Vidyapati (1352? – 1448?), also known as the Maithil Kokil Vidyapati (Vidyapati, the cuckoo of Maithili), was an Indian poet. He was born in the village of Bishphi, Madhubani district, Bihar state, India. The name Vidyapati is derived from two Sanskrit words, Vidya (knowledge) and Pati (master), connoting thereby, a man of knowledge. Vidyapati's position as a poet and maker of language has been described as "analogous to that of Dante in Italy and Chaucer in England."

Vidyapati is as much known for his love-lyrics as for his poetries dedicated to Lord Shiva. He used to compose in Maithili, a language spoken around Mithila (a region in the north Bihar), closely related to the abahattha form of early Bengali.

The love songs of Vidyapati, which describe the sensuous love story of Radha and Krishna, follow a long line of Vaishnav love poetry, popular in Eastern India, and include much celebrated poetery such as Jayadeva's Gita Govinda of the 12th century. This tradition which uses the language of physical love to describe spiritual love, was a reflection of a key turn in Hinduism, initiated by Ramanuja in the 11th century which advocated an individual self realization through direct love. Similar to the reformation in Christianity, this movement empowered the common man to realize God directly, without the intervention of learned priests. Part of the transformation was also a shift to local languages as opposed to the formal Sanskrit of the religious texts.

The Maithili language should not be confused with the so-called Brajabuli language used by Rabindranath Tagore in the 19th century for his Bhanusimher Padavali. The latter is an artificial literary medium formed by a mixture of archaic Bengali and Western Hindi (Brajbhasha).

The songs he wrote a prayers to Lord Shiva are still sung in Mithila and form a rich tradition of sweet and lovely folk songs.

Folklore says that he was such a great devotee of Lord Shiva that the lord was really pleased with him. And once He decided to come to live in his house as a servant. As the servant He is said to have taken the name Ugna. At several places in the region, Lord Shiva is still worshipped by this name. It is said that the lord in form of servant had imposed a condition on Vidyapati that he could not disclose his identity to anyone else or else he would go away when Vidyapati's wife was angry at her servant and started to beat him Vidyapati could not tolerate the same and asked her wife not to beat Lord Shiva himself and since then the lord disappeared and never was he seen again. This incident is supposed to symbolize the traditional Indian saying that "Gods are slaves to their devotees".

*All My Inhibition All my inhibition left me in a flash,
When he robbed me of my clothes,
But his body became my new dress.
Like a bee hovering on a lotus leaf
He was there in my night, on me!

*More examples

Vidyapati, mainly known for his love songs and prayers for Lord Shiva, also wrote on other topics including ethics, history, geography, and law. His books include: *Purusparika deals with moral teachings *Likhanabali is about writing *Bhu-Parikrama, literal meaning, around the world, is about local geography *Bibhasagar is autobiographical in nature *Dhanbakyabali is about charity *Recently Publications Division of Government of India has brought out the Hindi Translation of Vidyapati-krit Purush Pariksha by Akhilesh Jha. There are 25 stories in the book selected from 44 stories in the original work. Besides, there are scholarly introductions to both Vidyapati and Purush Pariksha in the book.

*Vidyapati *Vidyapati Padmavati *Maharsi Sri Aurobindo on Vidyapati by Binod Bihari Verma