DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2018.v06i08.018

Pages: 1608-1615

Mithila’s contribution to Sanskrit learning through the ages has been an established fact. To keep the identity of being a pioneer centre of Sanskrit learning Mithila had to consolidate herself against Buddhism and Jainism up to the early medieval period. With the decline of Nalanda and Vikramshila Universities Mithila shared double responsibilities: to maintain her central position of Hindu learning and also to cope with the ideological agenda emerged as a result of the penetration of Muslim power. In lieu of Sanskrit and Pali, the Persian became the court language in Northern India. Hindus too had to take interest in Persian learning since the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The Persian remained the court language up to 1839. Thus medieval Mithila was in the period of transition. Indo-Islamic culture affected the cultural contours of Mithila. Persian and Arabic learning were no longer remained unknown to this region. Frontier sub-regions of Mithila such as Purnea, Bhagalpur, Monghyr became prominent centers of Muslim learning and even in heartland of Mithila Muslim learning was not ignored. In fact Sanskrit learning was still a force but Persian was necessity. This was also accepted by the colonial power. We find three streams co-existed in colonial Mithila - those well-versed in Hindi, local languages (Tirhutia) and Sanskrit; those skilled in Urdu, Persian and Arabic; finally the handful of Indians who had learnt English. In fact Persian, Arabic and Urdu learning is also a part of Mithila’s intellectual culture. Thus the colonial Mithila represents a very complex and very wide range of educational issues related to Sanskrit, Tirhutia, Persian, and Arabic and even to some extent Urdu learning. The present paper tries to evaluate the important aspects of Muslim learning prevalent during the colonial Mithila in context of continuity and change.