Dialects
Maithili varies greatly in dialects. Several geographic
variations of Maithili dialects are spoken in both India and Nepal,
including Bajjika, Dehati, and Kisan. Some dialects such as Bantar,
Barmeli, Musar and Tati are spoken only in Nepal, while the Kortha, Jolaha and
Thetiya dialects are spoken in India. All the dialects are intelligible to
native Maithili speakers.
Other dialects include:
Thēthi is spoken between the western part of the Mahottari and
the eastern part of the Sarlahi district, Nepal, and in adjacent areas in
Bihar.
Tharuwat is spoken exclusively in Nepal.
The Madhubani dialect spoken in north India is
considered Standard Maithili.
The Central Maithili group of dialects is the semi-standard
form, in which books are written. This dialect group is spoken in the Terai and
in the Indian districts of the Darbhanga and Kosi Divisions.
The Khortha dialect is spoken near Deoghar.
Maithili dates back to the 14th century. The Varna Ratnākara
is the earliest known prose text, preserved from 1507, and is written in Mithilaksar
script.
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. Scholars in Mithila used Sanskrit for their
literary work and Maithili was the language of the common folk (Abahatta).
With the fall of Pala rule, disappearance of Buddhism,
establishment of Karnāta kings and patronage of Maithili under Harasimhadeva
(1226–1324) of Karnāta dynasty, Jyotirisvara Thakur (1280–1340) wrote
a unique work Varnaratnākara in pure Maithili prose, the earliest
specimen of prose available in any Modern Indo-Aryan language.
In 1324, Ghyasuddin Tughluq, the emperor of Delhi invaded
Mithila, defeated Harasimhadeva, entrusted Mithila to his family Priest
Kameshvar Jha, a Maithil Brahmin of the Oinvar family but disturbed
era did not produce any literature in Maithili until Vidyapati Thakur (1360 to
1450), who was an epoch making poet under the patronage of king Shiva Simha and
his queen Lakhima Devi. He produced over a thousand immortal songs in Maithili
on the theme of erotic sports of Radha and Krishna and the domestic life
of Shiva and Parvatias well as on the subject of suffering
of migrant labourers of Morang and their families; besides he wrote 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. Rabindranath Tagore, out of curiosity,
imitated these songs under the pseudonym Bhanusimha. Vidyapati influenced the
religious literature of Asama, Banga and Utkala.
After the invasion of Mithila by the Sultan of Johnpur,
Delhi, and the disappearance of Shivasimha in 1429, Onibar rule grew weaker and
the literary activity shifted to present Nepal.
The earliest reference to Maithili or Tirhutiya is in Amaduzzi's
preface to Beligatti's Alphabetum Brammhanicum, published in 1771. This
contains a list of Indian languages amongst which is 'Tourutiana.' Colebrooke's
essay on the Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, written in 1801, was the first to
describe Maithili as a distinct dialect.
Many devotional songs were written by vaisnava saints,
including in the mid-17th century, Vidyapati and Govindadas. mapati Upadhyaya
wrote a drama entitled pārijātaharaṇa in Maithili. A number of professional
troupes, mostly from dalit classes known as Kirtanias, the singers of
bhajan or devotional songs, started to perform this drama in public gatherings
and the courts of the nobles. Lochana (c. 1575 – c. 1660) wrote Rāgatarangni, a
significant treatise on the science of music, describing the rāgas, tālas and
lyrics prevalent in Mithila.
The Malla dynasty's mother tongue was Maithili, which
spread far and wide throughout Nepal from the 16th to the 17th
century. During this period, at least 70 Maithili dramas were produced. In
the drama Harishchandranrityam by Siddhinarayanadeva (1620–57), some
characters speak pure colloquial Maithili, while others speak Bengali,
Sanskrit or Prakrit. The Nepal tradition may be linked with the Ankiya Nāta
in Assam and Jatra in Odisha.
After the demise of Maheshwar Singh, the ruler of Darbhanga
Raj, in 1860, the Raj was taken over by the British Government as regent. The
return of the Darbhanga Raj to his successor, Maharaj Lakshmishvar Singh, in
1898. But these happenings has nothing to do with the use of Maithili Language,
as the Zamindari Raj has lackadaisical approach towards Maithili Language. The
use of Maithili language was revived, however, through personal efforts of MM
Parameshvar Mishra, Chanda Jha, Munshi Raghunandan Das and others.
Publication of Maithil Hita
Sadhana (1905), Mithila Moda (1906), and Mithila
Mihir (1908), further encouraged writers. The first social organization,
Maithil Mahasabha was established in 1910 for the development of Mithila and
Maithili, but it blocked its membership for people outside from
the Maithil Brahmin and Karna Kayastha castes. Maithil
Mahasabha campaigned for the official recognition of Maithili as a regional
language. Calcutta University recognized Maithili in 1917, and other
universities followed suit. Babu Bhola Lal Das also wrote Maithili Grammar
(Maithili Vyakaran"). He edited a book "Gadyakusumanjali" and
edited a journal "Maithili".
In 1965, Maithili was officially accepted by Sahitya
Academy, an organization dedicated to the promotion of Indian literature.
In 2002, Maithili was recognized on the VIII schedule of the
Indian Constitution as a major Indian language; Maithili is now one of the 22
national languages of India.
The publishing of Maithili books in Mithilakshar script was
started by Acharya Ramlochan Saran.
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