Maithili Language
Maithili is unmatched
of the 3 accents of Bihar; Maithili, Magahi, and Bhojpuri of the Bihari
linguistic processess. Approximately addressing, we might allege that Maithili
is best spoken northernmost of Bihar and eastward of the river Gandak. Whilst
around the east - it has covered near the GangesRiver and is uttered in regions
of southern Bihar. Magahi also absorbs South Bihar, east of the River Son, and
the northerly of the two tablelands of Chota Nagpur. Bhojpuri absorbs the
southerly tableland of Chota Nagpur and the the country north and south of the
GangesRiver as far west as, say, Benares. Maithili is also spoken by the
Madhesis of Nepal.
Maithili and Magahi are a good deal more intimately affiliated to each other than either is to Bhojpuri. So, the Maithili could nearly be addressed as an isolated linguistic communication. The model anatomy of the nomenclature is that languages spoken in the Madhubani section of the Darbhanga territorial dominion, and in the adjacent part of the district of Bhagalpur. Maithili is verbalized in its most avid pureness by the Brahmanas of the north of the Darbhanga and Bhagalpur districts, and by those of western Purnea.
History of Maithili
During the British
rule it is customary among western linguists to refer to Maithili as 'Bihari',
a few words on this term are in order. The earliest usage of the term 'Bihari
(literally, the language of Bihar) is found in some British referrals wherein
the explanation offered the following reasons for adopting this name to
designate three dialects - Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magadhi [Magahi]:
1. It is a local name, like the names of other languages as Bengali and Punjabi.
2. The extension of
the name to cover all the dialects of Eastern Hindustan has a parallel in the
case of Marâthï, which has been extended to cover the Dakhani dialect of Berär,
while it means literally only the dialect of the Maräthä country.
3. There is a
historical propriety in the name, as the work Bihar is derived form the
Buddhist Viharas or monasteries once so thickly spread over that region; and.
Bihari in its most ancient form was the language of the early Jains and
Buddhists.
4. Bihari has a
prescriptive right to the dignity of assuming a general character, for the only
one of all the dialects of Eastern Hindustan which possesses any literature is
Maithili, a dialect of north Bihar.
That the choice was
unfortunate has been felt ever since. Most modern writers on Maithili have resented
it and have so indicated.
What is most
interesting is that several linguists grouped Maithili and Bhojpuri together as
dialects of a common Bihari while even thought they were two cultural and
linguistic as well as literary traditions, and even said that Bhojpuri
"belongs rather to the united Provinces than to Bihar, and all its
associations and traditions point to the west and not to the east.
There never was in the past nor exists today a language called Bihari. There is no mention of it in any literature, any document or any record. There is not a single individual who speaks or writes in the Bihari language. It has no script, no literature, no actual existence. It is surely a creation of some strange mind and lives in philological works of scholars who thoughtlessly decided to copy the classification still existing today.
The Maithili language
is spoken in the state of Bihar and neighbouring country of Nepal. It is not
considered as a separate language from Hindi however those who speak the
language would prefer to be called a separate language from Hindi.
Maithili language is
one of the former languages of India. It has the dialect of Hindi and hence
many consider that it has been derived from the Hindi language. It belongs to
the Indo-Aryan group just like all other Indian languages. It is spoken primarily
in the state of Bihar and in the Nepal Terai region. It took a long time for
this language to attain the official status in Indian languages list. This was
because people did not consider it significantly different from that of Hindi.
There were a lot of petitions to give an official status to help education and
literature work in this language. Finally the petitions were all paid due
respect and the language attained its official status in the year 2003.
The name for this
language was derived from the origin of this language. This language originated
in the state of Mithila, which had a great history in the literature, and epics
of India. Mithila was one of the ancient continents in the world and this
clearly shows how ancient the language Maithili is. The entire Mithila used the
language Maithili in both written and oral form. Works rich in the languages
were released and attained global familiarity. Despite the large group of
speaking population, the language did not dominate North India equal to that of
the Hindi language.
The most famous poet
of our nation Vidyapati wrote his literature works in Maithili language. His
poems and thoughts added beauty to this language and raised its power over more
than what it originated to be. While oral communication was easier and poets
used tunes to enhance the sweet nature of the language, written communication
was in Maithili script. This is most similar to the Bengali script. Since all
of the state were grouped as one in the ancient India, it is common for them to
have followed the same writing script.
Maithili is often
mixed with Bhojpuri and Maithili songs are made which is very popular amongst
the people of Bihar. Today Maithili song concerts draw large crowds.
At present, Maithili speaking population could be sparsely found in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Orissa. Since Maithili belonged to most of eastern India, it flourished better. If it had been a central Indian language then it would have been long dominated by the fast sweep of the Hindi language. Though we have not yet excavated the real branches of Maithili, many literature proofs show that Maithili had Hindi in its branches. This means that the origin of Hindi was Maithili language. Census reports show that around 22 million people speak Maithili languages in India and around 25 million people in the world.