Food Names in Bihar and What They Mean in Regular Hindi
7 Jan
We moved to Delhi from Patna when I was twelve. Before the move I thought that apart from the differences in personal pronoun usage and transitive verb syntax, the two places spoke the same language Hindi.
It took me by surprise when I discovered that in discussions about food, my new non-Bihari friends and I were often talking the equivalent of Greek and Latin. I told them I disliked kaddu, they assumed I disliked red pumpkin. When I said "Red pumpkin is not kaddu, it’s kohra! I meant bottle gourd", they said – "Bottle gourd is not kaddu, it’s lauki!"
And so after years of talking at cross-purposes, I’ve made a list of food nomenclature differences between Bihar Hindi and "regular" Hindi. I hope this is fun/useful for those who’ve gone through a similar geographical shift.
Word Mapping: Regular Hindi to Bihari Hindi
| English Name/ Description |
Regular Hindi Name | Bihar Hindi Name | Remarks |
| Bottle gourd | Lauki | Kaddu | |
| Red Pumpkin | Kaddu | Kohra | |
| Sponge Gourd | Torai | Nenua | |
| Taro/Colocasia | Arbi | Arui | |
| Yam | Jimmikand | Ole | Rhymes with ‘role’, not with the Spanish interjection. |
| Flattened rice | Chiwra | Chura | |
| Mustard oil | Sarson tel | Karua tel | Karua = bitter, a nod to the strong flavor of mustard. |
| Nigella seeds | Kalonji | Mangrail | |
| Boiled rice | Chawal | Bhaat | In Bihar, chawal is only uncooked rice. Plain boiled white rice is bhaat. |
| Mashed vegetables | Bharta | Chokha | Actually, Bihar’s chokha is a lot simpler than Delhi’s bharta. |
| Savory pancake | Cheela | Papra | |
| Savory snack with filling | Samosa | Singhara | |
| Sweet Empanada | Gujiya | Pirukiya |
Know of more? Share please.
Interested in knowing more about food from Bihar? Read the Bihari recipes featured on The Steaming Pot.
You might also want to read these articles on The Steaming Pot:
Hi dear,
I just happened to chance upon your website and found it to be so refreshingly sorted. Also you have a special section for Bihari recipes is something that attracted me to it since I am also from Patna. My all time favourite comfort food has to be Dal-Bhaat-Chokha-Achaar.
Hi Nita, Lovely to hear that your feedback. Nothing like simple home-cooked food :-) I am about to post about “pua” next!
Sahi hai bhai. If you move to south india. It’s all together new experience. Most of vegetable named as kaai ex awakaai. Bhindi as bindikaai. Ground vegetables named as gedde like aloogedde . Saag as soppo.
Oh yes :D On that note, let me link to this post about VV Puram Food Street in Bangalore, a fun place to visit during the avarekai season.
Pirar kya hota hai? Uska english naam kya hai?
Hamra sakrauri bahut Nik lagaiya bihari dishes main
Hi , I have heard from my Bihari cook that there is a root in Madhubani Side called as Khamaruah but unable to get anything related to it by using google. Do you have any idea what that is ? I believe that he mentioned it is a vine and the roots of which grow very deep into the earth which is used to make food. Any information about it would be awesome .
Thank you ,
Sankar
Hi Sankar,
I guess your cook means “marua”, called finger millet in English. It’s malted and ground into flour – we know it as marua ka atta in Bihar, ragi in the southern parts of India. In Bihar the flour is used in making marua ka roti.
I actually chanced upon this page looking for khamarua on google. It is not a finger millet but a root that is cooked like a sabzi. It is long and cyclindrical, probably the same family as yam. Makes amazing crunchy chips!
@shruti: Wow, thanks for that! Something new learned today :) Can you share a pic of “khamarua” if you have one? I had googled for the word too on seeing Sankar’s question, and found no results. So I took the nearest guess!
Khamarua is similiar to yam, it grows 3-4 feet below in the soil, mainly found in madhubani, shaharsa, purnea or koshi region. it has High content of calcium and people belief that they Khamarua is very useful for bone strength.
It is the same in Trinidad, Guyana, suriname. This is our typical meal and we are living in the west for 175 years
Wow! Thanks for sharing that, Radhika.
Khamarua is bihari name of yam.
Hi Sangita – Is it? Haven’t heard of it. Is that name used in specific regions of Bihar, or is this a specific type of yam?
Hi Sangita,
Yam is called as OAL in Bihar and most of the mithilanchal area in Bihar.
Hi dear
The names you mentioned are not even used in regular Hindi. If we talk about Delhi, then it’s called ‘Ghiya’ not ‘Lauki’, ‘Tori’ not ‘Torai’ and ‘Sitafal’ not ‘Kaddu’. So before posting an article and talking about regular Hindi please improve your own Hindi and knowledge.