Bajjika is an Indo-Aryan language variety spoken in parts of Bihar, India and in Nepal. It is also classified as a dialect of Maithili language and is known as Western Maithili.

Territory and speakers

Bajjika language is spoken in the north-western part of Bihar, in a region popularly known as Tirhut. It is mainly spoken in the Sheohar,

Muzaffarpur Muzaffarpur () is a city located in Muzaffarpur district on the banks of Burhi Gandak River, Burhi Gandak river in the Tirhut division of the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Tirhut division, the Muzaffarpur distri ...

and Vaishali districts of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. A 2013 estimate based on 2001 census data suggests that there were 20 million Bajjika speakers in Bihar. Bajjika is also spoken by a major population in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, where it has 1,133,764 speakers according to the country's 2021 census. It is the most spoken language in Rautahat, Sarlahi and Mahottari district of

Madhesh Province Madhesh Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal in the Terai region with an area of covering about 6.5% of the country's total area. It has a population of 6,126,288 as per the 2021 Nepal census, making it Nepal's most densely po ...

Relationship to Maithili

Bajjika has been classified as a dialect of Maithili. Whether Bajjika is classified as a dialect of Maithili depends on whether 'Maithili' is understood as the term for the specific standard Maithili dialect spoken in northern Bihar, or as the name for the whole language as the group of all related dialects together. When the proponents of the Maithili language in Bihar demanded the use of Maithili- medium primary education in the early 20th century, the Angika and Bajjika-speaking people did not support them, and instead favoured

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-medium education. The discussions around Bajjika's status as a

minority language A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

emerged in the 1950s. In the 1960s and the 1970s, when the Maithili speakers demanded a separate

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepa ...

state, the Angika and Bajjika speakers made counter-demands for recognition of their languages. Maithili proponents believe that the

Government of Bihar Bihar Government is the State governments of India, state government of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Bihar and its nine Divisions of Bihar, divisions which consist of Districts of Bihar, districts. It consists of an execut ...

and the pro-Hindi Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad promoted Angika and Bajjika as distinct languages to weaken the Maithili language movement. People from mainly Maithil Brahmins and Karan Kayasthas castes supported the Maithili movement in the days when it was to be subsumed as a dialect of Hindi, hence anti-Maithili factions branded the Maithili Language as a Brahminical language while inciting various other castes in the Mithila region to project Angika and Bajjika as their mother tongues, attempting to break away from the Maithili-based regional identity. According to linguist Pandit Rahul Sankrityayan, Bajjika and Maithili are two different dialects.

Academy

In a move aimed at protecting indigenous language and culture, the Bihar government has decided to set up two new academies to promote local dialects; Surjapuri and Bajjika, spoken in politically influential Seemanchal and Bajjikanchal regions of the state.

Swadesh Word List for Bajjika

The

Swadesh list A Swadesh list () is a compilation of cultural universal, tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. That is, a Swadesh list is a list of forms and concepts which all languages, without exception, have terms for, such as ...

of word for Bajjika, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, India, and parts of Nepal, is a standardized vocabulary set used for linguistic comparison. Bajjika, often considered a dialect of Maithili, lacks extensive public documentation, so its

is typically constructed by approximation, drawing from related languages like Maithili and Hindi, with adjustments for Bajjika’s unique phonological and lexical features.

Films in Bajjika

''Lakshmi Elthin Hammar Angna'' (2009) was the first formal feature film in Bajjika. ''Sajan Aiha Doli le ke'' came after that.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* http://www.bajjika.in Official Website of Bajjika Vikash Manch {{authority control Eastern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Bihar Languages of Nepal Languages of Madhesh Province