Bhojpuri was successively preceded as a language by Apabhransh, Maghadi, Pali and Sanskrit. Very importantly, it was being used before Hindi. The vocabulary of Hindi has been much influenced by it. Still popular, Bhojpuri still constitutes a distinct culture. It prevails in North India, especially in chunks of undivided UP and Bihar from where most of the Indian migrants, Hindus and Muslims, went out across the world, including Mauritius.
The Bhopuri belt stretches from the HimalayaBasin up to the Sarguja District in Chatisgarh, the newly created state split off from Madhya Pradesh. Covering some 129,500 km2, it differs slightly every ten kilometres. In Bihar, Bhojpuri is used in the districts of Arrah, Buxar, Chapra, Shahabad, Sharan, Champaran and Mazafarpur as well as in the villages around its capital Patna. In Jarkhand, the new state split off from Bihar, the belt stretches up to Ranchi and Siwans.
Bhojpuri is spoken by more people in UP than even in Bihar. In eastern UP, it covers such districts as Ajamgar, Ballia, Ghazipur, Maw, Devaria, Padrauna, Gorakpur, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Shanbhadra and Faizabad as well as the large holy city of Varanasi.
Avadhi and Magadhi are sister dialects of Bhojpuri. In Varanasi, Ayodhya, Gaya, Champaran and Mythila it is Bhojpuri influenced by Awadhi that is commonly spoken. It was into Awadhi that Tulsidas (1532-1623) translated the original Sanskrit text of Valmiki’s Ramayana, calling it Ramcharitmanas. A mixture of Bhojpuri and Magadhi prevails in not only Lucknow, UP’s capital, also famous for its culture and Urdu, but also in Faizabad and Jaunpur. The zone ABCD (Arrah, Ballia, Chapra and Devaria) is the most renowned Bhojpuri region.
Today, with the migration of inhabitants of the huge Bhojpuri belt, Bhojpuri is widely spoken not only in such large neighbouring cities as Allahabad and Patna, in addition to Varanasi, but also in the megalopis of Delhi and Mumbai. Its culture has been preserved the world over.
Political Ballia
The last remains of Rasra, the most ancient republic of India and for long the commercial centre of Ballia, were noticeable until the early 20th Century.
A brave patriot of Ballia, Mangal Pandey (1827-1857), after initially serving loyally in the British army in Bengal, triggered the revolt against British rule. He was to be hanged on 18 April 1857. However, for the sake of secrecy and to avoid any possible agitation against the British that his execution might give rise to, he was hanged ten days earlier. He thus became India’s first martyr in the freedom struggle. The Revolt (or Mutiny) of 1857, known as the First War of Independence in India, put an end to the British East India Company’s rule in India. A statue in BalliaCity, the administrative centre of the district, and a girls’ college at Nagwa, his birthplace, perpetuate Mangal’s memory.
On 22 April 1858, the gallant Kunwar Singh (1782-1858), king of the adjoining Jagdishpur, forming part of Shahabad District in Bihar, revolted against the British and led his soldiers in a fierce fight against them, and in the process also took over Ballia to which most of the soldiers belonged. They were subdued only in October 1858. The spot now occupied by the KunwarSinghCollege in BalliaCity served to shelter the king’s horses and sepoys.
Chittu Pandey (1865-1946) overthrew British rule in Ballia after a relentless battle in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. He managed the city during a week, occupying the seat of the then British jiladhish (District Magistrate). This valorous patriotic act, the first in India, was officially commemorated by the issue of special postage stamp in 2001.
Jayprakash Narayan (1902-1979), the famous veteran freedom fighter who had also worked with Acharya Vinobha Bhave in his Bhoodan movement, was also born in Ballia at Sitabdiyara where his statue now stands. He returned to active politics in 1974 after being disillusioned with the direction that politics had taken in the country. In 1977, he was instrumental in bringing down Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had imposed a state of emergency on the nation, and making Morarji Desai Prime Minister.
Chandra Shekhar (1927-2007) became Ballia’s MP in 1962, and, except for a short period in the eighties, was elected repeatedly from there with a large majority each time until his death. He was the only Bhojpuri Indian Prime Minister (1990-1991). This capable Prime Minister preferred to resign, since his ruling ally then (Indian National Congress) had accused him of spying on Rajiv Gandhi’s activities, thus refusing to yield to political lordliness. For his effective and disciplined long career in the Lok Sabha, Chandra Shekhar was conferred India’s first Outstanding Parliamentary Award in 1995.
Ballia: Home to philosophy and astrology
Ancient Ballia has produced geniuses in religious, astrological, literary and other fields. Maharishi Parasara Muni is famous for his immortal works, Bhrihad Parasara-Horasastra (Astrology) and Parasara Smriti (Principles of Hindu Religion). These two references, appearing thousands of years before Christ and after the Mahabharata, are extant in Sanskrit. Parasara Muni’s ashrama, known as Parasia named after the place, is still found near the Ganges in East Ballia. Of 400 pages, now also in Hindi, Brihad Parasara-Horasastra is increasingly prized the world over.
In contemporary history too, a number of natives of Ballia have shone in astrology. Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi (1907-1979) was specialised in ganit shastra (numeric astrology), besides being a novelist, essayist, linguist and literary critic. His most famous novels are “Banabhat Ki Atma Katha” and “Ahoka Ke Phool.” A master of Sanskrit, religion, culture and tradition, he also had knowledge of ancient Greece and modern Europe. Dwivedi worked at Shantiniketan for several years with his Guru, Rabindranath Tagore. He headed BHU’s Hindi Department for ten years. In 1957, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award. Besides serving for some time as Vice-Chancellor of Punjab University, the Acharya also chaired the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan of UP for a long period. In 1976, he attended the Second World Hindi Conference held in Mauritius.
Acharya Parushram Chaturvedi (1884-1979), a postgraduate in Psychology and a lawyer, devoted himself to literary activities. A specialist in Hindi bhakti (devotional) literature, he abandoned his legal practice he had started in BalliaCity, because of his uprightness. He refused to be entangled in judicial cases, as many litigants are real defaulters much of the time. It is mainly thanks to him and to Acharya Dwivedi that the Great Kabir’s teachings have been disseminated.
Bhojpuri Indians Shining in Mauritius
A few natives of Ballia, during their stay in Mauritius, contributed considerably in the socio-cultural and literary fields. Pandit Ramtohul Chowbey, brought to Mauritius by Persad Gujadhur in 1907 as family priest, also performed pujas (religious ceremonies) and delivered sermons in some places in the country. He started the Bhagwat Katha (religious discourse based on the shastras) in Mauritius.
Pandit Lakshmi Narayan Chaturvedi (1879-1948), Ramtohul Chowbey’s eldest son, stayed for about 23 years in Mauritius. Like his father, he engaged in performing rites and rituals for Mauritian families. He contributed articles to the paper Sanatan Dharmark under the penname of Raspunj. In 1923, his first collection of poems entitled Raspunj Kundaliyan was published in India. He wrote in Urdu and Bhojpuri, besides Hindi and Sanskrit. His second work, Shatabdi Saroj, a collection of narrative poetry describing the Indo-Mauritian struggles, came out in Mauritius in 1935 for the Indians’ arrival centenary when he also gave an address. The poet published in the Jagriti of 5 May 1943 a poem on “The Greatness of Gandhi”, after his 21-day fast.
According to Dr Moonishwurlall Chintamunnee, Mauritian writer-poet and previously Head of the Oriental Language Department at MGI, Chaturvedi was the first Hindi author whose works were published on Mauritius. Of his 15 works, only two came out in book form. A number of Mauritian Hindi poets, including Dr Brajendra Kumar Mungur Bhagat, equally renowned in Mauritius as in India, were inspired by this learned personality of Ballia. In 1952, Dr Chintamunnee studied Sanskrit under the guidance of Pandit Lakshmi Narayan’s brother, Pandit Surya Narayan Chaturvedi, then living at Petite Rivière, Mauritius.
Acharya Ramjanam, born and bred in Ballia where his ancestral family still lives, who had been Professor of Philosophy at the Banaras Hindu University, served Mauritius as an authoritative astrologist and guru for 20 years (1989-2008). Based at Hari Har Kchetra Mandir, Quatre Bornes, he was the head priest of the Sanatan Dharma Mandir Parishad before becoming the country’s most revered Sanatanist Acharya of the time, training priests and giving advice on religion to orthodox institutions.
The author’s paternal grandparents hailed from Ballia, India. This district lies in the easternmost part of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and borders western Bihar. He makes regular pilgrimages to Ballia, where he likes breathing Bhojpuri, the culture he imbibed at his native LongMountain in Mauritius. Ballia is the cradle of Bhojpuri; it was from the railway station there that the majority of Indians travelled to Calcutta (now Kolkatta) to migrate worldwide. Besides typifying rural India in many ways, it is famous throughout history for religious, mythological, philosophical, political and other reasons. A number of natives of Ballia have since long earned fame across India and even outside, while a few of them have left their mark in various fields in Mauritius.
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