77-703: Gaekwad (also spelt Gaikwar and Gaikwad ; Marathi : Gāyǎkǎvāḍǎ ) is a surname native to the Indian state of Maharashtra . The surname is found among the Marathas , Kolis , Mali and in Scheduled castes . It is also a common surname among Bharadis , Dhor , and Mahar communities of Maharashtra . The Marathi historian D.S. Parasnis and his co-author, the British Raj High Court judge, C.A. Kincaid of colonial-era India, wrote in 1908 that
154-483: A retroflex lateral flap ळ ( ḷa ) and alveolar ल ( la ). It shares this feature with Punjabi . For instance, कुळ ( kuḷa ) for the Sanskrit कुलम् ( kulam , 'clan') and कमळ ( kamaḷ ) for Sanskrit कमलम् ( kamalam 'lotus'). Marathi got ळ possibly due to long contact from Dravidian languages; there are some ḷ words loaned from Kannada like ṭhaḷak from taḷaku but most of
231-566: A "scheduled language". The Government of Maharashtra has applied to the Ministry of Culture to grant classical language status to Marathi language, which was approved by the Government of India on 3 October 2024. The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and
308-639: A grant by the Hoysalas . These inscriptions suggest that Prakrit was a standard written language by the 12th century. However, after the Gaha Sattasai there is no record of any literature produced in Marathi until the late 13th century. After 1187 CE, the use of Marathi grew substantially in the inscriptions of the Yadava kings, who earlier used Kannada and Sanskrit in their inscriptions. Marathi became
385-564: A part of the Mahabharata translation is available and the entire Ramayana translation is lost. Shridhar Kulkarni came from the Pandharpur area and his works are said to have superseded the Sanskrit epics to a certain extent. This period also saw the development of Powada (ballads sung in honour of warriors), and Lavani (romantic songs presented with dance and instruments like tabla). Major poet composers of Powada and Lavani songs of
462-646: A platform for sharing literary views, and many books on social reforms were written. The First Marathi periodical Dirghadarshan was started in 1840. The Marathi language flourished, as Marathi drama gained popularity. Musicals known as Sangeet Natak also evolved. Keshavasut , the father of modern Marathi poetry published his first poem in 1885. The late-19th century in Maharashtra saw the rise of essayist Vishnushastri Chiplunkar with his periodical, Nibandhmala that had essays that criticised social reformers like Phule and Gopal Hari Deshmukh . He also founded
539-522: A separate language dates to approximately 3rd century BCE: a stone inscription found in a cave at Naneghat , Junnar in Pune district had been written in Maharashtri using Brahmi script . The Gaha Sattasai is an ancient collection of poems composed approximately 2,000 years ago in ancient Marathi also known as Maharashtri Prakrit or simply Maharashtri . It is a collection of poetry attributed to
616-453: A special department for Marathi. Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of the poet Kusumagraj (Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar). Standard Marathi is based on dialects used by academics and the print media. Indic scholars distinguish 42 dialects of spoken Marathi. Dialects bordering other major language areas have many properties in common with those languages, further differentiating them from standard spoken Marathi. The bulk of
693-765: A stir in Marathi literature with its passionate depiction of a cruel society and thus brought in new momentum to Dalit literature in Marathi. Gradually with other writers like Namdeo Dhasal (who founded Dalit Panther ), these Dalit writings paved way for the strengthening of Dalit movement. Notable Dalit authors writing in Marathi include Arun Kamble , Shantabai Kamble , Raja Dhale , Namdev Dhasal , Daya Pawar , Annabhau Sathe , Laxman Mane , Laxman Gaikwad , Sharankumar Limbale , Bhau Panchbhai , Kishor Shantabai Kale , Narendra Jadhav , Keshav Meshram , Urmila Pawar , Vinay Dharwadkar, Gangadhar Pantawane, Kumud Pawde and Jyoti Lanjewar. In recent decades there has been
770-483: A treatise in Marathi on Bhagawat Gita popularly called Dnyaneshwari and Amrutanubhava . Mukund Raj was a poet who lived in the 13th century and is said to be the first poet who composed in Marathi. He is known for the Viveka-Siddhi and Parammruta which are metaphysical, pantheistic works connected with orthodox Vedantism . The 16th century saint-poet Eknath (1528–1599) is well known for composing
847-574: A trend among Marathi speaking parents of all social classes in major urban areas of sending their children to English medium schools . There is some concern that this may lead to the marginalisation of the language. Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat (majorly in Vadodara , and among a small number of population in Surat ), Madhya Pradesh (in
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#1732764929144924-492: A vehicle for the propagation of religion and culture. Mahanubhava literature generally comprises works that describe the incarnations of gods, the history of the sect, commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita , poetical works narrating the stories of the life of Krishna and grammatical and etymological works that are deemed useful to explain the philosophy of sect. The 13th century Varkari saint Dnyaneshwar (1275–1296) wrote
1001-691: Is a mountain pass in the Western Ghats range between the Konkan coast and the ancient town of Junnar in the Deccan plateau. The pass is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Pune and about 165 kilometres (103 mi) east from Mumbai , Maharashtra , India . It was a part of an ancient trading route, and is famous for a major cave with Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script and Middle Indo-Aryan dialect. These inscriptions have been dated between
1078-514: Is also spoken by Maharashtrian migrants to other parts of India and overseas. For instance, the people from western India who emigrated to Mauritius in the early 19th century also speak Marathi. There were 83 million native Marathi speakers in India, according to the 2011 census, making it the third most spoken native language after Hindi and Bengali. Native Marathi speakers form 6.86% of India's population. Native speakers of Marathi formed 70.34% of
1155-739: Is common, while sometimes in the Varhadii dialect, it corresponds to the palatal approximant y (IPA: [j]), making this dialect quite distinct. Such phonetic shifts are common in spoken Marathi and, as such, the spoken dialects vary from one region of Maharashtra to another. Zaadi Boli or Zhaadiboli ( झाडिबोलि ) is spoken in Zaadipranta (a forest rich region) of far eastern Maharashtra or eastern Vidarbha or western-central Gondwana comprising Gondia , Bhandara , Chandrapur , Gadchiroli and some parts of Nagpur of Maharashtra. Zaadi Boli Sahitya Mandal and many literary figures are working for
1232-524: Is given because this path was used as a tollbooth to collect toll from traders crossing the hills. According to Charles Allen, there is a carved stone that from distance looks like a stupa, but is actually a two-piece carved stone container by the roadside to collect tolls. The scholarship on the Naneghat Cave inscription began after William Sykes found them while hiking during the summer of 1828. Neither an archaeologist nor epigraphist, his training
1309-404: Is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India , with 83 million speakers as of 2011. Marathi ranks 13th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world . Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali . The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages. The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and
1386-479: Is reachable by road via Highways 60 or 61. The cave archaeological site is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Pune and about 165 kilometres (103 mi) east from Mumbai. The Naneghat Cave is near other important ancient sites. It is, for example, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the Lenyadri Group of Theravada Buddhist Caves and some 200 mounds that have been excavated near Junnar , mostly from
1463-520: Is slightly different from the Devanagari alphabets of Hindi and other languages: there are additional letters in the Marathi alphabet and Western punctuation is used. William Carey in 1807 Observed that as with other parts of India, a traditional duality existed in script usage between Devanagari for religious texts, and Modi for commerce and administration. Although in the Mahratta country
1540-545: Is still read with interest by Veerashaiva people of Marathwada. Apart from this, the Pararamrhasya, a spiritual book composed by him on Shatsthalsiddhanta, is also recited. Marathi was widely used during the Sultanate period. Although the rulers were Muslims, the local feudal landlords and the revenue collectors were Hindus and so was the majority of the population. To simplify administration and revenue collection,
1617-529: Is the official language of Maharashtra and additional official language in the state of Goa . In Goa , Konkani is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for any or all official purposes in case any request is received in Marathi. Marathi is included among the languages that are part of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India , thus granting it the status of
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#17327649291441694-487: Is usually appended to Sanskrit or Kannada in these inscriptions. The earliest Marathi-only inscriptions are the ones issued during the Shilahara rule, including a c. 1012 CE stone inscription from Akshi taluka of Raigad district , and a 1060 or 1086 CE copper-plate inscription from Dive that records a land grant ( agrahara ) to a Brahmin. A 2-line 1118 CE Prakrit inscription at Shravanabelagola records
1771-555: The Ahmadnagar Sultanate . Adilshahi of Bijapur also used Marathi for administration and record keeping. Marathi gained prominence with the rise of the Maratha Kingdom beginning with the reign of Shivaji . In his court, Shivaji replaced Persian, the common courtly language in the region, with Marathi. The Marathi language used in administrative documents also became less Persianised . Whereas in 1630, 80% of
1848-636: The American Marathi mission and the Scottish missionaries led to the development of a peculiar pidginised Marathi called "Missionary Marathi" in the early 1800s. The most comprehensive Marathi-English dictionary was compiled by Captain James Thomas Molesworth and Major Thomas Candy in 1831. The book is still in print nearly two centuries after its publication. The colonial authorities also worked on standardising Marathi under
1925-693: The Devanagari character is well known to men of education, yet a character is current among the men of business which is much smaller, and varies considerably in form from the Nagari , though the number and power of the letters nearly correspond. It is written from left to right. Devanagari used to write Marathi is slightly different from that of Hindi or other languages. It uses additional vowels and consonants that are not found in other languages that also use Devanagari. Naneghat Naneghat , also referred to as Nanaghat or Nana Ghat ( IAST : Nānāghaṭ),
2002-551: The Indo-Aryan language family are derived from early forms of Prakrit . Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit . Further changes led to the formation of Apabhraṃśa followed by Old Marathi. However, this is challenged by Bloch (1970), who states that Apabhraṃśa was formed after Marathi had already separated from the Middle Indian dialect. The earliest example of Marathi as
2079-550: The Jnanpith Award . Also Vijay Tendulkar 's plays in Marathi have earned him a reputation beyond Maharashtra . P.L. Deshpande (popularly known as PuLa ), Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar , P.K. Atre , Prabodhankar Thackeray and Vishwas Patil are known for their writings in Marathi in the fields of drama, comedy and social commentary. Bashir Momin Kavathekar wrote Lavani's and folk songs for Tamasha artists. In 1958
2156-599: The Varhadi Marathi . Marathi was designated as a classical language by the Government of India in October 2024. Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of 'we' and possesses three genders : masculine, feminine, and neuter. Its phonology contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and alveolar with retroflex laterals ( [l] and [ɭ] (Marathi letters ल and ळ respectively). Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to
2233-428: The schwa , which has been omitted in other languages which use Devanagari. For example, the word 'रंग' (colour) is pronounced as 'ranga' in Marathi & 'rang' in other languages using Devanagari, and 'खरं' (true), despite the anuswara , is pronounced as 'khara'. The anuswara in this case is used to avoid schwa deletion in pronunciation; most other languages using Devanagari show schwa deletion in pronunciation despite
2310-535: The 17th and the 18th century were Anant Phandi, Ram Joshi and Honaji Bala . The British colonial period starting in early 1800s saw standardisation of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey . Carey's dictionary had fewer entries and Marathi words were in Devanagari . Translations of the Bible were the first books to be printed in Marathi. These translations by William Carey,
2387-489: The 18th century during Peshwa rule, some well-known works such as Yatharthadeepika by Vaman Pandit , Naladamayanti Swayamvara by Raghunath Pandit , Pandava Pratap, Harivijay, Ramvijay by Shridhar Pandit and Mahabharata by Moropant were produced. Krishnadayarnava and Sridhar were poets during the Peshwa period. New literary forms were successfully experimented with during the period and classical styles were revived, especially
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2464-513: The 1990s. A literary event called Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Literature Meet) is held every year. In addition, the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Theatre Convention) is also held annually. Both events are very popular among Marathi speakers. Notable works in Marathi in the latter half of the 20th century include Khandekar's Yayati , which won him
2541-550: The 20th century was marked by new enthusiasm in literary pursuits, and socio-political activism helped achieve major milestones in Marathi literature , drama, music and film. Modern Marathi prose flourished: for example, N.C.Kelkar 's biographical writings, novels of Hari Narayan Apte , Narayan Sitaram Phadke and V. S. Khandekar , Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's nationalist literature and plays of Mama Varerkar and Kirloskar. In folk arts, Patthe Bapurao wrote many lavani songs during
2618-612: The 2nd and the 1st century BCE, and attributed to the Satavahana dynasty era. The inscriptions are notable for linking the Vedic and Hinduism deities, mentioning some Vedic srauta rituals and of names that provide historical information about the ancient Satavahanas. The inscriptions present the world's oldest numeration symbols for "2, 4, 6, 7, and 9" that resemble modern era numerals, more closely those found in modern Nagari and Hindu-Arabic script. Nanaghat pass stretches over
2695-631: The 3rd-century BCE and 3rd-century CE period. The closest station to reach Naneghat is Kalyan station which lies on the Central Line. During the reign of the Satavahana (c. 200 BCE – 190 CE), the Naneghat pass was one of the trade routes that connected the Konkan coast communities with Deccan high plateau through Junnar. Literally, the name nane means "coin" and ghat means "pass". The name
2772-553: The Eknāthī Bhāgavat, a commentary on Bhagavat Purana and the devotional songs called Bharud. Mukteshwar translated the Mahabharata into Marathi; Tukaram (1608–49) transformed Marathi into a rich literary language. His poetry contained his inspirations. Tukaram wrote over 3000 abhangs or devotional songs. Manmathswamy (1561-1631) wrote a large volume of poetry and literature in Marathi. The Shivparv Ambhag composed by him
2849-513: The Indian state of Maharashtra and is also spoken in other states like in Goa , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , Telangana , Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh , Chhattisgarh , and the territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu . It is the official language of Maharashtra, and an additional official language in the state of Goa , where it is used for replies, when requests are received in Marathi. It
2926-636: The Mahakavya and Prabandha forms. The most important hagiographies of Varkari Bhakti saints were written by Mahipati in the 18th century. Other well known literary scholars of the 17th century were Mukteshwar and Shridhar . Mukteshwar was the grandson of Eknath and is the most distinguished poet in the Ovi meter. He is most known for translating the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Marathi but only
3003-680: The Satavahana King Hala. A committee appointed by the Maharashtra State Government to get the Classical status for Marathi has claimed that Marathi existed at least 2,300 years ago . Marathi, a derivative of Maharashtri Prakrit language , is probably first attested in a 739 CE copper-plate inscription found in Satara . Several inscriptions dated to the second half of the 11th century feature Marathi, which
3080-513: The Western Ghats through the Naneghat pass. Sykes proposed that the inscription were ancient Sanskrit because the statistical prevalence rate of some characters in it was close to the prevalence rate of same characters in then known ancient Sanskrit inscriptions. This suggestion reached the attention of James Prinsep , whose breakthrough in deciphering Brahmi script led ultimately to the inscription's translation. Much that Sykes guessed
3157-578: The Western Ghats, through an ancient stone laid hiking trail to the Nanaghat plateau. The pass was the fastest key passage that linked the Indian west coast seaports of Sopara, Kalyan and Thana with economic centers and human settlements in Nasik, Paithan, Ter and others, according to Archaeological Survey of India. Near the top is large, ancient manmade cave. On the cave's back wall are a series of inscriptions, some long and others short. The high point and cave
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3234-963: The above-mentioned rules give special status to tatsamas , words adapted from Sanskrit . This special status expects the rules for tatsamas to be followed as in Sanskrit. This practice provides Marathi with a large corpus of Sanskrit words to cope with the demands of new technical words whenever needed. In addition to all universities in Maharashtra, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara , Osmania University in Hyderabad , Karnataka University in Dharwad , Gulbarga University in Kalaburagi , Devi Ahilya University in Indore and Goa University in Goa have special departments for higher studies in Marathi linguistics. Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) has announced plans to establish
3311-444: The cave's "Boodh" (Buddhist) inscription showed signs of damage both from the weather elements as well as someone crudely incising to desecrate it. He also thought that the inscription was not created by a skilled artisan, but someone who was in a hurry or not careful. Sykes also noted that he saw stone seats carved along the walls all around the cave, likely because the cave was meant as a rest stop or shelter for those traveling across
3388-484: The confederacy. These excursions by the Marathas helped to spread Marathi over broader geographical regions. This period also saw the use of Marathi in transactions involving land and other business. Documents from this period, therefore, give a better picture of the life of common people. There are a number of Bakhars (journals or narratives of historical events) written in Marathi and Modi script from this period. In
3465-484: The conservation of this dialect of Marathi. Thanjavur Marathi तञ्जावूर् मराठि, Namadeva Shimpi Marathi, Arey Marathi (Telangana), Kasaragod (north Kerala) and Bhavsar Marathi are some of the dialects of Marathi spoken by many descendants of Maharashtrians who migrated to Southern India . These dialects retain the 17th-century basic form of Marathi and have been considerably influenced by the Dravidian languages after
3542-521: The death of her husband, as the inscription narrates many details about their life together and her son being the new king. The Naneghat cave inscriptions have been dated by scholars to the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. Most scholars date it to the early 1st-century BCE, some to 2nd-century BCE, a few to even earlier. Sircar dated it to the second half of the 1st-century BCE. Upinder Singh and Charles Higham date 1st century BCE. The Naneghat records have proved very important in establishing
3619-535: The districts of Burhanpur , Betul , Chhindwara and Balaghat ), Goa , Chhattisgarh , Tamil Nadu (in Thanjavur ) and Karnataka (in the districts of Belagavi , Karwar , Bagalkote , Vijayapura , Kalaburagi and Bidar ), Telangana , union-territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli . The former Maratha ruled cities of Baroda , Indore , Gwalior , Jabalpur , and Tanjore have had sizeable Marathi-speaking populations for centuries. Marathi
3696-610: The dominant language of epigraphy during the last half century of the dynasty's rule (14th century), and may have been a result of the Yadava attempts to connect with their Marathi-speaking subjects and to distinguish themselves from the Kannada-speaking Hoysalas . Further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari panthan s – who adopted Marathi as
3773-537: The history of the region. Vedic Gods like Dharma Indra , Chandra and Surya are mentioned here. The mention of Samkarsana (Balarama) and Vasudeva (Krishna) indicate the prevalence of Bhagavata tradition of Hinduism in the Satavahana dynasty. Two long Nanaghat inscriptions are found on the left and right wall, while the back wall has small inscriptions on top above where the eight life-sized missing statues would have been before somebody hacked them off and removed them. The missing characters do not match
3850-433: The inscriptions mention numerals in at least 30 places. They present the world's oldest known numeration symbols for "2, 4, 6, 7, and 9" that resemble modern era numerals, particularly the modern Nāgarī script . The numeral values used in the Naneghat cave confirm that the point value had not developed in India by the 1st century BCE. The inscription is also evidence and floruit that Vedic ideas were revered in at least
3927-489: The language's name was saṃskṛtam , while in day-to-day Marathi it is saṃskrut . In other Indic languages, it is closer to sanskrit ). Spoken Marathi allows for conservative stress patterns in words like शब्द ( śabda ) with an emphasis on the ending vowel sound, a feature that has been lost in Hindi due to Schwa deletion . A defining feature of the Marathi language is the split of Indo-Aryan ल /la/ into
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#17327649291444004-527: The late colonial period. After Indian independence , Marathi was accorded the status of a scheduled language on the national level. In 1956, the then Bombay state was reorganised, which brought most Marathi and Gujarati speaking areas under one state. Further re-organization of the Bombay state on 1 May 1960, created the Marathi speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati speaking Gujarat state respectively. With state and cultural protection, Marathi made great strides by
4081-552: The leadership of Molesworth and Candy. They consulted Brahmins of Pune for this task and adopted the Sanskrit dominated dialect spoken by the elite in the city as the standard dialect for Marathi. The first Marathi translation of the New Testament was published in 1811 by the Serampore press of William Carey. The first Marathi newspaper called Durpan was started by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832. Newspapers provided
4158-469: The medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi was used in court life by the time of the Yadava kings. During the reign of the last three Yadava kings, a great deal of literature in verse and prose, on astrology, medicine, Puranas , Vedanta , kings and courtiers were created. Nalopakhyana , Rukminiswayamvara and Shripati's Jyotisharatnamala (1039) are a few examples. The oldest book in prose form in Marathi, Vivēkasindhu ( विवेकसिंधु ),
4235-404: The migration. These dialects have speakers in various parts of Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . Other Marathi–Konkani languages and dialects spoken in Maharashtra include Maharashtrian Konkani , Malvani , Sangameshwari, Agri , Andh , Warli , Vadvali and Samavedi . Vowels in native words are: There is almost no phonemic length distinction, even though it is indicated in
4312-595: The miracle-filled the life of Chakradhar Swami of the Mahanubhava sect compiled by his close disciple, Mahimbhatta, in 1238. The Līḷācarītra is thought to be the first biography written in the Marathi language. Mahimbhatta's second important literary work is the Shri Govindaprabhucharitra or Ruddhipurcharitra , a biography of Shri Chakradhar Swami's guru, Shri Govind Prabhu. This was probably written in 1288. The Mahanubhava sect made Marathi
4389-413: The northern parts of the Deccan region before the 1st-century BCE. They confirm that Vedic srauta sacrifices remained in vogue among the royal families through at least the 1st-century BCE. The Naneghat cave is also evidence that Hindu dynasties had sponsored sculptures by the 1st-century BCE, and secular life-size murti (pratima) tradition was already in vogue by then. According to Susan Alcock,
4466-446: The number of dots; Bühler published a more complete version. The missing characters do not match the number of dots; Bühler published a more complete version. The back wall of the cave has a niche with eight life-size relief sculptures. These sculptures are gone, but they had Brahmi script inscriptions above them that help identify them. The Nanaghat inscription has been a major finding. According to Georg Bühler , it "belongs to
4543-571: The oldest historical documents of Western India, are in some respects more interesting and important than all other cave inscriptions taken together". The inscription mentions both Balarama ( Samkarshana ) and Vāsudeva-Krishna , along with the Vedic deities of Indra, Surya, Chandra, Yama, Varuna and Kubera. This provided the link between Vedic tradition and the Hinduism . Given it is inscribed in stone and dated to 1st-century BCE, it also linked
4620-470: The origin of the name Gaekwad is a combination of two Marathi words. In Marathi : gai means cow and kavad means small door . Therefore, gaekwad (or gaikwad ) denotes cow door . Notable people with the surname include: Marathi language Marathi ( / m ə ˈ r ɑː t i / ; मराठी , Marāṭhī , pronounced [məˈɾaːʈʰiː] ) is a classical Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in
4697-399: The original diphthong qualities of ⟨ऐ⟩ [əi] , and ⟨औ⟩ [əu] which became monophthongs in Hindi. However, similar to speakers of Western Indo-Aryan languages and Dravidian languages, Marathi speakers tend to pronounce syllabic consonant ऋ ṛ as [ru] , unlike Northern Indo-Aryan languages which changed it to [ri] (e.g. the original Sanskrit pronunciation of
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#17327649291444774-534: The pioneer of printing in Indian languages, was only able to print in Devanagari. He later tried printing in Modi but by that time, Balbodh Devanagari had been accepted for printing. Marathi is usually written in the Balbodh version of Devanagari script, an abugida consisting of 36 consonant letters and 16 initial- vowel letters. It is written from left to right. The Devanagari alphabet used to write Marathi
4851-546: The popular Marathi periodical of that era called Kesari in 1881. Later under the editorship of Lokmanya Tilak , the newspaper was instrumental in spreading Tilak's nationalist and social views. Phule and Deshmukh also started their periodicals, Deenbandhu and Prabhakar , that criticised the prevailing Hindu culture of the day. The 19th century and early 20th century saw several books published on Marathi grammar. Notable grammarians of this period were Tarkhadkar , A.K.Kher, Moro Keshav Damle, and R.Joshi The first half of
4928-801: The population in Maharashtra, 10.89% in Goa, 7.01% in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 4.53% in Daman and Diu, 3.38% in Karnataka, 1.7% in Madhya Pradesh, and 1.52% in Gujarat. The following table is a list of the geographic distribution of Marathi speakers as it appears in the 2019 edition of Ethnologue , a language reference published by SIL International , which is based in the United States . Marathi
5005-453: The presence of schwa in the written spelling. From the 13th century until the beginning of British rule in the 19th century, Marathi was written in the Modi script for administrative purposes but in Devanagari for literature. Since 1950 it has been written in the Balbodh style of Devanagari. Except for Father Thomas Stephens' Krista Purana in the Latin script in the 1600s, Marathi has mainly been printed in Devanagari because William Carey ,
5082-676: The pronunciations of English words such as of /æ/ in act and /ɔ/ in all . These are written as ⟨अॅ⟩ and ⟨ऑ⟩ . The default vowel has two allophones apart from ə . The most prevalent allophone is ɤ , which results in कळ ( kaḷa ) being more commonly pronounced as [kɤːɺ̢ ] rather than [kəɺ̢ ] . Another rare allophone is ʌ , which occurs in words such as महाराज ( mahārāja ): [mʌɦaˈrad͡ʒ] . Marathi retains several features of Sanskrit that have been lost in other Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi and Bengali, especially in terms of pronunciation of vowels and consonants. For instance, Marathi retains
5159-412: The religious thought in the post-Vedic centuries in late 1st millennium BCE with those found in the unreliable highly variant texts such as the Puranas dated to later half of the 1st millennium CE. The inscription is a reliable historical record, providing a name and floruit to the Satavahana dynasty. The Naneghat inscriptions have been important to the study of history of numerals. Though damaged,
5236-444: The script. Some educated speakers try to maintain a length distinction in learned borrowings ( tatsamas ) from Sanskrit. There are no nasal vowels, although some speakers of Puneri and Kokni dialects maintain nasalisation of vowels that was present in old Marathi and continues to be orthographically present in modern Marathi. Marathi furthermore contrasts /əi, əu/ with /ai, au/ . There are two more vowels in Marathi to denote
5313-498: The sultans promoted use of Marathi in official documents. However, the Marathi language from the era is heavily Persianised in its vocabulary. The Persian influence continues to this day with many Persian derived words used in everyday speech such as bāg (Garden), kārkhānā (factory), shahar (city), bāzār (market), dukān (shop), hushār (clever), kāḡaḏ (paper), khurchi (chair), jamin (land), jāhirāt (advertisement), and hazār (thousand) Marathi also became language of administration during
5390-514: The term " Dalit literature " was used for the first time, when the first conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha (Maharashtra Dalit Literature Society) was held at Mumbai , a movement inspired by 19th century social reformer, Jyotiba Phule and eminent dalit leader, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar . Baburao Bagul (1930–2008) was a pioneer of Dalit writings in Marathi. His first collection of stories, Jevha Mi Jat Chorali ( जेव्हा मी जात चोरली , " When I Stole My Caste "), published in 1963, created
5467-423: The variation within these dialects is primarily lexical and phonological (e.g. accent placement and pronunciation). Although the number of dialects is considerable, the degree of intelligibility within these dialects is relatively high. Varhadi (Varhādi) (वऱ्हाडि) or Vaidarbhi (वैदर्भि) is spoken in the Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In Marathi, the retroflex lateral approximant ḷ [ ɭ ]
5544-459: The vocabulary was Persian, it dropped to 37% by 1677. His reign stimulated the deployment of Marathi as a tool of systematic description and understanding. Shivaji Maharaj commissioned one of his officials, Balaji Avaji Chitnis , to make a comprehensive lexicon to replace Persian and Arabic terms with their Sanskrit equivalents. This led to production of 'Rājavyavahārakośa', the thesaurus of state usage in 1677. Subsequent Maratha rulers extended
5621-511: The words are native. Vedic Sanskrit did have /ɭ, ɭʱ/ as well, but they merged with /ɖ, ɖʱ/ by the time of classical Sanskrit. The Kadamba script and its variants have been historically used to write Marathi in the form of inscriptions on stones and copper plates. The Marathi version of Devanagari , called Balbodh , is similar to the Hindi Devanagari alphabet except for its use for certain words. Some words in Marathi preserve
5698-532: Was as a statistician and he presumed that it was a Buddhist cave temple. He visited the site several times and made eye-copy (hand drawings) of the script panel he saw on the left and the right side of the wall. He then read a paper to the Bombay Literary Society in 1833 under the title, Inscriptions of the Boodh caves near Joonur , later co-published with John Malcolm in 1837. Sykes believed that
5775-435: Was preceded by Bhagvanlal Indraji, who in a paper on numismatics (coins) partially translated it and remarked that the Naneghat and coin inscriptions provide insights into ancient numerals. The inscriptions are attributed to a queen of the Satavahana dynasty. Her name was either Nayanika or Naganika, likely the wife of king Satakarni . The details suggest that she was likely the queen mother, who sponsored this cave after
5852-426: Was right, the Naneghat inscription he had found was indeed one of the oldest Sanskrit inscriptions. He was incorrect in his presumption that it was a Buddhist inscription because its translation suggested it was a Hindu inscription. The Naneghat inscription were a prototype of the refined Devanagari to emerge later. Georg Bühler published the first version of a complete interpolations and translation in 1883. He
5929-557: Was written by Mukundaraja , a Nath yogi and arch-poet of Marathi. Mukundaraja bases his exposition of the basic tenets of the Hindu philosophy and the yoga marga on the utterances or teachings of Shankaracharya . Mukundaraja's other work, Paramamrta, is considered the first systematic attempt to explain the Vedanta in the Marathi language Notable examples of Marathi prose are " Līḷācarītra " ( लीळाचरित्र ), events and anecdotes from
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