Mithila’s oral tradition is rich with heroes and wits. Raja Salhesh, the legendary Dusadh king, is worshipped at shrines across the region as a defender of the weak and a foe of caste injustice; his exploits are painted in the Godna style of Madhubani art. The love-epic of Lorik and Manjari is sung as a folk Ramayana, and Jat-Jatin dramatises a farmer couple’s love and separation.
Lightest and most beloved is Gonu Jha — the quick-witted courtier of a medieval king, the “Birbal of Mithila”, whose tales of outsmarting the powerful are still told to delight children and skewer pretension. Together these stories form the region’s living memory, passed mouth to mouth in Maithili.