Classical Language Status: Marathi

 Why the Marathi language should get Classical Language Status?

 

The Marathi language has been spoken in Maharashtra and adjoining regions for the time immemorial. It is evidenced that this language has prominently been used for independent secular and religious literature since the last 2100 years. The Marathi language fulfills the criteria of classical languages as prescribed by the central government. The report prepared by the experts was submitted to the Central Government in the year 2013; however, the demand still is pending.

The following points will clarify the position of the Marathi language.

1.     Marathi has been evolved independently from local early primordial dialects and is not offshoot of any other language like Sanskrit. This has been proven beyond doubt by eminent linguistics like Pandit Hargovind T Seth, J. Bloch, Alfred Woolner and many others.

2.     The evidenced age of Marathi is calculated from the inscriptions. Earliest inscriptions in Marathi (called as Maharashtri Prakrit) belong to the first century BC.

3.     Grammar of Marathi (Maharashtri Prakrit) “paaad Lakkhan Sutta” was written in 2^nd century BC by famous grammarian Vararuchi.

4. The tradition of independent literature goes back to the first century BC. “Gaha Satsai”, a world-famous collection of anthology compiled by King Hal Satvahana belongs to this period.

5.     The first epic on Rama’s life “Paumchariya” was written in Maharashtri Prakrit (today known as Marathi) by Vimal Suri is dated to 4 AD.

6.     Marathi was the official language of the Satvahana dynasty. The subsequent rulers and dynasties like Yadavas and Shivaji Maharaj followed the tradition uninterruptedly.

7.     From the second century BC to this date Maharashtri Prakrit, like a living language, has flowed to the present times with adjusting with the time. In every century prominent and independent literary works have been written in the Maharashtri language that have attracted the attention of the global audience.

8.     The available literature belonging to every century since 2^nd century BC to this date shows the progressive nature of the Marathi language and its uninterrupted and independent tradition.

From above it will be clear the Marathi Language deserves to receive the status of the classical language for its being independent and proven to be having the rich literary tradition of 2200 years.