Maithili (मैथिली maithilī)
Spoken in:	India, Nepal
Region:	Bihar in India
Total speakers:	45 million
Ranking:	40
Genetic classification:
Official status
Official language of:	Bihar state in India
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1	bh (Bihari)
ISO 639-2	mai
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages

Maithili (मैथिली Maithilī) is a language 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. Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language, and thus a different language from Hindi, which is Central Indic. Maithili has been considered a dialect of both Hindi and Bengali, and in fact was classified as a mother tongue of Hindi in the Census of India. In 2003 Maithili gained the status of an independent language in India. A movement to give the language official status through inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution so that it may be used in education, government, and other official contexts, resulted in Maithili being given official status in 2003.

Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta and Mithilakshar, which has some resemblance with the Bengali script. It was also written in the Kaithi script, but the Devanagari script is the script most commonly used today for Maithili. 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 a proposal, submitted by Anshuman Pandey, to allocate the script in the Unicode Roadmap has been submitted as the first step.

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 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.

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 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.

The Medieval age of Maithili appears to be during Karnat Dynasty when the names of the following scholars got prominence: 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 exaggeration to say that his songs have survived in the throats of Maithil women folk. Verses of Vidhyapati are given religious importance in the culture of Mithila.

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)

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 mordern maithili Literature.

Maithili has now been listed in VIIIth schedule of the Indian Constitution and thus now it is one of the 22 National Languages of India. Maithali 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.

Modern Maithili came into its own after Sir George Abraham Grierson, Irish linguist and civil servant, tirelessly reasearched Maithili folklore and wrote its grammar.

Modern Maithili Writers

• 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
• Shri Shambhu Nath Jha
• Brajkishore Verma "Manipadma"
• Dr. Binod Bihari Verma
• Prof. Radha Krishna Choudhary
• Dr. Prem Shankar Singh
• Suniti Kumar Chatterrjee
• Acharya Surendra Jha 'Suman'
• Baidyanath Mishra Yatri (Nagarjun)
• Sudhanshu Shekhar Choudhary
• Upendra Nath Jha Vyas
• Prof. Radha Kant Jha
• Mahamahopadhyay Umesh Mishra
• Dr. Jayamant Mishra
• Prof. Saryu Prasad Mishra 'Anand'
• 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
• Acharya Ramlochan Saran
• 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
• Late Damodar Lal Das
• Sri Brahmadeo Lal Das
• Sri Ratnesh Kumar Jha Kolkatiya
• Prof. Uma Nath Jha and many more.
• Man Mohan Jha
• Professor Vijay Kumar Jha (Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha)
• Babuaji Jha Ajnat
• Shri Murali Madhusudan Thakur
• Shri Vibhuti Anand Jha
• Shri Ratnesh Kumar Jha.
• Pt. Shri Deokant Mishra

Maithili Books

1. Maithili Karna Kayasthak Panjik Sarvekshan, A Survey of Panjis of Maithil Karna Kayasthas by Dr Binod Bihari Verma
2. Nayanmani, Novel by Dr Binod Bihari Verma
3. Balanak Bonihar O Pallavi, Short Story Collection by Dr Binod Bihari Verma
4. Tapasa vai Ganga, Biography of renowned historian Prof. Radha Krishna Choudhary by Dr Binod Bihari Verma
5. Adim Purkha, Translation of Gopinath Mohanty's Oriya novel Dadi Burha by Binod Bihari Verma
6. Vedmurti Taponishth SriRam Sharma Acharya, Biography of Shriram Sharma Acharya by Dr Binod Bihari Verma

See also

• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

References

• This language's entry in the Ethnologue.
• Download Maithili Word Processor: Madhyam developed by Balendu Sharma Dadhich

External links

[1]MaithiliView [1]

* Darbhanga , its people & Other stuffs

• Know Details About Maithili Language
• History of Maithili Language
• Indian Poets Writing In Maithili
• Karna Kayastha community of Mithila region
• Maithili songs
• Maithili at the Rosetta Project
• Maithili at Ethnologue
• Maithili at the Linguist
• Request to Allocate the Maithili Script in the Unicode Roadmap
• मैथिली भाषा आ देवनागरी लिपि मे पहिल ब्लोग First ever blog in Maithili Language and Devnagri Lipi

•  • [ e] Indo-Iranian languages
Indic (Indo-Aryan)	Old: Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) Middle: Prakrit: Pāli - Maharashtri - Magadhi New: Bengali (Dialects: Chittagonian, Sylheti) Hindustani (Registers: Hindi, Urdu) Angika Assamese Bhojpuri Bishnupriya Manipuri Dhivehi Dogri Gujarati Konkani Mahl Maithili Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Romani Sindhi Sinhala
Iranian	Eastern: Avestan Bactrian Pamir (Shughni, Sarikoli, Wakhi) Pashto Scythian - Ossetic Sogdian - Yaghnobi Western: Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persian - Modern Persian (Varieties: Farsi, Dari, Tajik) Bukhori Balochi Dari (Zoroastrianism) Gilaki Kurdish Luri Mazandarani Talysh Tat Tati Zazaki
Dardic	Dameli Domaaki Gawar-Bati Kalash Kashmiri Khowar Kohistani Nangalami Pashayi Palula Shina Shumashti
Nuristani	Askunu Kamkata-viri Tregami Vasi-vari Waigali