Vidyapati

Who was Vidyapati?

Vidyapati, also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil was a Maithili poet and a Sanskrit writer. He was born in the village Bisfi in Madhubani district of Mithila Region of India and Nepal. He was son of Ganapati. The name Vidyapati is derived from two Sanskrit words, Vidya and Pati, connoting thereby, a man of knowledge.

Vidyapati's poetry was widely influential in centuries to come, in the Hindustani as well as Bengali and other Eastern literary traditions. Indeed, the language at the time of Vidyapati, the prakrit-derived late abahatta, had just began to transition into early versions of the Eastern languages, Maithili, Bengali, Oriya, etc. Thus, Vidyapati's influence on making these languages has been described as "analogous to that of Dante in Italy and Chaucer in England."