HISTORY OF MAHARASHTRIAN LITERATURE

The history of Marathi language can be traced back to the 8th century,

the earliest extant written work appeared only in the 11th century .

The Marathi literature can be grouped into two ages: Ancient or Old

Marathi literature (1000-1800 A.D.) and Modern Marathi Literature

(1800 onwards).
 OLD MARATHI LITERATURE (1000-1800 A.D.)

• The early Marathi literature emerged during the Seuna (Yadava) rule,

• The early Marathi literature was mostly religious and philosophical in

nature, and was composed by the saint-poets belonging to Mahanubhava
and Warkari sects.

• During the reign of the last three Yadava kings, a great deal of literature in
verse and prose, on astrology, medicine, Puranas, Vedanta, kings and
courtiers were created. Nalopakhyana, Rukminiswayamvara and Shripati's
Jyotisharatnamala (1039) are a few examples.
Authors of Ancient Marathi
Literature
Dnyaneshwar
 Dnyandeo Vitthalpant Kulkarni
Born Dnyaneshwar Janmashtami, 1275 CE
Apegaon, Yadava dynasty
(present-day Paithan Taluka, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India)

Date of death 1296

Place of death Alandi

Religion Hinduism

Parents •Vitthala Pant (father)

•Rukmini Bai (mother)

Philosophy VarkariAdvaita,

Guru Nivruttinath (elder brother)

Literary works Dnyaneshwari, Amrutanubhav, Changdev Paasashti, Haripath, abhang devotional poetry

[1]
Honors Sant (Saint), Dev (God) and Māulī (Mother)
• Sant Dnyaneshwar, also referred to as Jnaneshwar, Jnanadeva,
Dnyandev or Mauli or Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni, was a 13th-
century Indian Marathi saint, poet, philosopher and yogi of the
Nath Vaishnava tradition.

• In his short life of 21 years, he authored Dnyaneshwari and

Amrutanubhav.
 Literary works
According to B. P. Bahirat, Dnyaneshwar was the first known philosopher who
wrote in the Marathi language.At about age 16, he composed Dnyaneshwari in the
year 1290, a commentary on Bhagavad Gita which later became a fundamental
text of the Varkari sect.[52] His words were recorded by Sacchidananda, who
Dnyaneshwari
agreed to become Dnyaneshwar's amanuensis.[30] Dnyaneshwari was written
using the Ovi; a metre, which was first used to compose women's songs in
Maharashtra, of four lines where the first three or the first and third lines rhyme
and the fourth line has a sharp and short ending

On advise from his guru, Nivruttinath, Dnyaneshwar created an original work to

state his experiences in yoga and philosophy. Although the work did not achieve
Amrutanubhav as much fame as the Dnyaneshwari, it is still considered as one of the most
important ones in Marathi literature. This work was to be Dnyaneshwar's last as
he soon announced his intention to take on the state of a Sanjeevan Samadhi
 QUOTES
“O, God! Thou art Ganesha, the
illuminator of all intelligence. The
servant of Nivritti says, attend to my
story. The Vedas in their perfection is as
the beautiful image of the god, of which
the flawless words are the resplendent
body. The Smritis are the limbs thereof,
the marking of verses shows their
structure, and in the meaning lies a
veritable treasure-house of beauty.”
-Dnyaneshwar
“Like a good farmer giving up his old
business and beginning something new
every day, the man overpowered by
ignorance installs images of gods, often
and again and worships them with the
same intensity. He becomes the disciple of
the guru who is surrounded by worldly
pomp, gets initiated by him and is
unwilling to see any other person who has
got real spiritual dignity. He is cruel to
every being, worships various stone images
and has no consistency of heart."
—Dnyaneshwar
Namdev
 Namdev
• Namdev, leading poet-saint of the Indian medieval period, who wrote in
the Marathi language.

• Namdev was the son of a tailor and thus of low caste. According both to
his somewhat hagiographical biography (composed some three centuries
after his death) and to information gleaned from his sometimes
autobiographical poems, he was a member of a gang as a youth, but he
was overcome with remorse one day on hearing the lamentations of a
woman whose husband he had killed. Following a vision of the god Vishnu,
Namdev turned to a life of devotion and became the foremost exponent of
the Varkari Panth (“Pilgrims’ Path”). The school is known for its expression
of bhakti (devotion) and for its freedom from caste restrictions in a
religious setting.
 LITERARY WORKS
• Namdev's work is known for abhangs, a genre of hymn poetry in India.[7] His
poems were transmitted from one generation to the next within singing families,
and memory was the only recording method in the centuries that followed
Namdev's death.[38] The repertoires grew, because the artists added new songs
to their repertoire. The earliest surviving manuscripts of songs attributed to
Namdev, from these singing families, are traceable to the 17th century.[39] A
diverse collection of these manuscripts exist, which have been neither compiled
nor archived successfully in a single critical edition.[28][40] The state
Government of Maharashtra made an effort and compiled Namdev's work from
various manuscripts into the Sri Namdev Gatha in 1970.
 TUKARAM
Tukaram Bolhoba Ambile
Either 1598 or 1608
Born
Dehu, near Pune
Maharashtra, India

Died Either 1649 or 1650 in Dehu

Religion Hinduism

Abhanga devotional poetry,

Known for
Marathi poet-sant of Bhakti movement

Dharma names Sant Tukaram

Order Varkari tradition

Guru Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Literary works Tukaram Gatha

• Tukaram was born in modern-day Maharashtra state of India. His complete name was Tukaram Bolhoba Ambile. The

year of birth and death of sant Tukaram has been a subject of research and dispute among 20th-century scholars. He

was either born in the year 1598 or 1608 in a village named Dehu, near Pune in Maharashtra, India.

• Sant Tukaram was born to Kanakai and Bolhoba More and scholars consider his family to belong to the KunbI caste.

Tukaram's family owned a retailing and money-lending business as well as were engaged in agriculture and trade. His

parents were devotees of Vithoba, an avatar of Hindu deity Vishnu (Vaishnavas). Both his parents died when Tukaram

was a teenager.

Tukaram Gatha

Tukaram Gatha is a Marathi language compilation of his works, likely

composed between 1632 and 1650. Also called Abhanga Gatha, the
Indian tradition believes it includes some 4,500 abhangas.
 RAMDAS

Born Narayan Suryajipanta Thosar

1608
Jamb, Jalna district, Maharashtra, India

Died 1681

Religion Hinduism

Philosophy Vaishnavism, Bhakti Yoga, Advaitha

Literary works Dasbodh, Manobodh, Aatmaram, Manache Shlok,

• Ramdas or previously Narayan was born at Jamb, a village in present-day Jalna district, Maharashtra on
the occasion of Rama Navami, probably in 1608. He was born into a Marathi Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin
family to Suryajipanta and Ranubai Thosar. His father was a devotee of Surya, the Vedic solar deity.
Ramdas had an elder brother named Gangadhar. His father died when Narayan was around seven years of
age. It is believed that Narayan turned into an introvert after the demise of his father and was often
noticed to be engrossed in thoughts about the divine.

• According to legend, Narayan fled his wedding ceremony upon hearing a pundit chant the word
'Saavdhan' (Beware!) during a customary Hindu wedding ritual. Then at the age of twelve, he is believed to
have walked to Panchavati, a Hindu pilgrimage town near Nashik. He later moved to Taakli near Nashik.
At Taakli, he spent the next twelve years probably between 1621 and 1633 as an ascetic in complete
devotion to Rama. During this period, he adhered to a rigorous daily routine and devoted most of his
time to meditation, worship and exercise. He is thought to have attained enlightenment at the age of 24.
He adopted the name Ramdas probably around this period. He later had an idol of Hanuman installed at
Taakli and he was devotee of both Rama and Hanuman.
 LITERARY WORKS
• Manache shlok|Manache Shlok (co-written by Kalyan Swami)
• Dasbod
• Shree Maruti Stotra
• Aatmaaram
• 11-Laghu Kavita
• Shadripu Nirupan
• Maan Panchak
• Chaturthmaan
• Raamayan (Marathi-Teeka)
Shridhar
 Shridhar
• Shridhar Brahmanand Nazarekar; (CE 1658-1729),

popularly known as Shridhar Swami Nazarekar or

Shridhar Pandit, was a popular Marathi Akhyanaka

(narrative) poet and philosopher who wrote several

caritra granthas in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Shridhara was a puranik, that is one who recite stories

from Puranas. Later he began to compose works

himself in a simple devotional style, and were not only

extremely popular, but were revered and worshipped

like sacred texts.

 Literary works

• Shridhar Swami is famous for composing works in a simple devotional style. His popularity

cuts across all castes because of his simplicity of style, narrative power and devotional

sentiment. He took known stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and narrated them with

moral teaching and Vedantic philosophy. The Harivijaya, RamVijaya, Shivlilamrut,

PandavaPratap, and the AmbikaUdaya are his major works.[7] His other works include Vedanta-

surya, a philosophical text, Panduranga Mahatmya and Venkatesh Mahatmya

 Shridhar Swami Nazarekar
Native name Shridhar Brahmanand Nazarekar
Born 1658
Nazare, Solapur district, Maharashtra
Died 1729
Pandharpur, Solapur district, Maharashtra
Occupation Poet
Nationality Indian
Notable works •Harivijaya
•RamVijaya
•PandavaPratap
Relatives •Father: Brahmananda Kadke
MODERN MARATHI LITERATURE (1800
onwards).
• The Modern Period can be divided into four ages. The
first period starts from 1800 to 1885, the second from
1885 to 1920, the third from 1921 to 1945, and the last
from 1946 to the present.

Here are some of the Poets and Authors

from Modern Marathi Literature.
 Keshavasuta
Keshavasuta (1866-1905) is credited with the launching of
the Modern Marathi poetry movement in 1885.
Born: 15 March 1866, India
Died: 7 November 1905, Hubli
Full name: Krishnaji Keshav Damle

Literary work: Sampurṇa Kesavasuta

Bal Gangadhara Tilak
• Bal Gangadhara Tilak was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence
activist. He was one third of the Lal Bal Pal triumvirate.Tilak was the first
leader of the Indian independence movement. The British colonial authorities
called him "The father of the Indian unrest." He was also conferred with the
title of "Lokmanya", which means "accepted by the people [as their leader]".
Mahatma Gandhi called him "The Maker of Modern India".

• Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of Swaraj ("self-rule") and a
strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote in Marathi:
"Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!". He formed a close alliance with
many Indian National Congress leaders including Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat
Rai, Aurobindo Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
 Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak

23 July 1856
Ratnagiri district, Bombay Presidency, British India (present-day Maharashtra, India)

Died 1 August 1920 (aged 64)

Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (present-day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)

Occupation Author, politician, freedom fighter

Political party Indian National Congress
Movement Indian Independence movement
Spouse(s) Satyabhamabai Tilak
Children 3
TARABAI SHINDE
• Tarabai Shinde (1850–1910)was a feminist activist who protested patriarchy

and caste in 19th century India. She is known for her published work, Stri

Purush Tulana ("A Comparison Between Women and Men"), originally

published in Marathi in 1882. The pamphlet is a critique of upper-caste

patriarchy, and is often considered the first modern Indian feminist text. It was

very controversial for its time in challenging the Hindu religious scriptures

themselves as a source of women's oppression, a view that continues to be

controversial and debated today. She was a member of Satyashodhak Samaj.

 Tarabai Shinde
Born 1850
Buldhana, Berar Province, British India.(Currently
in Maharashtra)

Died 1910 (aged 59–60)

Nationality Indian

Occupation feminist, women's rights activist, writer

Notable work Stri Purush Tulana (A Comparison Between Women

and Men) (1882)