Maithili
मैथिली/মৈথিলী
Native to	India and Nepal
Region	Northern and eastern Bihar in India; eastern Terai in Nepal
Ethnicity	Maithil
Native speakers	33.9 million (2016)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Bihari Maithili
Dialects	Central (Sotipura) Thēthi Bajjika [2][3] Madhur Jolaha Kisan Thetiya
Writing system	Tirhuta (Mithilakshar) Kaithi (Maithili style) Devanagari
Official status
Official language in	India 8th schedule of Constitution of India, Bihar  Nepal Interim Constitution 2007 and Constitution 2016
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mai
ISO 639-3	mai
Glottolog	mait1250

Maithili (/ˈmaɪtɪli/;^[4] Maithilī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Mithila region of India, which today is mainly situated in northern and eastern Bihar, though also a few districts of the Nepal Terai. It is one of the largest languages in India, and the second largest language in Nepal.^[5] Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili. Less commonly, it was also written with the local variant of Kaithi.^[6] Today it is written in the Devanagari script.^[7]

In 2003, Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which allows it to be used in education, government, and other official contexts.

In 2007, Maithili was included in the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063, Part 1, Section 5^[8] as a recognized regional language.

In India, Maithili is spoken mainly in northern and eastern Bihar in the districts of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Begusarai, Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj, Sheohar, Bhagalpur, Madhepura, Araria, Supaul, Vaishali and Saharsa. Madhubani and Darbhanga constitute cultural and linguistic centers. Native speakers also reside in Delhi, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi, Mumbai and various other places.^[9]

In Nepal, Maithili is spoken mainly in the Outer Terai districts including Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusa, Sunsari, Siraha and Saptari Districts. Janakpur is an important linguistic centre of Maithili.^[9]

In the 19th century, linguistic scholars considered Maithili as a dialect of Eastern Hindi 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.^[10][11]

Chatterji grouped Maithili with Magadhi Prakrit.^[12]

Maithili varies greatly in dialects.^[13] The standard form of Maithili is Sotipura or Central Maithili or Madhubani dialect^[14] which is mainly spoken in Darbhanga and Madhubani districts in Bihar, India.^[15]

• Bajjika dialect of the Maithili is spoken in the Samastipur, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, East Champaran and West Champaran districts of Bihar, India and in the Sarlahi, Mahottari and Rautahat districts of Nepal.^[16]
• Thēthi dialect is spoken mainly in Kosi and Purnia divisions of Bihar, India and between the western part of the Mahottari and the eastern part of the Sarlahi districts of Nepal.^[17]

Several other geographic variations of Maithili dialects are spoken in India and Nepal, including Dehati, and Kisan. Some dialects such as Bantar, Barmeli, Musar, and Tati are spoken only in Nepal, while the Kortha, Jolaha and Thetiya dialects are spoken in India. All the dialects are intelligible to native Maithili speakers.^[9]

Maithili dates back to the 14th century. The Varna Ratnākara is the earliest known prose text, preserved from 1507, and is written in Mithilaksar script.^[10]

The name Maithili is derived from the word Mithila, an ancient kingdom of which King Janaka was the ruler (see Ramayana). 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 (Abahatta).

With the fall of Pala rule, disappearance of Buddhism, establishment of Karnāta kings and patronage of Maithili under Harasimhadeva (1226–1324) of Karnāta dynasty, Jyotirisvara Thakur (1280–1340) wrote a unique work Varnaratnākara in pure Maithili prose, the earliest specimen of prose available in any modern Indo-Aryan language.^[18]

In 1324, Ghyasuddin Tughluq, the emperor of Delhi invaded Mithila, defeated Harasimhadeva, 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 (1360 to 1450), 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 erotic sports 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, Banga, and Utkala.

The earliest reference to Maithili or Tirhutiya is in Amaduzzi's preface to Beligatti's Alphabetum Brammhanicum, published in 1771.^[19] 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.^[20]

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 (c. 1575 – c. 1660) 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.^[21][22] During this period, at least 70 Maithili dramas were produced. In the drama Harishchandranrityam by Siddhinarayanadeva (1620–57), some characters speak pure colloquial Maithili, while others speak Bengali, Sanskrit or Prakrit. The Nepal tradition may be linked with the Ankiya Nāta in Assam and Jatra in Odisha.^{[citation needed]}

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 (1905), Mithila Moda (1906), and Mithila Mihir (1908) 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 (Maithili Vyakaran). 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 22 national languages of India.^[23]

The publishing of Maithili books in Mithilakshar script was started by Acharya Ramlochan Saran.

Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script, also known as Mithilakshar and Tirhuta. Devanagari script is most commonly used since the 20th century.^[24]

The Tirhuta (Mithilakshar) and Kaithi scripts are both currently included in Unicode.

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 Bikram Sambat. 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 Bangladesh and in Poschim Banga, 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.

Software available for working in the language is available from the government and from private vendors. Here is a list of links, with no order implied, to download software:

• 1. https://cdac.in/index.aspx?id=dl_mlingual_tools
• 2. http://ildc.in/Maithili/MIindex.aspx
• 3. http://www.maithilifonts.in/

• Mithilakshar
• Languages of India
• Languages of Nepal
• Languages with official status in India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

• George A. Grierson (1909). An Introduction to the Maithili dialect of the Bihari language as spoken in North Bihar. Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
• Ramawatar Yadav, Tribhvan University. Maithili Language and Linguistics: Some Background Notes (PDF). University of Cambridge.

Maithili edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maithili language.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Maithili phrasebook.

• UCLA Language Materials Project : Maithili
• National Translation Mission's (NTM) Maithili Pages
• Videha Ist Maithili ISSN 2229-547X
• Maithili Books
• Udbodhana Regd International e journal