Introduction

The Indian poet, Vidyāpati, was born at Bisapi, a village in Madhubani, on the eastern side of north Bihar. ‘Madhubani’ means ‘forest of honey’ and the region with its great mango groves, fertile rice lands, fields of sugar-cane and lotus ponds provides a perfect environment for a poet. Its seasons range from winters of sparkling cold to springs and summers of exhilarating heat. In March and April, the cotton tree is afire with scarlet blossom. Evenings are bland and warm and at night people sleep outside their houses in the hot stillness. From îate June to early September, vast clouds move across the sky. Days are either dark with rain, bright with steamy sunshine or livid with storm. By October the air is clear, the moon shines with dazzling brightness and at morning and evening the white peaks of the Himalayas stand along the skyline, enchanting in their frail etherial beauty. A hundred miles north of Bisapi stretch the low foot-hills of Nepal, covered with thick jungle and haunted by tiger. The country of Madhubani is part of Mithila, long renowned for. its learning and culture. Its people are known as Maithils. It was in this part of India that Vidyāpati, a Maithil Brahmin, spent most of his life as courtier, scholar, writer and poet.