MAITHILI: a language of India
Population 22,000,000 in India (1981).
Population total both countries 24,191,900.
Region Northern Bihar, from Muzaffarpur on the west, past the Kosi
on the east to western Purnia District, to the districts of Munger
and Bhagalpur in the south, and the Himalayan foothills on the
north. Cultural and linguistic center are the towns of Madhubani and
Darbhanga.
Janakpur also important culturally and religiously. Delhi, Calcutta,
Bombay have thousands. Many have settled abroad.
Also spoken in Nepal.
Classification Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Eastern
zone, Bihari. Comments:-
Caste variation more than geographic variation in dialects.
Functional intelligibility among all dialects, including those in
Nepal. Closest to Magahi. Brahmin and non-Brahmin dialects average
91% lexical similarity. Hindi, Nepali, English, Bhojpuri, Bengali
used mainly for business or social interaction outside the home by
men or working women with various degrees of proficiency from
marketing only to fluency. In cities some may use Hindi, Nepali, or
English in the home. Used in home, village, town, or cities with
other Maithili speakers. Spoken by Brahmin and other high caste or
educated Hindus, who influence the culture and language, and other
castes.
There is a Maithili Academy. Linguistics and literature are taught
at the L.N. Mithila University in Darbhanga , Patna University and
Janakpur Campus of Tribhuvan University.
Language attitudes are influenced by caste, ranging from superiority
to resentment. Non-Brahmin speech viewed as inferior.
Also spoken in: Nepal Language name MAITHILI Population 2,191,900
(1998 census), 11.85% of the population (1998). Comments:-
More caste variation than geographical. Intelligibility good among
all, including in India. Second languages used by men or working
women mostly only for business, social interaction outside the home.
In cities some may use Hindi, Nepali, or English even at home and
with other Maithili. Bhojpuri or Bengali are used with friends from
those groups.
Bilingual ability varies greatly, from being limited to using them
for trade, to being highly fluent. Maithili used in home, village,
towns, cities with other Maithili. All ages. Spoken by a wide
variety of castes, both 'high' and 'low'. Brahmin speech considered
to be standard. Brahmins consider themselves superior, varying from
friendly to domineering. Others vary toward Brahmins from friendly
to resentment
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. 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 and many more.
Maithili, though 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.