A Parallel History of Maithili Literature- Gajendra Thakur
1.A Parallel History of Maithili Literature- Introduction
2.Rajdeo Mandal- Maithili Writer
3.Era Before and After - Literary scene in Maithili after the arrival of Jagdish Prasad Mandal
4.The Cattle Grazer Brahmin Village (Mahisbar Brahmanak Gaam)
5.The Science of Words (ShabdaShastram)
6.The Proven Mahavir (Siddha Mahavir)
१.विदेह ई-पत्रिकाक सभटा पुरान अंक Videha e journal's all old issues
२.मैथिली पोथी डाउनलोड Maithili Books Download
३.मैथिली वीडियोक संकलन Maithili Videos
४.मैथिली शिशु, बाल आ किशोर साहित्य Maithili Children Literature
Gajendra Thakur
Issue No. 88 (November-December 2019) of Muse India at http://museindia.com/ displays Maithili literature in an extremely poor light. Moreover, it wrongly claims to be a representative review of Maithili Literature, whereas it was only in line with the Sahitya Akademi, Delhi; a mere representation of the so-called "dried main drain". It is expected that Muse India will correct itself by announcing an issue exclusively devoted to the parallel tradition of Maithili literature.- Editor
T.K. Oommen writes in the "Linguistic Diversity" Chapter of "Sociology", 1988, page 291, National Law School of India University/ Bar Council of India Trust book: "... the Maithili region is found to be economically and culturally dominated by Brahmins and if a separate Maithili State is formed they may easily get entrenched as the political elite also. This may not be to the liking and advantage of several other castes, the traditionally entrenched or currently ascendant castes. Therefore, in all possibility, the latter groups may oppose the formation of a separate Maithili state although they also belong to the Maithili speech community. This type of opposition adversely affects the development of several languages."
T.K. Oomen further writes: "... even when a language is pronounced to be distinct from Hindi, it may be treated as a dialect of Hindi. For example, both Grierson who undertook the classic linguistic survey of India and S. K. Chatterjee, the national professor of linguistics, stated that Maithili is a distinct language. But yet it is treated as a dialect of Hindi". (ibid, page 293)
Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. - Robert Louis Stevenson
...
Videha: Maithili Literature Movement
FESTIVAL OF LETTERS OR FESTIVAL OF SHAME
SAHITYA AKADEMI AND the DOWNFALL OF INDIAN
LANGUAGES (IN SPECIAL CONTEXT OF MAITHILI LANGUAGE)
When Maithili was recognised by the Sahitya
Akademi (National Academy of Letters- of India) way back in 1965, Late Ramanath
Jha stated that his Maithili language is saved now (Maithilik Vartman Samasya,
Ramanath Jha).
He was wrong on this on two counts. What he
referred to as applicable, if it applied at all, only to the part of Maithili
speaking area, geographically located in India. Maithili is spoken, natively,
in India and Nepal. After the treaty of sugauli (ratified in 1816), which was
in the aftermath of the Anlo-Nepalese war of 1814-16, the hilly regions were
incorporated in British India, including the Nepalese-speaking Darjeeling Area.
Similarly in 1816 and 1860, the Britishers ceded some Terai region to Nepal. As
a result, part of Maithili speaking Area, which was earlier ruled by Malla
Kings (when Maithili was an official language of the region), was ceded to
Nepal. Even today some Maithili scholars (!!) refer to the golden period of
Maithili as the period of "Nepali (!!)" Malla Kings (Ramanath Jha,
Introduction to Maithili Sahityak Itihas by Dr Durganath Jha
"Shreesh").
Ramanath Jha himself admits that during his
visit to "Vir Library" of Nepal (Kathmandu) he came to know about the
Nepal legacy (his monograph on kirtaniya Natak, which he wrongly presents as
Kirtaniya Nach) in respect of Maithili. So, he cannot be blamed for his lack of
knowledge in this respect. He was wrong on the second count also, and this
second count was an artificial creation. He began a tradition of elitism and
conservatism in Sahitya Akademi, as the first convener of the Maithili language.
The tradition got stronger and stronger in the last 55 years of the Existence
of Maithili in that Akademi. So, he ensured that liberal writers, like Sh.
Harimohan Jha, attacking casteism and conservatism did not get the award, even
though the year 1967 went unrewarded and the Ist award in 1966 was given to a
non-literary book in Maithili (academic book of Philosophy!!!).
He was casteist, conservative and confused.
The inter-caste marriage in Panji was well known to him, and it was apparent
that the great navya-nyaya philosopher Gangesh Upadhyaya married a
"Charmkarini" and was born five years after the death of his father.
But he informed Sh. Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya in a distorted way. Sh. Dinesh
Chandra Bhattacharya writes in the "History of Navya-Nyaya in
Mithila"-
"The family which was inferior in social
status is now extinct in Mithila-Gangesha's family is completely ignored and we
are not expected to know even his father's name.", and he writes further
that all this information was given to him by Prof. R. Jha. So how would this
casteist-conservative-confused allow the award to be given to Sh? Harimohan
Jha. So, the Sahitya Akademi saved the Maithili Language by recognizing it, as
asserted by Prof. R. Jha, was wrong on those two counts.
Now come to Nepal, the Prajna Pratisthan and
other organizations often recognize Indian Maithili writers, but Sahitya
Akademi of India does not recognize Nepalese Maithili writers, be it the
Seminars or the poets meet, be it an anthology of poems or prose published by
the Akademi. Regarding the treatment of Nepalese Maithili writers by Sahitya
Akademi Sh. Ram Bharos Kapari "Bhramar" laments that there is demand
in Nepal that they should also not award Indian Maithili writers/ publish them
in their anthologies as reciprocity demands this.
The narrow-mindedness of the Maithili
advisory board of the Indian Sahitya Akademi has its origin in the
organizations that are recognized by the Sahitya Akademi, the basis of which is
extra-literary credentials. These are pseudo-organizations running on paper,
political organizations or casteist organizations pocket-run by a few. The
complete list is:
MAITHILI LITERARY ASSOCIATIONs (!!!)
RECOGNIZED by SAHITYA AKADEMI
1. The Secretary, All India Maithili Sahitya
Samiti, Tirbhukti, 1/1B, Sir P.C. Banerjee Road, Allahabad-211 002.
2. The General Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya
Maithili Sahitya Parishad, C/o Dr. Ganapati Mishra, Lalbag, Darbhanga-846 004.
3. The Secretary, Chetna Samity, Vidyapati
Bhawan, Vidyapati Marg, Patna-800 001.
4. The Secretary, Mithila Sanskritik
Parishad, 6 B, Kailash Saha Lane, Kolkata-700 007.
5. The Secretary, Vidyapati Seva Sansthan,
Mithila Bhavan Parishar, Darbhanga-846 004.
6. The Secretary, Centre for the Study of
Indian Traditions, Tantrabati Geeta Bhavan; Ranti House, Ranti, Madhubani-847
211
Now the Literary Association lists read as
under. Serial no. 1 & 6 above have been derecognised and has been replaced
by other non-literary associations at sr no 5, 6 & 7 below.
(1) The General Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya
Maithili Sahitya Parishad, Professors' Colony, Digahi West
Opp. of Primary School, Darbhanga-846 004,
(Bihar)
2) The Secretary, Chetna Samiti, Vidhya Pati
Bhavan, Vidyapati Marg, Patna-800 001 (Bihar)
3) The Secretary, Mithila Sanskritik Parishad,
6B, Kailash Saha Lane, Kolkata-700 007, (West Bengal)
4) The Secretary, Vidhya Pati Sewa Sansthan,
Mithila Bhavan Parishar, Darbhanga-846 004, (Bihar)
5) The Secretary, Anand, Samajik Sanskritik
Sahityik Manch, Rajkumarganj (Mirzapur Chowk), Darbhanga-846 004, (Bihar)
6) The General Secretary, Mithila Sanskritik
Parishad, Rosebery 5032, Sahara Garden City, Adityapur-2
Jamshedpur-831 014, (Jharkhand)
7) The General Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya
Mithila Sangh, G-6, Hans Bhavan, Wing 2 I.T.O., Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New
Delhi-110 002, (Delhi)
What is the literary credential of the Centre
for the Study of Indian Traditions (now recognised and replaced by another
pocket association)? Chetna Samiti and Vidyapati Seva Sansthan are casteist
political outfits, vehemently displaying the casteist attire of a great ancient
poet, whose caste is still uncertain (VIDYAPATI), but who was certainly not
Brahmin. All India Maithili Sahitya Samiti (now derecognised and replaced by a
non-literary association) became non-existent even during the lifetime of the
Late Jaykant Mishra, same is the case with Akhil Bhartiya Maithili Sahitya
Parishad. Mithila Sanskritik Parishad has done a crime through an investiture
ceremony of the great Vidyapati, they tried to convert Vidyapati and "Maithili"
language to the language of only the Brahmins (the name of the artist who
sketched the Vidyapati has still not been disclosed by this organisation). When
these non-existent organizations exercise voting powers granted by Sahitya Akademi
and chose a convener, it is not a coincidence that for successive times only
conservative people among the Maithil Brahmin caste, are chosen. The complete
list is:
1. Ramanath Jha
2. Jaykant Mishra
3. Surendra Jha Suman
4. Sureshwar Jha
5. Ramdeo Jha
6. Chandranath Mishra Amar
7. Vidyanath Jha Vidit
8. Veena Thakur
9. Prem Mohan Mishra
10. Ashok Avichal.
The result is now for everybody to see. The
complete list of Sahitya Akademi awards (till 2019) is:
Total booty distribution- 50 times, Maithil
Brahmins- 42 times, Kayasthas- 6 times, Rajpoots- 3 times; Others- 0 times!!! (Now
in 2021 Sh. Jagdish Prasad Mandal has been awarded this prize for his novel
"Pangu", so the count is now not zero but one.
The result is not based on the quality of the
books but solely upon the caste-based other considerations and the disease has
its root in the faulty seedling that the Sahitya Akademi of India found through
the faulty literary associations.
What were the objectives of the setting of
this Akademi?
Sahitya Akademi was established (National
Academy of Letters to be called Sahitya Akademi) by Government of India
resolution No F-6-4/51G2(A) dated December 1952 "to set high literary
standards, to foster and co-ordinate literary activities in all the Indian
languages and to promote through them all the cultural unity of the country; to
promote good taste and healthy reading habits, to keep alive the intimate
dialogue among the various linguistic and literary zones and groups through
seminars, lectures, symposia, discussions, readings and performances, to
increase the pace of mutual translations through workshops and individual
assignments and to develop a serious literary culture through the publications
of journals, monographs, individual creative works of every genre, anthologies,
encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, who's who of writers and histories
of literature."
The Akademi boasts of publishing "one
book every thirty hours" and holding "at least thirty seminars every
year" at regional, national, and international levels, " along with
the workshops and literary gatherings-about two hundred in number per
year".
The Akademi recognises " Besides the
twenty-two languages enumerated in the Constitution of India", English and
Rajasthani as languages. Sahitya Akademi has constituted twenty-four language
Advisory Boards "to render advice for implementing literary programmes in
these 24 languages".
The Akademi gives prizes in twenty-four
languages recognised by it for original and translated works. It gives "
special awards called Bhasha Samman to a significant contribution to the
languages not formally recognized by the Akademi as also for contribution to
classical and medieval literature"; "It has also a system of electing
eminent writers as Fellows and Honorary Fellows and has also established a
fellowship in the names of Dr Anand Coomaraswamy and Premchand".
FESTIVAL OF LETTERS (SHAME)!!!!
In February every year, Sahitya Akademi
"holds a week-long Festival of Letters; It begins with the ceremony to
present the Akademi's Annual Awards for creative writing".
In February every year, there is a need to
examine whether Sahitya Akademi is fulfilling its objective and whether Sahitya
Akademi is aware of the rich cultural and linguistic variety prevalent in
India.
On scrutiny it is revealed that Sahitya
Akademi believes in "forced standardisation of culture through a
bulldozing of levels and attitudes" and it is not "conscious of the
deep inner cultural, spiritual, historical and experiential links that unify
India's diverse manifestations of literature".
The Akademi boasts of publishing "one
book every thirty hours" and holding "at least thirty seminars every
year" at regional, national, and international levels, "along with
the workshops and literary gatherings-about two hundred in number per
year". If we see the data in respect of Maithili it comes out that every
year around twelve books should have been published in Maithili and the
Maithili writers might have attended thirty seminars every year at regional, national,
and international levels and might have participated in eight literary
gatherings every year. The number of Maithili books published by the Akademi is
pathetically low, and when we see the assignments, through which these books
get artificially prepared (be it translation, anthology or monograph), then the
people getting these assignments are often related to the members of the
advisory board (as the answer to RTI application by Sh. Vinit Utpal brings
forth). The quality suffers, and as a result, there is no readership.
How this Akademi failed? And why this Akademi
failed? And what action should be taken against Akademi for its intentional
failure?
Firstly, Akademi is not the name of a man or
woman. Akademi or its member of the Advisory Board consists of persons, and if
the group of persons is failing the Akademi, that language itself is to blame!
But again, the language is not the name of a man or woman. So, the people
speaking that language are to be blamed for the failures of the Akademi.
Really!!
Even if it is partially true, the Sahitya
Akademy cannot shirk its responsibilities. How an advisory committee can be
considered representative of Maithili-speaking people (even that of India),
when the Convener of that language is nominated by six organisations (recognised
by the Sahitya Akademi for reasons best known to it), having no remote
connection with literature? Sahitya Akademi sowed seeds of Acacia and expected
Mango fruit. Having said that it is also true that the Akademi or any
organisation can transform itself, but only when the conservative people
representing these find pressure from the literary fraternity, change
themselves or are replaced.
What is the solution?
The literary fraternity has already taken
initiative by establishing parallel Sahitya Akademi awards and parallel
literary meets. It should be taken further. All legal means should be explored
to take the Akademi to the task. On all available forums, the fact is made
clear that the literature being prepared by Sahitya Akademi through assignments
is not grammatically correct, that it is not up to mark and is of inferior
quality. On all available forums, it should be made clear that the thin,
casteist-looking (quantitatively and qualitatively) and pale Maithili
literature, which is being shown by the Sahitya Akademi of India to the world,
has no readership or respect in its native speaking area of India and Nepal.
And that Maithili has moved not because of Sahitya Akademi but despite it.
Demand
The six organisations representing Maithili
should be derecognized with immediate effect and an inquiry initiated to
ascertain their genuineness. A committee should be set up to scrutinize the
work done by the Sahitya Akademi (in respect of Maithili) in the last 55 years.
The awards should be kept in abeyance till the results of the inquiry are made
public and corrective steps are taken.
2
THE CELEBRATION BEGINS
Videha Ist Maithili Fortnightly International
e-journal has e-published more than three hundred issues to date. Meanwhile, we
will enumerate the problems faced and the solutions found by us. The Journey
began in the year 2000 at yahoo Geocities- the first words on the internet in
Maithili were written by me on the yahoo Geocities sites (now yahoo has
discontinued Geocities) towards the end of 2000 when I suffered a major
accident which kept me confined to crutches for one and a half years. But that shaped
my destiny. I could concentrate on my Maithili writings and my research on
Tirhuta Manuscripts. On 5th July 2004, the first blog in Maithili came
(gajendrathakur.blogspot.com) as "Bhalsarik Gachh", which was
rechristened as Videha ejournal from 1st January 2008. From Ist January 2008 it
came to be published as a fortnightly journal. The first rechristened issue
brought the story of the life and creations of a forgotten Maithili poet Late
Ramji Choudhary (1878-1952).
Till the eighth issue of Videha the columns
on Music, Mithila Painting, Children column, learn samskrit through Maithili
got strengthened. Moreover, the projects on digitalisation of Maithili Classics
and Panji Manuscript-leafs got started. The searchable dictionary
(Maithili-English_Maithili) was designed and strengthened. From the eighth
issue, a latest unpublished Maithili Play of Nachiketa "No Entry Maa Pravish"
began its e-publication in Videha. Nachiketa, the greatest dramatist of
Maithili Literature was silent for the last 25 years, as far as the drama was
concerned.
Technology has two aspects, bad (its chances
of misuse) and good (its effective use). It is a great leveller; it challenges
status quo forces. It is applicable in all areas of knowledge. So, school-going
children today have a clearer understanding of the universe and atoms than the
Aryabhata or Sir Issac Newton had. After mass-scale use of printing education
and literature expanded its wings, but only after the "Internet and
electronic transformation of tools of knowledge", it has become universal,
it has jumped geographical boundaries. All shackles unfurled, the weak links of
the chain were identified, and the chain which tried to capture knowledge,
which tried to thwart its expansion, started breaking down. And the greatest
beneficiary became the Maithili Literature. What is Videha, nothing, it is only
its commitment to the Maithili Language, which helped it expand its base, and
Videha became the means that were able to bind together the Maithili-speaking
areas in both parts of the boundary (India & Nepal). Videha gave Maithili a
batch of committed writers and a batch of committed readers. It challenged the
status quo and casteist forces. It challenged confused writers, who were using
Maithili as a tool to ride the ladder of Hindi. The lack of criticism, the lack
of teeth in criticism was the reason that some writers and dramatists were
using Hindi-Mix Maithili for cheap popularity, they were using derogatory
language for the so-called lower castes of their society (some were finding
plea in Natyashastra- when even the modern-day Samskrit Drama is not using
Prakrit etc.!!), and for their mimicry, those castes started keeping distance
with this kind of literature. And once the confusion of the confused thinned, a
new type of awakened literature, stage, and drama (top-class) became the norm.
Videha is regularly getting some excellent
brains. Since its inception, Videha, the idea factory, is dependent upon them. As
far as their versatile qualities are concerned, people associated with Videha
are different. All are known for their perseverance and resilience. All are
known for their arduous work. All are known for their quality work. All are
known for their discipline. And all are committed; committed to Maithili and
the Mithila. The cumulative force resulted in a natural revolution. A
revolution in the field of Maithili Literature, art, music, craft, stage, and
drama. The only international e-journal in Maithili started this quality
movement in Maithili. Nothing less than world standard was acceptable. The
awards were instituted to recognize the parallel field of Maithili Literature,
art, music, craft, stage, and drama. Only the best was selected, there was no
scope for the second best. The participation of readers in the decision-making
processes was encouraged. The readers got full access to the digitalised
Maithili Literature. More than five hundred Maithili books and around 11000
palm-leaf mithilakshar manuscripts were digitalised and made available online
under the "Videha Archive" section of www.videha.co.in (and the
number is increasing every day). The audio-video-paintings-photographs were
archived, and all these archived "art and lifestyle" of the people of
Mithila were then placed online. The Videha Archive is a unique gift to the
world.
So, what is the ideology of people associated
with Videha? Is it collective thinking? No, of course not. In Videha all are
welcome. Here all are welcome to discuss their respective ideology. Having said
this, it needs emphasis that there are some basic human principles where no
compromise is possible. The casteists, those having genetic superiority complex
(which is another name for an inferiority complex), the practitioners of
plagiarism, those who are unable to take part in a healthy discussion and
persons who are not able to withstand the criticism of their creation, Videha
is not a platform for them. The ideology of people associated with Videha may
have different tinges, not all need to toe the line taken by any member of the
editorial board. Videha believes in the individuality of ideas and the
editorial board never imposes its ideology upon its members. At the same time,
it is being emphasized that each member of the Videha editorial board has a
strong ideological leaning, the ideology of humanism is practised by all.
Videha-Maithili Literature Movement has its
roots in the year 2000 when I started making Maithili Websites on Yahoo
Geocities. After Yahoo Closed Geocities these sites were automatically deleted.
However, the early form of Videha "Bhalsari Gachh" was started on 5
July 2004, and it is the earliest presence of Maithili on the internet. Videha
and its vibrant members did their utmost in translating lacs of words on Wikipedia,
and they successfully opposed the nomenclature "Bihari Languages” (Gerard
M accepted the role of Umesh Mandal, the co-editor of Videha, go to Gerard M's
blog and click the Dasipat Aripan photo from Videha archive (Preeti Thakur)
placed at his blog, you will reach http://videha.co.in/). In Google
translate/Wikipedia localisation drive, in Tirhuta and Kaithi script research
and the localisation of Braille in consonance with the Maithili Language,
Videha shouldered the responsibility as a pioneer in technology viz-a-viz
Maithili Language. It was a pioneer in many respects. It started for the first
time a Maithili Websites Aggregator at http://videha-aggregator.blogspot.com/,
the first braille site in Maithili, the first mithilakshar site in Maithili
among others (total list).
Videha has organised several dozen Maithili
book fairs to date. The 16th Videha Maithili book fair was held at Sagar Rati
Deep Jaray, Patna on 10-11th December 2011 and the 17th Videha Maithili book
fair was held at Guwahati, on 22-23 December next year at the Vidyapati Parv
organised by Mithila Sanskritik Samanvay Samiti. The detailed list of all the
venues (datewise). Videha also organised a parallel Sahitya Akademi Kavi Sammelan,
besides awarding parallel Sahitya Akademi prizes, as corrective measures, as
the awards and Kavi Sammellans of Sahitya Akademi were awarded/ organised in a
unilateral manner where merit took a beating. Videha has, thus, fulfilled its
obligation by interfering in the murky affairs of government organisations.
Videha cannot remain a silent spectator, be it plagiarism or copyright
violations. So, the authors like Pankaj Parashar, and Ashok Sahu, who were
engaged in lifting other articles/ stories/ poems were banned after verifying
the sources and target writings.
Literature in translation is a major issue
with Videha. Lack of translation in America resulted in Americans lagging in
quality literature. We practise literature in translation in both directions-
from Maithili into English and from other languages into Maithili. As far as
translations from other languages into Maithili are concerned English, Nepali,
Sanskrit and Hindi function as buffer languages in the process. Direct
translations into Maithili are limited; and it is done directly only from
English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Nepali and Bengali, although there are some
exceptions. As far as the question of translations from Maithili into other
languages is concerned, directed translations are again limited; and it is
again done directly only into English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali and Nepali,
barring some exceptions. Videha contacted some notable personalities of class
literature, took permission, and translated that literature into Maithili. Most
of the time English was used as a buffer language and translation work from
English, Hindi, Konkani, Telugu, Gujarati, Odia, Kannada, Nepali and Telugu
into Maithili was completed; and these works were regularly published in
Videha. Maithili novels, poems, and short stories, on the other hand, were
translated from Maithili into English and were published regularly in Videha.
VIDEHA became a Maithili Literature movement.
No, VIDEHA was from day one of the Maithili Literature movement. Many
established misconceptions got cleared through VIDEHA. The well-known facts,
the not-so-obvious plot of some people to kill Maithili through its twin
institutions the Sahitya Akademi and the CIIL was unearthed. The Right to
Information came in handy. Sri Vinit Utpal asked for information from Sahitya
Akademi through his RTI application dated 23.09.2011 (file no. RTI-125) and
sought information on "Assignment assigned by Maithili Advisory Board,
Sahitya Akademi under the convener ship of Sri Vidyanath Jha 'Vidit'". The
information included a proposal received, a proposal rejected, and a proposal
kept in abeyance." The statutory mandatory information supplied by the
Sahitya Akademi unearthed a vicious circle of Maithili-speaking so-called
litterateurs, hell-bent upon making Maithili a language- "of the Maithil
Brahmin, for the Maithil Brahmin and by the Maithil Brahmin". More than
90% of the assignments went to the friends, relatives, and acquaintances of the
10-member Maithili Advisory Board. No assignment to Sh. Jagdish Prasad Mandal,
Sh. Rajdeo Mandal, Sh. Bechan Thakur (the greatest Short-story-novel writer of
Maithili, the greatest living poet of Maithili and the greatest living Maithili
dramatist; respectively), Sh. Umesh Paswan, Sh. Umesh Mandal, Sh. Ramdev Prasad
Mandal "Jharudar", Sh. Durganand Mandal, Sh. Sandeep Kumar Safi or to
Sh. Anand Kumar Jha. When every member of the Maithili advisory board is hand
in glove with the Sahitya Akademi to kill the Maithili language then where lies
the hope? The demand for Mithila state by these people will see that 10 Maithil
Brahmin families would loot the Mithila state. Then where lies the hope? Here
lies hope. Sh. Bechan Thakur has created a parallel Maithili stage and theatre,
a slap on the existing slapstick humouristic Maithili theatre. Sh. Umesh Paswan
is a discovery of the Parallel Sahitya Akademi Poetry festival organised by
Videha. Sh. Jagdish Prasad Mandal, Sh. Rajdeo Mandal, Sh. Jharudar, Sh. Sandeep
Kumar Safi and Sh Umesh Mandal have pumped their energy, wealth, and time into
our Maithili Language. This language will live...proofs are given below: -
Google Translate:
http://www.google.com/transconsole/giyl/chooseProject
then Wikipedia translate:
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate?task=untranslated&group=core-mostused&limit=2000&language=mai
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Project:Translator
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Project:Translator
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Maithili
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate?task=untranslated&group=core-mostused&limit=2000&language=mai
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/mai
http://translatewiki.net/wiki/MediaWiki:Mainpage/mai
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2011/05/bihari-wikipedia-is-actually-written-in.html)
[Monday, May 09, 2011
The #Bihari #Wikipedia is written in
#Bhojpuri
This is the kind of article that has many
people's eyes glazed over. It is about standards and scientific documents, and
it is about languages most of my readers have never heard about. For the people
that do speak one of the languages that are considered Bihari, it is extremely relevant,
and it has implications for Wikipedia.
This is information provided by Umesh Mandal
that explains the "Bihari group of languages" with the Maithili
language:
Kellogg (1876/1893) and Hoernle (1880)
regarded Maithili as a dialect of Eastern Hindi; Beames (1872/reprint 1966:
84-85), regarded Maithili as a dialect of Bengali, Grierson has done a great
service to the Maithili language, however, he erred when he gave a false
notional term of "Bihari" language after that western linguists
started categorizing Maithili as a dialect of "Bihari" language;
although there is nothing known as "Bihari Language" and both
Maithili and Bhojpuri are spoken in Bihar (of India) as well as in Nepal.
Umesh is working on the localisation of
MediaWiki for the Maithili language and as this language is currently in the
Incubator, the language committee does its due diligence and trying to understand
if Maithili can have a place in the Bihari Wikipedia. The information provided
by Umesh makes it quite clear: "no".
This still leaves us with the misnomer that
is the Bihari Wikipedia. The language used for the localisation and the
articles is Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri has the ISO-639-3 code "bho".
Are you still following all this? Ok, there
is one question I am not asking: How about the Kaithi script?
Thanks, GerardM]
Excerpt from a Maithili e-journal published
as PDF (from Videha 2011: 22; Videha: A fortnightly Maithili e-journal. Issue
80 (April 15, 2011), Gajendra Thakur [ed]. http://www.videha.co.in/."Gajendra
Thakur of New Delhi graciously met with me and corresponded at length about
Maithili, offered valuable specimens of Maithili manuscripts, printed books,
and other records, and provided feedback regarding requirements for the
encoding of Maithili in the UCS."-Anshuman Pandey.] ।
TIRHUTA UNICODE See the final UNICODE
Mithilakshara Application (May 5, 2011) by Sh. Anshuman Pandey at Page 23 of
the Videha 80th issue (Tirhuta version) is attached"Figure 11: Excerpt
from a Maithili e-journal published as PDF (from Videha 2011: 22" and at
Page 12 Videha is included in References Videha: A fortnightly Maithili
e-journal. Issue 80 (April 15, 2011), Gajendra Thakur [ed].
http://www.videha.co.in/. and role of Videha's editor is acknowledged on Page
12 "Gajendra Thakur of New Delhi graciously met with me and corresponded
at length about Maithili, offered valuable specimens of Maithili manuscripts,
printed books, and other records, and provided feedback regarding requirements
for the encoding of Maithili in the UCS.”]
The Maithili Speaking area is shrinking. It
is shrinking due to a conscious-subconscious policy of the Governments of India
and Nepal, and the situation became critical due to the invasion of Hindi and
Nepali media and the biased educational system in Maithili-speaking areas, and
due to the large-scale migration, which has happened in one single generation.
The question of Hindi saw to it that Vajjika, Angika and now Thethi, Surjapuri
etc. languages should get the tacit support of supporters of Hindi, first in
the name of religion and second in the name of caste. Through this they did not
support Vajjika, Angika, Thethi or Surjapuri; but they tried to weaken
Maithili, which resulted in the weakening of Vajjika, Angika, Thethi and
Surjapuri. For all this, the Maithili-speaking people, more so the officials (I
will explain it later), are also responsible, as they tried to delimit Maithili
within the two castes and four districts. All other people and areas, than
these, were considered northern, southern, eastern, and western deviations of
so-called pure Maithili, which was fictitiously considered as being spoken by
these Maithil Brahmins/ Karna Kayasthas of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saharsa and
Supaul districts. For the last 45 years the officials, yes, I call them
officials, the officials of the Maithili Department of Sahitya Akademi, did not
try to accommodate the people outside this fictitiously delimited domain. But
the major problem lies somewhere else. The slow poisoning was given in many
disguises, be it the faulty top-heavy education system, which neglected primary
and middle school education through the Mother Language Maithili, or be it
through the concept of dialect, which initially conveniently declared languages
like Maithili as dialects. Elementary education through Maithili was a
non-starter because the Maithili books published by the Bihar State Textbook
Publishing Corporation Limited seemed to be in Avahatt, it was not fit for
children. Further, the authors and subjects selected for these books had a
casteist bias. Maithili became a tool for caste-based politics, as once Hindi
had been a tool for religion-based politics. Still, these officials, of the
Maithili Department of Sahitya Akademi, are residing in their own built ghetto,
bereft of any thinking or vision. Another reason for the present plight of
Maithili is the policy undertaken by the tax collectors of Mithila (permanent
settlement Zamindars of Cornwallis), whom the sycophants call King or the great
king (Raja/ Maharaja) or Mithilesh (King of Mithila) these were mere tax
collectors, the right for which were given to the highest bidders permanently;
and there was not one such Mithilesh (tax collectors), but many within the
borders of Mithila. These tax collectors employed mostly those two castes from
four districts in their merchandise venture, and as the selection was based on
sycophancy, so the work suffered. So, they imported the lathiyals from outside
the Mithila region. The masses of Mithila suffered a blow from the double-edged
weapon. First, from their people who did not consider them as their own and second,
the outsiders looted them. Now after some time these outsiders, the
non-Maithili speaking people, found it convenient to declare the masses (not
belonging to the two castes from four districts) as non-Maithili speaking
people, and the officials/ sycophants from those two castes from four districts
tacitly agreed to it. Now these outsiders, the non-Maithili speaking people,
formed a majority in many places of Mithila, and they led the rumour that
Maithili, like Samskrit, is an upper-caste phenomenon, and thus they
legitimized their anti-Maithili stance (all these facts have been brilliantly
dealt with in the Maithili Novels of Sh. Jagdish Prasad Mandal) and they
propagated the case of Hindi, first based on religion and second based on
caste. But why our people fell into their trap, why these tax-collector
Maharajas did not consider the masses of Mithila as their own and imported the
perpetrators to loot their masses? The simple answer is that merit took a
downward leap in auction-based tax collection rights allocation.
We started from one and reached number three,
then thirty and now three hundred!! and we are growing-... and are three
hundred not out and are creating a grand history. http://www.videha.co.in/
Videha Ist Maithili Fortnightly e-Journal ISSN 2229-547X has e-published its
300th issue recently. When I began this venture in the year 2000 with a Samsung
TV net appliance, and when the existing was posted on 5th of July 2004, I moved
all alone. Then on 31st January 2007, I suddenly thought to include the public,
as after some groundwork I was ready for it. I decided to e-publish Videha and
did publish it, on a fortnightly basis, the first issue that came on 1st
January 2008 tried to include all the previous posts.
From all corners of this planet earth, the people
tried to change the destiny of Mithila and Maithili. Now Sh. Ashish Anchinhar,
Sh. Munnaji (Manoj Kumar Karn), are part of our team; and together we are three
hundred not out now. With three hundred plus issues, 30,000 pages of Maithili
literature (one hundred lac words corpora) creation and 11000 Tirhuta
manuscript transcription we maintained a 50000-word Maithili-English vocabulary
database. Now we are 350 strong, with 350 authors.
Videha has faced challenges and has withstood
them. We never shirk from any question and/ or problem. The question of the
state of Mithila is one such question which often comes calling. We are in
favour of the states of Mithila within the sovereign borders of India and
Nepal. We are in favour of Mithila. But which type of Mithila, that type that
we had during the Zamindari Raj, where means of sustenance and avenues of
existence remained limited for a few castes? Or that culture that existed
within "Aryavarta-Indian Nation newspaper" and other Industries
during that Raj. A dozen families of Mithila galloped all these mostly from a
single caste!! No, we are not in support of that Mithila, that Mithila where
Maithili would be swallowed, as it is being swallowed by the Sahitya Akademi
and the CIIL, swallowed by another dozen families. We are not in favour of that
Mithila where the proceeding of the legislative assembly would be held in a
language other than Maithili. Till the misgivings of the people of Mithila are
addressed, we cannot support any Mithila state movement. So the people striving
hard for Mithila state should sit on a protest before the advisory board
members of the Sahitya Akademi/ CIIL and sing patriotic songs in front of their
houses, and pressurise them not to misuse government funds by unscrupulously
awarding functions of Akademi outside Mithila and not to misuse the power of
assigning translation and other rights to themselves and to those people who
are hell-bent upon destroying our language. The RTI application by Sh. Vinit
Utpal has thwarted an attempt to strangulate Maithili, but if the supplementary
work is not done the sinister design would resurface again. We request the
Maithili advisory board members of Sahitya Akademi immediately return their
assignments taken in their name and the name of the members of their family.
Otherwise, pressure should be mounted to force these 10-member Maithili
Advisory Board members to voluntarily resign from their membership in the
larger interest of Maithili. So, what is our answer viz-a-viz demand of Mithila
state: it is a categorical Yes.
The technology-centric venture called Videha
became a success. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar (of India)
and South-East Nepal. The net connectivity had been extremely poor in these
areas. Then how the authors, new and old, started using Unicode for writing for
Videha. The Nepal Side of Mithila had been using Preeti, Kantipur, Himala etc.
fonts, the Kolkata Maithili-speaking population had been using the Marathi
fonts and the rest had been using the fonts based on the old Remington
keyboard. All these three types of fonts are ASCII fonts. We researched these
fonts and provided font converters to our Nepal-based authors. We also provided
phonetic and Remington-based Unicode writers to all Maithili authors, who asked
for them. We asked the authors if they may send their creations in any font,
but at the same time, we encouraged them to use Unicode fonts. The technical
support that we provided resulted in numerous receipts of typed entries from
persons like Sh. Gangesh Gunjan, who in earlier stages had been sending their
creations in their handwritings. As Sh. Gangesh Gunjan was well versed in
Remington keyboard typing, so he made wonderful use of the Remington Unicode
typewriter. He sent that software to some of his friends too and he was
courteous enough to intimate about this to us, although there was no need for
that. Sh. Saketanand also used that software and sent his short story कालरात्रिश्च दारुणा in Unicode, and it was published in one of
the issues of Videha. The technology-centric venture called Videha became a
success because we made it simple and intelligible at a time when even the
technologists were not sure about the future of this Unicode. The virtual
medium was being seen with anxiety by the literary fraternity, and the
copy-paste system of theft was rampant in those days. But we assured the
authors that with Videha they may rest assured that the copyright thieves would
not be spared, while at the same time we were firm, that only for fear of
misuse of technology we should not stop our venture midway. With the internet
and technology, the geographic barrier became non-existing. The end of the
problem of distribution in Maithili literature became possible due to our
technology-friendly attitude and it proved a boon for our Maithili language.
And it made the technology-centric venture called Videha a success... It is the
success of the parallel Maithili literature movement.
अपन मंतव्य editorial.staff.videha@gmail.com पर पठाउ।
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