Jaykant Mishra

Jayakant Mishra (20 November 1922 – 3 February 2009) was an Indian scholar and author. He was a professor of English at Allahabad University, and an advocate for the Maithili language, where he petitioned the Government of Bihar to make its language instruction available for primary schools in the area., He worked tirelessly for the statehood of Mithila in India carving out from Bihar and Jharkhand from 1994 till his death.

Early life

Mishra was born on 20 November 1922, in Varanasi.Mishra's birth month as stated as November by daughter Lila, although his friend Dhanakar Thakur has mentioned December. His father, Umesha Mishra, and grandfather, Pandit Jayadev Mishra, were both mahamahopadhyaya titled scholars. Umesha Mishra studied Maithili and Sanskrit. In 1923, the Mishras moved to Allahabad.

Career

In 1943, Mishra completed his M.A. degree in English Language and Literature at Allahabad University. In 1944, he joined their faculty as a lecturer in the Department of English and Modern European Languages. With Dr. Amarnath Jha as his thesis advisor, Mishra wrote his PhD dissertation on the history of Maithili literature.

Mishra continued in the faculty at Allahabad until 1983, when he retired as professor and head of their English department. From 1985 to 1988, he was the visiting professor of English at Sagar University. In 1986, he served on The All India Board for Research Awards in Humanities at Mysore. From 1992 to 1994, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Social Sciences in Chitrakoot Gramodaya Visvavidyalaya.

Mishra was the editor for ''Vrihat Maithili Shabdakosh'' (वृहत मैथिली शब्दकोश/বৃহৎ মৈথিলী শব্দকোষ), the first Maithili-English dictionary. In 1973, he published the first part of the glossary, which covered words that began with "a". The dictionary would later be published in two volumes. The Maithili words were written in Devanagri and Tirhuta scripts, along with equivalent phonetics in English. It is considered an important landmark in Maithil literature.

According to article 350A of the Indian constitution, each State should provide facilities where primary education students can receive instruction in their local language. On 3 September 1998, Mishra filed civil writ CWJC-7505/1998 at the Patna High Court, against the Government of Bihar for not providing minimum primary education in Maithili medium to the Maithili-speaking region of Bihar.Supreme Court