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The Tirhuta script, also known as Mithilakshar or Maithili script, has historically been used for writing the Maithili, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by almost 35 million people of Mithila region. The scripts of Maithili and Bengali language are very much similar.Maithili, Bengali, Assamese, Newar language, Odia language and Lhasa Tibetan are a part of the same family of scripts.
It is one of the scripts of the broader Eastern South Asia. It had come to its current shape by the 10th century AD. The oldest form of Mithilakshar is also found in the Sahodara stone inscriptions of 950 AD. The script has been used throughout Mithila from Champaran to Deoghar.
A fragmentary inscription found in Simraungadh, the medieval capital of the Karnats of Mithila which dates back to the 12th century in Tirhuta script is also one of the oldest evidence of this script.
Nowadays, the Maithili language is written almost exclusively in the Devanagari script, although Tirhuta is still sometimes used by religious Pandit and some culture – conscious families for writing ceremonial letters ( pātā), documents & cultural affair, and efforts are underway to broaden the scope of its usage.
In the early 20th century some Sanskrit works were printed in this script through Lithography process. Later on Pusk Bhandar, Laheriasarai managed to forge a set of types and published a few works in Tirhuta, but could not go ahead. In the middle of the last century, All India Maithili Conference came with a new set of types and used it in the prestigious publication of Brihat Maithili Shabdakosha.
The official recognition of Maithili as one of the 14 provincial official languages of Nepal and its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India in 2003 have established it as a language with an independent identity. However, currently Maithili in the Devanagari script is officially recognised.
In June 2014, the Tirhuta script was added to the Unicode Standard from version 7.0. Although there is limited electronic font support, digitalisation efforts have started.
| + Consonants | ||||
| + Vowels | |||
| + Other dependent signs ! Symbol ! style="text-align:left" | Name ! style="text-align:left" | Notes |
| chandrabindu | marks the nasalisation of a vowel | |
| anusvara | marks nasalisation | |
| visarga | marks the sound h, which is an allophone of r and s in pausa (at the end of an utterance) | |
| virama | used to suppress the inherent vowel | |
| Nuqta | used to create new consonant signs | |
| avagraha | used to indicate prodelision of an a | |
| gvang | used to mark nasalisation | |
| Om | Om sign |
| + Digits | |||||||||
The Unicode block for Tirhuta is U+11480–U+114DF:
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