Chunnu Munnu The Do Bhai
Hindi Nursery Rhyme
Original Lyrics
Hindi script
चुन्नू मुन्नू थे दो भाई,रसगुल्ले पर हुई लड़ाई।चुन्नू बोला मैं खाऊँगा,मुन्नू बोला मैं खाऊँगा।
हल्ला सुनकर मम्मी आई,दोनों को एक चपत लगाई।आधा तू ले चुन्नू बेटा,आधा तू ले मुन्नू बेटा।
ऐसा झगड़ा कभी न करना,आपस में तुम मिलकर रहना।
Romanized (pronunciation)
Chunnu Munnu the do bhai,Rasgulle par hui ladai.Chunnu bola main khaunga,Munnu bola main khaunga.
Halla sunkar mummy aayi,Dono ko ek chapat lagayi.Aadha tu le Chunnu beta,Aadha tu le Munnu beta.
Aisa jhagda kabhi na karna,Aapas mein tum milkar rehna.
English Translation
Chunnu and Munnu were two brothers,A fight broke out over a rasgulla.Chunnu said, "I will eat it,"Munnu said, "I will eat it."
Hearing the racket their mother cameAnd gave the pair of them a smack."Take half, Chunnu, my boy,Take half, Munnu, my boy.
Never quarrel like this again,Live together, the two of you."
Translation Notes
Vocabulary
दो (do) - two भाई (bhai) - brother रसगुल्ले (rasgulle) - rasgulla, a syrupy cheese sweet लड़ाई (ladai) - fight, quarrel बोला (bola) - said खाऊँगा (khaunga) - I will eat हल्ला (halla) - noise, racket मम्मी (mummy) - mummy, mother दोनों (dono) - both, the two of them चपत (chapat) - a light smack आधा (aadha) - half बेटा (beta) - son, used as an affectionate "my boy" झगड़ा (jhagda) - quarrel कभी न (kabhi na) - never आपस में (aapas mein) - among yourselves मिलकर (milkar) - together
Grammar Notes
थे for "were": चुन्नू मुन्नू थे दो भाई uses थे, the masculine plural past of होना (to be). A single brother would be था, a sister would be थी, and two sisters would be थीं. The rhyme opens with a tense marker most learners meet in week one.
The future in ऊँगा: खाऊँगा is "I will eat", first person and masculine. A girl saying the same line would say खाऊँगी. Hindi marks gender in the future tense on the speaker, so the verb changes even when the pronoun does not.
सुनकर, "having heard": हल्ला सुनकर मम्मी आई chains two actions with the कर participle. Literally "noise having heard, mummy came". This is the standard Hindi way to say "when she heard the noise", and it needs no word for "when".
Feminine agreement runs through verse two: मम्मी आई and चपत लगाई both end in ई because मम्मी is feminine and चपत is a feminine noun. In verse one, हुई लड़ाई is feminine for the same reason: it is the fight, not the brothers, that the verb agrees with.
Negative commands with न: ऐसा झगड़ा कभी न करना is a soft prohibition, "never quarrel like this". Hindi has a sharper negative imperative with मत; the न plus infinitive form used here is gentler and sounds like advice rather than an order, which suits a mother wrapping up an argument.
History and Meaning
One sweet, two brothers, and a mother who settles it in about four seconds. "Chunnu Munnu The Do Bhai" is the Hindi rhyme that Indian nursery classes reach for when the subject is sharing, and it works because it does not preach until the very last couplet. First there is a squabble, then there is a smack, then there is half a rasgulla each.
Origins
Traditional, with no documented author or date. The rhyme is printed across Hindi children's poetry collections and taught in preschools, always unattributed, and it has been recorded by dozens of Indian children's channels. Nobody has produced a book or a byline for it, and this page carries no year for that reason.
The names are the giveaway that it was built for classrooms. चुन्नू and मुन्नू are not real names. They are the generic pet names Hindi speaking families use for small boys, roughly the way English might say "the little one", so any two brothers in the room can be the brothers in the poem.
Who are Chunnu and Munnu?
They are stand ins rather than characters. मुन्नू (and its feminine मुन्नी) is a common household nickname for a young child, and चुन्नू is built to rhyme with it. The rhyme gives them no ages, no faces and no other adventures. All they exist to do is want the same sweet at the same time.
What is the moral of Chunnu Munnu The Do Bhai?
Share, and settle quarrels between yourselves. The mother states it directly in the closing couplet: never fight like this, live together. What makes the rhyme land is that she solves the actual problem first by cutting the sweet in half, and only then delivers the lesson. The children get an answer, not a lecture.
The smack in the second verse tends to surprise readers who meet the rhyme as adults. It is slapstick rather than instruction, the same register as a cartoon, and it goes past small children without comment.
Why a rasgulla?
Because a rasgulla is exactly one mouthful and cannot be shared without being cut. Two children can split a bar of something or take turns with a packet, but a single syrupy ball of cheese curd sitting on a plate is an all or nothing object, and that is what starts the fight. The same sweet causes the disaster in Bandar Mama Pahan Pajama, where a monkey swallows one whole and scalds his tongue.
Cultural Significance
The poem sits in the small group of Hindi rhymes that are taught for behaviour rather than for sound. Most nursery verse in Hindi runs on nonsense and rhythm. This one has a plot, two named speakers, direct speech, an adult intervention and a stated conclusion, which makes it a natural first piece for a school assembly or a parents' day recitation.
It is also one of the few Hindi rhymes where a parent appears at all. Hindi children's verse is full of animals and moons and uncles; a mother walking in mid quarrel and dealing with it is unusual, and it is part of why the poem feels domestic rather than fantastical.
Lyrics from nurseryrhymes.info