Design exploration for preservation of a local language

Tirhuta Lipi (Mithilakshar or Maithili Script)

For second semester subject, Project-II, my area of interest was to explore design for preservation of a local language. I chose Tirhuta script (also known as Mithilakshar) which was traditionally used to write the Maithili language.

I have grown up speaking Maithili . But, it was difficult to find people who can read and write the traditional script.

The literature review revealed, Tirhuta is the traditional writing system for the Maithili language, which is spoken by more than 35 million people in the state of Bihar in India, and in the Narayani and Janakpur zones of Nepal. Maithili is an official regional language of India and the second most spoken language in Nepal. Tirhuta is a Brahmi-based script derived from Gaudi, or “ProtoBengali,” which evolved from the Kutila branch of Brahmi by the 10th century. It is related to the Bengali, Newari, and Oriya scripts, which are also descended from Gaudi, and became differentiated from them by the 14th century.

The Government of India recognised Maithili as a scheduled language in 2004, a status that provides official support for the development of the language.

Tirhuta is encoded in the The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0, Range:11480-114DF

I started collecting available data on Tirhuta script.