Bishnupriya Manipuri language
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| Bishnupriya Manipuri ইমার ঠার/বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী Imarthar |
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| Spoken in: | Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and several other countries | |||
| Total speakers: | 450,000 | |||
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Zone Bishnupriya Manipuri |
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |||
| ISO 639-2: | inc | |||
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | bpy | |||
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The Bishnupriya Manipuri language (BPM) (ইমার ঠার/বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী) is an Indo-Aryan language.
[edit] History and development
Bishnupriya Manipuri (BPM), spoken in parts of Assam, Tripura, Manipur in India, in Bangladesh, in Myanmar and several other countries, is different from many Indo-Aryan languages like Bangla, Assamese, Oriya etc. The language was originated and developed in Manipur and was originally confined to the surroundings of the Loktak Lake in Manipur. The earliest reference to Bishnupriya Manipuri is available from a chronicle named Khumal Purana written by Pandit Navakhendra Sharma of 18th century. Other authorities such as An account of the valley of Manipore by Col. McCullock, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal by E.T. Dalton and the Linguistic Survey of India of Dr. G.A. Grierson mention that the language was in existence in Manipur before 19th century. Dr. Grierson calls the language as "Bishnupuriya Manipuri", while some other writers calls it simply "Bishnupriya". The principal localities where this language was spoken are now known as Khangabok, Heirok, Mayang Yamphal, Bishnupur, Khunan, Ningthankhong, Ngaikhong, Thamnapoxpi and so on.
A great majority of speakers of BPM fled from Manipur and took refuge in Assam, Tripura, Sylhet and Cachar during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due to internal conflicts among the princes of Manipur and due to Burmese attack. Consequently, it was difficult for the small number of Bishnupriyas who remained in Manipur to retain their language in the face of the impact of Meitei, although Dr. G.A. Grierson, in 1891 found the existence of a considerable number of speakers in two or three villages near Bishnupur, locally known as Lamangdong.( LSI, Vol -V, Page 419). The language slowly started losing its ground in Manipur against a vast majority of Meiteis and slowly facing its decay in Cachar and Bangladesh against a vast majority of Banglalese. This language is still being spoken in Jiribam sub-division of Manipur, Cachar district of Assam and in some pockets in Bangladesh and Tripura.
[edit] Source and origin
The language is known to the speaker as ’’Imar Thar’’(ইমার ঠার ) which stands for ’’ Language of my Mother’’. They call themselves and their language ’’manipuri’’, and use the term ’’Bishnupriya’’ to distinguish them from other ethnic races of Manipur. The term "Bishnupriya", most probably derived from "Bishnupur" along with the suffix "iya", meaning people of Bishnupur, the olden capital of Manipur. Orthodox Bishnupriyas hold that the language was carried over to Manipur by some immigrants from Dvaraka and Hastinapura just after the Mahabharata war . It is further said that these immigrants are lead by Babhruvahana, the son of Chitrangada and Arjuna, the third Pandava. Some scholars and history writers come to support the Mahabharata origin by developing the theory on observation of morphology, vocables and phonology of Bishnupriya Manipuri language. They hold that BPM is highly influenced by the Sanskrit and Maharastri as well as Sauraseni Prakrits. Sauraseni Prakrit was the colloquial language of the soldiers and the people of Kuru Panchal and Matsyadesa including Hastinapura Indraprastha etc. Dr. K.P. Sinha, who has done considerable researches on Bishnupriya Manipuri, disagrees with the theory and is in the opinion that the language was originated through Magadhi Prakrita.
However, Bishnupriya Manipuri language is certainly not one of the Tibeto Burman languages, but is closer to Indo-Aryan group of languages with remarkable influence of Meitei both in grammatically and phonetically. At different stage of development of the language, Sauraseni, Maharastri and Magadhi languages and the Tibeto-Burman languages have exerted their influence on it. It was probably developed from the Sanskrit, Sauraseni and Maharastri Prakrita and ranks with Hindi, Bengali, Oriya and Assamese. The Sauraseni-Maharastri relation is evident from the fact that it has retained the dominant characteristics of Sauraseni and Maharastri Pronouns and declensional and conjugational endings are the most stable elements of a language; they undergo changes very slowly. A study of pronouns, the conjugational and declensional endings of Bishnupriya shows that most of these forms are same, as are closely related to those of the languages which are derived from Sanskrit. The Magadhi attachment is also remarkable as the language retains many characteristics of Magadhi. It can further be noted that Bishnupriya Manipuri retains many of the old (15th century to 17th century A.D.) Meitei sound vocabulary, as the majority of speakers of the language left Manipur during the 1st part of 19th century.
[edit] Dialects
Bishnupriyas have two dialects namely, Rajar Gang (Kings village and Madai Gang (Queans village) Unlike the dialects of other tribes, these dialects of Bishnupriya are not confined to distinct geographical areas, rather they exist side by side in the same localities. In Manipur however, these two dialects were coffined to well-defined territories. The Madai Gang dialect was spoken probably in the Khangabok-Heirokk area and the Rajar Gang dialect in the Bishnupur-Ningthankhong area. From the view point of phonetics, Madai Gang is more akin to Assamese and Meitei, whereas Rajar Gang is more akin to Bengali in respect of vocabulary Madai Gang is more influenced by Meitei while Rajar Gang is more akin to Bengali and Assamese. Morphological difference between these two dialects in negligible.
[edit] Vocabulary
- Tatsama words (OIA) number approx . 10,000
- Semi-Tatsama words, approx. 1,500
- Tadvaba words (words derived from OIA, found in Hindi,
- Assamese and others), approx. 8,000
- Tadvabas words, specific to Bishnupriya Manipuri, approx.2,000
- Meitei words, approx. 3,500
- Perso-Arabic words, approx. 2,000
- English words, approx. 700
- Hybrid words, approx. 1,000
- Desi and other words, approx. 1,500
- Words of obscure origin, approx. 1,300
[edit] Bishnupriya Manipuri Script
The orthodox Bishnupriyas claim that they have their own script that is Devanagari Scripts which was used to write Bishnupriya language in pre historic days. However on induction of modern education during the British period through the Bengali language the Bishnupriya Manipuri writers began to use the Bengali alphabet set along with a little modification. The alphabets have consonant letters, in- dependent vowel letters, dependent vowel signs (matras), punctuation and numerals. Bishnupriya Manipuri is written from left to right and top to bottom, in the same manner as in English. Some of the consonants can combine with one another to make orthographic clusters. The Bishnupriya Manipuri alphabet is identical to the Assamese script, which is itself almost identical to the Bengali script with the addition of few letters.
Vowels: অ আ ই ঈ উ ঊ এ ঐ ও ঔ
Vowel Sign: া ি ী ু ূ ৃ ে ৈ ো ৌ
Consonants: ক খ গ ঘ ঙ ছ জ ঝ ঞ ট ঠ ড ঢ ণ ত থ দ ধ ন প ফ ব ম য র ল শ ষ স হ ড় ঢ় য় ৱ ৼ ং ঃ ঁ
Numbers: ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯
[edit] Places where Bishnupriya Manipuri is spoken
In Manipur the language is still spoken in Jiribam subdivision and few rural areas of Bishnupur and Ningthaukhong. In addition, there are about 2,00,000 people living in Manipur, mainly in Khangabok, Heirok, Mayang Yamphal, Bishnupur, Khunan, Ningthankhong, Ngaikhong,Thamnapoxpi area, who speak Meitei but are known as Bishnupriyas. And, these people, even now think that their original language was Bishnupriya. Their facial feature and dark complexion clearly indicate that they are immigrants from the west. There are a large number of Bishnupriya Manipuri people settled in Assam ages ago, particularly in the districts of Cachar,Karimganj and Hailakandi. This people are counted as one of the major group of people in Cachar and Karimganj districts. In Tripura, the Bishnupriya Manipuri population localities may be divided into Dharmanagar sub-area, Kailasahar sub-area, Kamaipur sub-area and West Tripura sub-area. In Meghalaya, Arunachal-Pradesh and Mizoram, they have also Bishnupriya Manipuri population living scatteredly in the State.
Among the countries outside India, Bangladesh has the major Bishnupriya Manipuri population. The main localities are Sylhet, Moulbivazar, Habiganj and Sunamganj district. Besides, there are a considerable number of the Bishnupriyas Manipuris living scatteredly in the local headquarters cities like Mymensingh, Rangamati of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and also at Tezgaon, Manipuri-para of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.
In Myanmar Tbangdut, Mawa Kalewa and Bumnuk etc. are the Bisbnupriya Manipuri areas. And in case of the United States of America, Canada, Germany, Middle East and Austria, there are a considerable number of Bishnupriya Manipuris settled there.
[edit] Number of people using Bishnupriya Manipuri
- 3,00,000 in Assam
- 60,000 in Tripura
- 5,000 in Jiribam (Manipur)
- 12,000 in Ningthaukhong (Manipur)
- 10,000 in Bishnupur (Manipur)
- 2,000 in Meghalaya
- 1,000 in Arunachal Pradesh
- 60,000 in Bangladesh
- 150 in Nagaland
- 100 in Mizoram
- 100 in New Delhi
- 1,000 in Myanmar
- 2,000 in US, UK, Canada, Middle-East countries and other overseas countries
[edit] Not a dialect of Bengali or Assamese
Though there is a co-relation of the denotative words of the BPM language with those of the Bengali and Assamese for regional and periodical reasons, it does not mean that the original language is lost by the influence of the surrounding languages nor it reasonable to think that the BPM language is the formative language of the plain people of Assam, Bengal and Manipur as unwisely viewed by certain phoneticians; because the phonological and syntactical mainstream of the BPM language was never hampered and the same is even now with its distinct identity. Moreover, the plain people of Assam, Bengal and Manipur were perhaps not culturally, linguistically and politically so united; nor so conscious that they mutually might have formed a language like Bishnupriya Manipuri, in the Valley of Manipur.
Dr. Suniti kumar Chatterjee, a recognized Bangle phonetician, listed the BPM language to be a dialect of Bengali whereas, Dr. Maheswer Neog and Dr. Banikanta Kakti claimed it as a dialect of Assamese. Both being not keen on the matter, did not do justice to Bishnupriya Manipuri people and the language. Their assumptions later caused contradiction about the origin of Bishnupriya Manipuri language. But the assumptions were proved to be baseless, illogical and injustice according to scientific research and observation of morphology, vocabulary and phonology of BPM language.
Firstly, mere similarities of a few elements are not sufficient to prove that BPM is a dialect of one or that other language. Secondly, Dr. Chatterjee in his phonetic analysis, had used a peculiar version of Bishnupriya Manipuri language, which is much different from the original BPM language that is being spoken by the Bishnupriya Manipuri locality in Assam, Tripura, Manipur or Bangladesh . For example, ’’Manu agor Puto Dugo asil....’’ are not in a syntactically and grammatically the correct form of BPM. Thirdly, There are a numerous dissimilarities between Bengali /Assamese and BPM in the context of syntax, semantics and morphology. In fact, Bishnupriya Manipuri is a complete language itself and cannot be called a is a dialect of any other language.
[edit] Ancient literature
A good stock of folk literatures of Bishnupriya Manipuri, which are older in origin, are handed down to this day through oral tradition. The ancient literature of Bishnupriya Manipuri is represented by folk stories, folk-songs, folk-poems, rhymes and proverbs. Off them, a rain-invoking song called বরন ডাহানির এলা ( Boron-dahanir Ela, 1450-1600A.D.) and a song relating to the conjugal life of Madai and Soralel known as মাদই সরারেলর এলা (Madai Soralel Ela, 1500-1600 A.D.) are the most important. The language of the songs are archaic and are replete with words of Tibetan-Burmese origin. These two songs are are very important for the study of cultural and linguistic history of Bishnupriya Manipuri. Besides these, there are songs which are sung by women who works in fields. Proverbs form another important factor of BPM folk literature.
[edit] Modern literatures of Bishnupriya Manipuri
The Bishnupriya Manipuris, proud of their racial identity, are keen to develop their language and literature. They have established Bishnupriya Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, Bishnupriya Manipuri Sahitya Sabha, Bishnupriya Manipuri Sahitya Singlup, Pouri, Manipuri Theatre and many other organizations to encourage literary activities among the people. Serious literary culture of the BPM language began during the 2nd quarter of 20th century. In fact, the history of Manipuri literature began in 1925 with the literary magazine–’’Jagaran’’(জাগরন) edited by Falguni Singha who was a Bishnupriya Social worker; this magazine published articles both on Bishnupriya and Meitei language. The Manipuris of Surma valley formed together their first formal association, Surma Valley Manipuri Society (later changed its name to Surma Valley Manipuri Association) in 1934. The members included the Meiteis, the Bishnupriyas and the Pangals (Manipuri Muslims).From the 1933 we find a number of journals, viz. ’’Manipuri’’(1933), ’’Mekhali’’(1938) and ’’Kshatryajyoti’’(1944) etc. which had fostered nationalism as well literary and cultural activities. After then, a number of poets, dramatists, short-story writers, novelists and essayist have contributed to BPM. literature. A branch of modern BPM poetic literature, namely, Vaishnava Padavali based on Vaishnava philosophy, deserve special mention.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Bishnupriya Manipuri: A brief introduction
- Details on Bishnupriya Manipuri Language
- On the term Bishnupriya Manipuri
- Archive of Bishnupriya Manipuri Literature
- Bishnupriya Manipuri forum
- Bishnupriya Manipuri society
[edit] References
- Vasatatvar Ruprekha/ Dr. K.P. Sinha, Silchar, 1977
- Manipuri jaatisotta bitorko: ekti niropekkho paath /Ashim Kumar Singha, Sylhet,2001
- G.K. Ghose / Tribals and Their Culture in Manipur and Nagaland, 1982
- Raj Mohan Nath / The Background of Assamese Culture, 2nd edn, 1978
- Sir G. A. Grierson / Linguistic Survey of India, Vol-5,1903
- Dr. K.P. Sinha / An Etymological Dictionary of Bishnupriya Manipuri, 1982
- Dr. M. Kirti Singh / Religious developments in Manipur in the 18th and 19th centuuy, Imphal, 1980
- Singha, Jagat Mohan & Singha, Birendra / The Bishnupriya Manipuris & Their Language, silchar, 1976
