Maithili language

Maithili
मैथिली মৈথিলী maithilī
Spoken in
Region Bihar in India, Terai Region in Nepal
Total speakers 34,700,000 (As per SIL), 12,179,122 (As per Year 2001 census in India)
Ranking 40 (possible)
Language family Indo-European
Writing system Devanagari, Kaithi, Mithilakshar
Official status
Official language in Bihar state in India and Nepal
Regulated by No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1 bh (Bihari)
ISO 639-2 mai
ISO 639-3 mai
Linguasphere
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Maithili (मैथिली মৈথিলী Maithilī) is a language spoken in the eastern part of India, mainly in the Indian states of Bihar, and in the eastern Terai region of Nepal. [1] [2] It is an offshoot of the Indo-Aryan languages which are part of the Indo-Iranian, a branch of the Indo-European languages. Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language, and thus a different language from Hindi, which is Central Indic in origin. According to the 2001 census in India, 12,179,122 people speak the Maithili language, but various organizations have strongly argued that the actual number of Maithili speakers is much less than the official data suggests. In times, Maithili has been considered a "dialect" of both Hindi and Bengali but thanks to an active movement calling for official status for the language, in 2003 it was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which now allows the language to be used in education, government, and other official contexts. Maithili has a very rich literary and cultural heritage.

Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta and Mithilakshar) and Kaithi script. However, in the modern time Devanagari script is most commonly used. An effort is underway to preserve the Maithili script and to develop it for use in digital media by encoding the script in the Unicode standard, for which proposals have been submitted.[3]

The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Mithila has a very important place in Hindu Mythology, since it is regarded as the birth place of Goddess Sita, the daughter of King Janak of Mithila; who eventually gets married to Lord Rama. Maithili is a separate language, having a large Maithili-speaking community with a rich literature.

However it is reasonably certain that Maithili Speakers are fewer than the number claimed by Maithili Spokespersons. [4]

The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati. He is credited for raising the importance of 'people's language', i.e. Maithili, in the official work of the state by influencing the Maharaja 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. The name Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the consort of Rama.

Contents

History

The name Maithili is derived from the word Mithila, an ancient kingdom of which King Janaka was the ruler (See Ramayana). Maithili is also one of the names of Sita, the wife of King Rama and daughter of King Janaka.

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 Varna(n) Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur dated about 1324.

Early Maithili Period (1300-1600)

With fall of Pala-rule, disappearance of Buddhism and establishment of karnāta kings- under patronage of Harasimhadeva (1226-1324) of karnāta dynasty Jyotirisvara Thakur (1280-1340) wrote a unique work Varnaratnākara in pure Maithili,earliest prose in any north Indian language;the cultivation of literature in Maithili for long in the past, the fruit of which is lost in oblivion.

In 1324, Ghyasuddin Tughluq, the emperor of Delhi invaded Mithila, defeated Harasimhadeva , entrusted Mithila to his family Priest Kameshvar Jha, a Maithil Braman of Onibar family but disturbed era could not produce any literature till Vidyapati Thakur(1360 to 1450), an epoch making poet came up under the patronage of a like minded king Shiva Simha and his queen LakhiMā Devi, he produced over a thousand of immortal songs in Maithili on the theme of erotic sports of Radha and Krishna and the domestic life of Shiva and Parvati, besides a number of treaties in Sanskrit on various subjects. His love-songs spread far and wide in no time and enchanted saints, poets and youth in general. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw divine light of love behind these songs and soon these songs became themes of Vaisnava sect of Bengal. Ravindranath Tagore, out of curiosity, imitated these songs under a pseudo named Bhanusimha. Vidyapati influenced the religious literature of Asama, Vanga and Utkala.

After the invasion of Mithila by the Sultan of Johnpur, Delhi and disappearance of Shivasimha in 1429, Oinibar rule grew weaker and the literary activity shifted to north(present Nepal).

Middle Maithili period (1600-1860)

When Mahesh Thakur, a great pandit belonging to Khandvala family of Maithil Brahman was installed as a feudal chief of Mihtila under Mughal empire literary activity gained momentum in three dimensions; dance, drama and music in Mithila proper. After a gap of about two centuries Maithili got a drama entitled pārijātaharaṇa from the pen of Umapati Upadhyaya. A number of professional troupes mostly from dalit class, known then as Kirtania the singers of bhajan or devotional songs, started to perform this drama in public gatherings and the courts of the nobles.

Volumnous devotional songs were written by some famous vaisnava saints, Govendadas (Mid. 17th century) was the brightest ranking, only next to Vidyapati in the past- chaitanya Gaudiya Vaisnava cult as well as in literary merit.

Rāgatarangni of Lochana (Cr. 1575-1660),is singnificant treatise on the science of music, describing the rāgas, tālas and lyrics prevalent in Mithila.

Ther rulers of Mall dynasty's mother tongue was Maithili which spread far and wide throughout Nepal valley during this dynasty from 16th to 17th century when at least 70 Maithili dramas were produced. Curiously, in a drama, namely Harishchandranrityam of Siddhinarayanadeva (1620-57) some characters speak pure colloquial Maithili while others speak Bangla, Sanskrit or Prakrit.

The Nepal tradition may be linked with the Anukiya Nāta in Assam and Jatra in Bengal.

Modern Maithili Period (1860 onwards)

After the demise of Maheshvar Singh, the ruler of Darbhanga Raj, in 1860 and the Raj was taken over by the British Government under courts of wards act. With the return of the Darbhanga Raj to successor Maharaj Lakshmishvar Singh in 1898, a galaxy of enthusiastic pandits gathered around him enriched their mother tongue to name a few, were M.M. Dr. Sir Ganganath Jha, M.M. Parameshvar Mishra, Chanda Jha, Munshi Raghunandan Das and others.

Publication of Maithil Hita Sadhana (1905) and Mithila Moda (1906), Mithila Mihir (1908),encouraged writers. The first social organization, Maithil Mahasabha was established in 1910 for development of Mithili and Maithili was followed by a number of such organizations. Maithil Mahesabha was the first to raise the demand for the recognition of Maithili as a regional language.

The findings of some great linguists like Geoge Abraham Grieson, Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, gave pillip to it. Ultimately Calcutta university came forward to recognize Maithili in 1917. Gradually other universities followed suit.

Literature

Some of the theatrical writings of the medieval age are Jyotireeshwar (Dhurt Samagam), Vidyapati (Goraksha Vijay, Mani Manjari), Ramapati (Rukmini Haran), Lal (Gauri Swayambar), Manbodh (Krishna Janma),Umapati (Parijat Haran).

Maithili has been preferred by many authors to write humour and satire. Writers like Dr. Hari Mohan Jha took steps to bring about fundamental changes in the centuries old Mithila Culture. His work like Khatar Kaka Ke Tarang decorated modern Maithili Literature. Upendra Nath Jha, though an engineer by profession, made venerable contributions to modern Maithili literature. " Doo Patra", his most famous work, brought out the goods and the evils of the Maithil society.

In 2003 Maithili was recognized on the VIII schedule of the Indian Constitution and once again given its proper status as a major Indian language and thus now Maithili is one of the 22 National Languages of India. Maithali was accepted long back in 1965 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.

Modern Maithili came into its own after Sir George Abraham Grierson, Irish linguist and civil servant, tirelessly researched Maithili folklore and transcribed its grammar. In May 2010, Wycliffe Bible Translators finished translating the Greek New Testament into Maithili.

"Grierson judged that Maithili and its dialects could fairly be characterized as the language of the entire population of Darbhanga and Bhagalpur districts and of a majority or a significant minority of the populations of Muzaffarpur, Monghyer, Purnea and Santhal Parganas."[5].

The Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsa, and Supaul districts consists of Maithili speaking districts currently in Bihar.

Notes

  1. ↑ Detailed language map of western Nepal, see language #63 in SE corner
  2. ↑ Detailed language map of eastern Nepal, see language #63 in south
  3. ↑ Pandey, Anshuman. 2009. Towards an Encoding for the Maithili Script in ISO/IEC 10646.
  4. ↑ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=SylBHS8IJAUC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=Language,+Religion+and+Politics+in+North+India+By+Paul+R.+Brass&source=bl&ots=HolHUYUtl0&sig=sG7KhQbCmmKGuSQBvTJ51o2N9oQ&hl=en&ei=gC0nTIabBM2RrAfNwtyMBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
  5. ↑ Grierson, Linguistic Survey, Vol.V, pt.II, pages 13,14,54,118 quoted by Paul R Brass. Language, Religion and Politics in North India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974, page 64

References

  1. Detailed language map of western Nepal, see language #63 in SE corner
  2. Detailed language map of eastern Nepal, see language #63 in south
  3. Pandey, Anshuman. 2009. Towards an Encoding for the Maithili Script in ISO/IEC 10646.

See also

External links

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