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\twocolumn[\centerline{\large \bf MARATHI: THE LANGUAGE AND ITS LINGUISTIC TRADITIONS}\bigskip]

\pagenumbering{arabic}
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\medskip
\centerline{\bf by Prabhakar Machwe}

\medskip
\centerline{From INDIAN \& FOREIGN REVIEW}
\centerline{15 MARCH, 1985}
\medskip

Marathi is the language of
more than fifty million people
mostly residing in Maharashtra, the region in western India with
Bombay as its capital. However, the
name Maharashtra does not occur in
the Ramayana, nor in the Mahabharata. The Chinese traveler Yuan-Chwang
referred to this area, in the
seventh century as Mo-ha-la-cho. In
tenth century Al Beruni mentions
the Marhatta region with Thane as its
capital. Till then Konkana was not
included in this area; Soparak was its
other name (modern Sopara, the harbour).

There is no unanimity amongst
scholars about the origin and antiquity of this language. The first written
form is in Vijayaditya's Copper-plate,
dated 739 A.D., found in Satara. In
983 A.D., the stone inscription
at the feet of Shravanabelgola Gomateshwar- Chavundarajen
Karaviyalen (Built by Chavandaraja,
the king), is considered to be the
oldest. An interesting couplet in the
Jain monk Udyotan Suri's Kuvalayamala in the eighth century, refers
to a bazar where different people
speak differently, selling their goods:
the Marhattes speak Dinnale, Gahille
(given, taken).

About the geneology of the language scholars have different views:
C.V. Vaidya maintained that it developed from Sanskrit, Sten Knonow
maintained that it developed from
Maharashtri Apabhramsa, others
regard it as one of the Pancha Dravida (five Dravidian) groups. Khaire
has recently found several loanwords in early and spoken Marathi
from Tamil (adgule-madzule). There
were many borrowings from Telugu
(tup, tale) and Kannada words are the
highest in Marathi spoken under Yadavas (1180-1320). In 1290A.D.
the Hoyasala minister Perusmala at
Mailangi made ``provision for masters
to teach Nagar, Kannada, Telugu and
Arya (Marathi)'' (B. Lewis Rice in
Mysore and Coorg from inscriptions)
The southern languages used to call
Marathi as an Are language, i.e. Arya
language. Later Marathi, in Shivaji's
times imbibed many words from Persian, Arabic, Portugese and English
Maharashtra Shabdakosh (in eight
volumes edited by Y.G. Date and
C.G. Karve) has 1,12,189 words, out
of which the words from Persion-Arabic stock are 2,900 and from
European stock 1,500. The script
used for Marathi writing is the same
as Devanagari, with an additional ``L'',
old Marathi historical documents are
found in Modi script. In 1622, Father
Stephans wrote Khrista-Purana in
chaste Marathi. The language was
enriched by several writers who were
Muslims (like saint Sheikh Muhammad, the Sufi) or Rev. N.V. Tilak
(1865-1919).

\medskip
\centerline{\bf Early Literature}
\medskip

In the Yadava period, the
Ramayana, the Mahabharata and
Panchatantra were rendered into Old
Marathi. Shripati's work on astrology
Ratnamala, Mukundaraja's philosophical treatise in verse Viveka
Sindhu, in the indigenous Onvi
metre, and Paramamita, another
word on Vedanta were the earliest
works. Narendra's Nalo-pakhyana
and Rukmini-swayamvara were in
ornate and sanskritised language.
Though Marathi was called Deshi or a
Desha-bhasha in Narada-Smriti, as
Dr. Tulpule writes in the An Old
Marathi Reader, ``Marathi can be
rightly described as a re-oriented
form of its immediate predecessor
viz. Apabhramsa, with a number of
borrowed Sanskritisms. . . This linguistic
change must have synchronized with the revival of the Vedic
religion at the hands of Shankaracharya'' in the ninth century.

The Mahanubhava sect founded by
Chakradhar, a Gujarati princely
Brahmin, in 1267 A.D., had its holy
books written in cryptic scripts
(Sagala, Sundari), in prose and deal
with Krishna bhakti or the devotion to
Dattatreya, the three-headed god,
combing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva
in one, followed by four dogs (the
four Vedas). This was a sect which
deliberately flouted the upper caste
monopoly of Sanskritic learning. In
Mhai-Bhata's Lila Charitra (1286 A.D.) or in the first Marathi poetess
Mahadaisa's Dhavale songs, one
finds this script of revolt.

The other important devotional
sect was Varakari Panth. It was a
combination of the Natha Panth of Gorakhnath and the Yoga practises
of the Siddhas, combining the
worship of God in the form of Vitthala
or Vithoba, a form of Vishnu, whose
main shrine is in Pandharpur. Around
this god, both Aryan and Dravidian,
Vaishnava and Shaiva forms of
worship centred many important
saint-poets beginning with Jnanadeva or Jnaneshwara (1271-93),
who composed a remarkable classic
in verse Jnaneshwari, a comentary
on Gita in 9000 stanzas, composed
at the age of nineteen. He proclaimed
the equality of man in the eyes of
God and openly revoked against
caste tyranny and orthodoxy. He was
ostrasized and had to suffer selfimmolation as its punishment. His
Amritanubhava is another remarkable
philosophical treatise. Namdev
(1270-1350) was another great
saint-poet, tailor by caste, who composed poems in Marathi, Hindi and
Punjabi (61 of his padas are found in
Adi Granth, the Sikh scripture). In
this first wave of Bhakti poetry, there
were Visoba Khechar, a grocer;
Janabai, a maid-servant; Savanta, a
gardener; Goroba, a potter; Chokha, a
sweeper; Kanhopatra, a dancing girl;
Narhari, a goldsmith. This wave also
attracted Muslims: Shaha Muntoji
Brahmani alias Mrintunjaya, who
wrote Siddhasanketa Prabandh,
Anubhavasara and many Abhangas
in the fifteenth century.

\medskip
\centerline{\bf Medieval Literature}
\medskip

From 1350 to 1550 A.D. it was a
dark period, as wars and famine
disturbed the people. After the great
saint-poets like Eknath (1548-99)
and Tukarama (1588-1649), a number of Pandit poets followed. Eknath
wrote his Bhavartha Ramayana in
20,000 ovin stanzas. Tukarama
preached on egalitarian society, and
criticized, like Kabir, the false paradars under the name of spiritualism.
Tukarama said-

\begin{verse}
Let them bark, why imitate them

the real devotees should not believe the badmen

with all your might, expose these villains

Tuka says there is no sin, in beating
up these dupes.
\end{verse}

Mukteshwara (1608-60) translated Mahabharata, Vamana Pandita
(1615-78), Raghunath Pandita
(C-1650), Shridhar (1678-1728) and
Mayur Pandita or Moropanta
(1729-94) were the well-known
scholar poets, who were well-versed
in Sanskrit and mostly verified the
epics, on the classical lines. Now
Marathi language was highly Sanskritized and became restricted to the
Brahmanic elite class. Samartha
Ramdas Swami (1608-82), with his
Dasbodh, introduced a more virile
and forthright note and his poetry
reached to the rustics by its rhetoric.

Marathi poetry and historical prose
became more secular, realistic and
reached the masses, with the compositions of Shahirs (folk-poets) who
wrote ballads called powadas and
amorous songs called Lavanis (used
in the folk-dances and folk-plays
called Tamasha). The first famous
powada were by Agnidas and Tulsidasa mostly based on Shivaji's exploits.
Honaji Bala, Prabhakar, Sagonbhau,
Parashuram and others wrote haunting songs on earthly love. Bakhar's
were the historical records in prose,
which were written, beginning from
1697 to Sabhaasad.

\medskip
\centerline{\bf Modern Poetry}
\medskip

From the profound heights of
Jnaneshwar and theocentric poetry
of Bhakti movement, poetry became
regio-centric and fell to level of
hagiography in Shivaji and Peshwa
period. It became homo-centric and
more secular in the later 19th century
renaissance. Poetry passed through
didactic, nationalist, romantic, revolutionary and disillusioned existentialist
phases. To exemplify
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sane Guruji;
Govind
and Vinayak were the early revolutionary and patriotic poets. `Balkavi'
(T.B. Thombre 1890-1918), Narayan
Murlidhar Gupte alias Bee's (1872-1947),
Ram Ganesh Gadkari (1885-1919), Bhaskar Ramchandra Tambe
(1874-1941) and Madhav Tryambak
Patwardhan alias Madhav Julian
were good exponents of romantic
resurgence. The older idealism and
sentimentalism was lampooned by
Prahlad Keshav Atre (1898-1968)
by his collection of parodies Jhenduchi Phulen in 1925. Real modern
spirit was ushered by Keshavasut
(1866-1905) who heralded a new
dawn by his single posthumously
published collection.

Keshavasut (1866-1905), th
poetic name of Krishnaji Keshav
Damle, was the pioneer of modern
poerty. He wrote poems on 'A worker
forced to starve' in 1889, and 'The
first Question of an untouchable Boy
in 1888. He wrote in his `New Soldier'-
\begin{verse}
Who dares bind me!

I am neither a Brahmin, nor a Hindu,
nor of any sect, -

The fallen circumscribe the universal.

Insatiable my hungers

No crumbs will do.

I am not a frog in the well.
\end{verse}
B.S. Mardhekar, the other great
pioneer of modernism (1907-1956
wrote these lines after Gandhi's martyrdom in 1948:
\begin{verse}

May blast (was the mad hope)

the pious terminus of sky

or there may be terrific cracks

to the half-body of the Earth.

But nothing happened only

innumerabie elegiac words arose

Two minutes' rotten silence.

Quivered and closed on respectables!

---So said January

While going back to February

The Christian year marched

with measured steps and passed:

Let many years pass

Let the future Mahatma come

Let us introspect again

Removing from our eyes spectacles!
\end{verse}

P.S. Rege, another most significant poet wrote almost `Koans' in
verse, for example:
\begin{verse}

One word is more than two lips

Two lips than four steps

Watching all this at distance

and suffering.
\end{verse}

\medskip
\centerline{\bf Blank Verse}
\medskip

The pioneer of blank verse Atmaram Raoji Deshpande `Anil', the
progressive poet Saratchandra Muktibodh, the lyricist B.B. Borkar
passed away during last three years.
Amongst the living the older generation has Yashwant and Kusumagraj,
the nationalist poets; Indira Sant, the
poetess of tender feelings, the trio
who ushered fresh air into poetry:
Vinda Karandikar, Mangesh Padgaonkar and Vasant Bapat. While the
iconoclats like Dilip Chitre `Grace'
and Amrun Kolatkar experimented with
new frontiers of poetic imagery, the angry `Dalit' poets like Namdev
Dhasal, Daya Pawar and Kesav
Meshram trailed a new path and
exposed the sham in middle class
hypocritic society and raised much
storm of controversy. Thus Marathi
poetry passed through all the shades
and hues of the spectrum, which is
natural, in a fast-changing society
and various levels of readership response. Religious or mystic poetry is
conspicuously absent. `Howl' is the
hell raiser's lingo fairy .

\medskip
\centerline{\bf Fiction and Drama}
\medskip

The first Marathi novel was Baba
Padmanji, a Christian writer's
Yamuna-Paryatan written in 1857. The
next most important name was of the
Scott of Marathi Hari Narayan Apte
(1864-1919). Vaman Malhar Joshi
(1882-1943), the father of reflectve
novel, was followed by many who used
this genre for social reform and moral
discussion, prominent among them
were S.V. Kekkar, P.L. Deshpande,
V.S. Khandekar (1898-1976), Saneguruji (1899-1950), G.T. Madkholkar
and others. But N.S. Phadke mostly
wrote novels as `roman' and there
were several popular practitioners of
this art.
Malti Bedekar (Vibhavare Shirurkar) was the first feminist, to be
followed by Gita Sane and a host of
others. Modernist trend was set by
Bhalchandra Nemade's Kosla in the
sixtees and S.N. Pendse or G.N.
Dandekar's earlier social realistic
documentaries receded. There is
plethora of biographical novels in
Marathi, and a revival of the historical
and mythological novels is also popular. Shivaji's times, Mahabharata, lives
of great political and social revolutionaries are all a favourite fare.

Marathi people are great dramalovers. Tamil
dramatic form like Kuravanji exercised a deep infiuence on
early Marathi mythological plays. The
first play was V.A. Bhave's Sita
Swayamvar in 1841. Later Kirioskar
(1843-85) and G.B. Deval (1854-19l6) brought a romantic aroma and
social content. But Krishnaji Prabhakar
Khadilkar (1872~1948) with his banned play Kichaka-Vadh (1910) set the
trend of political playwriting. Ram
Ganesh Gadkari's plays were a rage
on the stage, with Balgandharva's
acting, for their masterly
dialogues and poetic use of language. D.V. alias
Mama Warerkar (1883 1964) and
Prahlad Keshav Atre were the dominating figures till the fiftees. They were
replaced by P.L. Deshpande and Vijay
Tendulkar, who exposed social `double talk double think' in a masterly
manner.

Almost all novelist wrote short stories. New short story was ushered
by five pioneers in the fiftees: Gangadhar Gadgil, Aravind Gokhale,
Vyankatesh Madgulkar, P.B. Bhave
and `Shantaram' (K.J. Purohit). After
these psychoanalytical and realistic
writers G.A. Kulkarni carried the genre
to its archaic and premordial form.

Other fields of prose were richly
contributed to by discursive and
polimical writings of great nationalist
leaders and editors, social reformers
and encyclopedists, literary critics and
scholars like-Krishna Shastri and
Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar (1850-82),
Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (1856-1895),
Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1907), Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(1866-1915), Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak(1856-1920),
S.M. Paranjape (1864-1929), Jotiba Phule
(1827-89), Dr Bhimrao R. Ambedkar
(1891 -1956) and Dr R.G. Bhandarkar
(1837-1925). This galaxy of scholars
at the turn of the century was followed
by a different generation consisting of
Vinoba Bhave, N.C. Kelkar, Dharmanand Kosambi, G.S. Sardesai, S.V.
Kekkar, G.S. Ghurye, Kaka Kalelkar,
Senapati Bapat, N.V. Gadgil; Chitrava
Shastri, N.R. Phatak, S.K. Kshirasagar,
K.P. Kulkarni, Prabhakar Padhye,
Kusumavati Deshpande, Iravati Karve and so on, who are no more.

\medskip
\centerline{\bf ``Beehive of Workers''}
\medskip

Amongst the living scholars Tarkatirth Laxmanshastri Joshi, the editor of
Marathi Encyclopedia; Durga Bhagwat
who translated Jatakas and Tagore;
Jayant Narlikar, the physicist; Ashok
Kelkar, the linguist, Surendra Barlinge, the philosopher; R.B. Patankar,
aesthetician; Sharad Patil, Marxist-sociologist; G .V. Tagore, thetranslator
of Puranas, S.B. Varnekar, the Sanskritist, V.V. Mirashi, the historian are
some of the names which one remembers with respect. Now is the age of
specialization and no doubt Maharashtra, which Gandhiji
called ``a beehive of workers'' has the eighty-year
old Achyut Patwardhan and S.M.
Joshi, the selfless philanthropists, like
Baba Amte and nonegerian S.A.
Dange to be proud of. In the field of
performing arts and visual-arts, one
has great names to reckon from Kumar
Gandharva, N.S. Bendre to Lata and
Smita. They have crossed the
barriers of language and region.

\medskip \hrule \medskip
\centerline{\large The End}

\medskip
\centerline{\bf by Prabhakar Machwe}
\medskip
\centerline{From INDIAN \& FOREIGN REVIEW}
\centerline{15 MARCH, 1985}

\end{document}
