Maithili language


Maithili is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of India and Nepal. It is native to the Mithila region, which encompasses parts of the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand as well as Nepal's Koshi and Madhesh Provinces. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It is the second most commonly spoken native Nepalese language constitutionally registered as one of the fourteen provincial official languages of Nepal.
It is spoken by 21.7 million people. Of those, 3.2 million are Nepalese speakers. The language is predominantly written in Devanagari, but the historical Tirhuta and Kaithi scripts retain some use until today.

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. In March 2018, Maithili received the second official language status in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
Gopal Jee Thakur of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the first Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha who speaks in the Maithili language in the Parliament of India. He is currently the MP for Darbhanga.
The Nepalese Languages Commission has made Maithili an official Nepalese language used for administration in Koshi province and Madhesh Province.
On 26 November 2024, during the occasion of the Constitution Day, Maithili version of the Indian constitution was launched by the President of India Droupadi Murmu.

Distribution

In India, it is mainly spoken in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Tirhut, Kosi, Purnia, Bhagalpur and Munger divisions of Bihar and in Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand.
In Nepal, Maithili is spoken in Madhesh Province and Koshi Province.
Darbhanga, Madhubani, and Janakpur constitutes important cultural and linguistic centers of Maithili language.

Classification

In 1870s, Beames considered Maithili a dialect of a Bengali. Hoernlé initially treated it as a dialect of Eastern Hindi, but after comparing it with the Gaudian languages, recognised that it shows more similarities with the Bengali language than with Hindi. Grierson recognised it as a distinct language, grouped under 'Bihari' and published its first grammar in 1881.
Chatterji grouped Maithili with the Magadhi Prakrit.

Dialects

Maithili varies greatly in dialects.
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.
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 the Siddhas were from the Mithila region such as Kanhapa, Sarhapa etc. Scholars such as Rahul Sankrityanan, Subhadra Jha and Jayakant Mishra provided evidence and proved that the language of Charyapada has traces of ancient Maithili or proto Maithili.
Apart from Charyapadas, there has been a rich tradition of folk culture, folk songs and which were popular among the common folks of the Mithila region.
After the fall of the Pala Empire, disappearance of Buddhism, establishment of the Karnat dynasty and patronage of Maithili under Harisimhadeva of Karnāta dynasty dates back to the 14th century. Jyotirishwar Thakur wrote a unique work Varna Ratnakara in Maithili prose. The Varṇa Ratnākara is the earliest known prose text, written by Jyotirishwar Thakur in Mithilakshar 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 and a great Military Scholar Kameshvar Jha, a Maithil Brahmin of the Oiniwar 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 Shiva Simha Singh and his queen Lakhimadevi. 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 Vaishnavism in Bengal. As a young man, Rabindranath Tagore, driven by curiosity and a spirit of experimentation, composed a series of poems in imitation of these songs under the pseudonym Bhanusimha. Vidyapati influenced the religious literature of Assam, Bengal, and Utkala Kingdom. The blending of languages during the later period gave rise to artificial literary dialects like Brajabuli in Bengal, and Brajavali in Assam.
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 among 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 language, Sanskrit or Prakrit. One notable Malla King who patronised Maithili was Bhupatindra Malla who composed 26 plays in the Maithili language during his lifetime.
After the demise of Maheshwar Singh, the ruler of Darbhanga Raj, in 1860, the Raj was taken over by the British Raj 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 organisation, Maithil Mahasabha, was established in 1910 for the development of Mithila and Maithili. It blocked its membership for people outside of the Maithil Brahmin and Karna Kayastha castes. Maithil Mahasabha campaigned for the official recognition of Maithili as a regional language. Calcutta University recognised Maithili in 1917, and other universities followed suit.
Babu Bhola Lal Das wrote Maithili Grammar. He edited a book Gadya Kusumanjali and edited a journal Maithili.
In 1965, Maithili was officially accepted by Sahitya Academy, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Indian literature.
In 2002, Maithili was recognised on the VIII schedule of the Indian Constitution as a major Indian language; Maithili is now one of the twenty-two Scheduled languages of India.
The publishing of Maithili books in Mithilakshar script was started by Acharya Ramlochan Saran.

Demand of Classical Language status for Maithili

On 3 October 2024, the Union Government of India accorded additional five languages of India as the classical status. These additional five languages were Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Pali and Prakrit. But due to the lack of proposal from the Bihar government, the Maithili language missed out the status of classical language in India. After the Union Cabinet's approval of classical language recognition for the additional five languages in India, the campaign for classical language status for Maithili gained renewed momentum. On 7 October 2024, JD national working president cum Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha raised the demand for classical language status to Maithili, through his social media handle.