Which script was traditionally used for writing the Maithili language?
- A.Kaithi
- B.Tirhuta or Mithilakshar
- C.Sharada
- D.Brahmi
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Tirhuta, also called Mithilakshar. This is the traditional script of the Mithila region, used for Maithili manuscripts, panjis of genealogy and ritual texts, and it is related to the eastern group of scripts that also produced Bengali and Assamese letters. Maithili printing today is almost entirely in Devanagari, but Tirhuta survives in traditional use and is the answer examiners want.
Option A, Kaithi, is the cursive script of the Kayastha clerks used in land records and court papers across Bihar, and it is associated especially with Bhojpuri and Magahi writing, not with Maithili literature. Option C, Sharada, is the old script of Kashmir, used for Kashmiri and Sanskrit manuscripts in the north west. Option D, Brahmi, is the ancient parent script from which almost all Indian scripts, including Tirhuta and Devanagari, ultimately descend, so it is not a Maithili script in itself.
Read the full article: Bihar Languages and Literature: Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magahi
Practice Questions
View allMaithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution by which amendment?
- A.71st Amendment Act, 1992
- B.92nd Amendment Act, 2003
- C.21st Amendment Act, 1967
- D.96th Amendment Act, 2011
Show answer
This amendment added four languages to the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, namely Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali, and raised the total number of scheduled languages from eighteen to twenty-two.
Read the full explanation →By which title is the poet Vidyapati of Mithila remembered?
- A.Maithil Kokil
- B.Shakespeare of Bhojpuri
- C.Rashtrakavi
- D.Purvi Samrat
Show answer
Vidyapati was the poet of the Mithila court in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and his Maithili padavali of songs about Radha and Krishna is still sung in north Bihar.
Read the full explanation →Varna Ratnakara, regarded as the first prose work in Maithili, was written by whom?
- A.Vidyapati
- B.Chanda Jha
- C.Jyotirishwar Thakur
- D.Harimohan Jha
Show answer
His Varna Ratnakara, a fourteenth century work, is counted as the earliest prose composition in Maithili and indeed one of the earliest in any modern Indian language.
Read the full explanation →Which of these languages spoken in Bihar is NOT included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution?
- A.Hindi
- B.Urdu
- C.Bhojpuri
- D.Maithili
Show answer
Bhojpuri is spoken by crores of people in western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Indian diaspora of Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname and Trinidad, and it has a rich folk theatre, yet it has not been added to the Eighth Schedule.
Read the full explanation →Bhikhari Thakur, known as the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, is the author of which folk play?
- A.Bidesiya
- B.Maila Anchal
- C.Khattar Kaka
- D.Rashmirathi
Show answer
Bhikhari Thakur of Kutubpur in Saran district wrote, composed and staged plays with his own travelling troupe, and Bidesiya, on the suffering of a wife whose husband has migrated for work, became the name of a whole style of Bhojpuri theatre.
Read the full explanation →