Maithili language

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{{language |name=Maithili |nativename=मैथिली maithilī |states=India, Nepal |region=Bihar in India |speakers=24 million |rank=40 |familycolor=Indo-European |fam2=Indo-Iranian |fam3=Indo-Aryan |fam4=Eastern Zone |fam5=Bihari |nation=Bihar state in India |iso1=bh (Bhojpuri?) |iso2=mai |iso3=mai}}

Maithili (autonym: मैथिली maithilī) is of the family of Indo-Aryan languages, which are part of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken in the Indian state of Bihar and in the eastern Terai region of Nepal. It is considered by many to be a dialect of Hindi, and thus not a separate language. Nevertheless, a movement to give the language official status in the Indian Constitution so that it could be used in education, government, and other official contexts, resulted in Maithili being given official status in 2003.

The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Maithili is a separate language, having a large Maithili-speaking community (4.5 crore, or 45 million, people) with a rich literature. The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati. He is credited for raising the importance of 'people's langauage', i.e. Maithili, in the official work of the state by influencing the king of Darbhanga with the quality of his poetry. The state's official language used to be Sanskrit, which distanced common people from the state and its functions.

Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language, and thus a different language from Hindi, which is Central Indic. Most linguists do not consider it to be equated as a dialect of Hindi as this language developed separately from the advent of Hindi.

Maithili can be written in the Maithili script, which has some resemblance with Bengali script, or in the Devanagari script, which is also used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Nepali, and many other Indic languages. Maithili use to be written in Tirahuti script but in the later part of 20th century started using Devanagari script. Tirahuti script is the base script from which Maithali, Bengali and Oriya script have evolved.

One of the names of Goddess Sita (Wife of Lord Rama) also is Maithili.

1 Maithili Literature
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

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Maithili Literature

It is a fact that scholars in Mithila used Sanskrit for their literary work and Maithili was the language of the common folk (Abahatta). The earliest work in Maithili appears to be Varn Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur dated about 1224 AD.

The Medieval age of Maithili appears to be during Karnat Dynasty when the names of the following scholars got prominance: Gangesh, Padmanabh, Chandeshwar, Vireshwar, Vidyapati, Vachaspati, Pakshadhar, Ayachi, Udayan, Shankar etc.

Vidyapati is said to have lived in the period 1350 to 1450. Vidyapati, though a Sanskrit scholar, wrote innumerable poems(songs) relating to Bhakti and Shringar in Maithili. Though equally accepted in Bengal and Mithila, his songs are the soul of Mithila and no celebration is complete without his songs. It will not be an exagerration to say that his songs have survived in the throats of Maithil women folk.

Theatrical writings in Medieval age are not less important. The following need mention: Umapati: (Parijat Haran), Jyotireeshwar: (Dhurt Samagam), Vidyapati: (Goraksha Vijay, Mani Manjari), Ramapati: (Rukmini Haran), Lal: (Gauri Swayambar), Manbodh: (Krishna Janma)

Modern Maithili Literature has been blessed with the contribution of the following scholars: Parmeshwar Jha, Sitaram Jha, Kabishekhar Badrinath Jha, Murali Jha, Surendranath Jha Suman, Kashikant Mishra Madhup, Chandranath Mishra Amar, Kanchinath Jha Kiran, Prof. Hari Mohan Jha, Ishnath Jha, Brajkishore Verma Manipadma, Baidyanath Mishra Yatri (Nagarjuna), Sudhanshu Shekhar Choudhary, Upendra Nath Jha Vyas, Prof. Radha Kant Jha, Mahamahopadhyay Umesh Mishra, Dr. JayKant Mishra, Prof. Krishna Kant Mishra, Kumar Ganganand Singh,Dr Chandra Nath Jha(Mangarauni), Sri Gaya Nand Jha kaviji(Antour, Benipur), Sri Hemant Kumar Jha(Antour, Benipur), Dr. Ramanath Jha, Prof. Tantra Nath Jha, Dr. Laxman Jha Dr. Subhadra Jha, Achutanand Dutt, Bhola Lal Das, Baidyanath Jha, Yoganand Jha, Narendra Das, Rajeshwar Jha, Arsi Prasad Singh, Prof. Buddhidhari Singh Ramakar, Prof. Uma Nath Jha and many more.

Maithili, though not included in VIIIth schedule of the Indian Constitution, was accepted by Sahitya Academy and since its inclusion has won awards almost every year. A number of academy awards have been won for translation from other languages.

Neeraj

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