Chhattisgarhi language and literature
2. Regional variants
The central plains of Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg speak the core Chhattisgarhi. Around it, the speech takes local names, by place or by the community that speaks it. Grierson's Linguistic Survey lists the following.
| Variant | Where or by whom | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lariya | The name the Odia-speaking people on the eastern border give to Chhattisgarhi | Strongly coloured by Odia |
| Khaltahi | The eastern part of Balaghat district | From Khaloti, the name by which the Chhattisgarh (Bilaspur) tract is known in Balaghat: the language of Khaloti |
| Sargujiya | Surguja in the north | The northern variety, with its own place among Chhattisgarhi forms |
| Binjhwari, Baigani | The Binjhwar and Baiga tribes | Tribal communities who gave up their own tongue speak a Chhattisgarhi named after them |
| Sadri Korwa | The Korwa of Jashpur | Named after the community, like the two above |
| Bhulia, Kalanga | Weavers of Sonpur; the people of Patna | Both states passed to Odisha; the speech is Odia-tinged and is also called Lariya |
3. Sounds and word types
A familiar sound habit of Chhattisgarhi, as of much Eastern Hindi, is that the sibilants (retroflex sh and palatal sh) are spoken as s, so bhasha is heard as bhasa and dosh as dos; the Sanskrit vowel r-vocalic is commonly spoken as ri, so rishi is heard as risi.
The commission also asks for the four word types, which are the same as in Hindi. Tatsam words are Sanskrit words used unchanged (gram, ratri); tadbhav words descend from Sanskrit through Prakrit with change (gaon, rat); deshaj words are native words of no Sanskrit source (lota, jhanda); videshi words are borrowed from other languages (kalam and kitab, from Arabic). In Chhattisgarhi the tadbhav class is by far the largest, and the sound habit above is one way tatsam words are brought into it.
4. Grammar: number, case, pronouns and tense
Number and gender. The plural of a noun is made by adding man (man): laika-man (the boys), manukh-man (the men). A plural made by changing the ending, as in Hindi, is not the usual pattern. Case is shown by postpositions added to the noun, and after the plural suffix. The genitive ke does not change with the gender or number of the noun: kisan ke beta, kisan ke beti, kisan ke beta-man.
| Case | Marker | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Accusative and dative | la (also ka) | mola (to me) |
| Instrumental and ablative | le (also se) | mor le (by or from me) |
| Dative of purpose | bar | mor bar (for me) |
| Genitive | ke | kisan ke beta (the farmer's son) |
| Locative | ma | ghar ma (in the house) |
| Definiteness (not a case) | har | bilai har (the cat) |
| Person | Direct | Oblique | Genitive |
|---|---|---|---|
| First, singular (I) | mai | mo | mor (my) |
| Second, singular (you) | tai | to | tor (your) |
| First, plural (we) | ham-man (or ham) | ham | hamar (our) |
| Second, plural (you) | tum-man (or tum) | tum | tumhar (your) |
| Third, with a distance | o | o | okar (his, her) |
| Tense | How it is formed | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present | Present participle in -t + the auxiliary he (Grierson writes hai) or han | laika-man parhat he; ham dar bhat khat han |
| Simple past | Root with the ending -is (third person) | bilai har khais; o kahis (he said) |
| Past continuous | Present participle + rahis, rahin | o-man khat rahin |
| Future | Root with -be for “you” (singular) | kahan jabe ga |
| Negative and prohibitive | nai with a statement; jhan with a command (the Chhattisgarhi negative and prohibitive particles as in common usage) | o nai jat he; jhan ja |
5. Translation drills: Hindi and Chhattisgarhi
Translation questions give a Hindi sentence and ask for its Chhattisgarhi form, or the reverse. The method is to find the verb pattern first (present in ta, past in -is, continuous with rahis, future in -be), then change the pronoun and the postposition. The sentences below use only forms and patterns checked against the Linguistic Survey.
| Hindi | Chhattisgarhi |
|---|---|
| The cat ate. | bilai har khais |
| They were eating. | o-man khat rahin |
| Where will you go? | kahan jabe ga |
| The children are reading. | laika-man parhat he |
| Your little girl is good. | tumhar noni bhal he |
| Ask his name. | okar nam puchh |
| Do not go. | jhan ja |
| He is not going. | o nai jat he |
6. Proverbs, riddles, songs and tales
A proverb is a hana and a riddle is a janaula. Questions on them in the examination ask for the meaning of a saying or the answer to a riddle, so learn the idea of each form and the usual folk wisdom they carry (a bad workman blames his tools; do not count chickens before they hatch) rather than any fixed wording. This chapter prints no sample proverbs or riddles, because their Devanagari spellings differ between collections and could not be confirmed against a second authority.
Folk songs and tales. The songs include the Suwa songs of women, the Karma songs, the Dadaria, the Bansgeet of the Rawat cowherds and the Pandwani ballads. Hira Lal's grammar, as Grierson notes, prints several of the songs and stories that itinerant bards recite.
7. Writers and works; the contribution to Hindi
| Writer | Work and place | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Gopal Chandra Mishra | Khoob Tamasha | Traditionally named as a court poet of Ratanpur in the late 17th century; writes in Hindi (details of his life are not firmly settled) |
| Hira Lal Kavyopadhyaya | Grammar of Chhattisgarhi, written in Hindi | Headmaster of the Anglo-Vernacular School, Dhamtari; translated by Grierson (published 1890); revised edition of 1921 by Lochan Prasad Kavyavinod |
| Pandit Sundarlal Sharma | Chhattisgarhi Dan Leela, composed about 1903 | Regarded as the first narrative poem (prabandh kavya) in Chhattisgarhi; also a freedom fighter |
| Narendra Dev Verma | Arpa Pairi ke Dhar | The song declared the state song by the state government in November 2019; he wrote and composed it |
| Madhavrao Sapre | Chhattisgarh Mitra (1900, Pendra); Ek Tokri Bhar Mitti (1901) | The story, published in the magazine, is called the first Hindi short story, a claim scholars debate |
| Padumlal Punnalal Bakshi | Editor of the Hindi magazine Saraswati | Of Khairagarh |
| Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh | Hindi poet | Taught at Digvijay College, Rajnandgaon |
| Shrikant Verma | Magadh (poems) | Born in Bilaspur (1931); Sahitya Akademi Award for Magadh, awarded in 1987 after his death in 1986 |
| Vinod Kumar Shukla | Naukar Ki Kameez (1979); Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rehti Thi | Born 1 January 1937 at Rajnandgaon; Sahitya Akademi Award 1999 (for Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rehti Thi); the 59th Jnanpith Award (for 2024), announced on 22 March 2025, the first for a Chhattisgarh writer |
Key takeaways
- Chhattisgarhi belongs to Eastern Hindi with Awadhi and Bagheli, and is written in Devanagari. It became an official language beside Hindi after the Assembly adopted the Official Language (Amendment) Bill on 28 November 2007, and 28 November is Chhattisgarhi Rajbhasha Diwas.
- The literature is divided into the Gatha period (about 1000 to 1500), the Bhakti period (about 1500 to 1900) and the modern period (from about 1900).
- Variants are named by place or community: Lariya on the Odia border, Khaltahi in part of Balaghat, Sargujiya in Surguja, and Binjhwari, Baigani and Sadri Korwa after the Binjhwar, Baiga and Korwa.
- Grammar: plural by man; cases by la, le, bar, ke, ma; genitive ke unchanged by gender; pronouns mor, tor, hamar, tumhar, okar; present in -t with he or han, past in -is, continuous with rahis or rahin, future in -be; nai negates and jhan forbids.
- A proverb is a hana and a riddle is a janaula; they are tested by meaning, never by a fixed spelling.
- Dan Leela of Sundarlal Sharma (about 1903) is the first Chhattisgarhi narrative poem; Hira Lal Kavyopadhyaya wrote the grammar; Madhavrao Sapre's Chhattisgarh Mitra (1900) and Ek Tokri Bhar Mitti (1901) are Chhattisgarh's early gift to Hindi; Vinod Kumar Shukla is the 59th Jnanpith awardee (announced March 2025).
Practice questions (18)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
In the standard classification of Hindi, Chhattisgarhi belongs to which group?
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Answer: A — Eastern Hindi, with Awadhi
Chhattisgarhi is one of the three main dialects of Eastern Hindi, with Awadhi and Bagheli, descended from Ardhamagadhi. Western Hindi is the distractor because it is the group of the standard Hindi that Chhattisgarhi sits beside.In the standard account of the Eastern Hindi group, which Prakrit, lying between Shauraseni in the west and Magadhi in the east, is regarded as the parent of Eastern Hindi, to which Chhattisgarhi belongs?
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Answer: C — Ardhamagadhi
Ardhamagadhi, the mixed Prakrit between Shauraseni and Magadhi, is the standard parent of Eastern Hindi (Awadhi, Bagheli, Chhattisgarhi). Shauraseni is the parent of Western Hindi, and Magadhi gave the Bihari and Bengali-Odia group; the trap is choosing a neighbouring Prakrit instead of the one lying between them.By what name do the Odia-speaking people of the eastern border call Chhattisgarhi?
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Answer: D — Lariya
The Odia side calls Chhattisgarhi Lariya. Khaltahi is the name used in part of Balaghat, and Sargujiya is the northern form, while Halbi is a neighbouring language of Bastar, not a name for Chhattisgarhi.According to Grierson's Linguistic Survey, “Khaltahi”, the language of Khaloti, is the name given to Chhattisgarhi spoken in a part of which district?
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Answer: A — Balaghat district
The survey places Khaltahi in the eastern part of Balaghat district. Surguja has its own Sargujiya, and Jashpur is associated with the Sadri Korwa of the Korwa, so they are the likeliest wrong choices.What is the suffix that makes the plural of a noun in Chhattisgarhi, as in laika-man?
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Answer: B — man
The plural is made by adding man to the noun. har gives definiteness, la marks the object or dative, and bar marks a dative of purpose, so none of them forms a plural.Consider the following statements about Chhattisgarhi grammar. P: le marks the instrumental and the ablative. Q: The genitive ke does not change with the gender of the noun that follows. R: ma marks the locative. S: la is the marker of the genitive. Which is/are correct?
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Answer: C — P, Q and R only
P, Q and R are correct. S is wrong because la marks the object and the dative; the genitive is ke. S is the tempting statement because la is the commonest marker in everyday speech.Which Chhattisgarhi pronoun means “our”?
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Answer: D — hamar
hamar is the genitive of the first person plural, our. mor is my, okar is his or her and tumhar is your (plural); mor is the closest wrong choice because it is also first person.Which is the Chhattisgarhi form of the Hindi sentence “The cat ate”?
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Answer: B — bilai har khais
The simple past ends in -is: bilai har khais. khat he is present, khat rahis is past continuous, and nai khais is negative, so each differs from the Hindi in tense or polarity.Which Chhattisgarhi sentence means “They were eating”?
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Answer: C — o-man khat rahin
The past continuous is the present participle with rahin for a plural subject: o-man khat rahin. o-man dar bhat khat he is present, o-man khais is simple past, and ham khat han is we are eating, so the tense or the person is wrong in each.Which sentence means “Do not go”?
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Answer: A — jhan ja
jhan makes the command a prohibition: jhan ja. Without jhan, ja is an affirmative command (go), jabe is a future (you will go), and o nai jat he is a statement that he is not going, so none of those three forbids the listener to go.What does the Chhattisgarhi sentence “ham dar bhat khat han” mean?
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Answer: D — We are eating dal and rice
khat marks the present participle and han is the first person plural of the present auxiliary, so the sentence is a present statement, we are eating. Past and future would need the -is or -be endings, and they were eating needs rahin.In Chhattisgarhi, the word “hana” names which form of folk expression?
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Answer: A — A proverb or saying
A hana is a proverb or saying; the riddle is the janaula. A lullaby and a heroic ballad are different song forms. The closest wrong choice is the riddle, because proverbs and riddles are taught together as the sayings of the language.Match each form with what it is. P: hana, Q: janaula, R: Pandwani. Which set is correct?
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Answer: C — P: proverb; Q: riddle; R: Mahabharata ballad
A hana is a proverb, a janaula is a riddle and Pandwani narrates the Mahabharata. The set that swaps proverb and riddle fails on P and Q, the set that gives Pandwani to the riddle fails on Q and R, and the set naming the Ramayana fails on R, the trap taught in the folk-arts chapter.Which of these is a song form of the Rawat (Yadav) cowherds of Chhattisgarh?
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Answer: D — Bansgeet
Bansgeet is the Rawat cowherds\' song, sung to the bamboo flute. Suwa is the women\'s parrot song, Karma belongs to Gond, Baiga and Oraon groups, and Pandwani is the Pardhi ballad of the Mahabharata; Karma is the closest distractor because it is also a folk song of the state.Who wrote the grammar of Chhattisgarhi that Sir George Grierson translated, a headmaster of the Anglo-Vernacular School at Dhamtari?
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Answer: A — Hira Lal Kavyopadhyaya
The grammar was written in Hindi by Hira Lal Kavyopadhyaya, translated by Grierson (published 1890) and revised in 1921 by Lochan Prasad Kavyavinod. Sundarlal Sharma is the author of the first Chhattisgarhi narrative poem, not of the grammar.Who composed the Chhattisgarhi Dan Leela, composed about 1903 and regarded as the first narrative poem in Chhattisgarhi?
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Answer: B — Sundarlal Sharma
Pandit Sundarlal Sharma composed Dan Leela about 1903. Madhavrao Sapre is remembered for the magazine Chhattisgarh Mitra and an early Hindi story, not for a Chhattisgarhi narrative poem, and Vinod Kumar Shukla is a modern Hindi writer.Arrange these in chronological order, earliest first, taking the dates as usually given:
(i) the Chhattisgarh Mitra magazine at Pendra,
(ii) Vinod Kumar Shukla's novel Naukar Ki Kameez,
(iii) Dan Leela,
(iv) Ek Tokri Bhar Mitti.Show answer
Answer: A — Order (i), (iv), (iii), (ii)
The magazine was founded in 1900, the story was published in it in 1901, Dan Leela was composed about 1903 and Naukar Ki Kameez appeared in 1979. The closest wrong order puts the story before its own magazine.Consider the following. P: Madhavrao Sapre founded the magazine Chhattisgarh Mitra at Pendra in 1900. Q: Vinod Kumar Shukla is the 59th recipient of the Jnanpith Award. R: Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh was born at Rajnandgaon. S: Padumlal Punnalal Bakshi, of Khairagarh, edited the Hindi magazine Saraswati. Which is/are correct?
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Answer: D — P, Q and S only
P, Q and S are correct. R is wrong: Muktibodh taught at Digvijay College, Rajnandgaon, but was not born there; Vinod Kumar Shukla was the one born at Rajnandgaon.