Vidyapati is the greatest and most famous of Maithili poets. He was born in Bisaphi a village in Northern Bihar around the year 1360 A.D. He died in 1448 after a long life full of literary achievement. Descended from a line of scholars he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and became a court poet to the Maithili Kings of the day. His literary and creative genius flowered under their patronage. he was a master of Sanskrit, the language of scholars and the majority of his works is in that language. But his abiding place in the literature and affection of the people rests on his mastery and use of the vernacular, Maithili, as a vehicle of literary expression. His songs and poems in Maithili known as the 'Padavali Poems' are unique and unrivalled in their lyrical and artistic quality.

He was as much the popular bard of the masses as the sophisticated poet of the courts. His style started a new literary tradition and greatly influenced the literatures of other languages such as Bengali and Assamese. The beauty and power of his poems have inspired other poets down to very recent times. Tagore himself has acknowledged his debt to Vidyapati's compositions in Maithili. Vidyapati's was a many sided personality. A lover of beauty, sensitive to human emotions and the joys of nature, he was at the same, a man of the world with a fund of wisdom tempered by a deep faith in religion and God. He wrote eighteen works in Sanskrit and Maithili along with innumerable songs and ballads. Among his most famous works are the 'Kirti-pataka' a historical romance, 'Gorakshavijaya' a drama in Maithili, 'Purusha Pariksha' a collection of stories.

His forte was, however, the vernacular ballad or song. His ballads are unrivalled in brilliance of metaphor and simile, choice of expression and flights of fancy and imagination. Vidyapati's popularity remains undiminished to this day. his name is a household name in Bihar and Bengal. It is not uncommon to and even the unlettered Mithila lisping a couplet or two of Vidyapati on some occasion or the other.

The Indian Posts and telegraphs department will issue a special commemorative stamp on the 17th November 1965 in honour of this great poet. VIDYAPATI-MATHA The spot where Vidyapati breathed his last (Bajitpur, Dist Darbhanga)

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India