Maithili script
| Tirhuta, Mithilakshar |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | |
| Languages | Maithili, Sanskrit |
|
Time period
|
c. 15th–mid 20th century |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| ISO 15924 | Tirh, 326 |
|
Unicode alias
|
Tirhuta |
| Final Accepted Script Proposal | |
Tirhuta or Mithilakshar is the script used for the Maithili language originating in the Mithila region of Bihar, India and the eastern Terai region of Nepal. The oldest reference to Tirhuta script is in Janaki Mandir where Rama and Sita are believed to have wed. The script has a rich history spanning a thousand years, but years of neglect by Nepal and the Bihar government have taken their toll on the use of Tirhuta. Most speakers of Maithili have switched to using the Devanagari script, which is also used to write neighboring Central Indic languages such as Nepali and Hindi. As a result, the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.
The oldest specimen of Tirhuta is at Janaki Mandir. It is one of the place that had a major role in the development of the Sanskrit language. Despite the near universal switch from Tirhuta to the Devanagari script for writing Maithili, some traditional pundits still use the script for sending one another ceremonial letters (pātā) related to some important function such as marriage. Fonts for this script were developed in 2003.
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 reimplement 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.
Tirhuta script uses its own signs for the positional decimal numeral system.
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Wikipedia