Nagpuria

Nagpuria is an ethnolinguistic designation used for the Nagpuri language and the people who speak it in eastern India. Also known as Nagpuri or Sadri in various contexts, the term encompasses a regional language as well as the cultural identity of its speakers, who are often referred to as Nagpuria or Nagpuri people.

Geographically, Nagpuri is spoken primarily in the Chota Nagpur region of Jharkhand, with speakers spread into neighboring parts of Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal. There are also communities of Nagpuri speakers in urban centers across India. The language exists in several regional dialects, reflecting local variation in pronunciation, vocabulary, and usage.

Linguistically, Nagpuri is an Indo-Aryan language. It belongs to the broader Eastern Indo-Aryan family and has been influenced by surrounding languages such as Hindi, Odia, Bengali, and Maithili over historical contact. The language uses Devanagari script in contemporary writing, though historically it has appeared in other scripts and has a rich oral tradition that predates standard orthographies.

Culturally, Nagpuri has a longstanding literary and folk heritage, including poetry, storytelling, and music that reflect the history and daily life of its speakers. The language functions in local media, cultural events, and education to varying degrees, and there are ongoing efforts to promote its transmission and standardization within the broader language landscape of eastern India.

Nagpuria thus denotes both a language and an ethnic community rooted in the eastern Indian region, contributing to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the area.