Vachaspati’s Thadhi

Vachaspati’s Thadhi

I had asked boys in the Nanaur High School to make portrait of Vachaspati, the greatest scholar India had produced

On 1^st September morning we were ready and took bus to Thadhi, 7 km from Nanaur. We went to Kamladitya(Kamladan) said to be once capital of Mithila. People guided our 3 km walk. There was a new temple on old earthen mond of much height. The old Pujari Bhola Rai said that temple dated 116 Shak samvat..some 200o years back. There was a plaque in which Mithilkshar were engraved some king’s dynasty but the fool villagers slapped cement on that. The idol of Kamla,Laxmi was there. Other was broken. I felt sorry again that I did not carry a camera or mobile with camera!). Also of Ganga, Kuber’s idols were there.

The idols are probably of Bddistic perod made of Chunar slabs.

Rai said that a full skelton (of magardwaj sain of Nath sect) was found there intact of amny century’s antiquity.

The new temple was made with contributions from Mumbai 25,000 whie villagers of Andhra had given 21000 of total 111138 Rs.

Bhola Roy is a Bhumihar whose forefathers came 9 generations back from Muzaffarpur and they had some 6 acre lands in their name(while temple had only 2 kathha 9 dhurs)!

Chiti Durga is celebrated there.

I had told Kamlkantjee that it was a cursed place so people do not visit there much and he agreed to me after the skeleton stiry which might be a murder any time. The capital of Mithila was s furlong off which was inhabitated by people now. Excavation may tell whether the claim of Sahdev Jha was right for it as capital or Simraon garh in Champaran was capital in deed. But surely the area has a landscape of capital- roads all where and over 70 ponds.

Then we asked a tea shop our desire to visit Vachaspati’s dwelling?Deeh. He told me t was in returning way near a pond , where is a tree of Dhatrim..

We went there- it was a dilapidated deeh. Someone also had trying to cultivate some crop (kudari san tami kay) but othr portions were intact. There came Prem Kumnar Jha to guide us. He was a ward member also and a social worker. I appointed him as secrtary of AMP.Thadhi and gave a task to work for a statue of Vachaspati which was hinted to me by Prof.Sureshwar Jha sometimes back. I told him that Vachaspati I and II(in my village Samaul, statue projects will be taken up simultaneously and in a proper formate I will as for donation all over the world wth my initial contribution for Rs.5,000 for each, It was a matter of shame that some other scholar’s statue was there in the village but n9ot of Vachaspati desite HH Puri Shankarachrya’s visit some years back and promise for the same.

There is still ponda named on Misrain and Bhamati(in my village to Misrain and chhotaki pokharis are but no body ever tried in my village to have any crop in that deeh of Vachaspati II of 15 century- in my childhood I had seen the place where we used to go.

But while my villagers(my family which owns the land from many generations) did never think to have any crop it was place of defecation which is still a revered place in Thadhi where they observe Navah aftr saraswati Puja. I congratulated them and took pieces of soils from different portions of Vachaspati deeh.

Then we went to Sahdev Jha’s house who had expired recently at the age of 92. Sahdev Jha was of the opinion that Shankaracharya never visited Mithila and Mithil’s advait is a distinct one,which does not ask for Sannyas. Madhusudan saraswati had named that ‘Bhavadwait,” of Grihasthas. Sahedev Jha was agreat compiler and Vachaspati Museum is thre which could not visit die to paucity of time.

In the way I saw house of Amrendra Narayan Jha of Bangalore where too I coud not go due to lack of time but thought in mind though he had left AMP will make him convenor for the Vachaspati I statue project of AMP. I know once I go to Bangalore he cannot say no.

In the way I saw the place of Dr.Jagannath Mishra’s sister which was promised by him to give for Kanya Vidyalaya but was given to his son Neetish, MLA. I said that probably thus Rajnagar became a reserved constituency! Aftetr all the property beloged to kith of Dr.saheb’s sister not of her Naihar and Dr. Saheb is such a wealthy man that he hardly need anything!

Sahdev Jha’s son narrated the story of a dakini who used to come in while dress in midnight to Parmeshwari Sthan. Many saw her but could not catch even her dress or could lesson the distance in between even being very fast.

In the way to Parmeshwari Sthan, we saw statue of Kaveeshwar Chanda Jha(Shake 1753 Magh shukla 7 i.e. 20.1.1831-1909) which was in his sasur.

Finally we visited parmeshwari sthan which was a very big campus with amny temples and pond.

Then we had a bus to Nanaur. I proceeded to Jhanjharpur from same bus taking my bags from the school on road. At Jhanjharpur a Darbhanga boiund bus was came so close that jumping the stalled water my soe was in mud. Really it was a protective that time. I missed bus in pulling out my shoe and washing that and sock and then by next bus I came to Darbhanga and took my bus to Ranchi informing Dr.Sureshwar Jha AMP’s plans for Vachaspti’s deeh. He was very happy . Let me see if it can succeed!

In Nanaur Maithili camp-A village girl Priyanaka wants to become IAS

In Nanaur Maithili camp-A village girl Priyanaka wants to become IAS

We got bus for Adariya-Sangram and it took three hours with a snail speed to justify Rs. 30 as fare. In the way I noticed many villages like Sarisab Pahi(where my younger brother’s wife is a teacher in a very old school), Bideshar sthan (Vindhyeshwar’s corrupt form but one resident could not accept my correction), Sarb Seema, Jhanjharpur,etc. I saw many boards on the name of Mithila, including a wine shop!

I was always careful that I was travelling in the heart of Mithila and it would be difficult comparing this part with parts around Saurath or Janakpur as to which was of greater Maithil essence!

From Adaria a rickshaw puller asked for Rs.40 but I preferred evening walk under the moonlight. Nanaur High School was almost 4 km and probably rickshaw puller was right in his demand, I realized later. I saw a Ramkatha was going on listeners were from low castes and the comparisons like SAAS AISI KI PUTOHU KI SANS RUK JAYE was apt for them. The preacher had more stress on such social topics than Ramkatha and we were at sore that he was not delivering in Maithili which other speaker did in late night and we were happy.

Anand Kr.Jha and Dr. Kamal Kant Jha were already there and they received us.

One Mandlji was given charge of our food and the organiser Akhilesh had gone to Darbhanga for his morning news bulletin.

The night was turbulent for me- though cool in temple in from of high school, the mosquito-net my sister had given to me had holes and mosquitoes as well as ants made every possible holes in my body.

Morning it was an open air defecation, like last year at Baira Parsa but I had no knee cap injury die to cycling and it was better managed. I had asked Akhilesh for provision but he ignored. Anyway the temple was far from village and it was an advantage.

But it became disadvantageous when number of trainees were almost nil(only four could be certified in the end) despite propaganda by Anand in the village. I had very little introduction with young Akhilesh and when I had to tell about the importance of training camps, I did not mention that collecting people and proper delegation of work would have resulted in better utilization of our time. I was in fact angry that I lost my one leave for that camp.

But it was utilized when a teacher of school, Rahman sahib asked us to take classes of children as number of teachers were less that day due to PAX election (which was a major happening in villages in whole state; though I could not understand it properly it looked to me a cooperative election and cooperative movement is a must for Mithila’s entrepreneurship development).

Boys and girls were seated on two verandas and by turn Dr.Kamalkant Jha and I took their classes. He covered Mithila-Maithili related things but I added to it career counselling, methods to read, health and hygiene, my own experience as student of their age and encouraged them and also promised that if any brilliant student is poor, I will manage his/her expenditures.

Three boys had more than 80 per cent in class VIII. One among them Murari was very small child who wanted to be a civil engineer, second also for the same but third was clever enough to say ‘mechanical engineer’.

Among girls one Priyanka Mishra wanted to read biology but wished to go to the administrative services. I encouraged her from her name ’Priyanka’ given by her maternal uncle when Priyanka Chopra’s first film was realeased. She also knew other Priyanka daughter of Rajeev-Sonia Gandhi.

Many ride ‘Hero’ cycle given by Govt. of Bihar. I exclaimed such cycles should be called ‘heroine”

Children were very happy with the talk and in the end they all recited Bidaynath Mishr ‘yatri’s ‘Bhagwan hamar Mithila Sukh Shantik Ghar ho’ and Vidyapati’s, “Jai Jai Bhiravi Asur Bhayauni..(one of girl later came to Durgasthan meeting in the evening and samg that also).

Encouraged three boys of calss IX Ramashankar Yada, Deepak Kumar,Ranjeet Kumar Mishra composed poems and presented me which will be published in the Maithili Sandesh.

Satish Chandra Mishra, Secretary ,AMP came to take a class on discipline riding motor bike for 102 km.

Merit exam for ISc Biology students at Jhanjharpur College- on Sept1, could not be arranged despite Principal’s assurance to me and Anand. Yet one guardian came with his son and he gave examination in the Nanaur School. Though not satisfactory mark, it was a test for him and lesson to read more. He like many previous students could not reply that Maithil’s recognition in VIII Schedule was given during Vajpayee’s tenure as PM.

In the evening we decided to go to Village’s Durgasthan, if they did not come to us in the school.

Welcomed by Puja Samiti president,there was a huge crowd which listened to us with pin drop silence . Presiding the function Prof.Deen said that Mithila was already a state and it has all qualifications to become a state. When we were returning, crowd self exhortedly said,Jai Mithila,jai Maithili. Probably they were shunned to listen me that choosing that constituency by Mishra family was a caste oriented move as they belong to Saharsa where too they could have fight. And making Urdu second language of Bihar blocked Maithili’s space!

Release of Seeta Avtaran Mahakavya by Pradeep ‘Maithiliputra’

Release of Seeta Avtaran Mahakavya by Pradeep ‘Maithiliputra’

It was warm and humid August at Darbhanga. Prof. Udayshankar had informed me about the release of Seeta Avtaran Mahakavya by Pradeep ‘Maithiliputra’ at 2 PM at Trishulini Temple, near Light House Cinema at Laheriasari on August 30,2009. Incidentally I was in town in way to Nanaur, Maithili Workers’ Training Camp and had made up mind to attend the function for initial 30 minutes. When I reached there in time, the function started in time with welcome address of Prof. Uday Shankar Mishra and book release by Dr.Indira Jha whom I had listened to in HH Puri Shankaracharya’s meeting at Ranchi reciting,”Nami EEshan rupam..” and introductory remarks by Pradeep ‘Maithiliputra.’ Two Mihtila activists prof. Baidynath Choudhary,’Baiju’ and I were asked to speak first as he too had to catch a train for Kolkata. I have shared dais only one occasion with him in past( at Mumbai in 2007) and had few moments together(at Saharsa in a Maithili meeting and at Darbhanga in a shraddha sthali). It was not an occasion to speak on Mithila state though Pradeep Maithililiputra himself pointed out that he was in favour of Mithila state. Indira Jha was not given a copy of the book prior and she was at loss to speak on the book proper but I could turn out pages in between and focussed more on book’s worth than the topic of Mithila. It was more a moment to see galaxy of Maithil intellectuals at Darbhanga- Chairman, Bhimnath Jha, Prof.Sureshwar Jha(his birthday was the next day and I congratulated him in advance), Chandresh, Yoganad Jha, ‘Parwa’ smiled to see me after many years and I could not tell him that I was going to his village on 23^rd September; chief guest Dr.R.N.Jha, I confused him as ‘husband’ of Indira Jha and could know the fact only next day by newspaper and was sorry that though my teacher at DMCH, I could not recognise him. I think the humid atmosphere and bus time for Nanur was in my mind. By the time I started my speech god Indra was pleased and it was a big leash of rain and everybody agreed with me that it was due to a book on Mother Seeta and incidentally I am blessed for rains as I was born on a Shrawan Pradosh. Though my sister had given me an umbrella, I was wet in the auto sitting besides driver. The roads of Darbhanga are in very bad shape and it had limited the speed better for half open umbrella still I was wet when I reached bus stand. I also noticed that rickshaw and auto charges at Darbhanga were much more than at Ranchi while the paying capacity of Darbhangias are much low.

Trial of a Maithili Train

Trial of a Maithili Train

When I started for Darbhanga on 29^th August 2009 night, one Maihtil P C Jha recognised me. Though I recollected that he was working in the CMPDI, Ltd, I could not remember that he was studying with my youngest brother at the IIT, Delhi. He informed me that son of Manoj Thakur, Gandhwari was shockingly dead after a fall from 7^th floor in a mysterious condition at the Dayanad Sagar Engineering College at Bangalore on 13rd August. I talked Manoj to console him and asked my brother to request his friend an IPS at Bangalore for due investigation as it was shocking that Principal of the College even refused to meet father of dead boy.

The next morning Ramesh Kr. Kamat,( a boy from village Mahulia near Ladaniya, who had come to Ranchi after merit examination at Jaynagar on 13.6.2009 who was returning home as he was not a biology student but had come Ranchi a week before; he was also going to attend Nanur Maithil camp) and me started signature campaign in coaches for regularization of Jaynagar-Ranchi-Jaynagar special train. It was a lean period in which trial was taken by the railways as if it wanted to close the train, yet some 40 per cent reservations were done in that last ride of the train. I was angry as to why trial of Maithili train was done; incidentally I had demanded naming it Maithili Express as a regular train. It was a happy introduction with many enthusiastic Maithils who wanted trains to run regularly and incidentally I could spot son of Sushil Kumar Ray of Piska More who was going home with his bhabhi whose reception I had attended.