Ayachi Mishra — born Bhavanath Mishra in the fourteenth century at Sarisab-Pahi in Madhubani — was a towering scholar of Nyaya, the school of logic in which Mithila led India. His famous name, Ayachi, means “one who never asks”: legend holds that he never sought anything from anyone, living his whole life in voluntary poverty on barely an acre and a half of land, sustained by learning alone.
His memory is so revered that the site of his home, Ayachi Mishra Dih, is preserved as a historical place by the Government of Bihar. With his equally learned son Shankara Mishra, he stands for the ideal at the heart of old Mithila: that knowledge, not wealth, is the truest riches.