Jyotirishwar Thakur (c. 1290–1350), a poet and polymath at the Karnat court of King Harisimhadeva, wrote the Varna Ratnakara (1324) — an encyclopedic prose work in seven “waves” describing cities, courts, seasons and society. It is the oldest surviving prose in Maithili, and among the earliest prose works in any modern Indian language, predating European vernacular prose by centuries.
A writer of plays and treatises on music too, he stands at the very head of Mithila’s literary tradition — the prose counterpart to the poet Vidyapati who followed.