Maithili Language

Bihar like other states of India is rich in various languages and dialects . There are 38 districts in Bihar  where linguistic classification can be seen . There are various languages or dialects spoken in Bihar . People outside the Bihar get confuse most of the time and consider  different languages or dialects as one and also started terming them together as Bihari language.

Bihari language is a General term for the languages speak in Bihar . There is also a big misconception about the languages of Bihar that all Biharis speak only Bhojpuri .

Difference between Language and Dialect :

As wikipedia says language is written as well as spoken where as Dialects is just spoken until it is promoted to the ellite status usually for political purposes. Simply we can say , dialect is a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a particular region or a social group. Dialect is a regional variation of a language .When different regions use different words to describe the same thing thisis dialect.

There are mainly three languages spoken in Bihar , otherwise there are other dialects spoken in Bihar.

Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri are the three main languages,apart from these Angika and Brajika are also spoken in Bihar in most of the places as Maithili , these are the dialects of Maithili which is politically influenced by the time.

Magahi or Magadhi is spoken in the district of Patna, and Gaya. From the time immemorial it is called the language of common people. There is no indegenous written literature , though number of folktales and popular songs tell the history of this language.

Bhojpuri is spoken in Bhojpur district, Buxar, Kaimur and Rohtas. It is also spoken in some states of Uttar Pradesh like Varanasi and Gorakhpur .

Angika is spoken in districs like Araria, Katihaar, Bhagalpur

In Bhagalpur , Munger and east Champaran Maithili is spoken.

Talking about the dialects spoken in Bihar they are : Musase, Sadri , Surajpuri, Kudmali, Panch Pargania , Sarmami, Vajjika

so as we saw there are different languages and dialects spoken in Bihar in different districts.This blog will take you to the Maithili speaking districts and will introduce you about the Maithili language of Bihar.

Introduction

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands , that goes to his head . If you talk to him in his language , that goes to his heart” – Nelson Mandela

Maithili is an Indo – Aryan language spoken in Darbhanga, Saharsa, Samastipur, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj, Bhagalpur, Madhepura, some parts of Muzaffarpur, Munger, Khagaria, Sheohar, Araria, Supaul, Shehohar and some parts of Vaishali.

Darbhanga and Madhubani constitute cultural and linguistic centers of Maithili language.

Janakpur in Nepal is an important linguistic center of Maithili.

It is also spoken in Terai region of Nepal. Maithili is the second most prevalent language of Nepal.

It is also spoken in some districts of Jharkhand like Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Deoghar. Maithili received the second official language status of Jharkhand in March 2018.

According to the census of Government of India there are in total 13.5 million people at present who authorised their mother tongue as Maithili.

In 2003, Maithili was included in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution as a recognized Indian language. Maithili literature is even older than Hindi. Vidayapati is the great name of Maithili Literature. As early as 1324 , Jyotirishwar Thakur wrote a prose work in Maithili. Many monthly magazines publish in Maithili language.

Maithili language is included as an optional paper in the UPSC exam.

History

Maithili is the only language of Bihar which has an ancient literary History. Going long back in history Maithili was called the language of common people and Sanskrit was considered as the language of Scholars.

Talking about the history of the Language . The oldest record of Maithii go back to 1771 when Amaduzzi’s preface to Belgatti’s Alphabetum Brammhanicum published.

In 1880, Hoernle in his book A comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages with special reference to Eastern Hindi and treated Maithili as a dialect very close to Bengal.

Then in 1801 Colebrooke in his famous essay on the sanskrit and Prakrit Languages describe Maithili as a different dialect . He also included Maithili’s affinity with Bengali.

In the year 1875 , Mr. Fallon gave a few few specimens of it in the Indian Antiquary.

In 1881 , Grierson in his book Introduction to the Maithili Language of North Bihar where he explained all the grammar rules of Maithili . In his book he gave glimpse on the alphabet, pronounciations, , parts of speech . The description however is based heavily upon Maithili forms obtained from by the Pundits, village school masters and educated Native Gentlemen. In next year he published its part 2 of the book in which he included large number of words that is vocabulary .

1893 was the year when Kelly the writer of the time continues to treat Maithili as a dialect of Hindi.

As per the record , 1958 was the first time when the formation of Maithili language was appeared . He did the most exhaustive diachronic description on Maithili. In it, he has undertaken to trace the history of Maithili from the old Indo – Aryan Period and has laboured assiduously to assign Sanskrit etymologically to practically all forms of Maithili.

The Royal Nepal Academy published a dictionary of synonyms of 14 languages including Maithili .

Other Informations:

• The dialects of Bihar were legally absorbed under the overreaching lebel Hindi in 1961 census.
• Hindi was given the official status through the Bihar Official language Act 1950.
• Hindi was displaced as the sole official language of Bihar in 1981. Generally Hindi is a widely spoken language in Bihar.
• Hindi is literary language of the state and several renowned and gifted Bihari writers created his literature in Hindi .
• Despite the large number of speakers of these [Hindi, Bhojpuri, Magdhi] languages , only Maithili has been consitutionally recognised in India, which gained constitutional status via the 92nd amendment to the constitution of India.
• Universities of Bihar have adopted Maithili as the medium of correspondence . It is also teach in Indian Universities of Kolkata, Bihar, Patna, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga and Varanasi. It is also teach in Tribhuvan University of NEPAL.
• According to the International P.E.N. [ Poets, Essayists and Novelists] and the Sahitya Akadami [ National Academy of letters ] ,Maithili is the 16th largest language of India.