Maithili language


Maithili is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian subcontinent, mainly spoken in India and Nepal. In India, it is spoken in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand and is one of the 22 recognised Indian languages. In Nepal, it is spoken in the eastern Terai and is the second most prevalent language of Nepal. Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili. Less commonly, it was also written in the local variant of Kaithi. Today it is written in the Devanagari script.

Official status

In 2003, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as a recognised Indian language, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts in India.
The Maithili language is included as an optional paper in the UPSC Exam.
In March 2018, Maithili received the second official language status in the Indian state of Jharkhand.

Geographic distribution

In India, Maithili is spoken mainly in Bihar and Jharkhand in the districts of Darbhanga, Saharsa, Samastipur, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Begusarai, Munger, Khagaria, Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj, Sheohar, Bhagalpur, Madhepura, Araria, Supaul, Vaishali, Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Deoghar. constitute cultural and linguistic centers.
In Nepal, Maithili is spoken mainly in the Outer Terai districts including Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusa, Sunsari, Siraha, Morang and Saptari Districts. Janakpur is an important linguistic centre of Maithili.

Classification

In the 19th century, linguistic scholars considered Maithili as a dialect of Bihari languages and grouped it with other languages spoken in Bihar. Hoernlé compared it with Gaudian languages and recognized that it shows more similarities with Bengali languages than with Hindi. Grierson recognized it as a distinct language and published the first grammar in 1881.
Chatterji grouped Maithili with Magadhi Prakrit.

Dialects

Maithili varies greatly in dialects. The standard form of Maithili is Sotipura or Central Maithili or Madhubani dialect which is mainly spoken in Darbhanga and Madhubani districts in Bihar, India.
Several other dialects of Maithili are spoken in India and Nepal, including Dehati, Kisan, Bantar, Barmeli, Musar, Tati, Kortha and Jolaha. All the dialects are intelligible to native Maithili speakers.

Origin and history

The name Maithili is derived from the word Mithila, an ancient kingdom of which King Janaka was the ruler. 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.
The beginning of Maithili language and literature can be traced back to the 'Charyapadas', a form of Buddhist mystical verses, composed during the period of 700-1300 AD. These padas were written in Sandhya bhasa by several Siddhas who belonged to Vajrayana Buddhism and were scattered throughout the territory of Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Several of Siddas were from Mithila region such as Kanhapa, Sarhapa etc. Prominent scholars like Rahul Sankrityanan, Subhadra Jha and Jayakant Mishra provided evidences and proved that the language of Charyapada is ancient Maithili or proto Maithili.
Apart from Charyapadas, there has been rich tradition of folk culture, folk songs and which were popular among common folks of Mithila region.
After the fall of Pala rule, disappearance of Buddhism, establishment of Karnāta kings and patronage of Maithili under Harasimhadeva of Karnāta dynasty dates back to the 14th century. Jyotirishwar Thakur wrote a unique work Varnaratnākara in Maithili prose. The Varna Ratnākara is the earliest known prose text, written by Jyotirishwar Thakur in Mithilaksar script, and is the first prose work not only in Maithili but in any modern Indian language.
In 1324, Ghyasuddin Tughluq, the emperor of Delhi invaded Mithila, defeated Harisimhadeva, entrusted Mithila to his family priest Kameshvar Jha, a Maithil Brahmin of the Oinwar dynasty. But the disturbed era did not produce any literature in Maithili until Vidyapati Thakur, who was an epoch-making poet under the patronage of king Shiva Singh and his queen Lakhima Devi. He produced over 1,000 immortal songs in Maithili on the theme of love of Radha and Krishna and the domestic life of Shiva and Parvati as well as on the subject of suffering of migrant labourers of Morang and their families; besides, he wrote a number of treaties in Sanskrit. His love-songs spread far and wide in no time and enchanted saints, poets and youth. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw the 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, Bangal, Utkala and gave birth to a new Brajabuli language.
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 titled Pārijātaharaṇa in Maithili. 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 wrote Rāgatarangni, a significant treatise on the science of music, describing the rāgas, tālas, and lyrics prevalent in Mithila.
During the Malla dynasty's rule Maithili spread far and wide throughout Nepal from the 16th to the 17th century. During this period, at least seventy Maithili dramas were produced. In the drama Harishchandranrityam by Siddhinarayanadeva, some characters speak pure colloquial Maithili, while others speak Bengali, Sanskrit or Prakrit.
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 Darbhanga Raj returned to his successor, Maharaj Lakshmishvar Singh, in 1898. The Zamindari Raj had a lackadaisical approach toward Maithili. The use of Maithili language was revived through personal efforts of MM Parameshvar Mishra, Chanda Jha, Munshi Raghunandan Das and others.
Publication of Maithil Hita Sadhana, Mithila Moda, and Mithila Mihir further encouraged writers. The first social organization, Maithil Mahasabha, was established in 1910 for the development of Mithila and Maithili. 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 wrote Maithili Grammar. 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 twenty two national languages of India.
The publishing of Maithili books in Mithilakshar script was started by Acharya Ramlochan Saran.

Phonology

Consonants

There are four non-syllabic vowels in Maithili-
i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. Most of the times, these are written without nukta.

Vowels

अय़ / əi̯ / ~ /ɛː/ - अय़सनऺ / əi̯sənᵊ / ~ /ɛːsɐnᵊ/ 'like this'
अव़ / əu̯ / ~ /ɔː/- चव़मुुखऺ / tɕəu̯mʊkʰᵊ / ~ /tɕɔːmʊkʰᵊ/ 'four faced'
अयॆ / əe̯ / - अयॆलाः / əe̯la:h / 'came'
अवॊ / əo̯ / - अवॊताः / əo̯ta:h / 'will come'
ऐ / a:i̯ / - ऐ / a:i̯ / 'today'
औ / a:u̯ / - औ / a:u̯ / 'come please'
आयॆ / a:e̯ / - आयॆलऺ / a:e̯l / 'came'
आवॊ / a:o̯ / - आवॊबऺ / a:o̯bᵊ / 'will come'
यु / iu̯/ - घ्यु / ghiu̯ / 'ghee'
यॆ / ie̯ / - यॆः / ie̯h / 'only this'
यॊ / io̯ / - कह्यो / kəhio̯ / 'any day'
वि / ui̯ / - द्वि / dui̯ / 'two'
वॆ /ue̯/ - वॆ: / ue̯h / 'only that'

Svarabhakti (Vowel Epenthesis)

A peculiar type of phonetic change is recently taking place in Maithili by way of epenthesis i.e. backward transposition of final i and u in all sort of words. Thus:
Standard Colloquial - Common Pronunciation
अछि / əchi / - अइछऺ / əich / 'is'
रवि / rəbi / - रइबऺ / rəib / 'Sunday'
मधु / mədhu / - मउधऺ / məudh / 'honey'
बालु / ba:lu / - बाउलऺ / ba:ul / 'sand'

Morphology

Grammatical cases

Nouns are inflected for several cases. Grammarians consider only few of them to be pure inflection.
Some postpositions are added to the genitive too.

Adjectives

The difference between adjectives and nouns is very minute in Maithili. However, there are marked adjectives there in Maithili.
MasculineFeminineNeuter
Definite-कऽ kɔ-कि/किऺ kɪ/kɪ̆कऽ kəː
Indefinite-अऽ ɔ-इ/इऺ ɪ/ɪ̆ॳ/अऽ ᵊ/əː

Pronouns

Pronouns in Maithili are declined in similar way to nominals. However, genetic case has a different form in most of the pronouns. The lower forms are Accusative and Postpositional. Periphrastic Plural is used to form Plurals.

Writing system

Maithili was traditionally written in their own script which is known as Mithilakshar or Tirhuta. This script is similar to Bengali script. Devanagari script is most commonly used since the 20th century.
The Tirhuta and Kaithi scripts are both currently included in Unicode.

Maithili calendar

The Maithili calendar or Tirhuta Panchang is followed by the Maithili community of India and Nepal. It is one of the many Hindu calendars based on Vikram Samvat. It is a sidereal solar calendar in which the year begins on the first day of Baisakh month, i.e., Mesh Sankranti. This day falls on 13/14 April of the Georgian calendar. Pohela Baishakh in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, Rangali Bihu in Assam, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, and Vaishakhi in Punjab are observed on the same day. These festivals mark the beginning of new year in their respective regions.
No.NameMaithili Maithili SanskritDays
1Baisakhবৈসাখबैसाखवैशाख30 / 31
2Jethজেঠजेठज्येष्ठ31 / 32
3Akhadhঅখাঢ়अखाढ़आषाढ31 / 32
4Saonসারোনसाओनश्रावण31 / 32
5Bhadoভাদোभादोभाद्रपद, भाद्र, प्रोष्ठपद31 / 32
6Aasinআসিনआसिनआश्विन31 / 30
7Katikকাতিকकातिककार्तिक29 / 30
8Agahanঅগহনअगहनअग्रहायण, मार्गशीर्ष29 / 30
9Poosপূসपूसपौष29 / 30
10Maghমাঘमाघमाघ29 / 30
11Phagunফাগুনफागुनफाल्गुन29 / 30
12Chaitচৈতিचैतिचैत्र30 / 31

Literature