Maithili Chrestomathy and Vocabulary by George A. Grierson

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A pioneering work of George A. Grierson that virtually established Maithili as a distinct language having a long literary tradition and a rich stock of folk lore. It is packed with materials of immense value for scholars working on regional cultures, languages / dialects, etc., from historical perspective.

Sir George Abraham Grierson remained devoted to the study of Indian languages and dialects throughout his long life. Born in 1851 near Dublin (Ireland) to a prominent Anglo-Irish family of publishers and printers, he "acquired the first taste for Indian languages" at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took prizes in Sanskrit and Hindi. He qualified for the Indian Civil Service in 1871 and arrived in Bengal in October, 1873 He spent the next few decades mostly in Bihar and West Bengal holding various posts as magistrate and collector of revenue' In Bihar, he was Subdivisional Officer of Madhubani during 1870s', Magistrate and Collector of Gaya, Inspector of Schools (Bihar) and Opium Agent at Patna In 1886, the International Congress of Orientalists made representation to the Government of India for conducting the linguistic survey of India The Government considered it and in 1898 Grierson was appointed Superintendent of the newly formed Linguistic Survey of India that engaged his attention until 1928. F.W. Thomas and R.L. Turner in the biographical account of Grierson refer to his contribution to the linguistic survey as "a great Imperial museum, representing and systematically classifying the linguistic botany of India, " While he was in Bihar, he devoted considerable time to the study of languages / dialects, socio-economic conditions of peasantry, proverbs, folktales, etc. His Bihar Peasant Life, still considered a classic work on Bihar peasantry, was published in 1885. He also wrote Notes on Gaya District that reveals the economic conditions of the masses', Seven Grammars of the Dialects and Subdialects of the Bihari Language (1883. 87) (three volumes), etc. The present work An Introduction to the Maithili Language of North Bihar containing Part II. Chrestomathy and Vocabulary was published in 1882.

An Introduction to the Maithili Language of North Bihar, Part II, Chrestomathy and Vocabulary by George Abraham Grierson was published more than one hundred and twenty five years before, in 1882, by Asiatic Society, Bengal. In the course of time, it became out of print and, now, it is supposed to be practically lost. Considering its value for those working on the languages / dialects and culture of this region from historical perspective, it was decided by the Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation to publish it again. So, we soon began to search out a copy of this book. But, all efforts went in vain. Fortunately, then, Dr. Vedanatha Jha, former professor of Maithili, L.N.Mithila University, came to know about our plan. He had preserved a copy of it in his own personal library. He was kind enough to spare it for us. The Foundation will always remain indebted to him. It is a matter of great pleasure for us that a pioneering work on Maithili by such a great intellectual as Grierson has been retrieved and brought out in Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series.