey" in adverbs, adjectives and pronouns

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – हम बहुत नजदिके से आ रहें है

In true Magahi/Magadhi language – हम/हमनी बहुत नजदिके (बहुते नज़दीक)/भीरी से आवईत हिवअ/ आ रहली हे

English translation – We are coming from a very near place

Within Magahi, one can find lot of variation while moving from one area to other, mainly end of the sentence is with a typical tone like Hiva, thau, hein etc. It is a rich language with lot of difference one can see while saying something with respect to elder or one with peer or younger. For example, there are two counterparts of Hindi "aap" in existence described in following sentences -

In Hindi—आप आज बाजार गये थे क्या?

In Magahi (To an elder) -- तूँ आज बजार गेलहु हल का?

In Magahi (To highly respected persons or teachers) -- अपने आज बजार गेलथिन हल का?

In Magahi (To an younger) -- तूँ आज बजार गेलहीं हल का?

Magahi is a language of the common people in area in and around Patna. It has few indigenous written literature, though a number of folk-tales and popular songs have been handed down for centuries from mouth to mouth and this remain main form of knowledge transfer in literature.
Strolling bards also known by name “Bhad” recite long epic poems in this dialect, and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of legendary princes and brave men of ancient time like "Alha aur udal". But no manuscriptic text has been seen except that nowadays people have given it a book form.

Phonology[edit]

Research work done in this field:

• Dr Munishwar Jha - "Magadhi And Its Formation," Calcutta Sanskrit College Research Series, 1967, 256 pp


• Dr Saryu Prasad - "A Descriptive Study of Magahi Phonology", Ph.D. thesis submitted to Patna University.


• Dr A.C. Sinha (1966) - "Phonology and Morphology of Magahi Dialect", Ph.D. thesis submitted to University of Poona.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2008)

• Dr Sweta Sinha (2014) - "The Prosody of Stress and Rhythm in Magahi", Ph.D. thesis submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.


• Dr. Sweta Sinha (2018)- "Magahi Prosody", Bahri Publications: New Delhi. ISBN 978-93-83469-14-7.

Morphology[edit]

Research work done in this field: Dr A.C. Sinha (1966) - "Phonology and Morphology of Magahi Dialect", Ph.D. thesis submitted to University of Poona.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2008)

See also[edit]

• Culture of Magadh Region


• Culture of Bhojpuri Region


• Culture of Mithila Region


• Culture of Angika Region


• Magadhan language

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Magahi - A Historical language


• Jain Scriptures


• Magahi Detailed Description by Grierson, G.A.


• Magahī Phonology: A Descriptive Study by Saryoo Prasad