Bihar or Vihar- the controversy gaining strength

Patna, April 9: With Orissa set to be known as Odisha, the debate on whether Bihar is an etymological error that needs correction has been rekindled.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar inadvertently set off the debate while delivering the inaugural function to mark Bihar Divas on March 22. Touching on the etymological aspect of the name of the state, Nitish said: “Some people say that the word ‘Bihar’ has its origin in ‘Vihar’ and some say the state derives its name from ‘Bahaar’. Let me tell you that there is both ‘Vihar’ and ‘Bahaar’ in the present day Bihar.”

But though the error is acknowledged by most, including politicians, they are not too keen to push for a name change — a campaign that has affected most other parts of the country. Bombay became Mumbai, Madras was changed to Chennai, Bangalore to Bengaluru and Calcutta is now officially known as Kolkata. Even the names of states haven’t been spared: Orissa will be known as Odisha once the President gives assent to the Bill that has been passed by both Houses of Parliament.

Nitish, though, has been silent on the subject following his speech and even after organising Bihar Divas on a grand scale.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi made clear the government stand. “I know that Bihar should be Vihar. But it has been going on for ages. It will have no significance and it will create an unnecessary controversy,” he told The Telegraph.

Even leader of the Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui treaded cautiously. “Let the government come out with a proposal, then we will come out with our opinion,” he said.

The hesitation of politicians to stick out their neck is understandable. RJD chief Lalu Prasad had once suggested re-christening Patna as Azimabad. The name has its roots in Prince Azim — the grandson of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and the governor of Bihar in 1702. It was he who shifted the capital from Murshidabad to Patna. However, there was fierce opposition from a section of the people who insisted that Patna should be renamed Patliputra — the once mighty capital of ancient India. Ironically, the late Speaker of the Bihar Assembly, Dev Narayan Yadav, had mooted a proposal that the name of Patna be changed to Patliputra. Lalu Prasad, as chief minister, had rejected the proposal.

Sociologist Hetukar Jha pointed out that the current name of the state is being used since the 15th century. “Even when, during the reign of Emperor Akbar the administrative annexation of Tirhut region with Bihar was carried out, the name was not changed. During British rule as well, no change in the name of the state was introduced,” he said.

Now that the name has been institutionalised, talks of changing the name to “Vihar” is “meaningless”, said Jha. “In my opinion the name of the state is a non-issue and it is not going to be of any help for the state. People should not rake up such issues,” he said.

S.S. Singh, head of the department of ancient history and archaeology, Patna University, said there is no historical or archaeological evidence about the origin of the name Bihar. “The present region of Bihar was known as Magadh during the Maurya, Kushan and Gupta periods. At that time, there were a large number of Buddhist Vihars as Bihar was the epicentre of Buddhism. Some of the prominent ones were Nalanda Vihar, Vikramshila Vihar, Odantpuri Vihar and others. The name of the state Bihar originated from the same word, Vihar. The word Vihar is derived from Sanskrit and Pali which means dwellings. The Vihars were the place of dwelling of Buddhist Vikhus,” he said.

Singh pointed out that Biharsharif, a place in Nalanda district, derives its name from the same “Vihar”, as the ancient Odantpuri University was located there for teaching Buddhism. Between the 13th to the 16th century, Biharsharif was one of the important places under Delhi Sultanate as the city was an active cultural centre and an important seat of Islamic thought and learning. The word Sharif, meaning “noble”, was added to word Vihar to give the place its name. Viharsharif later became Biharsharif.

Singh said over a period of time, the word Vihar gradually changed to Bihar due to wrong and faulty pronunciation. But there is no substantial historical evidence to show when the word Vihar changed to Bihar.

Ashok Kumar, professor of Sanskrit, Patna University, held an identical view. “However, there is no historical or archaeological evidence on the origin of the word. Moreover, over time, due to wrong and faulty pronunciation and under the influence of various cultures, the word Vihar got changed to Bihar.”

Professor Satishwar Sati Prasad, former head of the English department of Patna University and an eminent linguist, said Bihar has a mixed-up dialect and in general parlance, the ‘V’ in Sanskrit is pronounced as ‘B’. Citing an example, Prasad said: “Generally it has been found that ‘Sarvavikalp’ is pronounced as ‘Sarvabikalp’.” Prasad, however, is in favour of a change of name as he feels Vihar will give the state its identity.

Amrita Dasgupta, a linguistics scholar at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, said the word “Bihar” came from “Vihara”, which means “abode” in Sanskrit or Pali.

“However, the word Bihar also means ‘college’ in Sanskrit and since at one time the importance of this region was due to the Nalanda University, some historians also believe that the present name Bihar could have been derived from there. The name could be a combination of the two since both words exist in the etymological history of Bihar. The influence of Bengali and other languages and dialects of the eastern region, which do not have the sound ‘v’ but have the sound ‘b’ in their vocabulary, might have led to the pronunciation Bihar instead of Vihar,” Dasgupta said.