Mail News Service
Ghatshila, Oct 19: A national seminar was organized by Sahitya Academy, Ministry of Culture, Government of India under the Webline Sahitya Series on the topic ‘Environmental Discussion in Maithili Katha Sahitya’.
Principal of Ghatshila College, Dr RK Chaudhary presented his research paper on the topic ‘Environmental discourse in Maithili folk tales.’ He contended that Mithila had an inexhaustible storehouse of folk tales. “These tales have continued to be handed down the generations since time immemorial. Folk tales in written form were first available in ‘Purusha Pariksha’ and ‘Bhuparikrama’ by the 14th century great poet, Vidyapati. The language used in Maithili folk tales is very simple and comprehensible and is marked by an unhindered flow in both, prose and verse formats or sometimes, even in an expert prose-flow combination so typical of Maithili literary narratives. These stories and narratives are particularly focused on environmental protection. Maithili tales and other compositions are loaded with humanitarian issues also bracketed in the category of Lok Mangal contents.”
The theme was introduced by Dr Ashok Kumar Jha ‘Avichal’ the Convener of Maithili Consultative Board. The keynote address was delivered by Kumar Manish Arvind. Pradeep Bihari presided over the inaugural session while Kedar Kanan chaired the next session. The welcome address and the entire program were conducted by Dr N Suresh Babu, Deputy Secretary, Sahitya Akademi. Dr Anmol Jha, Dr Surendra Bharadwaj and Narayan Jha also presented their research papers in the seminar.