Mithila Dham

Mithila was a city in Ancient India and the capital of the Videha Kingdom. Videha was the kingdom of the royal sage Seeradhwaja Janaka. The name Videha could be the abbrivation of Veda Desa, the kingdom of knowledge. It could be also explained as Videsha, a forign land, since it was a new forign land for the people migrated from river Saraswati.

Seeradhwaja Janaka was the father of Sita the wife of Raghava Rama. Rama's brothors married the sisters of Sita. Thus Videha Kingdom was closly allied to Kosala Kingdom. Mithila was the capital of Videha, now identified with Janakpur town in Nepal and other town of Bihar(India) state such as Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Samastipur, Madhepura, Begusarai, Saharsa, Sitamamarhi, Muuzaffarpur, Vaishali, East Champaran, Paschim Champaran, Munger and Bhagalpur.

The Mithila region was situated on the north-eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain, in areas which today spreads over more than half of Bihar, India, and parts of adjoining Nepal. The major cities in the present day. The Gandak and Koshi Rivers are rough western and eastern boundaries of Mithila.

Videhadham History- Spirit Blessed Land:

According to D.D Kosambi’s historical books, the 1^st millennium BCE text Satpath Brahma tell that the king Mathava Bidegha, led by his priest Gotama Rahugana, first crossed the Sadanira(Gandaka) triver and founded a kingdom. Gotama Rahygana was Vedic rishi who composed many hymns of the first mandala of the Rigveda. His most notable hymns praise Sva-rajya another name for the State Videgha. Mathava videgha, therefore must belong to the Rgvedic period and must have preceded the period of the Satpath Brahma by a considerable gap.

The most important reference to Mithila is in the Hindu epic Ramayana, where Lord Rama’s wife Sita is said to have been the princess of Videha, born to King Janaka who ruled in Mithila. The Rāmāyana also mentions a sage who was a descendandant of Gotama Rahugana living near Ahilya-sthāna.

Other famous kings of Mithila during ancient period were Kings Bhanumath, Satghumanya, Suchi, Urjnama, Satdhwya, Kriti, Anjan, Arisnami, Srutayu, Supasyu, Suryasu, Srinjay, Sourmabi, Anena, Bhimrath, Satyarath, Upangu, Upgupt, Swagat, Snanand, Subrachya, Supraswa, Subhasn, Suchurut, Susurath, Jay, Vijay, Critu, Suny, Vith Habya, Dwati, Bahulaswa and Kriti Tirtiya.

Both the great saints Gautam Budha, founder of Budhism, and Vardamana Mahavira, the 24th and final Tithanakara of the Jain religion, are said to have lived in Mithila. The region was an important centre of Indian history during the first millennium.

A demand for separate state of Mitila is being raised by local organizations such as Mithila Rajya Abhiyan Samiti.

People and their Occupation:

The various hereditary,endogamous castes, called jati, are ranked on a scale of superior to inferior, marked by traditional rules of interaction and sanctions against certain kinds of interactions, especially intermarriage and interdining. Mithila is land where each caste is required to perform any rituals. Their works are defined in the ritual ceremony.

The principal castes of Mithila are as follows:

Brahmans:

Maithil Brahmans are the superior caste in mithila community and also, in political terms, the dominant caste. Because the Maharaja of Darbhanga was a Maithil Brahman, other Brahmans came to control much of the land; thousands of villages were in Brahman control, and they are still the largest landowners in Mithila. Maithil brahmans performs the rituals activities for all other caste and are the genealogist of mithila.

Three Grades of Brahmans:


The Maithil Brahmans are stratified in three levels. If you ask why, you will be told The Myth of the King’s Feast . It is impossible to verify the historical accuracy of this myth of origin, but the three categories are real enough, and they are spatially distributed in the Mithila region:

• Jaibar, being the vast majority, are found everywhere throughout the region.
• Yogya are mostly consolidated in villages around Madhubani.
• Srotriyas are mostly consolidated in 36 villages slightly northeast of Darbhanga.

Bhumihars:

Bhumihars are small landlords who claim to be Brahmans but are considered lower because they have taken up agricultural pursuits and given up priestcraft. Maithil Brahmans serve as their priests for domestic rites.

Kayasthas:

Hindu Mythology believes that the entire world, as we know it, was created by LORD BRAMHA, the Creator. Lord Bramha first created 16 Sons from various parts of his own body. Shree Chitraguptjee, his 17th creation, is believed to be the creation from Lord Bramha's Mind & Soul.

Shree Chitraguptjee is divine incarnation in human form. Called Kayastha since he is the only creation of Lord Bramha, created in entirety [KAYA] from the lords body, unlike the other 16 sons who were created only from various parts of the body. Shree Chitraguptjee (& hence the Kayastha's) were accorded a dual caste status, namely KSHATRITYA [Warrior] and BRAHMIN [The Learned]. Therefore they keep record for landowners and village surveyors and accountants.


Rajputs:

The 100,000 Rajputs in Mithila are not native to the area, but came during the Mughal era and became zamindars. This is why Brahmans count them as lower than Kayasthas, even though Kayasthas are technically a superior type of Shudra.The next few castes are the middle agricltural castes, "clean castes" in ritual terms, upwardly mobile in political and economic terms, now pushing against Brahman dominance and getting power in local and state government.

Yadavas:


Yadavas are by far the largest caste in the region at one-eighth of the total population. They are herdsmen and cultivators and consider themselves kinsmen to the god Krishna, who was also a cowherd.

Dhanuk:


Dhanuk is another large agricultural caste, though originally they were archers; they are considered a "clean" caste from whom Brahmans can take water, and therefore they often are employed as servants by Brahmans.

Koiri:



Koiri are considered industrious cultivators and among the best tenants in the area, but Brahmans will not take water from them, and therefore their status is lower than the Dhanuk.

Mallah:

Mallah are boatmen and fishermen, and thus are considered lower than the chief agricultural castes, although there is a slight anomaly here, for Brahmans will take water from them, but not from Koiri.


Dusadhs:

Dusadhs are among the most stigmatized of the large castes, but are also economically very important as agricultural laborers and are gaining real political power in North Bihar because they form a large voting bloc with increasingly powerful leaders. The British knew them as a "caste of thieves" and in some of the larger villages posted special police stations to keep a curfew over them at night.


Chamars:

Chamars carry away the carcasses of dead animals and make sandals, drums, soccer balls, and bicycle seats out of the leather. Musahars are negatively stereotyped by upper castes as "eaters of rats, snakes, and lizards," who are "expert at getting hidden crops from rat holes." Mali make garlands for temple worship, and have a special relationship to the smallpox goddess, Sitala.

Dom:


Dom are basket-makers and assistants at cremation grounds.

There are also many other important but smaller castes, such as:

• Nai, barbers whose wives function as midwives;
• Dhobi, washermen;
• Kumhar, potters.

All these castes perform essential services, practical and ritual, for the superior castes, especially the Maithil Brahmans.

Life in Mithila Courtyard:

Life in the courtyard is not unlike living in a temple. For Brahmans, almost all significant religious acts take place in the family compound. Here the orthodox Brahman rises before sunrise and begins several hours of worship defined by Vedic-derived traditions collectively referred to as karmakanda. All major life-cycle rites, known as samskaras, particularly marriage (vivaha) and boy’s sacred thread ceremony (upnayana) are conducted in the courtyard. When eleven Brahmans must be feasted following each rite, they are seated in rank order beginning nearest the tulsi tree in a rectangle around the courtyard. Thus, the four-house compound of a typical rural village, arranged on an east-west axis with the mandap at the center, is the domestic temple as well as the home of Maithil Brahman families.

Houses in Mithila

Purbariya Ghar:


You arrive first at the purbariya ghar (eastern house), the men’s house, whose front verandah is the place for connecting with the rest of the village and the world. Here the men receive guests, deal with village business, share the convivial and ubiquitous pan with guests of high rank, while the wife sends out trays of tea but rarely herself appears from the courtyard.


Gosaun Ghar:

The shrine of Kul Devi and other family deities is in the gosaun ghar, opening eastward like every temple onto the compound. The prayer is offered to dieties like Kali, Gauri reciting hymns and prarti. The cooking hearth is usually on the inner verandah of this building.

Mandap:

The center of the courtyard contains a covered, raised platform, the mandap, whose ritual function is to protect the Vedic fire sacrifice from pollution, but whose everyday practical uses during extremes of heat and rain are many. Rituals like Janau & Vivah are performed in mandap. You can dry clothes there, store bags of grain, sleep on hot nights, hide from the sun.


Kohbara Ghar:

A third house, either in the south or the north, is the kohbara ghar, the house where daughters of the family will meet their husbands, and where sons will meet their new wives. Though this event happens but rarely in a family’s history, and this building in everyday life serves a wide range of useful functions, it is thought of and called the kohbara ghar as if every week it was needed for a bride and groom’s first shy meeting.The northern house is a ritually unmarked storage and sleeping place.

At marriage the Gosaun Ghar and the Kohbara Ghar are elevated to their highest ritual status. At the bride's household, her Kohbara Ghar is where bride and groom will "meet" each night, called suhag ki raat, or the "night of suhag."

When the bride arrives at the groom's house, the Gosaun Ghar becomes the most important room. The bride must first be introduced to Kul Devi before the marriage can be consummated. She spends her first three nights sleeping in a small, specially constructed shrine near Kul Devi. This is tapas for the bride, it is said; the bride's asceticism. Through these three nights, bride and Kul Devi are coming to know one another; the bride gives Kul Devi a body, an incarnation, for the future of the family and of the lineage. Only after these three, chaste nights do the bride and groom sleep together for the first time, and that will be in the groom's Kohbara Ghar.