''Batohiya'' (

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

: ;

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: Baṭohīyā; transl. Foreigner) is a

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

poem written by

Raghuveer Narayan Raghuveer Narayan (31 October 1884 – 1 January 1955) or Raghubir Narayan was a Bhojpuri and English poet and a freedom fighter. His Bhojpuri poem ''Batohiya'' gained popularity equivalent to Vande Mataram and is considered as National Song o ...

in 1911. This ''Purbi'' song became very popular and

George Abraham Grierson Sir George Abraham Grierson (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in British India. He worked in the Indian Civil Service but an interest in philology and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languag ...

also recorded this song for

Linguistic Survey of India The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. The Survey was first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a linguist w ...

in 1920. It has also been called the "Vande Matram" of Bhojpuri. The poem was first published in ''Raghuveer Patra Pushp''. The title ''Batohiya'' is a Bhojpuri word which means ''traveller''. In this song an indentured laborer in British colony is explaining to a traveller about India as a heaven on the earth and he wants to visit his homeland. This song gained immense popularity in foreign countries like

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, and

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

. Till 1970 this poem was on the cover of Hindi text book of class 11th and 12th published by ''Bihar State Textbook committee''.

Etymology

The root of the word ''batohiya'' is

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

word ''bāṭ'' which means ''road'' or ''way''. The one who travels on the road is called ''Batohi'' which in conjunction with Bhojpuri suffix -iya becomes ''Batohiya'', which means ''traveller''.

Lyrics

The first two verses of the poem read as follow:

English translation

English translation of first two verses are as follow: {{Poemquote, Beautiful good land brother India its country is, My life soul lives snowy cave O traveller. One door (gate) encircling Rama Himalaya sentinel like, Three door (gate) sea roars O traveller. Want to go O traveller to see Hindustan, Where Cuckoo sings coos O traveller. Scented air breeze slowly from the sky, Wife sings a song of separation O traveller

Performances and interpretations

This song has been recorded several times, the oldest one was done by G.A. Girerson in 1920. This song has also been sung by

Malini Awasthi Malini Awasthi (born 11 February 1967) is an Indian folk singer. She sings in Bhojpuri, Awadhi and Hindi, She also presents Thumri and Kajri. The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016. She is known for h ...

Chandan Tiwari Chandan Tiwari is an Indian folk singer from Bihar. She is known as folk singer and sings in Bhojpuri, Nagpuri, Awadhi and Hindi. She was awarded Sangeet Natak Academy-Bismillah Khan Samman. She was honoured by Bhojpuri Kokila in Kolkata. BAG ...

Raj Mohan Raj Mohan (born 28 August 1964), is a Dutch singer and songwriter, who sings in Bhojpuri. In 2011 he released his first pop album with Sarnami-Bhojpuri lyrics together with Hindi songs and poems which he all wrote and composed himself. It is the fi ...

and many renowned singers. Recently this song is sung by a group of singers, directed by Shushant Asthana and produced by Nitin Chandra, can be seen over internet.

References

Bhojpuri literature Indian poems 1911 poems