Vidyapati

Vidyapati
Statue of Vidyapati
Personal
Bornc. 1352 (1352)
Bisfi (present-day Madhubani Bihar, India)[1]
Died1448(1448-00-00) (aged 95–96)
Bisfi[1]
ReligionHinduism
SectShaktism
Organization
InstituteBanauli Vidyapati Dih, Bisfi Vidyapati Dih
HonoursKavi Kokila

Vidyapati (c. 1352 – 1448), also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil (the poet cuckoo of Maithili), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer,[2] philosopher,[3] law-theorist,[4] writer, courtier and royal priest.[5] He was a devotee of Shiva, but also wrote love songs and devotional Vaishnava songs.[6] He had knowledge of, and composed works in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha and Maithili.[6][7]

Vidyapati's influence was not just restricted to Maithili and Sanskrit literature but also extended to other Eastern Indian literary traditions.[5] The language at the time of Vidyapati, the prakrit-derived late Abahattha, had just begun to transition into early versions of the Eastern language such as Maithili. Thus, Vidyapati's influence on making these languages has been described as "analogous to that of Dante in Italy and Chaucer in England".[8]

  1. ^ a b Vidyapati at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Jha, Pankaj (2019), "Vidyapati and Mithila", A Political History of Literature, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 3–36, doi:10.1093/oso/9780199489558.003.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-948955-8, retrieved 17 March 2022
  5. ^ a b Pankaj Jha (20 November 2018). A Political History of Literature: Vidyapati and the Fifteenth Century. OUP India. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-909535-3.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Kumar, Arun (2018). Grierson : Bhasha Aur Sahitya Chintan (in Hindi). Vani Prakashan. ISBN 978-93-87889-33-0.
  8. ^ Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish (1915). Vidyāpati: Bangīya Padābali; Songs of the Love of Rādhā and Krishna. London: The Old Bourne Press.