|
The Marathi people or Maharashtrians
are an
Indo-Aryan
ethnic group, that inhabit the
Maharashtra
region and state of western
India. Their
language
Marathi is part
of the southern group of
Indo-Aryan languages.
Although their history goes back more than a millennium, the community
came to prominence when
Maratha
warriors under Shivaji Maharaj
established the
Maratha Empire
in
1674.
Ethnonym
The Marathi people are also known as Maharashtrians.
The whole community was called Maratha or Marathe
(plural of Maratha) between the 17th and 19th centuries.
However, at the beginning of 20th century, due to the efforts of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, the peasant
Marathi class called
Kunbi started
using the word
Maratha to
describe themselves. So that in current usage, the term Maratha
applies mainly to the group mentioned before rather than the wider
Marathi community. In the Marathi language, they refer to themselves
as marathi manoos. They are called Marathi people because of
the language they speak,
Marathi.
Religion
The majority of Marathi people are
Hindus.
Although Krishna in the form of Vithal
is the most popular deity amongst Marathi Hindus, they also worship
the Shiva Family deities such as
Shankar &
Parvati
under various names and also Ganesh. The
Warkari
tradition holds strong grip on local
Hindus of
Maharastra. The
public
Ganesh festival
started by Lokmanya Tilak in the late
1900s is still very popular. Marathi Hindus also revere
Bhakti saints
of all castes, such as Dnyaneshwar
(Brahmin),
Tukaram (Moray
Maratahi-Kunbi), Namdev
(Shimpi-Artsian,Vaishya) and
Chokhamela (Mahar).
There are also significant minorities of
Muslims,
Christians and
Neo-Buddhists.
The
Neo-Buddhists
are followers of
Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Marathi Muslims belong mostly to the Sufi
tradition. Visiting the tombs of Sufi saints is very important to this
community. Hindus also visit these tombs in great numbers, especially
during the annual Urus. There is also a 3000 strong community of
Marathi
Jews, popularly
known as Bene Israel Most of the rest
have migrated to Israel. Before the migration this community numbered
at least 90,000.
|
