Marathi language

Marathi (मराठी, pronounced [məˈɾaːʈʰiː]) is a classical Indo-Aryan language. It is mainly spoken by the Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra, as well as in Goa and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. There is also a Marathi-speaking community in Karachi, Pakistan. The language serves as the official language of Maharashtra and holds additional official status in Goa.

Marathi comes from Maharashtri Prakrit and is one of India’s 22 scheduled languages. As of 2011, it had 83 million speakers, making it the 15th most spoken native language in the world and the third most spoken native language in India, after Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) and Bengali. Among modern Indian languages, Marathi has some of the oldest literature. Its major dialects are Standard Marathi and Varhadi Marathi. In October 2024, the Government of India designated Marathi as a classical language.

The language distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive forms of “we” and has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Its phonology contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates, and alveolar with retroflex laterals (represented by the letters ल and ळ).

Modern Indo-Aryan languages like Marathi come from Prakrits through Apabhraṃśa. Marathi is one of several languages that descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Further changes led to Apabhraṃśa, then Old Marathi. However, Bloch (1970) argued that Apabhraṃśa formed after Marathi had already split from the Middle Indo-Aryan dialect. The earliest possible evidence of Marathi is a copper-plate inscription from 739 CE found in Satara. Inscriptions from the second half of the 11th century often include Marathi alongside Sanskrit or Kannada. The first inscriptions written entirely in Marathi appeared under the Shilahara rule, including a stone inscription from around 1012 CE in Akshi taluka of Raigad district and a copper-plate inscription from 1060 or 1086 CE in Dive, recording a land grant to a Brahmin. A two-line Prakrit inscription from 1118 CE at Shravanabelagola records a Hoysala grant, suggesting Prakrit was a standard written language by the 12th century. After the Gaha Sattasai, no Marathi literature is recorded until the late 13th century.

The 11th-century Jain scholar Acharya Hemchandra, a grammarian of Maharashtri Prakrit, helped preserve and study the language. His work, the Siddha-Hema-Śabdānuśāsana, systematically described several Middle Indo-Aryan languages, including Maharashtri Prakrit, and remains a key source for modern scholars. He is also regarded as the father of the Gujarati language.

The earliest known Jain version of the Ramayana, the Paumachariyam (around 100 CE), was written in Maharashtri Prakrit by Acharya Vimalsuri, showing ancient links between Jainism and the language. Jain authors produced the oldest non-Varkari streams of medieval Marathi literature, focusing on religious, ethical, and didactic themes. Their works often adapted Jain narratives from Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhramsha. Jain literary activity in Maharashtra was linked to Jain communities in the Deccan and Konkan. Medieval Jain Marathi writings emphasized ahimsa, karma, vegetarianism, soul awareness, renunciation, right conduct, and spiritual discipline. Jain poets also wrote religious biographies of Tirthankars, stories, and instructional works. The Sahitya Akademi history of Marathi literature records these contributions. One later Jain author, Gunakirti, wrote the Marathi text Dharmamrita.

After 1187 CE, the Yadava kings increasingly used Marathi in their inscriptions, having previously used Kannada and Sanskrit. Marathi became the dominant epigraphic language in the last half-century of Yadava rule (14th century), possibly to connect with Marathi-speaking subjects and distinguish themselves from the Kannada-speaking Hoysalas.

In the 13th century, the Varkari saint Dnyaneshwar (1275–1296) wrote the Dnyaneshwari, a Marathi treatise on the Bhagavad Gita, and the Amrutanubhava. The 16th-century saint-poet Eknath (1528–1599) composed the Eknāthī Bhāgavat, a commentary on the Bhagavata Purana, and devotional songs called Bharud. Mukteshwar translated the Mahabharata into Marathi. Tukaram (1608–1649) wrote over 3,000 abhangs (devotional songs), enriching Marathi as a literary language. Manmathswamy (1561–1631) produced a large body of Marathi poetry and literature, including the Shivparv Ambhag, still read by Veerashaiva people of Marathwada, and the spiritual work Pararamrhasya.