Mithila
English

Language

Maithili, the Tirhuta (Mithilakshar) script, Vidyapati, and the Panji genealogies.

Maithili is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language of some 17 million speakers, written today in Devanagari but historically in its own elegant Tirhuta (Mithilakshar) script. It carries one of India’s great literary traditions — and a thousand-year-old system of genealogy, the Panji.

See your words in Tirhuta

Tirhuta (Mithilakshar)
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Character-level transliteration; conjuncts are shaped by the Noto Sans Tirhuta font. If the Tirhuta letters don’t appear, your device may lack the font.

The Tirhuta alphabet

Vowels

Consonants

Numerals

A Tirhuta-script inscription at Mandar Hills
Wikimedia Commons · CC-BY-SA-4.0
A Tirhuta-script inscription — the script reached its current form by the 10th century.

A little Maithili

Family

माय māy mother
बाबू bābū father
भाय bhāy brother
बहिन bahin sister
नाना nānā maternal grandfather
नानी nānī maternal grandmother
मामा māmā maternal uncle
बेटा beṭā son
बेटी beṭī daughter

Food & home

भात bhāt cooked rice
माछ māch fish
दूध dūdh milk
दही dahi curd
घी ghī clarified butter
अचार achār pickle
घर ghar house
पानि pāni water

Nature

सूरज sūraj sun
चान chān moon
नदी nadī river
गाछ gāch tree
फूल phūl flower
माटि māṭi earth, soil

Numbers 1–10

एक ek one
दू dū two
तीन tīn three
चारि chāri four
पाँच pā̃ch five
छह chhah six
सात sāt seven
आठ āṭh eight
नौ nau nine
दस das ten

Phrasebook

प्रणाम praṇām Hello / greetings (respectful)
अहाँ केहन छी? ahā̃ kehan chhī? How are you?
हम ठीक छी ham ṭhīk chhī I am fine
हमर नाम … थिक hamar nām … thik My name is …
धन्यवाद dhanyavād Thank you
हँ hã Yes
नै nai No
… कतय अछि? … katay achhi? Where is …?
ई कतेक मोल छै? ī katek mol chhai? How much does this cost?
हमरा बुझल नै गेल hamrā bujhal nai gel I didn't understand
फेर भेंट होयत pher bheṇṭ hoyat See you again

The Maithili literary canon

  1. 1324

    Varna Ratnakara — Jyotirishwar Thakur

    The oldest Maithili prose — among the earliest prose in any modern Indian language.

  2. c. 1400

    Padavali, Kirtilata — Vidyapati

    Lyric love-songs that made Maithili a literary language and inspired Bengal’s Vaishnavas and Tagore.

  3. 17th c.

    Padavali — Govindadas

    A celebrated successor to Vidyapati in the devotional lyric tradition.

  4. 1930

    Kanyadan — Harimohan Jha

    A landmark social novel — the “Vidyapati of modern Maithili prose”.

  5. 1965–66

    Recognition of Maithili — Sahitya Akademi

    Maithili recognised as an independent literary language; first award to Yashodhar Jha (1966).

  6. 20th c.

    Modern poetry & fiction — Nagarjun & Rajkamal Chaudhary

    The “People’s Poet” and the firebrand of new poetry carried Maithili into the modern age.

Read more about Vidyapati, the poet who made Maithili a literary language.