Bishnupriya Manipuri
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The Bishnupriya Manipuri Language
Bishnupriya Manipuri Language, a direct descendants of Sanskrit language was mainly spoken in Manipur, the north-eastern state of India. A great majority of speakers fled away from Manipur and took refuge in Assam, Tripura, Sylhet and Cachar during eighteen and nineteenth century due to internal conflicts among the prices of Manipur and due to Burmese attack. This Language is now spoken in parts of Assam, Tripura, Manipur( Jiribam Sub-division) in India ,in Bangladesh, in Burma and other overseas countries.
Manipuri community is comprised of Aryans and Kuki-chin people and thus the people of this community speaks in two distinct languages namely " The Meitei language" and "the Bishnupriya Manipuri language" . As the Meiteis entered Manipur from the east, their Language is of the Tibeto-Burman group. The Bishnupriyas entered Manipur from the west and so their language is of the Indo-Aryan group.
The records maintained by the British India Government as well as the Government of India in independent India attest to this practice and in Govt. records Manipuris are classified into two sub-heads: Meitei and the Bishnupriyas. During the British regime, in the school statistics maintained by the Cachar School Board, Cachar, the main heading "Manipuri" was sub-divided into "Meitei" and "Bishnupriya". The Census of India, 1961, also subdivided the main heading "Manipuri" into "Meitei" and "Bishnupriya". Commission for Linguistic minorities in India states - "The manipuris residing in Cachar district are divided into two distinct Sub-groups, viz, Meithei and Bishnupriya".
BISHNUPRIYA MANIPURI: A PROFILE
Language Name: Bishnupriya Manipuri
Alternative names: Vishnupriya, Vishnupriya Manipuri, Bishnupuria, Bishnupuria Manipuri, Mayang, Imarthar, BM, BPM
Regions: North-east India ( Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh) Bangladesh ( Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Sunamganj, Dhaka ) Myanmar & some other overseas countries.
Number of Speakers: 4,50,000 (aprox.)
Source: Close proximity with the Sauraseni-Maharastri Prakrit, highly influenced by Sanskrit. Some charateristics of Hindi, some denoting terms of Meitei and a little influence of Bengali and Assamese incorporated.
Vocabulary: Contains about 10,000 words of Sanskrit, 8,000 of Tadvava (words derived from OIA), 6,000 of its own and 4000 of Meitei.
Dialects: (1) Rajar Gang (Kings Village) and (2) Madoi Gang (Queens village).
The 1968 Language Bill passed by the Manipur Government making Meitei (A Non-Aryan word) synonymous to Manipuri (An Aryan word) and the inclusion of Meitei language as the Manipuri language in eight schedule of the Indian constitution was sufficient to damage the ethnical and cultural identity of the Bishnupriya Manipuri speaking people residing in Manipur, Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh. In the Linguistic Survey of India , the basis of language classification in India Dr. G.A. Grierson described the Bishnupriyas As Bishnupriya Manipuris.
The orthodox Bishnupriyas claim that they have their own scripts that is Devanagari Scripts which was used to write Bishnupriya language till 1627 A.D. W.Shaw and Raj Mohan Nath , two eminent scholars are of the view that " Bishnupriya " with its Devanagai script had been the court language of Manipur and was replaced by king Khagenba. R. M.Nath says "so in Manipur in spite of Devanagari scripts which the kala-chaias might have been using, the Meitai when they came into power introduced the new scripts." Text Source: http://www.manipuri.freeservers.com/
