Marathi is one of the widely spoken languages of India, and has a long literary history. It is spoken in Maharashtra state by about 70 million people. Like many other Indian languages, Marathi is derived from Sanskrit and is believed to have separated from the other languages in its group about a thousand years ago. Other names for the language are Maharashtri, Maharathi, Malhatee and Marthi.

History

Marathi is descended from the Sanskrit language of India via the Prakrit dialect Maharashtri. Maharashtri was the official language of the Satavahana empire based at Pratishthana (now Paithan) in the first few centuries A.D. Maharashtri was the most widespread Prakrit used in its time, and also dominates the three "Dramatic" Prakrits (the others being Sauraseni and Magadhi). A version of Maharashtri (Jaina Maharashtri) was used to write part of the Jain canon. The Satavahana emperor Hala's Sattasai (Sanskrit Saptashati) - an anthology of 700 love poems - is the most famous piece of literature in Maharashtri. Maharashtri slowly evolved in Marathi during the 15th and 16th centuries A.D.

Classification

Marthi is part of the Indo-European family of languages.

Geographic distribution

Marathi is mostly spoken in the Indian state of Maharashtra, but is also spoken in neighboring states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh. The Ethnologue states that Marathi is also spoken in Israel (thanks to the emigration of the Bene Israel and other Jews from India) and Mauritius.

Official status

Marathi is an official language of Maharashtra. It is one of the twenty-two official languages recognised by the Constitution of India.

Dialects

Dialects of Marathi include Ahirani, Manadeshi. Konkani as spoken in Goa or Karwar was once considered as a dialect of Marathi, but is now recognized as a separate language. However one Dialect called "Malwani" from Sindhudurg district(which is part of the Konkan Coast)has now emerged as a major dialect with many entertaining plays having been staged in it. The recent rise of "MalwaNi" can be traced to the play "WastraharaN", written by Gangaram GawaNkar and staged by Machchhindra Kambli, which became a superhit and virtually gave birth to the genre of MalwaNi plays. For more on this refer to the literature section.

Sounds

Grammar

It is probably the only Indo-Aryan language based on Sanskrit that partly preserves the locative case in noun declension occurring in Sanskrit as follows:

Sanskrit:

 prabhaat: dawn gR^iha: house prabhaate: at dawn gR^ihe: at/in the house 

Marathi:

 pahaaT: dawn ghar: house pahaaTe: at dawn gharI/gharaat: at/in/to the house 

Vocabulary

One very interesting aspect of Marathi is the large number of modified Urdu, Persian and Arabic words used. This is because, for a significant period, Marathi was characterized under Muslim and Maratha rulers who used words from these languages.

Some examples of this vocabulary:

• "Khurchii" (chair) originally comes from Arabic "Kursi" (chair).
• "Jahiraat" (advertisement) originally comes from Persian "Zahiraat" (advertisement).
• "Shifaras" (recommendation) originally comes from Urdu "Sifarish" (recommendation).
• "Marjee" (wish) originally comes from Urdu "Marzee" (wish).
• "Ishq" (love) used in rural and theatrical versions of Marathi comes from Urdu "Ishq" (love).

Writing system

Marathi uses the Devanagari script for writing. Get Marathi Writing simple software baraha (http://www.baraha.com), Itranslator (http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org/Sanskrit/Itranslt.html), ITRANS online (http://www.aczone.com/itrans/online/), Yudit.

Before the usage of printing press for Marathi, a different script called the Modi script was used to write Marathi. It was a cursive script and could be written with minimum rising of pen from the paper. However, with the advent of large scale printing, the script fell into disuse, as it was very difficult to type set in this script. (See External Link). Persian-type scripts were also used in the courts in the olden days since the language was influenced by the Muslim and Maratha rulers.

The oldest evidence of written Marathi is found at the base of a thousand year old gigantic statue in southern Indian town of Shravanabelagola. The inscription is about the king Gangaraya who funded the effort, and his general Chamundaraya, who erected the statue for the king.

Mulaga : Boy
Mulagi : Girl

Marathi literature

Marathi has a long literary tradition, and a huge literature has been written in Marathi in the last seven centuries. The saint-poet Dnyaneshwar is considered the first major literateur in the Marathi language. Prominent recent Marathi authors include P.L. Deshpande, Jaywant Dalawi, V. P. Kale, Vyankatesh Madgoolkar and D. M. Mirasdar, Anand Yadav, Shankar Patil,Vijay Tendulkar. Famous poets include Vishnu Vaman Shirvadakar (Kavi Kusumagraj), Mangesh Padgaonkar, Vaman Pandit, Aarati Prabhu, Shanta Shelake.

See also

• Marathi literature
• Languages of India

External links

• Ethnologue report for Marathi (http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=MRT)
• A network of links to explain the variety of marathi lifestyle and culture (http://marathi.tv)
• Marathi and Maharashtra related resources (http://www.maayboli.com), discussion forums, songs, and links.
• Modi Script online (http://marathimodi.tripod.com)
• Marathi documents (http://sanskrit.gde.to/marathi/) and links (http://sanskrit.gde.to/marathi/links.htm)