Mithila

Mithila is a region of Bihar comprising of district of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Saharsa and some parts of Muzaffarpur. The region is in the northern Bihar. Ordinarily, we can say that it is the region north of Ganga. The History and Tradition of Mithila dates back to the earliest dawn of Human civilization. In olden Days the region extended upto the Janakpur where the mythological king Raja Janak ruled. It is the land of Janak, Sita, Gautam, Yajnavalkya, Ahalya, Vidyapati, Bhola Lal Das, Surya Narayan Singh, Lalit Narayan Mishra, Baba Nagarjuna and many more.

The people of Mithila are known as maithil and they speak maithili language. Mithila is geographically very comfortable land. The land is very fertile, soil is easy to till, there is abundance of water, rivers of Kamla, bagamati, and Gandak put a layer of "pank" every year adding the nutritional content in the soil. Its borders touches the neighbouring country Nepal. And Maithils are on either side of the border. In Nepal, they are called Madheshi. This region has the socio-cultural and matrimonial relationship transcending the border. In yore, the citizen of either side had property in the other country. But with the tightening of Citizenship and other property law, presently, there are only few people having ancestral land in the other country. Mithila is very green. Orchards are still there and trees of Mango, black berry, lichi, guava etc are available in plenty. The crop scheme has paddy, wheat, maize and almost every pulse and edible oil crop. The area is rich in milk. The description of Mithila will be incomplete without mentioning that Mithila is the land of Paan, Maachh and Makhan. It is said that it is the only region in the world which grow Makhan. Fresh water fish like Rohu, Katla, ichna, pothi and others are available in plenty in ponds and canals of Mithila.The nature has bestowed on Mithila greenery and agricultural richness.Despite the gift of the nature, this region is agriculturally backward because of small landholding, migration of labourers and the sluggish and depressed peasantry. The respect for peasantry has vanished.

The agricultural richness of Mithila has made the Maithil easy going (aram talab). The population comprises of many castes and there is mixture of so called upper and lower castes. A definite hiatus may be felt in the upper and lower caste in Mithila which is similarly true for whole of Bihar. People of upper castes are generally more educated and more prosperous whereas the people of so called lower castes are are less educated and less prosperous. However, exceptions to this generality are becoming more frequent. Insame prejudice against the lower castes is gradually disappearing in Mithila and so is the prejudice against the families of Zamindars. The caste cleavage is, however, still apparent in the lack of community feeling. People of this area recognizes themselves as Brahmin, Rajput, Kayastha etc rather than Maithils as compared to their compatriot in Bengal (Bengalis) or Punjab (Punjabis). Maithils are more inclined to philosophical and intellectual pursuits rather than towards undertaking labour intensive works. They feel themselves more suited to white collar jobs.

Maithili language has been included recently in the Schedule VIII of the constitution. We can expect that the impetus generated by the inclusion in this Schedule will bolster the prospect and status of Maithili. It is a complete language. All ingredients of a complete language i.e. the script, grammar and epics are present in Maitili. It has its own script known as "Mithilakshar" or "Tirhutta". It has the complete grammar and epics. In the present days, only few people know the script and Maithili is written in Devnagari script. Despite the saying that:- "Mithila mein rahika je nai bajathi maithili, Kan par jhituka lagay satta sa khainch li", not every people speak Maithili. Even at the house Hindi is preferred and regrettebly the Sanskriti of language would not be passed over to the next generation. The positive torch-bearers are required to help in preserving the language. I hope to place the script soon on this page.

Religion wise Mithila is inhabitated by people of all religions but dominant groups are that of Hindu and Muslim. They have lived harmoniously. There have not been any major communal tension.The procession on the day of Muharram and Ramnavami are taken out with equal ease. Hindus promises to send their sons in the procession of Muharram for their welfare or if they are rewarded by one.

There are some exclusive features of Mithila. The first among that is the Mithila Painting or Madhubani Painting. This art has passed through generations since time immemorial. The Kohbar and aripan have always been there. But this painting came into prominence only after the great famine of 1962 when Mithila painting has been commercially exploited. Presently, almost all the greeting card makers including archies and hallmark have greeting cards with Mithila painting. It has also earned its repute as an instrument of interior decoration and fabric painting. In this painting mostly the homegrown colours are used and famous subjects are Ram vivaha, Raslila, Ram Darbar and Kamaldah etc. The symbolism is also used extensively like for the occasion of child birth or marriage the painting would have bamboo which reproduces itself rapidly. The second is the festival of Chauth Chandra which is celebrated in respect of Moon on 4th day of Bhadra. Ardhya is given to the Moon in the evening. People pay their regards to the first sight of moon on that day with fruit in their hand and chant:- “singha prasen mavadhi singha jamvavtahata sukumarak marodi tapasyah khasya mantakah”. The other exclusive festivals are Jitiya (for welfare of son), Haritalika Teej vrata, Vata Savitri (for welfare of husband), Madhushravani (Equivalent of Honeymoon and has special significance for newly wed couple). The third is the Saurath Mela. At certain conjunctions of the stellar bodies every summer, thousands of Maithil Brahmins from far and near assemble at a place called Saurath, a village approximately 6 km from Madhubani to settle the marriage of their sons and daughters.

The peaceful nature of the larger populace of Mithila is a very positive feature for Bihar. Despite all the bad name for our ancient state in recent past the Mithila remained relatively peaceful abode.