Maithili, also known as Maithili, Maitli, Tirhuti, and Bihari, is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. The term Maithili comes from Mithila, an independent Indian kingdom in ancient times. According to linguists, Maithili is considered an Eastern Indic language, making it different from Hindi. It was believed that Maithili was a corrupt form of Hindi until Maithili grammar was transcribed in 1881 by George Abraham Grierson. G.A. Grierson, an Irish, diligently researched Maithili folklore and transcribed its grammar. According to Grierson, Maithili and its dialects could be called the language of the masses of Madhubani, Siraha, Darbhanga, Janakpur.
The earliest recorded work in the Maithili language was the Varna Ratnakar by Jyotirishwar Thakur, composed in 1324. Varna Ratnakar is considered one of the earliest prose in any Indian language. Another prominent Maithili poet, Vidyapati Thakur, came under the patronage of a like-minded king ShivaSimha. During this time, he produced over a thousand songs in Maithili on the theme of the love between Krishna and Radha, the domestic life of Shiva and Parvati, and several treatises on various subjects in Sanskrit. His songs spread far and wide in no time and enchanted saints, poets, and youths.
The sultan of Johnpur invaded Mithila in the early 15th century, and Shivsimha was defeated. As art and literature flourished only under patronage in those days, the growth of Maithili slowed down in Mithila, and the center of activity for Maithili literature shifted to Nepal and other parts of east India from Mithila. The Maithili language was revived in the latter half of the 19th century through the personal efforts of M.M. Parameshwar Mishra, Chanda Jha, Munshi Raghunandan Das, and others. Publication of Maithil Hita Sadhana in 1905, Maithila Moda in 1906 and Mithila MIhir in 1908 further inspired writers. In 1910, Maithil Mahasabha was established for the development of Mithila and Maithili. Maithil Mahasabha demanded the official recognition of Maithili as a regional language, and in 1917, Calcutta university-recognized Maithili as a regional language. In 1965, Maithili was officially accepted by Sahitya Academy, and in 2002, it was recognized as one of the 21 scheduled languages of India.
In recent times, the use of Maithili has seen a decline. In 2018, MHRD constituted a committee to come up with recommendations for the promotion and protection of the Maithili language and its scripts. According to MHRD, the use of the script has been declining for the last 50 years. The committee came up with many recommendations for reviving the language; establishing a script and manuscript center at Darbhanga in Lalit Narayan Mithila University was significant. The committee also suggested completing the work affecting Unicode scripts of Maithilakshar by Technology Development of Indian languages and creating audio-visual learning materials for teaching the Maithilakshar scripts. Maithili, considered one of the sweetest languages, the origin of many contemporary languages like Bangla, Bhojpuri, and Magahi, has witnessed its rise to prominence and, sadly, its decline in recent times. We need to make some serious efforts to revive and protect this beautiful language.
(Originally published on ScriveTribe)
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