Seeta Sheel

Cover page of “Seeta Sheel”

“Seeta Sheel” is a maithili epic authored by (Late) Sh. Khadga Ballabh Das (Gram-Imadpatti, Madhubani Distt.). The 244 page hardcover edition was first published by Vidyarjun Publications in 1986. In 2013,  with permission from Sh. Ramakant Das (Patna), Smt. Binita Mallik (Mithilangan, New Delhi) took the initiative of digitizing the book. The book is now made available for free online viewing by Google Books (Click here).

The book depicts the life, struggles and ideals of goddess Sita who is revered for her devotion in the Hindu mythology. The complete life story is presented in two-liner verses by Shri Das. Seeta, the legendary wife of Lord Sriram was born in ancient Mithila and spoke Maithili.

Shri Khadga Ballabh Das, a devout Hindu, completed authoring the poetic “Seeta Sheel” over several months following his voluntary retirement from the Government Press in Gulzarbagh Patna. He was known for his impeccable verse-authoring skills. The rhythm, word-choice and vocabulary he adopts in the book makes it a smooth, interesting read. The life-sketch of Seeta is based on TulsiDas’ Ram Charit Manas.

Shree Das was a mathematician, a poet and a war veteran. During the second World War he served in the British Army as an automobile technician; but developed a deep appreciation for the Indian freedom movement soon after. An excellent story teller, Shri Das was known for his dynamic cultural skills (such as conducting mathematics shows), social work, scientific experiments and, of course, literary works. Some of this dynamism is also reflected in the supplements to “Seeta Sheel” as book appendices. He devotes a page on depicting the god names in terms of numbers; and another on showcasing how a full poem could be written without using any “matras” (vowels) in Devanagri script.

During latter years of his life, Shri Das built a Shri Krishna temple in Imadpatti (Madhubani), his ancestral village. He enjoyed full support for his dynamic endeavors from his sons, Shri Lakshman Das and Shri Ramakant Das and daughter Smt. Vidya Devi and their spouses and families.

Shri Khadga Ballabh Das (1909- 1999)

 

 

with wife Smt. Indramaya Devi (1912-1992) (Date unknown)

Representing Maithili Script in Unicode

“Maithili is the traditional writing system for the Maithili language, which is spoken predominantly in the state of Bihar in India and in the Narayani and Janakpur zones of Nepal. The script is also known as Mithilākṣara and Tirahutā, names which refer to Mithila, or Tirhut, as these regions of India and Nepal are historically known. Maithili is a Brahmi-based script derived from Gauḍī, or ‘Proto-Bengali’, which evolved from the Kuṭila branch of Brahmi by the 10th century.1 It is related to Bengali, Newari, and Oriya, which are also descended from Gauḍī, and became differentiated from these scripts by the 14th century. It remained the dominant writing system in Mithila from that period until the 20th century.”

(Excerpts from a research paper)

Read the full paper by clicking here.

Pandey, Anshuman. Towards an Encoding for the Maithili Script in ISO/IEC 10646. No. 3765. N3765 L2/09-329), September 30, 2009. http://std. dkuug. dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs, 2009.

The Power of Story Telling in Maithil Women

Author: Coralynn V. Davis

From: Journal of American Folklore  |Volume 122, Number 485, Summer 2009  |pp. 267-296

What can we learn about the way that folk storytelling operates for tellers and audience members by examining the telling of stories by characters within such narratives? I examine Maithil women’s folktales in which stories of women’s suffering at the hands of other women are first suppressed and later overheard by men who have the power to alleviate such suffering. Maithil women are pitted against one another in their pursuit of security and resources in the context of patrilineal formations. The solidarities such women nonetheless form—in part through sharing stories and keeping each other’s secrets—serve to mitigate their suffering and maintain a counter-system of ideational patterns and practices.

Click here to read the full article.

The Maithili Kavita Kosh

What Wikepedia is to general knowledge, KavitaKosh is to Indian poetry. An unparalleled online repository of Indian poetry, Kavita Kosh was started by Sri Lalit Kumar and is now professionally run by a team which he leads. Sri Kumar is a poet himself and works in New Delhi. Kavita Kosh offers poems from Indian writers which are contributed by poetry-lovers. Above all, it is available in Devnagri script.

In addition to hindi poems, the ‘kosh’ has sections dedicated to regional languages. CLICK Here for Maithili Kavita Kosh. सोहर गीत, भगवती गीत, कन्यादान, नचारी, प्राति, you can find them all  ‘in the cloud’ now! Here is a sample:

किनका कुल में सीता जनम भेल

किनका कुल में सीता जनम भेल किनका कुल भगवान यौ
जनक कुल में सीता जनम भेल दशरथ कुल भगवान यौ
किनका कुल में ब्राह्मण जनम लेल के पोथिया उचारी यौ
विप्र कुल में ब्राह्मण जनम भेल पोथिया दिय नै उचारी यौ
जखनही बेटी तोहर जनम भेल नगर पड़ल विशमाह यौ
जखानही सासू ननदी घर दीप नहीं लेसथि स्वामी जी के मुंहमा मलिन यौ
जाही दिन आगे बेटी तोहर विवाह भेल नगर उठे झनकार यौ
सासू ननदी मिली मंगल गावथि स्वामी के मन हर्षित भेल यौ
(यह गीत श्रीमती रीता मिश्र कि डायरी से ली गयी है.
-अमितेश)

Reproduced from http://www.kavitakosh.org

The “Polite” Maithil

The degree of politeness in Maithili has always amused people. No surprise that it also captured attention of a scientific researcher. Prof. Udaya Narayana Singh (currently Professorial Chair at Rabindra Bhavana, Visva-Bharati and also the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati) authored an intriguing paper titled “How to Honor Someone in Maithili” which was published in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language in January 1989.

Prof. Singh surveyed 16 texts (mostly plays) authored in Maithili language by various writers during 1955-1975 to document the politeness of Maithili language. While a great deal of the paper is devoted to analysis, some excerpts are worth discussing in this blog.  He suggests various levels of “honor” (“honorific values”)  in the verbs used in Maithili and reports that Maithili language, by design, is inclined towards respectfulness.  He writes: “… two unrelated people will open their conversation with level 1 or at least level 2 (highest levels of respectfulness)…

… A young man or woman may select level 1 for an elderly person even if he or she gets back only 2. If this pattern is violated there is always a reason for it”. He cites an example from a play: “Maadhav uses level 1 to talk to Kunaal in spite of the fact that Kunaal is much younger… But Madhav soon realizes that this man is a vagabond. so he shifts to level 3. Kunaal comes down to level 2 but no lower because Maadhav is almost twice his age..”

Prof. Singh also points out that the level of respectfulness in Maithili has hardly deteriorated over a period of time.

A version of the paper is available at: http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/de-gruyter/how-to-honor-someone-in-maithili-Lxsy3mbQQ5

Also, more information on the author may be found at: http://www.udayanarayana.com/