History of Maithili Language

Maithili language (मैथिली, মৈথিলী, Maithilī) is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal. The cultural and linguistic centers of Maithili in Bihar are the districts of Madhubani, Madhepura, Supaul, Araria, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Saharsa, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Sheohar, Samastipur, and Vaishali . Maithili is also spoken in the Terai region of Nepal, mainly in Narayani Zone, Janakpur Zone, Koshi Zone, and Sagarmatha Zone of Nepal. It is the second largest spoken language of Nepal (around 12%).

Linguists have classified Maithili as one of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is an offshoot of the Indo-Aryan languages, which is a branch of the Indo-European languages. Early Indo-Aryan languages (2500 BC to 500 BC) developed from Vedic Sanskrit to Laukik Sanskrit. Middle Indo-Aryan Languages (500 BC to 1000 AD) developed from Pali (early Prakrit, 500 BC to 100 BC) to Prakrit (middle Prakrit, 100 BC to 500 AD), Apbhramsha (neo Prakrit, 500 AD to 900 AD) and Avhattha (neo regional Prakrit, 900 AD to 1100 AD). From neo Magadhi Prakrit and its Variant Maithil Avahattha came Maithili Language (1000 AD). It is in the category of Modern Indo-Aryan Language (1000 AD to till date). Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language.

According to the 2001 census in India, 12,179,122 people speak Maithili. Maithili has 35 million (2000) native speakers in the world. 

In 2003, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which allows the language to be used in education, government, and other official contexts. Maithili has a rich literary and cultural heritage.

The first grammar of Maithili was written in 1880–81. A. F. Rudolf Hoernle published a Grammar of the Eastern Hindi from London in 1880 and compared with the other Gaudian Languages. In this Grammar, Dr. Hoernle recognized Maithili as a dialect distinct from Hindi. He was able to give some specimens of its grammatical forms, but no published materials were then available. The mis-classification by early linguists led to language politics in respect of Maithili. Beames (1872/reprint 1966: 84-85) considered Maithili as a dialect of Bengali. Grierson, however, adopted the notional term "Bihari" language for the language used in Bihar; it has since been shown to be a misnomer for Maithili.

Maithili is derived from Avahattha, the Maithil Apabhramsha, which is derived from Magadhi Apbhramsha. Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta, i.e., Mithilakshar) and Kaithi script. 

The ISO of Unicode Technical Committee has approved the encoding of Kaithi and Tirhuta scripts. Nowadays, 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 by Sh. Anshuman Pandey (now it has been approved by the ISO, the Unicode Technical Committee).

The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Mithila is important in Hindu mythology, since it is regarded as the birthplace of Goddess Sita, the daughter of King Janak of Mithila, who eventually gets married to Lord Rama.

The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati (1350–1450), who wrote his poems in the language of the people, i.e. Maithili, at a time when state's official language used to be Sanskrit and Sanskrit was still being used as a literary language. The use of Maithili, instead of Sanskrit, in literature became more common after Vidyapati.

Bajjika Maithili, Western Maithili, Central Maithili, Angika Maithili, Thethi Maithili and Southern Maithili are the major dialects of Maithili. Out of the three, Central Maithili is the standard form of Maithili, in which books are written. 

Central Maithili is spoken in the districts around Darbhanga, madhubani, Saharsa and Purnia. 

Bajjika dialect and the western dialect are collectively spoken in the districts of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, East Champaran, West Champaran, Sitamarhi and Seohar. Angika, Thethi. 

Southern dialects are collectively spoken in the districts around Bhagalpur, Munger, Dumka and Deoghar.

HISTORY 

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). The earliest work in Maithili appears to be Varna(n) Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur dated about 1324.

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 Orissa.

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 2003 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.He also founded a number of magazines like Balak magazine (1926–1986), Himalaya (1946–1948) and Honhar (Hindi and Urdu) (1939).

गूगल और मैथिलि भासा 

Besides many other scheduled Indian languages, Google search engine provides service in Maithili Language as well. However the code is still bh, it was translated into Maithili and it was accepted by google for time being. There is a series of long lists to be translated so that this change remains permanent. User can access this service at this link

 http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=bh

And you can also get your browser in our Maithili Language. This option provided by mozilla web browser. You can select and download as per your operating system. Maithili WebBrowser DOWNLOAD

Download Maithili Spell Checker.