Page 24 - Bhojpuri Verb Morphology

d. 

Tharu community

e. 

In the past Kaithi script was used for Bhojpuri language, which is named by a caste

'Kayastha'. Kayastha were supposed to use this script, but now this language is written
in Devanagari script. The earlier records indicate that Bhojpuri was using its own

script, Kaithi, previously.

During this research Bhojpuri is used for language and Bhojpurian in Singular and
Bhojpurians in plural number for the Bhojpuri speakers.

2.3 Population distribution

According to Nepalese Public census in 2001 (2058 B.S.), Bhojpuri is the third major
language of Nepal preceded by Nepali and Maithili. Some 1,712,536 Bhojpurians are

living in Nepal, which is the 7.53% of total population, whereas Nepali and Maithili
speakers secure their position by obtaining 48.61% and 12.3% respectively.
Following table shows the number of Bhojpurians.

According to report of Public Census, 2001 in Nepal the population of Bhojpurians
(Bhojpuri speakers) are as follows in different districts of Nepal:

Table 1: The population of Bhojpurians in different districts.

S. No. Districts Population Bhojpurians Percentage

1. Sarlahi 635,701 118,105 18.58

2. Rautahat 545,132 183,217 33.61

3. Bara 559,135 425,442 76.09

4. Parsa 497,219 415,489 83.56

5. Chitwan 472,048 3,487 0.01

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics

The reason of low population of Bhojpurians in Chitwan is internal migration of non-
Bhojpuri speakers and a shift of the Tharu population from Bhojpuri.

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