Tirhuta script
Script of the Maithili language
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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, and is also called the Gaudiya script.
Mithilakshar or Tirhuta 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. 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. The script became distinguished from the Bengali, Oriya and Newari scripts by the 14th century. Evidenced by inscriptions, the early Maithili and Oriya scripts were very similar up until the 15th century.
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Current status
The use of this script has been declining in the last 100 years, which is the primary reason for the Mithila culture's decline. Despite its constitutional status, the development of the Maithili language is hindered by the lack of a widely used script.
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.
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.
The official recognition of Maithili as one of the 14 provincial official languages of Nepal and its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India in 2003 have established it as a language with an independent identity. However, currently Maithili in the Devanagari script is officially recognised.
In the year 2013, a campaign called Mithilakshar Saksharta Abhiyan, for the literacy of the script among the common people in the Mithila region, was started. In June 2014, the Tirhuta script was added to the Unicode Standard from version 7.0. Although there is limited electronic font support, digitalisation efforts have started.
Letters
Consonants
Most of the consonant letters are effectively identical to Bengali–Assamese, with the exception of 7 of the 33 letters: ⟨jh, ṭ, ḍh, ṇ, l, ś, h⟩, marked in blue text color. The consonants, along with their IAST and IPA transcriptions, are provided below.
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
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: