Gajendra Thakur

A PARALLEL HISTORY OF MITHILA & MAITHILI LITERATURE- PART 40

Ravindra Nath Thakur Maithili Poet � Lyricist � Scholar � Literary Administrator

Ravindra Nath Thakur

 

Maithili Poet � Lyricist � Scholar � Literary Administrator

Former Director-cum-Secretary, Maithili Academy, Bihar Government

 

Full Name	Ravindra Nath Thakur (रवीन्द्र नाथ ठाकुर)
Date of Birth	8 August 1938 (some sources: 1936)
Place of Birth	Nanour village, Madhubani District (maternal); Dhamnaha, Purnia District (paternal)
Date of Passing	18 May 2022, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Age at Passing	Approximately 83 years
Cause of Death	Cancer (approx. 18 months illness)
Last Rites	Haridwar, Uttarakhand
Family	Three sons, two daughters; son Avindr Thakur, music educator
Primary Languages	Maithili, Hindi, Sanskrit
Pen Name / Title	�Abhinav Vidyapati� (conferred by Baba Nagarjuna personally)

 

Ravindra Nath Thakur (1938�2022) occupies a singular position in modern Maithili literary culture. Over six decades of sustained creative work, he transformed the landscape of Maithili song, drama, and verse, reaching audiences that no literary text could have reached on its own. His significance lies not merely in the quantity of his output�nineteen published volumes and hundreds of recorded songs�but in the qualitative shift he brought about: he made Maithili performance culture a vehicle for the aspirations of ordinary people, migrant workers, women at the margins of domestic life, and farmers confronting debt and drought.

The Videha Ravindranath Thakur Visheshank (Special Issue 348, June 2022), edited by Gajendra Thakur, was announced in November 2021 and published shortly after Thakur�s passing on 18 May 2022. It represents the most comprehensive scholarly and testimonial assessment of his life and work yet assembled�drawing on essays, critical reviews, personal reminiscences, and formal assessments by critics including Pradeep Pushpa, Ajit Kumar Jha, Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil�, Narayanji, Laxman Jha Sagar, Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra, and Ashish Anchinhar.

 

2.1 Early Life and Education

Ravindra Nath Thakur was born on 8 August 1938 (the year 1936 appears in some published sources, but the date given by Thakur himself via Facebook posts is 1938). His maternal family home was in Nanour village, Madhubani District�the heartland of Mithila�while his paternal family was from Dhamnaha, Purnia District, Bihar. These dual roots gave him intimate familiarity with both the Madhubani cultural zone and the Purnia plains.

His early schooling was completed in his maternal village. He then studied at the Sanskrit Secondary School, Dhamnaha, Purnia, before moving to Purnia College, Purnia, where he took his undergraduate degree. This Sanskrit-grounded education left a permanent mark on his sensibility: his songs drew on Vedic metres, classical Maithili padavali traditions, and the folk repertoire with equal fluency.

2.2 Professional Career

After completing his education, Thakur served briefly as a temporary teacher at Dhamnaha Secondary School and later as founding headmaster of Madhyamik Vidyalaya Dungura, Bhavanipura. He then joined the Finance Department (National Savings Organisation) of the Bihar Government in 1960, retiring in 1980 as a Gazetted Officer (rajpatrit pad adhikari).

Following retirement, he was called back into active service through deputation to the Maithili Academy established by the Bihar State Education Department. He served there successively as Assistant Director, Deputy Director, and Director-cum-Secretary. His tenure at the Maithili Academy was marked by one signal achievement above all others: the publication of the first two-volume Maithili dictionary, a milestone in the standardisation and institutionalisation of the language.

Beyond his creative work, Ravindra Nath Thakur made a major institutional contribution to the Maithili language movement in Bihar through his service as Director-cum-Secretary of the Maithili Academy, a body constituted by the Bihar government's Education Department.

The Maithili Academy was Bihar's governmental mechanism for promoting, publishing, and institutionally supporting the Maithili language and literature. As its Director-cum-Secretary, Ravindra Nath Thakur occupied a key position at the intersection of literary culture and state patronage � analogous to the role of a literary administrator working within a formal institutional framework to advance the cause of a regional language that had historically struggled for recognition.

This role was of particular significance given the long campaign for Maithili's recognition. The Sahitya Akademi (India's National Academy of Letters) had recognised Maithili in 1965, but it was not until 2003 that Maithili was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as one of India's recognised scheduled languages. Working within the Bihar government's Maithili Academy, Thakur was part of the administrative apparatus that sustained and promoted the language through this critical period of institutional consolidation.

 

2.3 Final Years and Death

Thakur had settled in Noida (A-327, Sector 46) in his later years. He had earlier invested in a small piece of land in Delhi, the sale proceeds of which helped him build a comfortable home. After the death of his long-time stage partner Mahendra Jha, Thakur gradually withdrew from public performance. He continued writing and editing a small journal (patrika) even in his later years.

He was diagnosed with cancer approximately eighteen months before his death. He passed away on 18 May 2022 at a private hospital in Noida. His last rites were performed at Haridwar. The announcement of the Videha special issue had been made in November 2021; that the subject died before the issue�s completion became one of the ironies noted in Gajendra Thakur�s editorial preface.

Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar issued a formal condolence message on his passing, stating that Ravindra Nath Thakur was widely popular among Maithili-speaking people for his stage singing, that he composed many books in Maithili, and that his passing had caused an irreparable loss to literature, especially to Maithili literature. The Chief Minister's message reflects the stature of state recognition that Thakur had earned during his lifetime.

Ravindra Nath Thakur is survived by three sons and two daughters. His family includes his journalist son Avindr Thakur, who brought the news of his passing to public attention.

 

 

3.1 Published Books (Chronological)

Ravindra Nath Thakur published nineteen volumes across Maithili and Hindi, spanning song collections, experimental verse, a novel, a short epic (khandakavya), dramas, devotional texts, and a ghazal collection. The following table records these in sequence:

 

1961	Chalu-Chalu Bahin (Geet Sangrah) � Kanhaiya Lal Krishnadas, Darbhanga
1963	Jahin Vi Tahin (Geet Sangrah) � Granthalaay Prakashan, Darbhanga
1966	Chitra-Vichitra (Experimental Poetry) � Self-published
1968	Nara-Ganga (Laghu Mahakavya) � Self-published
1968	Sita (Khandakavya) � Granthalaay Prakashan, Darbhanga
1969	Shri Gonujha (Novel) � Granthalaay Prakashan, Darbhanga
1969	Ek Raat (Nataka) � Granthalaay Prakashan, Darbhanga
1970	Ek Minute Ki Rani (Hindi Drama) � Granthalaay Prakashan, Darbhanga
1972	Swatantra Amar Ho Amar (Patriotic Songs) � Chetna Samiti, Patna
1976	Ati-Geet (Folk Songs) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1976	Prageet (Folk Songs) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1976	Sugeet (Geet Sangrah) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1976	Ravindra Padavali (Bhakti & Vyavaharik Geet) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1976	Panchakanya (Experimental Khandakavya) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1985	Lekhani Ek Rang Anek (Maithili Ghazal Collection) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
~1985	Do Phool, Deep Yatan � Bihar Government, Patna
1999	Pratyaya (Poetry & Songs) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
1999	Shri Sita Chalisa (Religious) � Purvaanchal Prakashan, Patna
2022	Ravindra Padyavali � (Published posthumously or shortly before death)

 

The publication dates above follow the authoritative dating established by Gajendra Thakur in the editorial notes to the Videha special issue. The ghazal collection Lekhani Ek Rang Anek is sometimes dated to 1978 in other sources, but the preface (written by Thakur himself, dated 15 August 1985) establishes the correct year of first publication as 1985.

3.2 The Ghazal Collection: Lekhani Ek Rang Anek

The publication of Lekhani Ek Rang Anek was a watershed moment in the history of Maithili ghazal. At the time of its composition, no ghazal grammar (ghazal shastra or vyakaran) existed for Maithili; critics had flatly claimed that ghazal could not be written in the language. The 111 compositions in this collection�109 ghazals and some qit�a (fragment poems)�constituted a bold empirical refutation of that claim.

Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil�, one of the foremost critics of Maithili ghazal writing in Videha Issue 348, undertook a systematic technical analysis of the collection thirty-two years after its publication. His findings are worth noting in detail: 26 ghazals lack a radif (refrain); 5 ghazals lack a matla (opening couplet); in 4 ghazals the radif appears in the matla but is not maintained throughout; 9 ghazals have the same rhyme word (kafiya) in different sher; 10 ghazals have inappropriate kafiya beyond the matla; 7 have irregular kafiya in the matla itself; and 16 have inappropriate kafiya words in one or more sher. These formal shortcomings are significant when evaluated against the ghazal grammar later codified on the Anchinhar Aakhar website by Gajendra Thakur and Ashish Anchinhar.

Yet the same critic acknowledges the collection�s historic importance: it established unambiguously that Maithili ghazal could exist; it contained individual sher of genuine lyric power; and it used exclusively Maithili vocabulary�refusing borrowings from Urdu�Persian in a way that was both a strength (for linguistic purity) and a limitation (given that thirty to forty percent of spoken Maithili already incorporates Persian-origin words). Ashish Anchinhar�s analysis in the same issue is more categorical: he designates Thakur�s compositions as �kath-it ghazal� (so-called ghazal) rather than ghazals in the technical sense, precisely because the bahr (prosodic metre) is not maintained. He provides comparative sher from Pandit Jeevan Jha, Kavishvar Sitaram Jha, Yogananda Hira, Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil�, and Vijaynath Jha to demonstrate that Maithili ghazal from its earliest phase had successfully maintained bahr.

3.3 Radio Dramas and Serials

Thakur wrote and produced extensively for All India Radio Patna and Darbhanga. His radio portfolio included the comedy plays Ghadi, Maalik, Guru Gur Chela Chini, and Pench-Udhar (Akashvani Patna); the devotional and drama serial Singhaasan Battisi (34 episodes, Akashvani Patna); and the Gonujha serial (15 episodes, Doordarshan Guwahati). Additionally he wrote Hindi musical programmes and a verse drama Uttar Vidyapati for Akashvani Darbhanga. He was also involved in directing stage productions of Zero Mile, Ek Din Ek Raat, To Let, and Ek Minute Ki Rani at the district and subdivision levels across Bihar.

3.4 Film Work

Ravindra Nath Thakur played a central role in the creation of the first Maithili feature film, Mamta Gaaye Geet. He served as lyricist, co-director, and screenplay writer. The film had a complex production history: originally initiated by Kedar Nath Chaudhary and Mahant Madan Mohan Das, the project ran out of funds and lay dormant for approximately eighteen years. Thakur eventually secured rights from Mahant Madan Mohan Das and completed the film�s release, an act described by Mahant Das as an act of singular courage: �Ravindra ji bira bahādur banala h.�

The film featured all original songs by Thakur except one song from Vidyapati�s padavali, and included actress Azra in the lead role. The third producer, Bhanu Babu, who had himself wanted to contribute songs to the film, said of Thakur after hearing his compositions: �I could produce a new narrative from each of Ravindra�s songs. Ravindra�s songs will bring a new age to Maithili music.�

He was also lyricist and screenplay writer for a second Maithili film, Gonujha, and wrote and directed an Ayurveda-based telefilm, Aayurveda Ki Amar Kahani. He produced documentaries for the Panchayat Ministry of the Government of India and for the Sahitya Akademi (on scholars Govind Jha, Maya Nand Mishra, and Hindi scholar Shriram Naresh Tripathi). Other productions included the documentary series Bharat Ke Shaheed (5 episodes, MES Ministry), Nari (documentary), and Sunhara Safar (Suyojan Films, Delhi, covering 36 years of Indian cinema, telecast from Doordarshan Jaipur).

 

4.1 The Modern Maithili Stage

If Vidyapati established the classical pinnacle of Maithili lyric and Harimohan Jha and �Madhup� (Kashikant Mishra) carried the tradition into the twentieth century, Ravindra Nath Thakur was the figure who made modern Maithili performance a self-sustaining cultural institution capable of drawing mass audiences. The critic Narayanji, writing in Videha 348, characterises this as follows: Madhup�s songs revitalised the tradition by adopting the tune-patterns of Hindi film songs, but Thakur recognised that this strategy had reached its limit and that something more genuinely Maithili in voice and lyricism was needed. Thakur�s innovation was to compose songs with new tunes invented by himself, rooted in the padavali tradition and in the folk soundscape of Mithila, rather than borrowing from Hindi film conventions.

The subjects Thakur chose were likewise a departure from the dominant modes of Maithili song: rather than limiting himself to Radha-Krishna bhakti or Sita-Ram devotion, he wrote about the indebted peasant whose ox has died, the daughter leaving for her in-laws� home, the migrant worker in Morang (Nepal), the barber at the wedding ceremony, the village woman carrying water, the banter between newly-wed couples, and the experience of urban displacement. This range gave his songs an almost encyclopaedic quality: as Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra writes, �In his songs you will find Madhubani, Purnia, Begusaray, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, and Maithili Nepal all becoming one.�

4.2 The Ravindra-Mahendra Duo

The defining event of Thakur�s performance career was his partnership with Mahendra Jha of Jamsam village, Madhubani District. Laxman Jha Sagar�s memoir in the Videha special issue provides the most vivid account of how this partnership came into being. While Thakur had been writing and performing his own songs, his singing voice was not considered his strongest quality�Professor Maya Nand Mishra once told him, jokingly, that �god made a mistake: your qualities should have been given to me and mine to you.� The decisive encounter came at a Maithili programme in Begusaray, where someone brought the young Mahendra Jha, a natural singer of exceptional quality, to Thakur�s attention. The two immediately formed a duo, and from approximately 1966�1967 onward the Ravindra-Mahendra partnership became the single most popular act on the Maithili cultural circuit.

The partnership was explicitly a division of labour: Thakur composed the lyrics and set the tunes; Mahendra Jha sang. The combination of Thakur�s verbal genius and Mahendra�s melodic voice was described as unstoppable. Laxman Jha Sagar writes: �The audience gathered in the hall merely on hearing the name of this pair.� The duo performed at over ten thousand events across Bihar, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Indian diaspora venues. After Mahendra Jha�s death (Sagar recalls a final meeting in Guwahati), Thakur effectively retired from stage performance.

The Sung Tradition

Ravindra Nath Thakur's identity as both poet and stage singer connects him to the oldest and most continuous thread in Maithili literature: the sung lyric. Maithili's greatest literary monument, the work of Vidyapati, was composed as sung padavalī � poetry designed for performance and music, not merely silent reading. This tradition of sung verse, where the poet is also the performer or at least the composer for performance, has persisted through the centuries.

In this tradition, Ravindra Nath Thakur's popularity as a stage performer among Maithili-speaking audiences reflects a deep cultural continuity. His songs and performances connected modern Maithili audiences to an ancient aesthetic of poetry as living sound, not merely printed text. Chief Minister Kumar's observation that he was widely popular for his 'manchīya gāyan' (stage singing) directly echoes this tradition.

Regional Identity and the Purnia Connection

Thakur's origin in Purnia district also gives his work a specific geographic identity. Purnia, as part of the eastern Maithili-speaking belt, represents a slightly different cultural variant of Mithila from the Darbhanga-Madhubani heartland. His work in Maithili from this region reinforces the understanding that Maithili culture extends across a wide geographic expanse and is not confined to a single administrative zone.

Devotional Literature

His compositions include prominent devotional works � the Seeta Chalisa and other devotional songs indicate his engagement with the Janaki (Sita) devotional tradition, which is particularly strong in the Mithila region, given that Mithila is the legendary birthplace of Sita (Janaki), daughter of King Janaka. This devotional dimension of his work is entirely characteristic of Maithili literary tradition, where devotion to Sita, Shiva, and related divine figures has been central for centuries.

 

4.3 Representative Songs

The following compositions are among those that entered common parlance across the Mithila region and diaspora:

�       Bhari Nagari Me Shor, Bauwa Mami Tohar Gor (from film Mamta Gaaye Geet; H.M.V. record)

�       Ar Bakri Ghas Kho / Chhori Gathulla Bahar Jo

�       Chalu Chalu Bahin / Jahin Vi Tahin

�       Piriye Piran Nath Sadar Pranam

�       Chitti Ke Tar Bujhu, Budhiya Bimar Bujhu

�       Bada Vanam Me Shoran, Prani Se Hum Bilam Jo (Mithila migration song)

�       Chala Mithila Me Chal, Jatay Anant Vasant Hasaiye

�       Kathi Ke Mithila Ke Maithil (identity anthem)

�       Janm Delahin Maay Thikih, Seo Kane Sochu (mother-daughter farewell)

�       Roti Achi Ta Duniya Hariyar (on poverty and food security)

�       Baba Dandot, Baccha Jai Siyaram

�       Nihuran Nihuran Ka Ropy Bahin Jan Boniharin Dhan Ge (women rice-planters� song)

�       Yar Dildar Yar! Ki Re Bhazar Yar! (comic-lyric)

 

When Ravindra-Mahendra came on stage, the cold breeze of spring was felt even in the heat of summer. � Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil�, Videha Issue 348

 

Ravindra Nath Thakur was among the first Maithili artists to record for a major gramophone company. In 1966 H.M.V. (His Master�s Voice), Kolkata, released a record of Maithili folk songs with Thakur as lyricist and composer. This record included the songs that would become his most widely disseminated early work, including Bhari Nagari Me Shor and Ar Bakri Ghas Kho.

Subsequently he released approximately fifteen cassettes through Purvaanchal Musical Records, Patna (1977�78), containing Maithili and Bhojpuri bhajans and dual-language songs. The Sita Chalisa was released by T-Series, Noida. The Bhajan Bharati album was released through Suyojan Films, New Delhi, and an additional album was released by Sony Cassettes.

 

6.1 Maithili Academy

Thakur�s appointment to the Bihar Government�s Maithili Academy represented the most institutionally consequential phase of his career. As Assistant Director, Deputy Director, and ultimately Director-cum-Secretary, he had executive authority over the state�s primary body for the promotion and documentation of Maithili language and literature. His signal achievement in this role was overseeing the publication of the first comprehensive Maithili dictionary in two volumes�a project that had been a long-standing scholarly desideratum and that significantly advanced the standardisation of written Maithili. He also served as President of the Maithili Academy, Patna, at one point.

6.2 Educational and Social Initiatives

After retirement from government service, Thakur founded or helped establish several institutions. These included Mahakali Kanya Uchch Vidyalaya, Dhamnaha, Purnia (subsequently upgraded to a Project School by the Bihar Government); the theatre organisation Ranglok, established in Patna; Sangeetayan Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, established in Noida, which by 2022 had awarded degrees to approximately 2,000 students; and A.A.U. Inter College, Adityapur, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand).

He was also actively involved in campaigns for the inclusion of Maithili in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (a goal achieved in 2003), drought and flood relief work in Mithila, and anti-dowry campaigns in the region through public events and personal intervention.

 

Ravindra Nath Thakur received numerous recognitions over his career. The most personally significant was the title �Abhinav Vidyapati� (the New Vidyapati), conferred upon him in person by the eminent Hindi and Maithili poet Baba Nagarjuna (Vaidyanath Mishra Yatri) at a public ceremony in Purnia. The use of this epithet by his supporters has been a subject of some critical debate: Gajendra Thakur notes in his editorial that the label�while intended as high praise�has paradoxically been used by critics and by the literary establishment to bracket Thakur as a �stage performer� rather than a serious literary figure, thereby excluding him from the institutional recognition he deserved.

His other formal honours included:

�       Prabodh Sahitya Samman (2014)�from Swati Foundation, Kolkata

�       Mithila Vibhuti Samman�Akhil Bharatiya Mithila Sangh, New Delhi (2016)

�       Mithila Ratna Samman�Third International Maithili Conference, Mumbai (2016)

�       Lifetime Achievement Award�Jharkhand Maithili Manch, Ranchi (2014)

�       Visishtth Maithili Seva Samman (three times)�Vidyapati Seva Sansthan, Darbhanga

�       Kayakalp Sahitya Shiromani Samman (2016)�Kayakalp Sahitya Kala Foundation, Noida

�       Manikpadma Samman�Mithalanchal Sahityik evam Sanskritik Sanstha, New Delhi

�       Bhasha Sahitya Samman (2016�17)�ILAA Foundation, New Delhi

�       Vidyapati Samman�Vidyapati Samiti, Dhanbad (2016)

�       Vishesh Samman�Jan Jagriti Manch, Palam, New Delhi (2018)

�       Vishesh Samman�Vaidehi Foundation, New Delhi, Mayalankar Hall (2017)

�       Vishesh Samman (three years)�Vishwa Maithili Sangh, Santanagar, Burari, New Delhi

�       Felicitation�Rashtriya Kavi Kumbha (Doordarshan, New Delhi) representing Maithili language

�       Performance�Sahitya Akademi events (Guwahati, Purnia and others)

Critically, Thakur was never awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Maithili, a fact lamented at length by Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra in his contribution to the Videha special issue. Mishra argues that the literary establishment�s bias against performance-based poetry, combined with the failure of Maithili cultural organisations to mount a coordinated lobbying effort on his behalf, deprived Thakur of an honour for which his output fully qualified him. Mishra compares the cultural neglect of Thakur with the reception accorded to Bhupen Hazarika in Assam, who received the Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna and was treated as a cultural deity by his community.

 

8.1 The Problem of Literary Canon

The central interpretive problem surrounding Ravindra Nath Thakur in the Maithili literary establishment is the longstanding hierarchical distinction between �manchi� (stage) literature and �pustak� (book) literature�with the latter accorded canonical status and the former treated as entertainment. Gajendra Thakur�s editorial introduction to Videha 348 frames this as the defining intellectual challenge of the special issue: why are Thakur�s songs great, and what exactly makes them stage-worthy? These questions, he argues, have never been seriously engaged by either Thakur�s devotees (who accepted them uncritically) or by progressive critics (who were suspicious of their popularity).

The Videha special issue positions itself as the first attempt to read Thakur�s work on its own literary terms�evaluating the quality of his imagery, his prosodic innovation, his vernacular authenticity, and his social range. The editorial explicitly breaks with the tradition�widespread in Maithili journals�of publishing special issues only after a writer�s death or focused primarily on archival material. Videha had announced the Thakur issue while he was still alive, in November 2021, and the coincidence of his death before its publication became an occasion for reflection on what Gajendra Thakur calls the �mrityu-pujak� (death-worshipping) tendency in Maithili literary culture.

8.2 Contributions from Critics

Pradeep Pushpa�s essay �Geetak Apratim Shilpakar: Ravindra Nath Thakur� situates Thakur in the lineage from Vidyapati through Madhup, arguing that Thakur achieved what Vidyapati had achieved for his age: a form of lyric that simultaneously addressed the specific conditions of Mithila life and attained a universal emotional resonance. Pushpa notes Thakur�s formal innovation�composing entirely new tunes rather than setting words to existing melodies�as the key to his distinctiveness.

Narayanji�s essay �Adhunik Maithili Geetak Sajag Unnayak� (�Conscious Elevater of Modern Maithili Song�) provides the most theoretically elaborated account of Thakur�s historical role, tracing the trajectory from folk song through the padavali tradition, the emergence of brajbuli as a literary idiom, and the disruption caused by Hindi film music. He identifies Thakur as the figure who recognised the crisis in Maithili lyric performance culture and responded with a systematic programme of revitalisation.

Laxman Jha Sagar�s memoir �Mithilak Mukutmani Ravindra� provides the richest personal testimony, combining candid anecdote (including an early unflattering encounter involving Thakur�s legendary fondness for liquor at a Laheriasaray programme) with an account of how his own perception of Thakur changed from suspicion to deep admiration over the years.

Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra�s essay �Ravindranath Thakur, Hunak Rachna aa Janmanas Ker Udaasinta� is the most polemical contribution, indicting the Maithili cultural establishment for its failure to secure for Thakur the national recognition he deserved. Mishra�s comparison of the neglect of Thakur with the celebrated treatment of Bhupen Hazarika in Assam is the most pointed intervention in this direction.

Ashish Anchinhar�s technical essay on Thakur�s �so-called ghazal� is the most rigorous scholarly contribution, bringing the analytical framework of the Anchinhar Aakhar ghazal grammar to bear on Lekhani Ek Rang Anek. While Anchinhar�s verdict is technically adverse (Thakur�s compositions are songs, not ghazals in the formal sense), the essay is notable for the care with which it presents comparative material from other Maithili ghazal writers, demonstrating that proper ghazal had indeed been written in Maithili from the earliest attempts onward.

 

The Videha Ravindranath Thakur Visheshank is editorially framed by the Parallel Literature Movement (Samaanantar Parampara) advanced by Videha since its founding in 2004. This framework holds that the dominant Maithili literary canon�as institutionalised through the Sahitya Akademi and the principal print journals�has systematically marginalised writers who work in performance genres, folk idioms, or Dalit and subaltern traditions. The recovery of Ravindra Nath Thakur as a major figure is presented as an instance of this broader corrective project.

Gajendra Thakur�s editorial notes two specific manifestations of the canonical bias against Thakur. First, the practice of publishing special issues only for dead writers, which Videha disrupted by announcing its Thakur issue while he was still alive (though he died before publication). Second, the use of the epithet �Abhinav Vidyapati� as a simultaneously honouring and marginalising gesture: by positioning him as a �new Vidyapati,� the establishment acknowledged his popular power while implicitly excluding him from the category of serious literary author. Videha�s project was to reverse this by engaging Thakur�s work with the same critical apparatus applied to canonical Maithili poetry.

 

Ravindra Nath Thakur was the most significant architect of modern Maithili performance culture in the second half of the twentieth century. His legacy rests on four pillars: first, the body of his songs, which entered popular consciousness across the Mithila region and diaspora; second, the Ravindra-Mahendra partnership, which created a new model for Maithili dual-voice performance; third, his institutional work at the Maithili Academy, which left the language with its first comprehensive dictionary; and fourth, his experimental literary work�the novel Gonujha, the ghazal collection Lekhani Ek Rang Anek, and the experimental verse collection Chitra-Vichitra�which, whatever their technical limitations, demonstrated the range of a genuinely restless literary intelligence.

The critical consensus emerging from Videha Issue 348 is that Thakur was neglected by the institutional literary establishment during his lifetime in ways that cannot be justified on aesthetic grounds, and that the task of a corrective scholarship is only now being properly undertaken. The present report, drawing directly on that special issue, is intended to serve as a comprehensive reference document for future scholarly work on his life and legacy.

 

 

Name: Ravindra Nath Thakur (रवींद्र नाथ ठाकुर)

Born: 7 April 1936, Dhamnaha (Dakshinbari Tol), Purnia, Bihar

Died: 18 May 2022, Noida, Uttar Pradesh (aged 83)

Language: Maithili (primary), Hindi

Literary Roles: Poet, Lyricist, Singer, Literary Administrator

Institutional Role: Director-cum-Secretary, Maithili Academy, Bihar Govt. Education Dept.

Musical Works: Maithili devotional songs, folk compositions, stage performances

Archival Recognition: Videha Maithili Pothī Archive (videha.co.in/pothi.htm)

State Recognition: Condolence by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of Bihar

Survivors: Three sons (incl. Avindr Thakur, journalist); two daughters

Cremation Place: Haridwar, Uttarakhand

Distinct From: Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali, 1861�1941) � same name, different person

 

Sources

Primary source: Videha eJournal, Issue 348 (Ravindranath Thakur Visheshank), 15 June 2022, Year 15, Month 174. Editor: Gajendra Thakur. ISSN 2229-547X. www.videha.co.in

Contributors cited: Pradeep Pushpa, Ajit Kumar Jha (Muzaffarpur), Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil�, Narayanji, Laxman Jha Sagar, Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra, Jagdish Chandra Thakur �Anil� (second essay), Ashish Anchinhar.

 

▸     Videha Maithili Pothī Archive � www.videha.co.in/pothi.htm

▸     Punjab Kesari (18 May 2022) � news report on Ravindra Nath Thakur's passing and Chief Minister's condolence

▸     LatestLY Hindi (18 May 2022) � PTI news agency report on his passing

▸     JioSaavn artist profile � listing of his recorded Maithili compositions

▸     Mithilavidehavajjitirhut.blogspot.com � Maithili cultural blog quoting his verse (2011)

▸     Wikipedia and scholarly sources on Maithili language and literature for contextual information

▸     Videha eJournal parallel history of Maithili literature by Gajendra Thakur for literary-historical context

 

 

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