Contents
1. Mayanand Mishra’s Sense of History: In Relation to Prathamam Shail Putri Cha, Mantraputra, Purohit and Stri-Dhan 7
2. The Floods of Mithila 40
3. Society and Culture in the Lorik Epic 45
4. The Exploration of Mithila 51
5. The Dushan Panji (Register of Transgressions) 58
6. Mithila and Sanskrit 61
7. Migration from Mithila 66
8. Mithila's Pañjī System: Lineage, Marriage, Dūṣaṇa, Social Memory and Modern Reinterpretation 69
9. “Kusmā-Salhes”: Folk Epic, Resistance and the Dramaturgy of Love 119
10. “Akhiyāsal”: Indian Poetics, Western Literary Theory and the Parallel-History Perspective 128
Methodological Difficulties: A Detailed Examination of the Work's Overall Limitations 157
Overall Critical Judgement 162
Conclusion: The Dignity of Beginnings and the Legacy of What Remains Unfinished 164
Appendix: Contents of the Collection, with Original Publication Sources 165
Bibliography 167
11. “Hiāol”: Indian Poetics, Western Literary Theory and the Parallel-History Perspective 168
12. Kedarnath Chaudhary’s Novels “Chameli Rani” and “Mahur” 201
13. A Review of Subhashchandra Yadav’s Short-Story Collection “Banait Bigadait” 207
14. Rajdev Mandal's Ambara 225
15. Munnaji’s Maithili Vihani Story Collection “Pratik” 229
16. Sujit’s “Jiddi” 233
17. Ramesh Narayan’s “Patharak Naw” and Vinod Bihari Verma’s “Balanak Bonihar O Pallavi (and Other Stories)” 236
18. Some New Books in Maithili 238
19. The Story of “Sagar Rati Deep Jaray” 243
20. Dr Amarendra’s “Angika Bal-Sahitya” (Angika Children’s Literature) 247
21. The Critical Theory of Maithili Children's Novels 344 
Contents · continued
22. A Comparative Study of Thirteen Translated Books [Sanskrit-to-Maithili Translations by Gajendra Thakur] — In the Light of Indian and Western Theories 392
23. Jagadanand Jha ‘Manu’s’ Children's Story ‘Māṭik Bāsan’ (Clay Vessels) 416
24. Why Should Readers Read My Books? 418
25. Sajhiyā Ropani (edited by Dr Pramod Kumar): A Review of the Collective Anthology of Bīhani Stories by Forty-Three Authors 436
26. Jagadanand Jha ‘Manu’s’ “Māṭik Bāsan” and a Critical Commentary 441
27. Krishna Kumar Kashyap and Shashibala: An Introduction to Their Creative Work 446
28. Pandit Bal Govind “Arya” 468
29. Structural Instability and the Play of Meaning: A Critique of Ramesh’s Kathā-Samay 469
30. Umesh Paswan’s Mujrim: A Critical Reading of the Short-Story Collection 477
31. “Diyari”: A Comprehensive Literary Evaluation of R. N. Sudhakar’s Short-Story Collection 486
32. A Critical Review of Parmeshwar Kapari’s Tales and Folk Narratives 503
A Critical Theory for the Maithili Stage and Drama (Part One) 541
A Critical Theory for the Maithili Stage and Drama (Part Two): With Reference to Parmeshwar Kapari’s Play Gahan Ugarās 550
33. Kedarnath Chaudhary Special Issue: Stories, Personality and Literary Achievement 561
34. Kedarnath Chaudhary: A Re-reading of the Writer and His Novel 576
35. The Sahitya Akademi Awards Controversy: Yuva and Bal Awards, 2022 581
36. The Forgotten Poet: Pandit Ramji Chaudhary (1878–1952) 584
37. Vidyapati's Bidesiya: The Beloved in a Distant Land 600
38. Vidyapati: A Refutation of Certain Widespread Misrepresentations 610
39. Ramdev Prasad Mandal ‘Jhārūdār’, Known as the Bhikhari Thakur of Maithili: The First People's Poet of Maithili, His Songs and Jhārū — ‘Without Me, the World Is Empty’ 633
40. Ramvilas Sahu's Collection of Poems, Songs, Haiku, Senryū and Tanka, Rathak Chakkā Ulaṭi Chalai Bāṭ (‘The Chariot Wheel Travels Against the Road’) 638
41. Umesh Mandal's Nishtuki: A Collection of Poems, Short Poems, Haiku, Tanka and Ghazals 642
42. Umesh Paswan's Poetry Collection Varnit Ras 646
43. Ramlochan Sharan's Maithili Ramcharitmanas 650
44. A Multidimensional Critical Study of the Poetry of Booch Ji 658 
Contents · continued
45. Videha: Logo, Vidyapati, Ugna, Mithila and Maithili 664
46. Bajjika Gīt-Saṅgīt: An Integrated Bilingual, Multidimensional Literary Review 668
47. Kuṇḍaliyā in Laldas's Mithila Ramayana and Metrical Breaks Introduced through Editorial or Proofreading Ignorance 718
48. The First Pattern (Repetition) Poetry and Shape or Concrete Poetry in Maithili 723
49. The Round-Necked Mahākavi Vidyāpati of the Padāvalī Before Jyotirīśvara, and the Turbaned Vidyāpati Ṭhakkura of Sanskrit and Avahaṭṭha After Jyotirīśvara: Two Traditions 725
50. ‘No One Could Understand Me’ — Ghazal Poet Om Prakash Jhā 737
51. Munnāji: A Ghazal Poet and Writer of Bīhani Stories 739
52. Ashok the Poet, Ashok the Storyteller, and Ashok the Writer of Non-fictional Prose 741
53. A Study of Būchjī’s Poetry from Marxist, Historical, Structuralist, Magical-Realist, Postmodern, Feminist and Deconstructionist Perspectives, as Well as from Indian Aesthetics 766
54. Nachiketa’s Play No Entry: Mā Praviśa 773
55. Four Postmodern Plays: Samuel Beckett’s French Waiting for Godot, Harold Pinter’s English The Birthday Party, Badal Sircar’s Bengali Evam Indrajit, and Uday Narayan Singh “Nachiketa”’s Maithili No Entry: Mā Praviśa 781
56. Chhutahar, Chhutahar Ghail, or Chhuthā Ghail 791
57. Four English Plays—Doctor Faustus, Samson Agonistes, Murder in the Cathedral, and Strife 794
58. Nachiketa’s “Second Person Singular” 799
59. The Nine Planets of Drama (*Natya-Navagraha*) 809
60. Munni Kamat’s The Price of Life and Chukka 833
61. Kusma-Salhes and Six Other Plays: An Introduction to the Collection, Its Architecture and a Survey 850
62. Forty Thieves and Gonu Jha, or the Tale of Gyan Jha: A Review of the Drama from Multiple Perspectives 858