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The Tirhuta or Maithili 
Image:The consonants of the Mithilakshar script and the corresponding Devnagari.jpg
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Tirhuta at Omniglot
{{Tirhut Division topics Brahmic scripts Culture of Mithila Maithili language Writing systems of Nepal
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of ha ...
is the primary historical script for the Maithili language
Maithili () is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of Languages of India, India and Languages of Nepal, Nepal. It is native to the Mithila region, which encompasses parts of the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand as well as Nepal's easte ...
, as well as one of the historical scripts for Sanskrit. It is believed to have originated in the 10th century CE. It is very similar to Bengali–Assamese script, with most consonants being effectively identical in appearance. For the most part, writing in Maithili has switched to the Devanagari script, which is used to write neighboring Central Indic languages to the west and north such as Hindi and Nepali
Nepali or Nepalese may refer to :
Concerning Nepal
* Anything of, from, or related to Nepal
* Nepali people, citizens of Nepal
* Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...
, and the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.
History and current status
Before 14th CE, Tirhuta was exclusively used to write Sanskrit, later Maithili was written in this script. Despite the near universal switch from Tirhuta to the Devanagari script for writing Maithili, some traditionalpundit
A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport).
Origins
The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...
s still use the script for sending one another ceremonial letters (''pātā'') related to some important function such as marriage. Metal type for this script was first produced in the 1920s, and digital fonts in the 1990s.
The 2003 inclusion of Maithili in the VIIIth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, having accorded official recognition to it as a language independent of Hindi, there is a possibility that this might lead to efforts to re-implement Tirhuta on a wider basis, in accord with similar trends in India reinforcing separate identities. However, currently, only Maithili in the Devanagari script is officially recognized.
Characters
Consonant letters
Most of the consonant letters are effectively identical to Bengali–Assamese. The Unicode submission, for example, only bothered to create new graphic designs for 7 of the 33 letters: .Vowels
Other signs
Numerals
Tirhuta script uses its own signs for thepositional
Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or decimal system). More generally, a positional system is a numeral system in which the ...
decimal numeral system
The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...
.
Image gallery
The first two images shown below are samples illustrating the history of Tirhuta. The first is the sacred sign of Ganesha, called ''āñjī'', used for millennia by students before beginning Tirhuta studies. Displayed further below are images of tables comparing the Tirhuta and Devanagari scripts.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:References
External links
Tirhuta at Omniglot
{{Tirhut Division topics Brahmic scripts Culture of Mithila Maithili language Writing systems of Nepal