BIGSBY

bigsby, john jeremiah (1792-1881), english geologist and physician, the son of dr john bigsby, was born at nottingham on the 14th of august 1792. educated at edinburgh, where he took the degree of m.d., he joined the army medical service and was stationed at the cape of good hope in 1817. about a year later he went to canada as medical officer to a regiment, and having developed much interest in geology he was commissioned in 1819 to report on the geology of upper canada. in 1822 he was appointed british secretary and medical officer to the boundary commission, and for several years he made extensive and important geological researches, contributing papers to the _american journal of science_ and other scientific journals; and later embodying an account of his travels in a book entitled _the shoe and canoe_ (1850). returning to england in 1827 he practised medicine at newark until 1846 when he removed to london, where he remained until the end of his life. he now took an active interest in the geological society of london, of which he had been elected a fellow in 1823. in 1869 he was elected a fellow of the royal society, and in 1874 he was awarded the murchison medal by the council of the geological society. during the last twenty years of his long life he was continually at work preparing, after the most painstaking research, tabulated lists of the fossils of the palaeozoic rocks. his _thesaurus siluricus_ was published with the aid of the royal society in 1868; and the _thesaurus devonico-carboniferus_ in 1878. in 1877 he founded the bigsby medal to be awarded by the geological society of london, with the stipulation that the receiver should not be more than forty-five years old. he died in london on the 10th of february 1881. bihari (properly _bihari_), the name of the most western of the four forms of speech which comprise the eastern group of modern indo-aryan languages (q.v.). the other members are bengali, oriya and assamese (see bengali). the number of speakers of bihari in 1901 was 34,579,844 in british india, out of a total of 90,242,167 for the whole group. it is also the language of the inhabitants of the neighbouring tarai districts of nepal. in the present article it is throughout assumed that the reader is in possession of the facts described under the heads of indo-aryan languages and prakrit. the article bengali may also be studied with advantage. "bihari" means the language of the province of "bihar," and to a certain extent this is a true description. it is the direct descendant of the old magadhi prakrit (see prakrit), of which the headquarters were south bihar, or the present districts of patna and gaya. it is, however, also spoken considerably beyond the limits of this province. to the west it extends over the province of agra so far as the longitude of benares, and to the south it covers nearly the whole of the province of chota nagpur. allowing for the speakers in nepal, its area extends over about 90,000 sq. m., and the total number of people who claim it as a vernacular is about the same as the population of france. bihari has been looked upon as a separate language only during the past twenty-five years. before that it was grouped with all the other languages spoken between bengal and the punjab, under the general term "hindi." the usual character employed for writing bihari is that known as _kaithi_, a cursive form of the well-known nagari character of upper india. the name of the character is derived from the _kayath_ or _kayasth_ caste, whose profession is that of scribes. kaithi is widely spread, under various names, all over northern india, and is the official character of gujarati. the nagari character is commonly employed for printed books, while the brahmans of tirhut have a character of their own, akin to that used for writing bengali and assamese. in the south of the bihari tract the oriya character belonging to the neighbouring orissa is also found. bihari has to its east bengali, also a language of the outer band. to its west it has eastern hindi, a language of the intermediate band (see indo-aryan languages). while it must decidedly be classed as an outer language, it nevertheless shows, as might be expected, some points of contact with the intermediate ones. nothing is so characteristic of bengali as its pronunciation of the vowel _a_ and of the consonant _s_. the first is sounded like the _o_ in "hot" (transliterated _o_). in eastern bihari the same vowel has a broad sound, but not so broad as in bengali. as we go westwards this broad sound is gradually lost, till it entirely disappears in the most western dialect, bhojpuri. as regards _s_, the magadhi prakrit pronounced it as _'s_, like the _sh_ in "shin." the prakrits of the west preserved its dental sound, like that of the _s_ in "sin." here bengali and eastern hindi exactly represent the ancient state of affairs. the former has the _'s_-sound and the latter the _s_-sound. at the present day bihari has abandoned the practice of the old magadhi prakrit in this respect, and pronounces its _s_'s as clearly as in the west. there are political reasons for this. the pronunciation of _s_ is a literal shibboleth between bengal and upper india. for centuries bihar has been connected politically with the west, and has in the course of generations rid itself of the typical pronunciation of the east. on the other hand, a witness as to the former pronunciation of the letter is present in the fact that, in the kaithi character, _s_ is always written _'s_. in the declension of nouns, bihari follows bengali more closely than it follows eastern hindi, and its conjugation is based on the same principles as those which obtain in the former language. language. the age of bihari as an independent language is unknown. we have songs written in it dating from the 15th century, and at that time it had received considerable literary culture. bihari has three main dialects, which fall into two divisions, an eastern and a western. the eastern division includes _maithili_ or _tirhutia_ and _magahi_. magahi is the dialect of the country corresponding to the ancient magadha, and may therefore be taken as the modern representative of the purest magadhi prakrit. its northern boundary is generally the river ganges, and its western the river son. to the south it has overflowed into the northern half of chota nagpur. it is nearly related to maithili, but it is quite uncultivated and has no literature, although it is the vernacular of the birthplace of buddhism. nowadays it is often referred to by natives of other parts of the country as the typically boorish language of india. maithili faces magahi across the ganges. it is the dialect of the old country of _mithila_ or _tirhut_, famous from ancient times for its learning. historically and politically it has long been closely connected with oudh, the home of the hero rama-candra, and its people are amongst the most conservative in india. their language bears the national stamp. it has retained numerous antiquated forms, and parts of its grammar are extraordinarily complex. it has a small literature which has helped to preserve these peculiarities in full play, so that though magahi shares them, it has lost many which are still extant in the everyday talk of mithila. the western division consists of the bhojpuri dialect, spoken on both sides of the gangetic valley, from near patna to benares. it has extended south-east into the southern half of chota nagpur, and is spoken by at least twenty millions of people who are as free from prejudice as the inhabitants of mithila are conservative. the bhojpuris are a fighting race, and their language is a practical one, made for everyday use, as simple and straightforward as maithili and magahi are complex. in fact, it might almost be classed as a separate language, had it any literature worthy of the name. (abbreviations: mth. = maithili, mg. = magahi, bh. = bhojpuri, b. = bihari, bg. = bengali. skr. = sanskrit, pr. = prakrit. mg. pr. = magadhi prakrit.) _vocabulary._--the bihari vocabulary calls for few remarks. _tatsamas_, or words borrowed in modern times from sanskrit (see indo-aryan languages), are few in number, while all the dialects are replete with honest home-born _tadbhavas_, used (unlike bengali) both in the literary and in the colloquial language. very few words are borrowed from persian, arabic or other languages. _phonetics._--the stress-accent of bihari follows the usual rules of modern indo-aryan vernaculars. in words of more than one syllable it cannot fall on the last, whether the vowel of that syllable be long or short, pronounced, half-pronounced, or not pronounced. with this exception, the accent always falls on the last long syllable. if there are no long syllables in the word, the accent is thrown back as far as possible, but never farther than the syllable before the antepenultimate. thus, _ki-sa'-n(a)_ (final a not pronounced); _pa'ni_, _ha-m^a-ra_; _de-kh^a-la-h^u_. in the last word there is a secondary accent on the penultimate, owing to the following imperfect vowel (see below). when the first syllable of a word has not the main stress-accent, it also takes a secondary one, as in _de-kh^a-li-ai-nh'_. when the letter a follows a syllable which has the accent (secondary or primary) it is only half pronounced, and is here denoted by a small ^a above the line. in mth. (but not in mg. or bh.) a final short _i_ or _u_ is often similarly very lightly pronounced, and is then represented by the same device. before such an "imperfect" ^i or ^u the preceding syllable has a secondary accent, if it has not already got the main one. when a word ends in _a_ preceded by a single uncompounded consonant, the _a_ is not pronounced; thus, _kisana_, sounded _kisan_. this vowel is sometimes pronounced with a drawl, like the _a_ in "ball," and is then transliterated _a_. when _a_ has this sound it can end a word, and in this position is common in the second person of verbs; thus, _dekha_, see thou. this sound is very frequently heard in bhojpuri, and gives a peculiar tone to the whole dialect, which at once strikes the casual hearer. the usual short form of the letter _a_ is _a_, but when this would lead to confusion it is shortened in mth. and mg. to a sound like that of _a_ in the german _mann_, and is then transliterated _a_. in bh. it is always shortened to _a_. as an example, from _pani_, water, is formed the word _paniya_, but (in mth. and mg.) from the word _marab_, to strike, we have mth. _mar^ali_, mg. _mar^ali_, i struck, because _mar^ali_ (_-li_) would mean "i died." in bh. _mar^ali_ actually has both these meanings. the letters _e_ and _o_ may be either long (_e, o_) or short (_e, o_). in skr. the diphthongs _ai_ and _au_ (here transliterated _ai, au_) are much longer than the bihari _ai_ and _au_, which are contractions of only _a + i_ and _a + u_ respectively. we may compare the sanskrit, or _tatsama, ai_ with the english "aye," and the _tadbkava ai_ with the english "i." in counting syllables in bihari, _ai_ and _au_ count each as two syllables, not each as one long syllable. the skr. _r_ appears only in _tatsamas_. nasalization of vowels is extremely frequent. in this article it is represented by the sign ~ over the vowel, as in _muh, mar^ali_ and _dekh^alah^u_. as regards consonants, _d_ and _dh_, when medial, are pronounced as strongly burred _r_ and _rh_, and are then transliterated as here shown. there is a constant tendency to change these to an ordinary dental _r_ and _rh_; thus, _ghoda_, pronounced _ghora_ or _ghora_. the semivowels _y_ and _v_ are always pronounced like _j_ and _b_ respectively, unless they are simply euphonic letters put in to bridge the hiatus between two concurrent vowels; thus _yauvana_ pronounced _jauban_, and _maliya_ for _mali-a, ghor^awa_ for _ghor^a-a_. the sibilants _s_ and _s_ are both pronounced as a dental _s_, but (a relic of the old mg. pr.) are both invariably written as a palatal _s_ in the kaithi character. thus, the english word "session" (_sesun_) is written _sesan_ and pronounced _sesan_. the cerebral _s_, when uncompounded, is pronounced _kh_. when compounded, it generally has its proper sound. thus, _sastha_, sixth, is pronounced _khasth_. as a general statement we may say that bihari spelling is not fixed, and that there are often many ways of writing, and sometimes two or three ways of pronouncing, the same word. the main typical characteristics of mg. pr. are that western pr. _s_ becomes _s_, and that western pr. _r_ becomes _l_. we have seen that the change of _s_ to _s_ occurs in bengali but not in bihari, and have given reasons for the change back to _s_ in the latter language, although the mg. pr. _s_ is retained in writing. in both bengali and bihari, a western _r_ is not now represented by _l_, but is represented by _r_. this deviation from the mg. pr. rule is only apparent, and is due to the letter _r_ representing two distinct sounds. in skr., in the western prakrits, and in the modern western languages, _r_ is a cerebral letter, with a cerebral sound. in the modern eastern languages, _r_ is a dental letter, with a dental sound. everywhere, both in old times and at the present day, _l_ was and is a dental letter. the meaning, therefore, of the change from western pr. _r_ to mg. pr. _l_ was that the western _r_ lost its cerebral sound, and became a dental letter, like _l_. that dental character is preserved in the _r_ of the modern eastern languages. in fact, in bihari _r_ and _l_ are frequently confounded together, or with _n_, another dental letter. thus, we have _kali_ or _kari_, black; _phar_ or _phal_, fruit; skr. _rajju-_, b. _leju-ri_, a string; _lakhnaur_, the name of a town, quite commonly pronounced _nakhlaul_; and the english names kelly and currie both pronounced indifferently _kari_ or _kali_. compare assamese _saril_ for _skr. sarira-_. the genius of the bihari language is adverse to the existence of a long vowel in a _tadbhava_ word, when it would occupy a position more than two syllables from the end. thus, _ghora_, but _ghor^awa_; _marel_, but _mar^ali_. this is subject to various subsidiary rules which will be found in the grammars. the principle is a most important one, and, indeed, pervades all indo-aryan vernaculars of the present day, but it is carried out with the greatest thoroughness and consistency in bihari. the whole system of declension and conjugation is subject to it. when _a_ preceding _i_ or _e_ is shortened, the two together become _ai_, and similarly a shortened _a + u_ or _o_ become _au_. _declension._--bihari has a stronger sense of gender than the other languages of the eastern group. in the modern language the distinction is in the main confined no animate beings, but in the older poetry the system of grammatical, as distinct from sexual, gender is in full swing. except in the case of the interrogative pronoun, there is no neuter gender--words which in skr. and pr. were neuter being generally, but not always, treated as masculine. the plural can everywhere be formed by the addition of some noun of multitude to the singular, and this is the universal rule in mth., but in mg. and bh. it is generally made by adding _n_ or (in bh.) _nh_ or _ni_ to the singular, before all of which a final vowel is shortened. thus _ghora_, a horse, _ghoran_, horses. as for cases, the apabhramsa locative--_hi_ (_-hi_) and the ablative _-hu_ (see prakrit) terminations have survived in poetry, proverbs and the like, and each of them can now be used for any oblique case; but in ordinary language and in literature _-hi_ and _-hi_ have become contracted to _e_ and _e_, the former of which is employed for the instrumental and the latter for the locative case. thus, _ghar_, house; _ghare_, by a house; _ghare_, in a house. the old termination _-hu_ has also survived in sporadic instances, under the form _o_, with an ablative sense. cases are, however, usually formed, as elsewhere, by suffixing postpositions to a general oblique case (see indo-aryan languages). the oblique case in bihari is generally the same as the nominative, but nouns ending in _n, b, l or r_, and some others, form it by adding _a_ (a relic of the old mg. pr. genitive in _aha_). thus, _maral_, the act of striking, obl. _mar^ala_ (mg. pr. _mari-allaha_). another set of verbal nouns forms the oblique case in _ai_, _e_ or _a_, thus, bh. _mar_, the ace of striking, _mare-la_, for striking, to strike. in mg. every noun ending in a consonant may have its oblique form in _e_; thus, _ghar_, a house, _ghar-ke_ or _ghare-ke_, of a house. the _ai-_ or _e-_ termination is another relic of the apabhrarhsa _-hi_, and the _a_ is a survival of the ap. _-hu_. the usual genitive postposition is _k_, which has become a suffix, and now forms part of the word to which it is attached, a final preceding vowel being frequently shortened. thus, _ghora_, gen. _ghorak_. other genitive postpositions are _ke_, _kar_ and _ker_. these, and all other postpositions, are still separate words, and have not yet become suffixes. the more common postpositions are[1] acc.-dat. _ke_; instr.-abl. _sa, se_; loc. _ma., me_. the genitive does not change to agree with the gender of the governing noun, as in hindostani, but in bh. (not in mth. or mg.), when the governing noun is not in the nominative singular, the genitive postposition takes the oblique form _ka_; thus, _raja-ke mandir_, the palace of the king; but _raja-ka mandir-me_, in the palace of the king. in mth. and mg. pronouns have a similar oblique genitive in _a_. there is no case of the agent, as in hindostani; the subject of all tenses of all verbs being always in the nominative case. every noun can have three forms, a short, a long and a redundant. the short form is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. occasionally both weak and strong forms occur for the same word; thus, short weak, _ghor_; short strong, _ghora_; long, _ghor^awa_; redundant, _ghorauwa_. this superfluity of forms is due to the existence of the pleonastic suffix _-ka-_ in the prakrit stage of the language (see prakrit). in that stage the _k_ of the suffix was already elided, so that we have the stages:--skr. _ghota-ka-s_, pr. _ghod-a-u_, b. _ghora_ (by contraction) or _ghor^a-wa_ (with insertion of a euphonic _w_). the redundant form is a result of the reduplication of the suffix, which was allowed in pr. thus. skr. _*ghota-ka-ka-s_, pr. _ghoda-a-a-u_, b. _ghorauwa_ (contracted from _ghor^a-wa-wa-a_). the long and redundant forms are mainly used in conversation. they are familiar and often contemptuous. sometimes they give a definite force to the word, as _ghor^awa_, the horse. in the feminine they are much used to form diminutives. as in other languages of the eastern group, the singulars of the personal pronouns have fallen into disuse. the plurals are used politely for the singulars, and new forms are made from these old plurals, to make new plurals. the old singulars survive in poetry and in the speech of villagers, but even here the nominative has disappeared and new nominatives have been formed from the oblique bases. all the pronouns have numerous optional forms. as a specimen of pronominal declension, we may give the most common forms of the first personal pronoun. +------------+----------------+--------------+------------+ | | maithili. | magahi. | bhojpuri. | +------------+----------------+--------------+------------+ | sing. nom. | ham | ham | ham | | gen. | hamar | hamar | hamar | | obl. | ham^ara | ham^ara | ham^ara | | | | | | | plur. nom. | ham^ara sabh | ham^arani | ham^ani-ka | | gen. | ham^ara sabhak | ham^arani-ke | ham^ani-ke | | obl. | ham^ara sabh | ham^arani | ham^a ni | +------------+----------------+--------------+------------+ the important point to note in the above is that the oblique form singular is formed from the genitive. it is the oblique form of that case which is also used when agreeing with another noun in an oblique case. thus, _hamar ghar_, my house; _ham^ara ghar-me_, in my house; _ham^ara-ke_, to me. in mth. the nominative plural is also the oblique form of the genitive singular, and in bh. and mg. it is the oblique form of the genitive plural. in bengali the nominative plural of nouns substantive is formed in the same way from the genitive singular (see bengali). the usual forms of the pronouns are _ham_, i; _to_, _tu_, thou; mth. _ap^anah_, bh. _raura_, your honour; _i_, this; _o_, that, he; _je_, who; _se_, he; _ke_, who? mth. _ki_, mg., bh. _ka_, what? _keo, keu_, any one; mth. _kicch^u_, mg. _kuchu_, bh. _kachu_, anything. the oblique forms of these vary greatly, and must be learned from the grammars. _conjugation in maithili and magahi._--it is in the conjugation of the verb that the amazing complexity of the mth. and mg. grammars appears. the conjugation of the bhojpuri verb is quite simple, and will be treated separately. in all three dialects the verb makes little or no distinction of number, but instead there is a distinction between non-honorific and honorific forms. in mth. and mg. this distinction applies not only to the subject but also to the object, so that for each person there are, in the first place, four groups of forms, viz.:-- i. subject non-honorific, object non-honorific. ii. subject honorific, object non-honorific. iii. subject non-honorific, object honorific. iv. subject honorific, object honorific. +-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------+ | | object: non-honorific | object: honorific. | +-------+----------------------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+--------------+------------+ |person.| short form | long form | redundant form. | | | | +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+ | | | | group i. | group ii. | group i. | group ii. | group i. | group ii. | group iii. | group iv. | | |(subject: non-| (subject: |(subject: non-| (subject: |(subject: non-| (subject: |(subject: non-| (subject: | | | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | honorific) | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+------------+ | | | _mar^aliai_ or | _mar^aliaik_ or | | | 1 | _mar^ali_ or _mar^ulak^u_ | (with object in 2nd person)| (with object in 2nd person)| _mar^aliainh^i_ | | | | _mar^aliau_ | _mar^aliauk_ | | | +--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+ | | | | |same as 1st | |same as 1st | | | | | | same as 1st | |person, but | |person, but | |same as 1st| | 2 | _mar^ale_ | person. | _mar^alah_ |no forms for | _mur^alahak_ |no forms for |_mar^alukunh^i_| person. | | | | | |object in | |object in | | | | | | | |2nd person. | |2nd person. | | | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+ | | | | maral^ukai or| |maral^akaik or| | | | | 3 | _mar^alak_ |_mar^alunh^i_| (with object | wanting | (with object | wanting | maral^akainh^i|_maral^at- | | | | |in 2nd person)| |in 2nd person)| | | hinh^i_ | | | | | _maral^akau_ | |_maral^akauk_ | | | | +-------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+-----------+ in mth. all the forms in which the object is honorific end in -_nh^i_. mg. closely follows this, but the forms are more abraded. forms in which the object is non-honorific may be, as in the case of nouns, short, long or redundant. the long forms are made by adding _ai_ (or in the second person -_ah_) to the short forms, and the redundant forms by adding _k_ to the long forms. again, if the _object_ is in the second person, the _ai_ of the long and redundant forms is changed to _au_. finally, in the first person the non-honorific and honorific forms depending on the subject are the same, and are also identical with those forms of the second person in which the subject is honorific. we thus get the following paradigm of the mth. past tense of the verb _marab_, to strike. the mg. forms are very similar. besides the above there are numerous optional forms. moreover, these are only masculine forms. the feminine gender of the subject introduces new complications. it is impossible here to go into all these _minutiae_, interesting as they are to philologists. they must be learnt from the regular grammars. on the present occasion we shall confine ourselves to describing the formation of the principal parts of the verb. in mth. the usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is, as in bengali, based on the root _ach_ (skr. _rcchati_), the initial vowel being generally dropped, as in _chi_, i am; _chalah^u_, i was; but _ach^i_, he is. in mg. we have _hi_ or _hiki_, i am; _halu_, i was. the finite verb has three verbal nouns or infinitives, viz. (from the root _mar_, strike), mth. _mar^i_ or mg. _mar_; _marab_; and _maral_. all three are fully declined as nouns, the oblique forms being _marai_ or _mare_, _mar^aba_, and _mar^ala_, respectively. there are two participles, a present (mth. _marait_ = pr. _marentu_) and a past (mth. _maral_ = pr. _mari-allu_). the mg. forms are very similar. the old mg. pr. present and imperative have survived, but all other tenses are made from verbal nouns or participles. the past tense (of which the conjugation for a maithili transitive verb is given above) is formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle. thus, _maral+i_, struck + by-me, becomes _mar'li_, i struck. in the case of intransitive verbs, the suffixes may represent the nominative and not the instrumental case of the pronoun, and hence the conjugation is somewhat different. the future is a mixed tense. generally speaking, the first two persons are formed from the verbal noun in _b_, which is by origin a future passive participle, and the third person is formed from the present participle. thus, _marab + ah^u_, about-to-be-struck + by-me, becomes _mar^abah^u_, i shall strike, and _marait + ah_, striking + he, becomes _mar^atah_, he will strike (compare the english "he's going," for "he is on the point of going"). a past conditional is also formed by adding similar suffixes to the present participle, as in _maritah^u_, (if) i had struck. this use of the present participle already existed in the pr. age (cf. hema-candra's _grammar_, in. 180). in mth. the present definite and the imperfect are formed by conjugating the present or past tense respectively of the auxiliary verb with the present participle; thus _marait chi_, i am striking. mg. (like vulgar english) substitutes the oblique form of the verbal noun for the present participle, as in _mare hi_, i am a-striking. the perfect is usually formed by adding the word for "is" to the past; thus, mth. _mar^ali ach^i_, i have struck, lit. struck-by-me it-is. a pluperfect is similarly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb. there are numerous irregular verbs. most of the irregularities are due to the root ending in a vowel or in a weak consonant such as _b_ (= pr. _v_). thus root _pab_, obtain, past participle _paol_, first singular, past tense, _pauli_. more definitely irregular are a few roots like _kar_, do, past participle _kail_. these last instances are cases in which the past participle is independently derived from a skr. past participle, and is not formed as usual by adding the pleonastic suffix -_al_ or -_il_ (skr., pr., _-alla-_, _-illa_-, see prakrit) to the bihari root. thus, skr. _krta-s_, pr. _kaa-u, ka-ill-u_, b. _kail_, instead of _kar-al_. there is a long series of transitive verbs formed from intransitives and of causal verbs formed from transitives, generally by adding _ab_ (skr. _apaya_-, pr. _ave_-). compound verbs are numerous. noteworthy is the desiderative compound formed by adding the root _cah_, wish, to the dative of a verbal noun. thus, _ham dekha-ke cahait-chi_, i am wishing for the seeing, i wish to see. _conjugation in bhojpuri._--the bh. conjugation is as simple as that of mth. and mg. is complex. in the first and second persons the plural is generally employed for the singular, but there is no change in the verb corresponding to the person or honour of the object. the usual verb substantive and auxiliary verb is derived in the present from the root _bat_ or _bar_, be, as in _bate_ or _bare_ (skr. _vartate_, pr. _vattai_), he is. the past is derived from the root _rah_ (skr. _rahati_, pr. _rahai_), as in _rah^ali_ or (contracted) _rahi_, i was. the verbal nouns and participles are nearly the same as in mth.-mg., the first verbal noun and the present participle being _mar_ and _marat_, as in mg. the old present and imperative, derived from the mg. pr. forms, are also employed in bh. thus, _mare_ (pr. _marei_), he strikes. this tense is often used as a present conditional. when it is wished to emphasize the sense of a present indicative, the syllable -_la_ is suffixed. the same suffix is employed in rajasthani, naipali and marathi to form the future, and in bh. it is often also used with a future sense. the past tense is formed, as in mth.-mg., by adding pronominal suffixes to the past participle; thus, _mar^ali_ (_mara + li_), i struck, as explained above. similarly, for the first and second persons of the future we have _mar^abi_, i shall strike, and so on, but the third person is _mari_ (pr. _marehi_), he will strike, _marihen_ (pr. _marehinti_), they will strike. the periphrastic tenses are formed on the same principles as in mth. as an example of bh. conjugation we give the present, past and future tenses in all persons. there are a few additional optional forms, but nothing like the multiplicity of meanings which we find in mth. and mg. +---------+----------+----------+----------+ | | present. | past. | future. | +---------+----------+----------+----------+ | sing. 1 | not used | not used | not used | | 2 | mare-le | mar^alas | mar^abe | | 3 | mare-la | mar^ale | mari | | | | | | | plur. 1 | mari-la | mar^ali | mar^abi | | 2 | mara-la | mar^ala | mar^aba | | 3 | mare-le | mar^alen | marihen | +---------+----------+----------+----------+ it will be observed that the termination of the present changes in sympathy with the old present to which it is attached. in some parts of the bh. area, especially in the district of saran, _u_ is substituted for _^al_ in the past. thus, _marui_, i struck. the _maru_- is merely the past participle without the pleonastic termination _-alla-_ which is used in bihari, as explained under the mth.-mg. conjugation. irregular verbs, the formation of transitive and causal verbs, and the treatment of compound verbs, are on the same lines as in mth. literature. _bihari literature._--in all three dialects there are numerous folk-epics transmitted by word of mouth. several have been published at various times in the _journal of the asiatic society of bengal_ and in the _zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaendischen gesellschaft_. the only dialect which has any real literature is maithili. the earliest writer of whom we have any record is vidyapati thakkura (bidyapati thakur), who lived at the court of raja siva simha of sugaona in tirhut in the 15th century. he was a voluminous sanskrit writer, but his fame rests chiefly on his dainty lyrics in maithili dealing with the loves of radha and krishna. these have exercised an important influence on the religious history of eastern india. they were adopted and enthusiastically recited by the reformer caitanya (16th century), and through him became the home-poetry of the bengali-speaking lower provinces. their language was transformed (we can hardly say translated) into bengali, and in that shape they have had numerous imitators. a collection of poems by the old master-singer in their maithili dress has been published by the present writer in his _chrestomathy_ of that language. the most admired of vidyapati's successors is manbodh jha, who died in 1788. he composed a _haribans_, or poetical life of krishna, which has great popularity. many dramas have been composed in mithila. the fashion is to write the body of the work in sanskrit and prakrit, but the songs in maithili. two dramas, the _parijata-harana_ and the _rukmini-parinaya_, are attributed to vidyapati. among modern writers in the dialect, we may mention harsanatha, an elegant lyric poet and author of a drama entitled _usa-harana_, and candra jha, whose version of the ramayana and translation of vidyapati's sanskrit _purusa-pariksa_ are deservedly popular. authorities.--_the linguistic survey of india_, vol. v. part ii. (calcutta, 1903), gives a complete conspectus of bihari in all its dialects and sub-dialects. see also g.a. grierson, _seven grammars of the dialects and sub-dialects of the bihari language_, parts i. to viii. (calcutta, 1883-1887--these deal with every form of bihari except standard maithili); and s.h. kellogg, _a grammar of the hindi language, in which are treated high hindi... also the colloquial dialects of ... bhojpur, magadha, maithila, &c._ (2nd ed., london, 1893). for maithili, see g.a. grierson, _an introduction to the maithili language of north bihar, containing a grammar, chrestomathy and vocabulary_; part i. _grammar_ (calcutta, 1881; 2nd ed., 1909); part ii. _chrestomathy and vocabulary_ (calcutta, 1882). for vidyapati thakkura, see j. beames, "the early vaishnava poets of bengal," in _indian antiquary_, ii. (1873), pp. 37 ff.; the same, "on the age and country of vidyapati," _ibid_. iv. (1875), pp. 299 ff.; anon, article in the _banga darsana_, vol. iv. (1282 b.s.), pp. 75 ff.; saradacarana maitra, introduction to _vidyapatir padavali_ (2nd ed., calcutta, 1285 b.s.); c.a. grierson, _chrestomathy_, as above; "vidyapati and his contemporaries," _indian antiquary_, vol. xiv. (1885), pp. 182 ff.; "on some mediaeval kings of mithila," _ibid_. vol. xxviii. (1899), pp. 57 ff. for bhojpuri, see j. beames, "notes on the bhojpuri dialect of hindi spoken in western bihar," in _journal of the royal asiatic society_, vol. iii. n.s., 1868, pp. 483 ff.; a.f.r. hoernle, _a grammar of the eastern hindi compared with the other gaudian languages_ (here "eastern hindi" means "western bhojpuri"), (london, 1880); j.r. reid, _report on the settlement operations in the district of azamgarh_ (allahabad, 1881--contains in appendices full grammar and vocabulary of western bhojpuri). no special works have been written about magahi. (g. a. gr.) footnote: [1] the origin of the postpositions is discussed in the article hindostani.