120 
G. A. Grierson .—Essays on Biltart Declension. [No. 2, 
pointed. Magadhi all this time held a middle course. Its peculiar home 
was the hilly country about Bihar and Gaya, where there was little inter¬ 
course with other tribes, and little mental or material progress. It had no 
literature, and therefore nothing to retard, while it had little to aid its pro¬ 
gress. Hence its middle position between the antique Maithili, and the 
practical work-a-day Bhojpuri. 
The object of these papers is to bring to a common focus all the 
information which I have collected concerning the dialects of Bihar, 
and to lay them in this shape before the Society. I shall treat mainly of 
the following dialects : 
A. Bhojpuri, spoken in west Bihar. 
B. Magadhi, spoken in south Bihar. 
C. Maithili, spoken in north and east Bihar. 
Of the last there are two sub-dialects. 
1. North Maithili spoken in north Tirhutand Bhagalpur. 
2. South Maithili spoken in south-east Tirhut, and north 
M unger. 
Besides these the dialects of language borderlands will be consider¬ 
ed, viz. :— 
A. The Baiswari of the Ramayan of Tulsi Das, which is the 
border dialect between Bihari (Bhojpuri) and Hindi. 
B. The dialects of the border land between Bihari (Maithili) 
and Bangali, spoken in (1) south Bhagalpur, and (2) 
central and western Purniya. 
I shall also have occasion to refer to the dialects of dialect border¬ 
lands, viz. : 
A. Maithili-Bhojpuri of south-west Tirhut. 
B. Maithili-Magadhi of south Munger. 
There is not any bordeidand of importance between Magadhi and 
Bhojpuri. The following table shows the relative positions of these dia¬ 
lects and sub-dialects. 
( 
a 
X 
M A I 
§ 
-8 
pq 
■ 
69 
e 
Maithil- Bhojpuri 
<5 0 
’“3 
8 
0 
pq 
X 
PQ 
North Maithili 
r h i l i 
South Maithili 
Maith il-Mugadhi 
MAGADHI 
a 
<s>. 
by 
a 
as 
a^ 
by 
k 
k 
