Maithili and Magahi | Bihar Articles

By: R. R. Diwakar

MAITHILI

Maithili is essentially the language of Mithila. Its pristine centre is the northern half of Darbhanga district, but it is also spoken in parts of the Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Saharsa, and Purnea districts in slightly varying forms. It is spoken at home by more than ten million people and is the only language of Bihar which has an ancient literary history. Maithili prose literature is even older than Hindi. As early as 1324, Jyotirishwar Thakur wrote a prose work in Maithili. Other literary works, such as poetry, drama and stories, are also abundant, while a number of monthly magazines are also published in this language. The greatest Maithili poet was Vidyapati (15th century). He is claimed however, as their own poet by both Hindi and Bengali speaking people. A contemporary of his, Umapati, also wrote prose and poetry, and in recent times Dr Ganganath Jha, Dr Amarnath Jha, and Ishanath Jha, have enriched its prose literature. Poets like 'Yatri', humorists like Pandit Harimohan Jha, research scholars like Dr Umesha Mishra and Dr Subhadra Jha, have made Maithili a living force. Though ancient Maithili had a distinct script which was akin to Bengali, it is now most commonly written in Devanagri. Maithili has a bewildering mass of verbal forms, but only two numbers and two genders, while the verbal form is changed only in the past and future tenses.

MAGAHI

Magahi, or Magadhi, is spoken in the districts of Patna, Gaya and Hazaribagh and in the western part of Palamau, as well as parts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur. On its eastern frontier, Magahi meets Bengali. Grierson called the dialect of this region Eastern Magahi It is not credited with much polish. While Maithili prospered under the influence of learned Brahmanas, Magahi continues to be the language of the common people. It has no indigenous written literature, though a number of folk-tales and popular songs have been handed down for centuries from mouth to mouth. Strolling bards recite long epic poems in this dialect, and it was because of this that the word 'Magadhi' came to mean 'a bard'. Kaithi is the script generally used for it. The pronunciation in Magahi is not as broad as in Maithili and there are a number of verbal forms for each person.

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