Awadhi,[a] also known asAudhi,[b] is anIndo-Aryan language belonging to theIndo-Iranian subdivision of theIndo-European languages. It is spoken in theAwadh region ofUttar Pradesh in northernIndia and inTerai region of westernNepal.[5][6][7] The nameAwadh is connected toAyodhya, the ancient city, which is regarded as the homeland of theHindu deityRama, the earthlyavatar ofVishnu. Awadhi is also widely spoken, along withBhojpuri, by the diaspora of Indians descended from those who left asindentured labourers during the colonial era. Along withBraj, it was used widely as a literary vehicle before being displaced byHindi in the 19th century. Though distinct from standard Hindi, it continues to be spoken today in its unique form in many districts of central and easternUttar Pradesh.[8]
The Indian government considers Awadhi to be a greater mother-tongue grouped underEastern Hindi languages. Standard Hindi serves as thelingua franca[9] of the region;Hindi, rather than Awadhi, is used for school instruction as well as administrative and official purposes and its literature falls within the scope ofHindi literature.[10] Some of the most culturally significant works in Indian literature like theRamcharitmanas andHanuman Chalisa have been written in Awadhi.
Alternative names of Awadhi includeBaiswāri (after the subregion ofBaiswara),[11] as well as the sometimes ambiguousPūrbī, literally meaning "eastern", andKōsalī (named after the ancientKosala Kingdom).[6]
In eastern parts of UP the Awadhi language changes its form to a special dialect called "Eastern Standard Awadhi." This region makes boundary withBhojpuri speaking districts of Purvanchal. This part include districts of-
The closest relative of Awadhi is theBagheli language as genealogically both descend from the same 'Ardha-Magadhi'. Most early Indian linguists regarded Bagheli merely as 'the southern form of Awadhi', but recent studies accept Bagheli as a separate dialect at par with Awadhi and not merely a sub-dialect of it.[21]
In this period, Awadhi became the vehicle forepic poetry in northern India.[22] Its literature is mainly divided into: bhaktīkāvya (devotional poetry) and premākhyān (romantic tales).
The most important work, probably in any modernIndo-Aryan language, came from the poet-saintTulsidas in the form ofRamcharitmanas (1575 C.E.) or "The Lake of the Deeds ofRama", written indoha-chaupaimetre. Its plot is mostly derivative, either from the originalRāmāyaṇa byValmiki or from theAdhyātma Rāmāyaṇa, both of which are inSanskrit.[23]Mahatma Gandhi had acclaimed theRamcharitmanas as "the greatest book of all devotional literature" while western observers have christened it as "the Bible ofNorthern India".[24] It is sometimes synonymously referred as 'Tulsidas Ramayana' or simply 'the Ramayana'.[25]
In each universe I saw my own self, As well as many an object beyond compare; Each universe had its ownAyodhya, With its ownSaryu and its own men and women.
On the sea-shore there was a mountain lovely, He hopped to its peak sportively; Over and again, the Lord he did recall And theSon of Winddarted with energy no small.
The first Hindi vernacular adaptation of the 'Dasam Skandha' of theBhagavata Purana, the "Haricharit" by Lalachdas, who hailed from Hastigram (present-day Hathgaon nearRae Bareilly), was concluded in 1530 C.E. It circulated widely for a long time and scores of manuscript copies of the text have been found as far as eastern Uttar Pradesh andBihar,Malwa andGujarat, all written in theKaithi script.[32]
Satyavatī (ca. 1501) of Ishvaradas (of Delhi) under the reign ofSikander Lodi andAvadhabilāsa (1700 C.E.) of Laladas were also written in Awadhi.
Awadhi appeared as a major component in the works ofBhakti saints likeKabir, who used a language often described as being apancmel khicṛī or "a hotch-potch" of several vernaculars.[33][34] The language ofKabir's major workBijak is primarily Awadhi.[35][36]
Queen Nagamati talks to her parrot,Padmavat, 1750 C.E.
Lovers shoot at a tiger in the jungle. From the mystical Sufi textMadhumalati.
Awadhi also emerged as the favourite literary language of the Eastern Sufis from the last quarter of the 14th century onwards. It became the language ofpremākhyāns, romantic tales built on the pattern of Persianmasnavi, steeped in Sufimysticism but set in a purely Indian background, with a large number ofmotifs directly borrowed from Indian lore. The first of suchpremākhyān in the Awadhi language wasCandāyan (1379 C.E.) of Maulana Da'ud.[37] The tradition was carried forward byJayasi, whose masterpiece, thePadmāvat (1540 C.E.) was composed under the reign of the famous rulerSher Shah Suri. The Padmavat travelled far and wide, fromArakan to theDeccan, and was eagerly copied and retold inPersian and other languages.[38]
Other prominent works of Jayasi such as Kānhāvat,[39] Akhrāvaṭ[29] and Ākhrī Kalām[40] are also written in Awadhi.
I'll tell you about my great town, the ever-beautiful Jais.
In thesatyayuga it was a holy place, then it was called the "Town ofGardens." Then thetreta went, and when thedvapara came, there was a great rishicalledBhunjaraja. 88,000 rishis lived here then, and dense ... and eighty-four ponds. They baked bricks to make solid ghats, and dug eight-four wells. Here and there they built handsome forts, at night they looked like starsin the sky. They also put up several orchards with temples on top.
Doha: They sat there doing tapas, all those human avataras.They crossed this world doinghoma andjapaday and night.
The Awadhi romance Mirigāvatī (ca.1503) or "The Magic Doe", was written by Shaikh 'Qutban' Suhravardi, who was an expert and storyteller attached to the court-in-exile of Sultan Hussain Shah Sharqi ofJaunpur.[42][43] Another romance namedMadhumālatī or "Night Flowering Jasmine" by poet Sayyid Manjhan Rajgiri was written in 1545 C.E.[44]
Amir Khusrau (d. 1379 C.E) is also said to have written some compositions in Awadhi.[45]
The most significant contributions to the Awadhi literature in the modern period have come from writers likeRamai Kaka (1915–1982 C.E.), Balbhadra Prasad Dikshit better known as ‘Padhees’(1898–1943 C.E.) and Vanshidhar Shukla (1904–1980 C.E.).
‘Krishnayan’ (1942 C.E.) is a major Awadhi epic-poem that Dwarka Prasad Mishra wrote in imprisonment during theFreedom Movement of India. In 2022 Dr.Vidya Vindu Singh has been awardedPadma Shri for her contribution in Awadhi literature.
Awadhi has many features that separate it from the neighbouringWestern Hindi andBihari vernaculars. In Awadhi,nouns are generally both short and long, whereas Western Hindi has generally short while Bihari generally employs longer and long forms. Thegender is rigorously maintained in Western Hindi, Awadhi is a little loose yet largely preserved, while Bihari is highly attenuated. Regardingpostpositions, Awadhi is distinguished from Western Hindi by the absence of agentive postposition in the former, agreeing with Bihari dialects. Theaccusative-dative postposition in Awadhi is /kaː/ or /kə/ while Western Hindi has /koː/ or /kɔː/ and Bihari has /keː/. Thelocative postposition in both Bihari and Western Hindi is /mẽː/ while Awadhi has /maː/. Thepronouns in Awadhi have /toːɾ-/, /moːɾ-/ as personal genitives while /teːɾ-/, /meːɾ-/ are used in Western Hindi. The oblique of /ɦəmaːɾ/ is /ɦəmɾeː/ in Awadhi while it is /ɦəmaːɾeː/ in Western Hindi and /ɦəmrən'kæ/ in Bihari.[8]
Another defining characteristic of Awadhi is theaffix /-ɪs/ as in /dɪɦɪs/, /maːɾɪs/ etc. The neighbouringBhojpuri has the distinctive (i) /laː/ enclitic inpresent tense (ii) /-l/ inpast tense (iii) dative postposition /-laː/ which separates it from the Awadhi language.[20]
The 1961 filmGunga Jumna features Awadhi being spoken by the characters in a neutralised form.Gabbar Singh's speech in the 1975 filmSholay was a mix ofKhariboli and Awadhi, inspired byDilip Kumar's dacoit character Gunga fromGunga Jumna.[51] In the 2001 filmLagaan, a neutralised form of Awadhi language was used to make it understandable to audiences.[52][53] The 2009 filmDev.D features an Awadhi song, "Paayaliya", composed byAmit Trivedi.[54] In the television seriesYudh,Amitabh Bachchan spoke parts of his dialogue in Awadhi, which received critical acclaim from theHindustan Times.[55] Awadhi is also spoken by the residents ofAyodhya and other minor characters inRamanand Sagar's 1987 television seriesRamayan. The lyrics of the song "Rang Barse Bhige Chunar Wali", from the movieSilsila starring Amitabh Bachchan andRekha, are in Awadhi dialect.Hrithik Roshan's character Vedha Betal in the 2022 Hindi feature filmVikram Vedha also featured him speaking in the Awadhi dialect.
The Awadhi folk song "Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai" has become popular in Bollywood with a neutralised version of it being in the 1981 filmLaawaris starring Amitabh Bachchan, as well as being in the 1970 filmBombay Talkie and the 1975 filmMaze Le Lo, it was also released as a single byNeha Kakkar in 2020.[56] Another Awadhi folk song that became popular through Bollywood was "Holi Khele Raghuveera", which was neutralised and sung by Amitabh Bachchan and put into the 2003 filmBaghban starring Amitabh Bachchan andHema Malini.
The Awadhi language comes with its dialectal variations. For instance, in western regions, the auxiliary /hʌiː/ is used, while in central and eastern parts /ʌhʌiː/ is used.
The following examples were taken from Baburam Saxena'sEvolution of Awadhi, and alternative versions are also provided to show dialectal variations.
^Masica (1993:9)- A vast central portion of the subcontinent, consisting of the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, plus the Union Territory of Delhi, is known as the "HINDI area", because the official and general written language, that is to say, that of administration, press, school instruction, and modern literature, is Hindi, sometimes called MODERN STANDARD HINDI, and the whole area is heir to the "Hindi literary tradition" – Hindi being used here in a different and wider sense, to refer to pre-modern literature in Braj and Awadhi, and often to those languages proper to Rajasthan and Bihar as well
^Lutgendorf (1991:12)—Since the Ramcaritmanas is a text in the Ramayana tradition, for which the Sanskrit epic of Valmiki is the accepted archetype, it is commonly referred to simply as "the Ramayan" and many popular editions bear only this name on their spine and cover, perhaps adding above it in small print: "composed by Goswami Tulsidas".
^Rao, I. Panduranga (1998). "Review of The Beautiful Verses (Ram-Charit Manas, "Sunder-Kand" and Hanuman Chalisa of Goswami Tulsidas rendered into English verse)".Indian Literature.41 (1 (183)):240–241.ISSN0019-5804.JSTOR23341337.
^Orsini (2014:200)—"That Brahminkathavachaks were not the only tellers of the story is proved by the first Hindi vernacular adaptation of the Dasam Skandha, the Haricharit in the Chaupai Doha by Lalach Kavi, aKayastha from "Hastigram" (present-day Hathgaon) near Rae Bareilly, concluded in 1530 (VS1587)."
^Vaudeville (1990:260)–The first editor of theKabir Granthavali, S.S Das, also stresses the composite character of Kabir's language, giving examples in his introduction, ofvanis composed in Khariboli (i.e. Standard Hindi), Rajasthani, and Panjabi, besides Awadhi.
^Vaudeville (1990:264)–Among the dialects or languages "melted" in the Hindavi language, the most important is Avadhi, mentioned above. The language of Kabir himself an Easterner, retains old Eastern forms, especially the old Avadhi forms.
^Vaudeville (1990:260)–Chaturvedi has shown that the samepada may be found with more characteristic Avadhi forms in theBijak, with more Khari-boli in the Guru Granth and with Braj forms in the Kabir Granthavali.
^Vaudeville (1990:259)–According to Grierson, however, there is not a single word typical of the Bhojpuri language in the Bijak. According to him, the basic language of the Bijak is old Avadhi...
^Hawley, John Stratton (2015), Orsini, Francesca; Schofield, Katherine Butler (eds.), "Did Surdas Perform the Bhāgavata-purāṇa?",Tellings and Texts, Music, Literature and Performance in North India (1 ed.), Open Book Publishers, p. 212,ISBN978-1-78374-102-1,JSTORj.ctt17rw4vj.15,Then there are the Ahirs whose performances of the Krishna story fascinated Malik Muhammad Jayasi, as he tells us in his Kanhavat of 1540;...
^Manjhan (2001:xi) —"Manjhan's birthplace Rajgir is in the present-day state of Bihar, not far away from Patna in northern India, and the poem itself is written in Awadhi or eastern Hindavi".
^Jafri, Saiyid Zaheer Husain (2016). "Sectional President's Address: 'MAKING' OF THE COMPOSITE CULTURE IN PRE-NAWABI AWADH".Proceedings of the Indian History Congress.77: 148.ISSN2249-1937.JSTOR26552634.
Vaudeville, Charlotte (1990). "Kabīr's language and languages, Hinduī as the language of non-conformity".Indo-Iranian Journal.33 (4):259–266.doi:10.1163/000000090790083572.ISSN0019-7246.
_Jodhpur%2c_c._1775%3b_62.7_x_134.5_cm_Mehrangarh_Museum_Trust.jpg)
