Jyotirishwar Thakur or (1290–1350) was a Maithili

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and an early Maithili and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

writer, known for the '' Varṇa Ratnākara'', his encyclopedic work in Maithili.

Life

Jyotirishwar was son of Rāmeśvara and grandson of Dhīreśvara. He was the court poet of King

Harisimhadeva Harisimhadeva (also called Hari Singh Deva) was a King of the Karnat dynasty who ruled the Mithila region of modern-day North Bihar in India and parts of South Nepal. He reigned from 1304 to 1325. He was the last king to belong to the Karnata dyn ...

of the

Karnat dynasty Karnat or Karnata dynasty was a Maithil dynasty established in 1097 CE. The dynasty had two capitals which were Simraungadh in Bara District of Nepal and Darbhanga, Bihar which became the second capital during the reign of Gangadeva. The kingdom c ...

of Mithila (r. 1300–1324).

Major works

His most significant work in Maithili, the ' (1324) is an encyclopedic work in prose. This work contains descriptions of various subjects and situations. This work provides valuable information about the life and culture of medieval India. The text is divided into seven ''Kallola''s (waves): , , , , , and . An incomplete list of 84

Siddha ''Siddha'' (Sanskrit: '; "perfected one") is a term that is used widely in Indian religions and culture. It means "one who is accomplished." It refers to perfected masters who have achieved a high degree of physical as well as spiritual ...

s is found in the text, which consists only 76 names. A manuscript of this text is preserved in the Asiatic Society, Kolkata (ms. no 4834 of Asiatic Society of Bengal). His major Sanskrit play, the ' (The Meeting of the Knaves) (1320) is a two act ''Prahasana'' (comedy). The play relates the contest between a religious mendicant and his disciple over a lovely courtesan whom the Brahmin arbitrator keeps for himself. Superior characters in this drama speak in Sanskrit, inferior characters speak in Prakrit and the songs are in Maithili. His another Sanskrit work, the ' (Five Arrows) in five parts deals with the same topics which are dealt in the other standard works on the '' ''.Majumdar 1960, p. 488. "The ''Pañchasāyaka'' by Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura ... epitomises in five parts all that is said in standard works on Kāmaśāstra."

Notes

References

# Chatterji S.K. and S.K. Mishra (ed.) (1940). '' of '', ''Bibliotheca Indica'', Calcutta: The Asiatic Society. # Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, A. D.; Majumdar, A. K., eds. (1960). ''

The History and Culture of the Indian People ''The History and Culture of the Indian People'' is a series of eleven volumes on the history of India, from prehistoric times to the establishment of the modern state in 1947. Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was the general editor of the series ...

''. VI: The Delhi Sultanate. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

External links

The text

{{IAST, Pañcasyaka
Maithili literature People from Bihar 1350 deaths 1290 births