Topics Covered:
- Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.
Promotion and Protection of Maithili Language and its scripts
What to study?
For Prelims and Mains: Key facts on Maithili language and scripts, their significance and the need for protection and preservation.
Context: A committee constituted for making a report for the Promotion and Protection of Maithili Language and its scripts, has submitted its report to MHRD in which it has made several recommendations for promotion and protection of Maithili language.
Important recommendations of the committee are as follows:
- To establish a Script and Manuscript Centre at Darbhanga in any one of the Universities viz. Kameshwar Singh Sanskrit University or Lalit Narayan Mithila Unviersity.
- Early completion of the work pertaining to Unicode Scripts of Mithilakshar by Technology Development of Indian Languages (TDIL) and
- To prepare audio-visual teaching materials for teaching the Mithilakshar scripts.
Background:
- Mithilakshar or Tirhuta is the script of broader cultural Mithila. It is an extremely ancient script and is one of the scripts of the broader North Eastern India.
- The scripts of Mithilaksar, Bangla, Assamese, Nebari, Odia and Tibetan are part of the family.
- Mithilakshar had come to its current shape by 10th Century AD. The oldest form of Mithilakshar is found in the Sahodara stone inscriptions of 950 AD. Afterwards, the scripts has been used throughout Mithila from Champaran to Deoghar.
Need for protection:
Use of this script has been on decline since last 100 years and therefore our culture is getting decimated. Because its own script is not being used, the Maithili language is getting developed in a composite manner despite having been accorded a constitutional status in the constitution.
