Q7 · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2023 · GS I · 10 marks · 2 min read

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Why is the South-West monsoon called 'Purvaiya' (easterly) in Bhojpur Region? How has this directional seasonal wind system influenced the cultural ethos of the region?

Topic: Geophysical Phenomena. Syllabus: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2023 and Geophysical Phenomena.

Revision summary

The Bay of Bengal monsoon current is deflected westward up the Ganga plain. In Bhojpur that rain wind arrives from the east and is named Purvaiya. The Arabian Sea south-westerly is not the local rain-bringer here. Rice, flood, ghats, and Bhojpuri rain songs grew around this seasonal easterly. Culture and monsoon meteorology are one story in this region.

Model answer

Introduction

In the Bhojpuri belt of western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the rain-bearing monsoon often arrives as a moist wind from the east. People therefore call that current Purvaiya, even though the larger Indian monsoon is named south-west.

Body

Why the monsoon is Purvaiya here

  • The Arabian Sea branch of the south-west monsoon moves inland from the west and south-west, but the Bay of Bengal branch strikes the Eastern Himalaya and the Meghalaya–Bengal wall.
  • After that strike, a large part of the Bay current is deflected up the Ganga plain as a rain-bearing easterly or south-easterly flow.
  • Bhojpur, Buxar, Ara, Ballia, Ghazipur, and neighbouring districts sit where this deflected Bay current, not the dry westerly loo, brings the main kharif rain.
  • Local speech therefore names the welcome wet wind Purvaiya, meaning the easterly, which is a ground name for a deflected south-west monsoon current.
  • When the Purvaiya is late or weak, paddy and the flood pulse of the Ganga, Ghaghara, and Son fail together, so the name is a climate fact, not a poetic extra.

Influence on cultural ethos

  • Wet-rice, sugarcane, and later wheat in a floodplain calendar shaped festivals, work songs, and the waiting for rain in Bhojpuri folk such as kajri and malhar.
  • Boat culture, river ghats, and settlement on slightly higher mounds grew because the same easterly rain also means sheet flood and silt.
  • Chhath and other river-facing rites in the wider region treat the sun and the river as part of a monsoon agrarian year, even when the exact date is post-monsoon.
  • Language, birha, and migration songs record men leaving after harvest, which is a social answer to a densely peopled, flood-prone rice tract.
  • Food, thatch, and courtyard life assume humidity and clay, so the ethos is of a wet plain, not of a rain-shadow plateau.

Way forward for the explanation

  • Keep the meteorology (Bay deflection) and the culture (rice, flood, song, river rite) on the same wind, or the two parts of the question fall apart.

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  B[Bay of Bengal branch] --> H[Eastern Himalaya Bengal wall]
  H --> E[Easterly into Ganga plain]
  E --> P[Purvaiya in Bhojpur]
  P --> R[Rice flood song river rites]

Conclusion

The south-west monsoon is called Purvaiya in Bhojpur because the Bay branch reaches this plain as an easterly rain wind. That seasonal direction still shapes rice, flood, river rites, and Bhojpuri song, and climate planning here must treat the Purvaiya as both weather and culture.

Quick related

Students also ask

  • Do you think marriage as a sacrament in loosing its value in Modern India?

    Next question in the 2023 paper (Q8). View answer →

  • Does Purvaiya mean the monsoon is not south-west?

    The all-India system is still the south-west monsoon. In this plain the rain-bearing current is a deflected easterly, so the local name is accurate.

  • Is Chhath caused by the Purvaiya?

    Chhath is a river-sun rite of the wider region. It sits in an agrarian year that the monsoon and the rivers make possible, not as a direct wind cult.

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