Marathi

MARATHI (properly Marathi), the name of an important Indo-Aryan language spoken in western and central India. The name is sometimes spelt Mahriithi, with an h before the r, but, according to a phonetic law of the Aryan languages of western India, this is incorrect. The original h in "Maharastri," from which the word is derived, is elided between two vowels.

Marathi occupies an irregular triangular area of approximately 100,000 sq.m., having its apex about the district of Balaghat in the Central Provinces, and for its base the western coast of the peninsula from Daman on the Gulf of Cambay in the north to Karwar on the open Arabian Sea in the south. It covers parts of two provinces of British India—Bombay and the Central Provinces (including Berar)—with numerous settlers in Central India and Madras, and is also the principal language of Portu guese India and of the north-western portion of His Highness the Nizam's dominions. The standard form of speech is that of Poona in Bombay, and in its various dialects it covers the larger part of that province.

Dialects.—Besides the standard form of speech, there is only one real dialect of Marathi, viz., Konkani (Konkani), spoken in the country near Goa. There are also several local varieties, and we may conveniently distinguish between the Marathi of the Deccan, that of the Central Provinces (including Berar), and that of the northern and central Konkan. In the southern part of the district of Ratnagiri this latter Konkani variety of Marathi gradually merges into the true Konkani dialect through a number of intermediate forms of speech. There are also sev eral broken jargons, based upon Marathi, employed by aboriginal tribes surviving in the hill country.

Relations with other Indo-Aryan Languages.—Marathi has to its north, in order from west to east, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi. To its east and south it has the Dravidian languages, Gondi, Telugu and Kanarese. Marathi does not merge into any of the cognate neighbouring forms of speech, but possesses a distinct linguistic frontier. This isolated

character of Marathi is partly due to the barrier of the Vindhya range which lies to its north, and partly to the fact that none of the northern languages belongs now to the Outer Band, but they are in more or less close relationship to the language of the Midland. Eastern Hindi is more closely related to Marathi than the others, and in its case, in its bordering dialects, we do find a few traces of the influence of Marathi.

Written character.

Marathi books are generally printed in the well-known Nagari character (see SANSKRIT), and this is also used to a great extent in private transactions and correspondence. In the Maratha country it is known as the Balb5dh ("teachable to children," i.e., "easy") character. A cursive form of Nagari called M5cli, or "twisted," is also employed as a handwriting. It is said to have been invented in the 17th century by Balaji Avaji, the secretary of the celebrated Sivaji. Each word can be written as a whole without lifting the pen from the paper.

Origin of the Language.

The word "Marathi" signifies the language of the Maratha country. It is the modern form of the Sanskrit Maharastri, just as "Maratha" represents the old Meihei reistra, or Great Kingdom. Meihareistri was the name given by Sanskrit writers to the Prakrit spoken in Maharastra, the great Aryan kingdom extending southwards from the Vindhya range to the Kistna, broadly corresponding to the southern part of the Bombay Presidency and to the state of Hyderabad. This Maharastri became the form of Prakrit employed as the language of lyric poetry and of the formal epic (kdvya). Dramatic works were composed in it, and it was the vehicle of the non-canonical scriptures of the Jaina religion. The oldest work in the language is the Sattasai, or Seven Centuries of verses, compiled at Pratis thana, on the Godavari, the capital of King Hala, at some time between the 3rd and 7th centuries A.D.