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History

The Lalitavistara, an ancient Buddhist text, mentions the Vaidehi script. A significant transformation occurred in the northeastern alphabet in the latter half of the 7th century AD. This evolution is first evident in the inscriptions of Adityasena. The eastern variant of this transformed script subsequently developed into the Maithili script, which gained prominence in regions like Assam, Bengal, and Nepal.³

The earliest recorded epigraphic evidence of the Maithili script dates back to the 7th century AD. It is found in the inscriptions of Adityasena on the Mandar Hill Stone, located in Bounsi, Banka district, Bihar. These inscriptions, now preserved in the Baidyanath Temple of Deoghar, provide a crucial glimpse into the early development of this script.⁴

It is one of the scripts of the broader Eastern South Asia. It had come to its current shape by the 10th century AD. The oldest form of Mithilakshar is also found in the Sahodara stone inscriptions of 950 AD. The script has been used throughout Mithila from Champaran to Deoghar.⁵

A fragmentary inscription found in Simraungadh, the medieval capital of the Karnats of Mithila which dates back to the 12th century in Tirhuta script is also one of the oldest evidence of this script.⁶

Current status

The use of this script has been declining since the last 100 years, which is the primary reason for the cultures decline. Despite its constitutional status, the development of the Maithili language is hindered by the lack of a widely used script.⁷

Nowadays, the Maithili language is written almost exclusively in the Devanagari script, although Tirhuta is still sometimes used by religious Pundits and some culture – conscious families for writing ceremonial letters (pātā), documents & cultural affair, and efforts are underway to broaden the scope of its usage.⁸⁹

Tirhuta is yet to enter the area of printing technology. In the early 20th century some Sanskrit works were printed in this script through lithographic process. Later on Pusk Bhandar, Laheriasarai managed to forge a set of types and published a few works in Tirhuta, but could not go ahead. In the middle of the last century, All India Maithili Conference came with a new set of types and used it in the prestigious publication of Brihat Maithili Shabdakosha.¹⁰ Electronic technology is yet out of reach for this script.¹¹

The official recognition of Maithili as one of the 14 provincial official languages of Nepal¹² and its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India in 2003 have established it as a language with an independent identity.¹³ However, currently Maithili in the Devanagari script is officially recognised.¹⁴

Letters

Consonant letters

Most of the consonant letters are effectively identical to Bengali–Assamese. The Unicode submission, for example, only bothered to create new graphic designs for 7 of the 33 letters: ⟨jh, ṭ, ḍh, ṇ, l, ś, h⟩.

Vowels

Other signs

Numerals

Tirhuta script uses its own signs for the positional decimal numeral system.

Image Gallery

Visual representation of the Maithili script, from its early inscriptions to contemporary handwriting.

Unicode

Main article: Tirhuta (Unicode block)

Tirhuta script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

The Unicode block for Tirhuta is U+11480–U+114DF:

External links

• Tirhuta at Omniglot

References

1. "An overview of Tirhuta script of Maithili language of India and Nepal". Script Source. https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Tirh ↩

2. "Ancient language Maithili is on the verge of decline, government takes steps to revive its importance". India Today. 12 February 2019. https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/ancient-language-maithili-is-at-the-verge-of-decline-government-takes-steps-to-revive-its-importance-1454163-2019-02-12 ↩

3. Chaudhary, Radha Krishna (1976). "A Survey Of Maithili Literature". Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/aqar_a-survey-of-maithili-literature-by-radha-krishna-chaudhary-1976-deoghar-shanti-devi-deoghar/page/26/mode/2up?view=theater ↩

4. Chaudhary, Radha Krishna (1976). "A Survey Of Maithili Literature". Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/aqar_a-survey-of-maithili-literature-by-radha-krishna-chaudhary-1976-deoghar-shanti-devi-deoghar/page/26/mode/2up?view=theater ↩

5. Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry of Education (11 February 2019). "The MHRD constituted a Committee in the year 2018 for making a report for the Promotion and Protection of Maithili Language and its scripts". https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1563907 ↩

6. "A Fragmentary Inscription in Tirhuta script from Simraongarh, capital of Karnat dynasty of Mithila" (PDF). https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ancientnepal/pdf/ancient_nepal_135_01.pdf ↩

7. Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry of Education (11 February 2019). "The MHRD constituted a Committee in the year 2018 for making a report for the Promotion and Protection of Maithili Language and its scripts". https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1563907 ↩

8. "An overview of Tirhuta script of Maithili language of India and Nepal". Script Source. https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Tirh ↩

9. India Mysore, CIIL. "SCRIPT AND SPELLING of Maithili language". LIS-India. http://lisindia.ciil.org/Maithili/Maith_Script.html ↩

10. Mishra, Jayakanta (9 June 2017). "Brihat Maithili Shabda Kosh Fascilcule". https://archive.org/details/BrihatMaithiliShabdaKoshFascilculeIKRI1JayakantaMishra/mode/2up ↩

11. India Mysore, CIIL. "SCRIPT AND SPELLING of Maithili language". LIS-India. http://lisindia.ciil.org/Maithili/Maith_Script.html ↩

12. Language Commission (2021). सरकारी कामकाजको भाषाका आधारहरूको निर्धारण तथा भाषासम्बन्धी सिफारिसहरू (पञ्चवर्षीय प्रतिवेदन- साराांश) २०७८ [Determination of language bases of government work and language recommendations (five-year report - summary) 2078] (PDF) (Report) (in Nepali). Government of Nepal. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20210906171816/https://languagecommission.gov.np/files/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B8%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%A3%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80%20%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8B%20%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BE.pdf ↩

13. "Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution". Raj bhasa Vibhag Government of India. https://rajbhasha.gov.in/en/languages-included-eighth-schedule-indian-constitution ↩

14. India Mysore, CIIL. "SCRIPT AND SPELLING of Maithili language". LIS-India. http://lisindia.ciil.org/Maithili/Maith_Script.html ↩