The Magahi language of Bihar is traced back to which ancient Prakrit?
- A.Shauraseni Prakrit
- B.Maharashtri Prakrit
- C.Magadhi Prakrit
- D.Paishachi Prakrit
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Magadhi Prakrit, the speech of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, whose core lay in the Patna and Gaya country where Magahi is spoken today. The name itself preserves the link: Magadha gives Magadhi, and Magadhi gives Magahi. Ardhamagadhi, a close relative, is the language in which the Jain canon preserves the sermons of Mahavira, and Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures, grew out of the same eastern speech.
Option A, Shauraseni Prakrit, was the Prakrit of the Surasena country around Mathura, and the Western Hindi dialects such as Braj descend from it. Option B, Maharashtri Prakrit, was the Prakrit of the Deccan, the ancestor of Marathi and the preferred medium of Prakrit lyric poetry. Option D, Paishachi Prakrit, is the obscure Prakrit in which the lost Brihatkatha was said to be written. In the exam, link each Prakrit with the modern languages that came from it.
Read the full article: Bihar Languages and Literature: Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magahi
Practice Questions
View allMaithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution by which amendment?
- A.71st Amendment Act, 1992
- B.92nd Amendment Act, 2003
- C.21st Amendment Act, 1967
- D.96th Amendment Act, 2011
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This amendment added four languages to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, namely Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali, and raised the total number of scheduled languages from eighteen to twenty-two.
Read the full explanation →By which title is the poet Vidyapati of Mithila remembered?
- A.Maithil Kokil
- B.Shakespeare of Bhojpuri
- C.Rashtrakavi
- D.Purvi Samrat
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Vidyapati was the poet of the Mithila court in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and his Maithili padavali of songs about Radha and Krishna is still sung in north Bihar.
Read the full explanation →Varna Ratnakara, regarded as the first prose work in Maithili, was written by whom?
- A.Vidyapati
- B.Chanda Jha
- C.Jyotirishwar Thakur
- D.Harimohan Jha
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His Varna Ratnakara, a fourteenth century work, is counted as the earliest prose composition in Maithili and indeed one of the earliest in any modern Indian language.
Read the full explanation →Which of these languages spoken in Bihar is NOT included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution?
- A.Hindi
- B.Urdu
- C.Bhojpuri
- D.Maithili
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Bhojpuri is spoken by crores of people in western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Indian diaspora of Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname and Trinidad, and it has a rich folk theatre, yet it has not been added to the Eighth Schedule.
Read the full explanation →Which script was traditionally used for writing the Maithili language?
- A.Kaithi
- B.Tirhuta or Mithilakshar
- C.Sharada
- D.Brahmi
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This is the traditional script of the Mithila region, used for Maithili manuscripts, panjis of genealogy and ritual texts, and it is related to the eastern group of scripts that also produced Bengali and Assamese letters.
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