The main characteristics of Magadhi Prakrit is to corrupt ‘r’ into ‘s’, the ‘n’ for n, of ‘j’ for ‘y’, of ‘b’ for ‘y’ In the edicts of Ashoka the change of ‘r’ to ‘h’ is established. Mahavir and Buddha delivered their sermons in the eastern languages.The secular use of language came mainly from the east as will be evident from...

A complete list of Vidyapati’s work given below: In Sanskrit: Saivasarvasvarasara – Digest on worship of Shiva Gangavakyavali – On worshipping Ganga Durgavhakti Tarangini – On worshipping Durga Danavakyavali – On performing various kinds of Dana Gayapattalaka – On performing various rites in Gaya Varsakrittya – On the performance of...

Influence of Vidyapati in Bengal The influence of Vidyapati in Bengal was so intense that for a period of time he was considered a poet of Bengali literature. His songs were mingled with those of Chandi Dasa who spread the Vaishnavism cult. Romesh Chandra Datta goes on to prove that there is no chance of their having met and Chandi Dasa came much later and had...

Vidyapati lived in the second half of fourteenth century. The exact years are not known, but the Tithi was Kartik Dhawal (bright half) Trayodashi. The ancestors belonged to the Gadha Bisaphi family of Maithil Brahmins of Kashyap Gotra. The ancestry is traced as Vishnu Thakur –> Haraditya –> Karmaditya –> Devaditya –> Dhireshwara-> Jayadatta -> Ganpati ->...

Jul 5, 2011

The poet Vidyapati appears to have been born in or around 1352 in Bihar, in the Madhubani village of Bisapi in the region of north eastern Bihar known as Mithila. As a Brahmin, he is likely to have learned Sanskrit at an early age, and certainly his earliest compositions suggest his mastery of the language. Vidyapati received his first commission from Kirti...

Maithili is an “ancestor” of today’s Hindi language. Maithili is closer in spirit, vocabulary and grammatical structure to Prakrit, itself a derivative of Sanskrit, than Hindi proper, which really flowered as a literary language with the great Bhakti poets (Tulsidas, Suradas, Kabir, Ramananda). Incidentally, Maithili is still spoken as a...