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The Marathi people (;Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh Marathi language: मराठी लोक, Marāṭhī lōk) or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, Marāṭhī) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi language, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a Marathi-speaking state of India on 1 May 1960, as part of a nationwide linguistic reorganisation of the Indian states. The term "Maratha" is generally used by historians to refer to all Marathi-speaking peoples, irrespective of their caste; However, it may refer to a Maharashtrian caste known as the Maratha which also includes farmer sub castes like the .
The Marathi community came into political prominence in the 17th century, when the Maratha confederacy was established by Shivaji in 1674.
From the early 11th century to the 12th century, the Deccan Plateau was dominated by the Western Chalukya Empire and the Chola dynasty. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 by Romila Thapar: pp. 365–366
The Yadava dynasty of Deogiri, ruled Maharashtra from the 13th century to the 14th century. People of India: Maharashtra, Part 1 by B. V. Bhanu p. 6 The Yadavas were defeated by the Khaljis in 1321. After the defeat of Yadavas, the area was ruled for the next 300 years by a succession of Muslim rulers including (in chronological order): the Khalji dynasty, the , and the Bahmani Sultanate and its successor states called the Deccan sultanates, such as Adilshahi, Nizamshahi, and the Mughal Empire.
The early period of Islamic rule saw the imposition of a Jaziya tax on non-Muslims, temple destruction and forcible conversions. (2025). 9781138956926, Routledge India. ISBN 9781138956926 (2025). 9780300175875, Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780300175875 However, the mainly Hindu population and their Islamic rulers came to an accommodation over time. For most of this period were in charge of accounts, whereas revenue collection was in the hands of who held Vatandar (hereditary rights) of Patilki (revenue collection at village level), and (revenue collection over a larger area). A number of families such as Bhosale, Shirke, Ghorpade, Jadhav, Jaoli State, Mahadik, Kagal, Gharge and Nimbalkar loyally served different sultans at different periods of time. All vatandar considered their watan a source of economic power and pride and were reluctant to part with it. The watandars were the first to oppose Shivaji because it hurt their economic interests. Since most of the population was Hindu and spoke Marathi, even the sultans such as Ibrahim Adil Shah I adopted Marathi as the court language for administration and record-keeping.
Islamic rule also led to Persian vocabulary entering the Marathi language. Per Kulkarni, for the elites of the era using Persian words was a status symbol. Surnames derived from service during that period such as Fadnis, Chitnis, Mirasdar, etc. are still in use today.
Most of the Marathi Bhakti movement poet saints, who worshipped Vithoba, belonged to the period between late Yadava and the late Islamic era. These include Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Bahinabai and Tukaram. Other important religious figures of this era were Narsimha Saraswati, and Mahanubhava sect founder Chakradhar Swami. Shaivism saints like Manmath swami, Gajanan Maharaj, Sant Narhari Sonar. All of them used the Marathi language rather than Sanskrit for their devotional and philosophical compositions.
The decline of Islamic rule in Deccan started when Shivaji (1630–1680) founded the Maratha Kingdom by annexing a portion of the Bijapur Sultanate. Shivaji later led rebellions against Mughal rule, thus becoming a symbol of Hindu resistance and self-rule. The Marathas contributed greatly to weakening imperial Mughal rule and went on to rule over a large realm stretching from Gwalior to Cuttack. (2025). 9781440116353, iUniverse. ISBN 9781440116353
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Shahu I, the grandson of Shivaji, with the help of capable Maratha administrators and generals such as the Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath and his descendants, saw the greatest expansion of the Maratha power. After Shahu's death in 1749, the Peshwa Nanasaheb and his successors became the virtual rulers of the Maratha Confederacy. The Maratha Confederacy was expanded by many Marathi chieftains including Peshwa Bajirao I and his descendants, the Scindia, Gaekwad, Pawar, Bhonsale of Nagpur, and the Holkars. The Confederacy at its peak stretched from northern Karnataka in the south to Peshawar (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) briefly during the Maratha–Afghan War in the north, and to Orissa in the east. Andaman & Nicobar Origin | Andaman & Nicobar Island History . Andamanonline.in. However, after the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, in which the Marathas were defeated by the Afghans under Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Maratha power was greatly diminished. Due to the efforts of Mahadji Shinde, it remained a confederacy until the British East India Company defeated Peshwa Bajirao II. Nevertheless, several Maratha states remained as vassals of the British until 1947 when they acceded to the Dominion of India.
The Marathas also developed a potent coastal navy around the 1660s. At its peak under Maratha Koli People Admiral Kanhoji Angre, the naval force dominated the territorial waters of the western coast of India from Mumbai to Savantwadi. It would engage in attacking British, Portuguese India, Dutch India, and Siddi naval ships and kept a check on their naval ambitions. The Maratha Navy dominated until around the 1730s, but was in a state of decline by the 1770s, and ceased to exist entirely by 1818.
In exchange for their services, the balutedars were granted complex sets of hereditary rights (watan) to a share in the village harvest.Fukazawa, H., 1972. Rural Servants in the 18th Century Maharashtrian Village – Demiurgic or Jajmani System? Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 12(2), pp. 14–40.
The British Raj saw standardisation of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey. Carey also published the first dictionary of Marathi in Devanagari script. 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.James, Molesworth (1975). 9788186411575, J.C. Furla, Shubhada Saraswat Prakashan. . ISBN 9788186411575 Molesworth also worked on standardising Marathi. He used Brahmins of Pune for this task and adopted the Sanskrit-dominated dialect spoken by this caste in the city as the standard dialect for Marathi. (1996). 9780313287787, Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313287787 The introduction of printing, standardisation of Marathi, and establishment of modern schools and colleges during the early colonial era led to the spread of literacy and knowledge to many different sections of society such as women, the dalits and the cultivator classes.
The Marathi community played an important part in the social and religious reform movements, as well as the Indian nationalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable civil society bodies founded by Marathi leaders during the 19th century include the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, the Prarthana Samaj, the Arya Mahila Samaj, and the Satya Shodhak Samaj. The Pune Sarvajanik Sabha took an active part in relief efforts during the famine of 1875–1876. It is considered the forerunner of the Indian National Congress established in 1885. The most prominent personalities of Indian nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th century, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, on opposite sides of the political spectrum, were both Marathi. Tilak was instrumental in using Shivaji and Ganesh worship in forging a collective Maharashtrian identity for the Marathi people. (2025). 9780863118241, Sangam. ISBN 9780863118241 Marathi social reformers of the colonial era include Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule, Justice Ranade, feminist Tarabai Shinde, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Vitthal Ramji Shinde, and Pandita Ramabai.Ramachandra Guha, "The Other Liberal Light," New Republic 22 June 2012 Jyotirao Phule was a pioneer in opening schools for girls and Marathi dalits castes.
The non-Brahmin Hindu castes started organising at the beginning of the 20th century with the blessing of Shahu, the ruler of the princely state of Kolhapur. The campaign took off in the early 1920s under the leadership of Keshavrao Jedhe and Baburao Javalkar. Both belonged to the non-Brahmin party. Capturing the Ganpati and Shivaji festivals from Brahmin domination were their early goals. They combined nationalism with anti-casteism as the party's aims.Omvedt, G., 1973. Non-Brahmans and Communists in Bombay. Economic and Political Weekly, pp. 749–759. Later on in the 1930s, Jedhe merged the non-Brahmin party with the Congress party and changed that party from an upper-caste-dominated body to a more broadly based but also Maratha-dominated party. The early 20th century also saw the rise of B. R. Ambedkar, who led the campaign for the rights of the dalits caste that included his own Mahar caste.
The Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded and led by Marathis from Nagpur for many decades. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1889–1966), a Marathi from Nashik district, an Indian independence activist, who advocated violence to overthrow British rule in his youth, later formulated the Hindu nationalist philosophy of Hindutva. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. Savarkar's Hindutva philosophy remains the guiding principle for organisations that are part of the RSS-affiliated organisations.Katju, Manjari (2013). Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics. Orient Blackswan. .
Although the British originally regarded India as a place for the supply of raw materials for the factories of England, by the end of the 19th century a modern manufacturing industry was developing in the city of Mumbai.Majumdar, Sumit K. (2012), India's Late, Late Industrial Revolution: Democratizing Entrepreneurship, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, , retrieved 7 December 2013 The main product was cotton and the bulk of the workforce in these cotton mills was of Marathi origin from Western Maharashtra, but more specifically from the coastal Konkan region. The census recorded for the city in the first half of the 20th century showed nearly half the city's population listed Marathi as their mother tongue.
During the period of 1835–1907, a large number of Indians, including Marathi people, were taken to the island of Mauritius as indentured labourers to work on sugarcane plantations. The Marathi people on the island form the oldest diaspora of Marathi people outside India. (1980). 9780631110118, Basil Blackwell. ISBN 9780631110118
The small community of Marathi Jews (Bene Israel – Sons of Israel) started emigrating to the newly created country of Israel in the late 1940s and early 1950s.Weil, S. (2012). "The Bene Israel Indian Jewish family in Transnational Context." Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 71–80.Shalva Weil, Journal of Comparative Family Studies Vol. 43, No. 1, "The Indian Family: A Revisit"
In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act reorganised the Indian states along linguistic lines, and the Bombay Presidency State was enlarged by the addition of the predominantly Marathi-speaking regions of Marathwada (Aurangabad Division) from the erstwhile Hyderabad state and the Vidarbha region from the Central Provinces and Berar. The enlarged state also included Gujarati-speaking areas. The southernmost part of Bombay State was ceded to Karnataka. From 1954 to 1955, Marathi people strongly protested against the bilingual Bombay State, and the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti was formed to agitate for a Marathi-speaking state.
At the same time, the Mahagujarat Movement was started, seeking a separate Gujarati-speaking state. A number of mainly Pune-based leaders such as Keshavrao Jedhe, S.M. Joshi, Shripad Amrit Dange, and Pralhad Keshav Atre formed the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, alongside Vidarbha-based leaders such as Gopalrao Khedkar, to fight for a separate state of Maharashtra with Mumbai as its state capital. Mass protests, 105 deaths, and heavy losses in the Marathi-speaking areas by the ruling Congress Party in the 1957 election, led the government under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to change its policy and agree to the protesters' demands. On 1 May 1960, the separate Marathi-speaking state was formed by dividing the earlier Bombay State into the new states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The city of Mumbai was declared the capital of the new state. The state continues to have a dispute with Karnataka regarding the districts of Belgaum and Karwar, both with a large population of Marathi people.
For the first time, the creation of Maharashtra brought most Marathi people under one state with the mainly rural Kunbi-Maratha community as the largest social group. This group has dominated the rural economy and politics of the state since 1960. The community accounts for 31% of the population of Maharashtra. They dominate the cooperative institutions and with the resultant economic power control politics from the village level up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.
After the Maratha-Kunbi cluster, the scheduled caste (SC) Mahars are numerically the second-largest community among the Marathi people in Maharashtra. Most of them embraced Buddhism in 1956 with their leader, B. R. Ambedkar. Writers from this group in the 1950s and 1960s were pioneers of Dalit Literature.
The Portuguese-occupied enclave of Goa was liberated in 1962. The main political party formed immediately after liberation was the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. It wanted Goa to merge with Maharashtra because of the affinity between Goan Hindus and the Marathi people. However, the referendum held on this issue rejected the merger. Later, Konkani language was made the official language of Goa, but Marathi is also allowed in any government correspondence.
The 1960s also saw the establishment by Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena, a populist sectarian party advocating the rights of Marathi people in the heterogeneous city of Mumbai. Early campaigns by Shiv Sena advocated for more opportunities for Marathi people in government jobs. The party also led a campaign against the city's South Indian population. By the 1980s the party had captured power in the Mumbai Corporation, and in the 1990s it led the government of Maharashtra's coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). During this transition from founding to capturing power, the party toned down its rhetoric against non-Marathi people and adopted a more Hindu nationalist stance.
The traditional caste hierarchy was headed by the Brahmin castes-the , , , , and the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus. In Mumbai during British rule, this included the Pathare Prabhu and the other communities. The Marathas are 32% in Western Maharashtra and the were 7%, whereas the Other Backward Class population (other than the Kunbi) was 27%. The other castes in the intermediate category include: Gujjars, Veerashaiva and Rajputs who migrated centuries ago to Maharashtra from northern and southern India – and settled in Maharashtra. The population of the Mangs was 8%.
Other people have migrated in modern times in search of jobs outside Maharashtra. These people have also settled in almost all parts of the country. They have set up community organisations called Maharashtra Mandals in many cities across the country. A national level central organisation, the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal was formed in 1958 to promote Marathi culture outside Maharashtra. Several sister organisations of the Brihan Maharashtra Mandal have also been formed outside India.
Since the state of Israel was established in 1948, around 25,000–30,000 Indian Jews have emigrated there, of which around 20,000 were from the Marathi speaking Bene Israel community of Konkan.
Indians, including Marathi People, have migrated to Europe and particularly Great Britain for more than a century.Chansarkar, B.A. A note on the Maratha community in Britain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Volume 2, 1973, Issue 3 [4] The Maharashtra Mandal of London was founded in 1932.[5] A small number of Marathi people also settled in British East Africa during the colonial era.Pathak, A.R., 1995. Maharashtrian Immigrants in East Africa and Their Leisure. World Leisure & Recreation, 37(3), pp. 31–32. After the African Great Lakes countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika gained independence from Britain, most of the South Asian population residing there, including Marathi people, migrated to the United Kingdom,Quest for equality (New Delhi, 1993), p. 99Donald Rothchild, `Citizenship and national integration: the non-African crisis in Kenya', in Studies in race and nations (Center on International Race Relations, University of Denver working papers), 1}3 (1969±70), p. 1 or India.
Large-scale immigration of Indians into the United States started when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 came into effect. Most of the Marathi immigrants who came after 1965 were professionals such as doctors, engineers or scientists. The second wave of immigration took place during the I.T. boom of the 1990s and later.
Since the 1990s due to the I.T. boom and because of the general ease of travel, Marathi people are now found in greater numbers in all corners of the world including the United States, Australia, Canada, the Gulf countries, European countries, Iran, and Pakistan.
After the third battle of Panipat, Marathi people settled in Sindh and Balochisthan region (modern day Pakistan). After partition of India, many Marathi Hindus came to India. But, 500–1000 Marathi Hindus also lives in Karachi city of Sindh province.
In some traditional families, food is first offered to the preferred deity in the household shrine, as naivedya, before being consumed by family members and guests.Czerniak-Drożdżowicz, M. (2018). The food of gods–«naivedya/nirmālya» in the Pāñcarātrika sources. Consonanze.|105 Meals or snacks are not taken before this religious offering. In present times, the naivedya is offered by families only on days of special religious significance.DANDEKAR, G. (1988). WITH JAYANT KARVE. The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra, 223.|[6]
Many Marathi people trace their paternal ancestors to one of the seven or eight sages, the saptarshi. They classify themselves as gotras, named after the ancestor rishi. Intra-marriage within gotras (Sagotra Vivaha) was uncommon until recently, being discouraged as it was likened to incest.
Most Marathi families have their own family patron or protective deity or the kuladevata. This deity is common to a lineage or a clan of several families who are connected to each other through a common ancestor. The Khandoba of Jejuri is an example of a kuladevata of some families; he is a common kuladevata to several castes ranging from and Dhangar to . The practice of worshiping local or territorial deities as kuladevatas began in the period of the Yadava dynasty. Other family deities of the people of Maharashtra are Bhavani of Tuljapur, Mahalaxmi of Kolhapur, Mahalaxmi of Amravati, Renuka of Mahur, Parashuram in Konkan, Saptashringi on Saptashringa hill at Vani in Nasik district, and Venkateswara . Despite the system of worshipping kuladevatas, the worship of Ganesha, , and other popular of Vishnu such as Rama or Krishna are extremely popular across the entire community.The festivals of Ganeshotsav and annual Pandharpur Wari to the Vitthal temple at Pandharpur are of significant importance to all Marathis alike.
In Brahman, CKP, Gaud Saraswat Brahman Gurav, Daivednya, and some Maratha communities when a male child undergoes the initiation thread ceremony variously known as Munja (in reference to the Munja grass that is of official ritual specification), Vratabandha, or Upanayanam.O’Hanlon, Rosalind. “CULTURES OF RULE, COMMUNITIES OF RESISTANCE: Gender, Discourse and Tradition in Recent South Asian Historiographies.” Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, no. 25, 1989, pp. 94–114. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23163054. Accessed 24 June 2024.
Marathi Hindu people are historically endogamous within their caste but exogamous with their clan. Cross-cousin alliances are allowed by most Marathi Hindu communities. Hindu wedding, more often than not, take place by negotiation. The Mangalsutra is the symbol of marriage for the woman. Studies show that most Indians' traditional views on caste, religion, and family background have remained unchanged when it came to marriage, that is, people marry within their own castes, and matrimonial advertisements in newspapers are still classified by caste and sub-caste.
While arranging a marriage, gana, gotra, pravara, devaka are all kept in mind. Horoscopes are matched. The marriage ceremony is described as follows: 'The groom, along with the bride's party goes to the bride's house. A ritual named Akshata is performed in which people around the groom and bride throw haldi (turmeric) and kunku (vermilion) coloured rice grains on the couple. After the kanyadana ceremony, there is an exchange of garlands between the bride and the groom. Then, the groom ties the Mangalsutra around the neck of the bride. This is followed by granthibandhan in which the end of the bride's sādi/sāri is tied to the end of the groom's dhoti, and a feast is arranged at the groom's place.'
Elements of a traditional Marathi Hindu wedding ceremony include seemant poojan on the wedding eve. The dharmic wedding includes the antarpat ceremony followed by the Vedic ceremony which involves the bridegroom and the bride walking around the sacred fire seven times to complete the marriage. Modern urban wedding ceremonies conclude with an evening reception. A Marathi Hindu woman becomes part of her husband's family after marriage and adopts the gotra as well as the traditions of her husband's family.
After weddings and after thread ceremonies, many Maratha, Deshastha Brahmin and Dhangar families arrange a traditional religious singing performance by a Gondhali group.
Decades ago, girls married the groom of their parents' choice by their early teens or before. Even today, girls are married off in their late teens by rural and orthodox educated people. Urban women may choose to remain unmarried until the late 20s or even early 30s.
Marathi Hindu people dispose their dead by Antyesti. The deceased's son carries the corpse to the cremation ground atop a bier. The eldest son lights the fire for the corpse at the head for males and at the feet for females. The ashes are gathered in an earthen pitcher and immersed in a river on the third day after death. This is a 13-day ritual with the pinda being offered to the dead soul on the 11th and a Śrāddha (Shrāddha) ceremony followed by a funeral feast on the 13th. Cremation is performed according to Vedic rites, usually within a day of the individual's death. Like all other Hindus, the preference is for the ashes to be immersed in a river. Holy rivers such as the Ganges river or Godavari River have increasingly become popular for this ritual as travelling has become easier in modern times. Śrāddha becomes an annual ritual in which all forefathers of the family who have passed on are remembered. These rituals are expected to be performed only by male descendants, preferably the eldest son of the deceased. The annual Śrāddha for all the ancestors is usually performed during the Pitru Paksha, the dark fortnight of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada.
Thalipeeth is a popular traditional breakfast flat bread that is prepared using bhajani, a mixture of many different varieties of roasted lentils.
Marathi Hindu people observe fasting days when traditional staple food like rice and chapatis are avoided. However, milk products and non-native foods such as potatoes, peanuts and sabudana preparations ( sabudana khicdi) are allowed, which result in a carbohydrate-rich alternative fasting cuisine.
Some Maharashtrian dishes including sev bhaji, misal pav and patodi are distinctly regional dishes within Maharashtra.
In metropolitan areas including Mumbai and Pune, the pace of life makes fast food very popular. The most popular forms of fast food among Marathi people in these areas are: Pakora, vada pav, Misal Pav and pav bhaji. More traditional dishes are sabudana khichdi, pohe, upma, sheera and panipuri. Most Marathi fast food and snacks are purely lacto-vegetarian in nature.
In South Konkan, near Malvan, an independent exotic cuisine has developed called Malvani cuisine, which is predominantly non-vegetarian. Kombdi vade, fish preparations and baked preparations are more popular here. Kombdi Vade, is a recipe from the Konkan region. Deep fried flatbread made from spicy rice and Vigna mungo flour served with chicken curry, more specifically with Malvani chicken curry.
Desserts are an important part of Marathi food and include puran poli, shrikhand, basundi, kheer, gulab jamun, and modak. Traditionally, these desserts were associated with a particular festival, for example, modaks are prepared during the Ganpati.
Traditionally, Marathi women commonly wore the sari, often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. Most middle aged and young women in urban Maharashtra dress in western outfits such as skirts and trousers or shalwar kameez with the traditionally nauvari or nine-yard sari, disappearing from the markets due to a lack of demand. Older women wear the five-yard sari. In urban areas, the five-yard sari is worn by younger women for special occasions such as weddings and religious ceremonies. Among men, western dress has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the dhoti and pheta on cultural occasions. The Gandhi cap along with a long white shirt and loose pajama style trousers is the popular attire among older men in rural Maharashtra. Women wear traditional jewellery derived from Marathas and Peshwas dynasties. Kolhapuri saaj, a special type of necklace, is also worn by Marathi women. In urban areas, many women and men wear western attire.
Families of the historical Maratha chiefs use their clan name as their surname. Some of these are Jadhav, Bhosale, Chavan, Shinde, Shirke, More, Nimbalkar, Pawar, Masaram, Gharge-Desai (Deshmukh) and Ghatge. Members of the numerically largest Maratha Kunbi cultivator class among Marathi people have also adopted some of the Maratha clan names, either to indicate allegiance to the Maratha chief they served, or as an attempt at upward mobility.
In the mid-1950s, the 'little magazine movement' gained momentum. It published writings which were non-conformist, radical, and experimental. The Dalit literature movement also gained strength due to the little magazine movement. This radical movement was influenced by the philosophy of non-conformity, and challenged the literary establishment, which was largely middle class, urban, and upper caste. Issues of Language and Representation:Babu Rao Bagul Handbook of twentieth-century literatures of India, Editors: Nalini Natarajan, Emmanuel Sampath Nelson. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. . p. 368. The little magazine movement was responsible for many excellent writers including the well-known novelist, critic, and poet Bhalchandra Nemade. Dalit writer N. D. Mahanor is well known for his work, while Dr. Sharad Rane is a well-known children's writer.
/ref> The number of Bene Israel remaining in India was estimated to be around 4,000–5,000 in 1988.Katz, N., & Goldberg, E. (1988). "The Last Jews in India and Burma." Jerusalem Letter, 101.
(2025). 9780415460927, Routledge. ISBN 9780415460927 Since the 1980s, (1999). 9788171548354, Popular Prakashan. ISBN 9788171548354 this group has also been active in setting up private educational institutions. Major past political figures of Maharashtra have been from this group. The rise of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party in recent years have not dented Maratha caste representation in the Maharashtra Legislative assembly.
(2025). 9780521781411, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521781411
Castes and communities
The Marathi people form an ethnolinguistic group that is distinct from others in terms of its language, history, cultural and religious practices, social structure, literature, and art. Changing India: Bourgeois Revolution on the Subcontinent by Robert W. Stern, p. 20
Hindu castes in Maharashtra
Majority of Marathi Hindu belong either to the cultivator caste cluster of Maratha and Kunbi, or one of the former village servant (Bara Balutedar) castes which include Shimpi (Tailor), Lohar (Iron-smith), Suthar (carpenters), Mali caste (florists and cultivators), Dobhi (washer), Gurav (village priest), Kumbhar (potters), Sonar (Goldsmith), Teli (oil pressers), Lingayats, Chamar (cobbler), Mang (rope makers), Koli people (fishermen or water carriers) and Nabhik (barbers). The Mahar were one of the balutedar who adopted Buddhism in 1950s. Some of the other Marathi castes are:
Non-Hindu communities
Marathi diaspora
In other Indian states
As the Maratha Empire expanded across India, the Marathi population started migrating out of Maharashtra alongside their rulers. Peshwa, Holkars, Shinde, and Gaekwad dynasty dynastic leaders took with them a considerable population of priests, clerks, army men, businessmen, and workers when they established new seats of power. Most of these migrants were from the literate classes such as various Brahmin sub-castes and CKP. These groups formed the backbone of administration in the new Maratha Empire states in many places such as Vyara-Songadh of (Surat), Baroda (Vadodara), Indore, Gwalior, Bundelkhand, and Tanjore. Many families belonging to these groups still follow Marathi traditions even though they have lived more than from Maharashtra for more than 200 years.
Population in India by state
Source:
6.86% ( Third most spoken in India ) 69.93% 5.38% 0.12% 2.80% 0.56% 0.02% 0.02% 3.52% 0.07% 0.09% 0.17% 0.03% 0.16% 0.04% 2.70% 12.89% 0.03% 0.07% 0.18% 0.05% 0.04% 0.06% 0.17% 0.13% 0.12% 0.05% 0.06% 7.01% 0.70% 0.19% 4.53% 0.04% 0.04% 0.001% 0.01%
International diaspora
In the mid-1800s, a large number of Indian people were taken to Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Eastern Africa as indentured labourers to work on sugarcane plantations. The majority of these migrants were from the Hindustani speaking areas or from Southern India, however, a significant number of immigrants to Mauritius were Marathis.[3]
Culture
Religion
The majority of Marathi people are . Minorities by religion include Marathi Muslims, Buddhists, Marathi Jains, Christians, Parsis and Bene Israel.
Marathi Hindu customs
The main life ceremonies in Hindu culture include those related to birth, weddings, initiation ceremonies, as well as death rituals. Other ceremonies for different occasions in Hindu life include Vastushanti and "Satyanarayan" which is performed before a family formally establishes residence in a new house. Satyanarayana Puja is a ceremony performed before commencing any new endeavour or for no particular reason. Invoking the name of the family's gotra and the kuladevata are important aspects of these ceremonies for many communities.
Like most other Hindu communities, the Marathi people have a household shrine called a devaghar with idols, symbols, and pictures of various deities for daily worship. Ritual reading of religious texts known as pothi is also popular in some communities.
Ceremonies and rituals
At birth, a child is initiated into the family ritually. The child's naming ceremony may happen many weeks or even months later, and it is called the bārsa. In many Indian Hindu communities, the naming is most often done by consulting the child's horoscope, which suggests various names depending on the child's lunar sign (called rashi). However, in Marathi Hindu families, the name that the child inevitably uses in secular functions is the one decided by their parents. If a name is chosen on the basis of the horoscope, then that is kept a secret to ward off the casting of a spell on the child during their life. During the naming ceremony, the child's paternal aunt has the honour of naming the infant. When the child is 11 months old, they get their first hair-cut.This is also an important ritual and is called Jawal (जावळ). In the Maratha community, the maternal uncle is given the honour of the first snip during the ceremony.
Hindu calendar and festivals
is erected on Gudhi Padwa.]]|
The Marathi, Kannada people and Telugu people follow the Deccan Shalivahana Hindu calendar, which may have subtle differences with calendars followed by other communities in India. The calendar follows the Amanta tradition where the lunar month ends on no moon day.
Marathi Hindus celebrate most of the Indian Hindu festivals such as Navratri, Diwali and Raksha Bandhan. These are, however, celebrated with certain Maharashtrian regional variations. Others festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi have a more characteristic Marathi flavour. The festivals described below are in chronological order as they occur during a Shaka year, starting with Shaka new year festival of Gudhi Padwa.Betham, R.M., 1908. Marathas and Dekhani Musalmans. Asian Educational Services.Lall, R. Manohar. Among the Hindus: A Study of Hindu Festivals. Asian Educational Services, 1933.
During this Navavatri, girls and women perform 'Bhondla/Hadga' as the Sun moves to the thirteenth constellation of the zodiac called 'Hasta' (Elephant). During the nine days, Bhondla (also known as 'Bhulabai' in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra) is celebrated in the garden or on the terrace during evening hours by inviting female friends of the daughter in the house. An elephant is drawn either with Rangoli on the soil or with a chalk on a slate and kept in the middle. The girls go around it in a circle, holding each other's hands and singing Bhondla songs. All Bhondla songs are traditional songs passed down through the generations. The last song typically ends with the words '...khirapatila kaay ga?' ('What is the special dish today?'). This 'Khirapat' is a special dish, or dishes, often made laboriously by the mother of the host girl. The food is served only after the rest of the girls have correctly guessed what the covered dish or dishes are. There are some variations with how the Navratri festival is celebrated. For example, in many Brahmin families, celebrations include offering lunch for nine days to a specially invited a group of guests. The guests include a married Woman (Marathi:सवाष्ण ), a Brahmin and, a Virgin (Marathi:कुमारिका). In the morning and evening, the head of the family ritually worships either the goddess Durga, Lakshmi or Saraswati. On the eighth day, a special rite is carried out in some families. A statue of the goddess Mahalakshmi, with the face of a rice mask, is prepared and worshiped by newly married girls. In the evening of that day, women blow into earthen or metallic pots as a form of worship to please the goddess. Everyone in the family accompanies them by chanting verses and Bhajans. The nine-day festival ends with a Yagna or reading of a Hindu Holy book (Marathi:पारायण ).
The celebration lasts for three days and ends on Kartiki Pournima or Tripurari Pournima.
In coastal Konkan area, the festival of Shimga is celebrated which not only incorporates Holi but also involves other rituals and celebrations which precede Holi and extends for a few days more.
Festivals and celebrations observed by other communities
Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din
On 14 October 1956 at Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, B. R. Ambedkar embraced Buddhist religion publicly and gave Deeksha of Buddhist religion to his more than 380,000 followers.This was Ambedkar's own figure given by him in a letter to Devapriya Valishinha dated 30 October 1956. The Maha Bodhi Vol. 65, p.226, quoted in Dr. Ambedkar and Buddhism by Sangharakshita. The day is celebrated as Dharmacakra Pravartan Din. The grounds in Nagpur on which the conversion ceremony took place is known as Deekshabhoomi. Every year more than a million Buddhist people, especially Ambedkarite, from all over the world visit Deekshabhoomi to commemorate Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din.
Buddha Purnima
Festival commemorates Lord Buddha's enlightenment and birth. Buddhist community celebrates this day with great fervor and zeal across the world. Maharashtra has India's largest Buddhist population, about 5.8% of the State's total population. The State not only has rich Buddhist heritage and culture, it is also dotted with large and small Buddhist caves. Buddhists go to common Viharas to observe a rather longer-than-usual, full-length Buddhist sutra, akin to a service. The dress code is pure white. Non-vegetarian food is normally avoided. Kheer, sweet rice porridge is commonly served to recall the story of Sujata, who offered the Buddha a bowl of milk porridge.
Christmas
Christmas (Marathi language : नाताळ) is celebrated to mark the birthday of Jesus Christ. Like in other parts of India, Christmas is celebrated with zeal by the indigenous Marathi Catholics such as the Bombay East Indians & Korlai Portuguese Creole Luso-Indians.
Food
The many communities in Marathi society result in a diverse cuisine. This diversity extends to the family level because each family uses its own unique combination of spices. The majority of Maharashtrians do eat meat and eggs, but the Brahmin community is mostly lacto-vegetarian. The traditional staple food on Desh (the Deccan plateau) is usually bhakri, spiced cooked vegetables, dal and rice. Bhakri is an unleavened bread made using Indian millet ( jowar), Pearl millet or bajri. However, the North Maharashtrians and urbanites prefer roti, which is a plain bread made with wheat flour. In the coastal Konkan region, rice is the traditional staple food. An aromatic variety of ambemohar rice is more popular among Marathi people than the internationally known basmati rice. Malvani dishes use more wet coconut and coconut milk in their preparation. In the Vidarbha region, little coconut is used in daily preparations but dry coconut, along with peanuts, is used in dishes such as spicy savjis or mutton and chicken dishes.
Attire
(1892-1968) of Baroda State as a young girl with her mother,
Chimnabai II, wearing a 'Nauvari', a traditional Maharashtrian sari]]
Names
Marathi Hindu people follow a partially Patronymic naming system. For example, it is customary to associate the father's name with the given name. In the case of married women, the husband's name is associated with the given name. Therefore, the constituents of a Marathi name as given name /first name, father/husband, family name /surname. For example:
Personal names
Marathi Hindus choose given names for their children from a variety of sources. They could be characters from Hindu mythology epics such as the Ramayana or Mahabharat, names of holy rivers such as Yamuna and Godavari, Hindu historical figures from Maratha or Indian history such as Shivaji and Ashoka, Marathi varkari saints such as Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar, Janabai, popular characters from modern Marathi literature, names of fragrant flowers for girls (e.g. Mimusops elengi, Kamal/Kamla for Lotus flower), senses such as Madhura for sweetness, precious metals such female name Suwarna for gold, heavenly bodies such as the Sun and the Moon, Vasant and Sharad for spring and autumn respectively, names of film stars or sportsmen, and after virtues (e.g., Vinay for modesty). Nicknames such as Bandu, Balu, Sonya and Pillu for males and Chhabu and Bebi for girls have been popular too.
Surnames
A large number of Maharashtrian surnames are derived by adding the suffix kar to the village from which the family originally hailed. For example, Junnarkar came from town of Junnar, Waghulkar comes from the town of Waghul. According to Bhandarkar, the tradition of using place name as the surname can be traced back to the Chalukya era in the 7th century. Names like Kumbhar, Sutar, Kulkarni, Deshpande, Deshmukh, Patil, Desai, and Joshi denote the family's ancestral trade, profession, or administrative role.
Honorifics and suffixes
Marathi people use various suffixes and prefixes with names. Most of these are intended as honorific when addressing older people, or people with authority. The common suffixes include bai, and sometimes tai for women, rao, and saheb for men. According to Sankhelia, the first use of the word, bai was in the 13th century. In modern times, the prefixes Shree for men, and Saubhagyavati (abbreviated as Sau) for married women have become common.
Language and literature
It has been noted by scholars that there is Dravidian people influence in the development of the Marathi language.
Ancient Marathi inscriptions
Marathi, also known as Seuna at that time, was the court language during the reign of the Yadava Dynasty. Yadava king Singhania was known for his magnanimous donations. Inscriptions recording these donations are found written in Marathi on stone slabs in the temple at Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Composition of noted works of scholars like Hemadri are also found. Hemadri was also responsible for introducing a style of architecture called Hemadpanth. Among the various stone inscriptions are those found at Akshi in the Kolaba district, which are the first known stone inscriptions in Marathi. An example found at the bottom of the statue of Gomateshwar (Bahubali) at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka bears the inscription 'Chamundraye karaviyale, Gangaraye suttale karaviyale' which gives some information regarding the sculptor of the statue and the king who ordered its creation.
Classical literature
Marathi people have a long literary tradition which started in the ancient era. It was the 13th-century saint Dnyaneshwar who produced the first treatise in Marathi on the Geeta. The work called Dnyaneshwari is considered a masterpiece. Along with Dnyaneshwar, his contemporary, Namdev was also responsible for propagating Marathi religious Bhakti literature. Namdev is also important to the Sikh tradition, since several of his compositions were included in the Sikh Holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. Eknath, Tukaram, Mukteshwar and Samarth Ramdas were equally important figures in the 17th century. In the 18th century, writers like Vaman Pandit, Raghunath Pandit, Shridhar Pandit, Mahipati, and Moropant produced some well-known works. All of the above-mentioned writers produced religious literature.
Modern Marathi literature
The first English book was translated into Marathi in 1817 while the first Marathi newspaper started in 1841. Many books on social reform were written by Baba Padamji ( Yamuna Paryatana, 1857), Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Lokhitawadi, Justice Ranade, and Hari Narayan Apte (1864–1919). Lokmanya Tilak's newspaper Kesari in Marathi was a strong voice in promoting Ganeshotsav or Chhatrapati Shivaji festival. The newspaper also offered criticism of colonial government excesses. At this time, Marathi efficiently aided by Marathi Drama. B. R. Ambedkar's newspaper, Bahishkrut Bharat, set up in 1927, provided a platform for sharing literary views.
Martial tradition
Although ethnic Marathis have taken up military roles for many centuries, their martial qualities came to prominence in 17th-century India, under the leadership of Shivaji. He founded the Maratha Empire, which at the time of the mid-18th century controlled large parts of the Indian subcontinent. It was largely an ethnic Marathi polity, with its chiefs and nobles coming from the Marathi ethnicity, such as the ( Maratha caste), the Holkars ( Dhangar caste), the (1713 onwards; Chitpavan caste), the Angres, chief of Maratha Navy ( Maratha caste; 1698 onwards). The Maratha Empire is credited to a large extent for reducing the Mughal emperor to a mere figurehead. . Further, they were also considered by the British as the most important native power of 18th-century India. Today this ethnicity is represented in the Indian Army, with two regiments deriving their names from Marathi communities the Maratha Light Infantry and the Mahar Regiment.
See also
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
External links
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