Bal Thackeray, was an Indian politician who founded the Shiv Sena, a right-wing pro-Marathi and Hindu nationalist party active mainly in the state of Maharashtra.
Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the de facto financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-most populous city in India after Delhi and the eighth-most populous city in the world with a population of roughly 2 crore. As per the Indian government population census of 2011, Mumbai was the most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 1.25 crore (12.5 million) living under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 2.3 crore. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. It has the highest number of millionaires and billionaires among all cities in India. Mumbai is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Elephanta Caves, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and the city's distinctive ensemble of Victorian and Art Deco buildings designed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and a co-official language in Goa state and the territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with 83 million speakers as of 2011. Marathi ranks 10th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world. Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali. The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages. The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect.
Maharashtra is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdivision globally. It was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State, which had existed since 1956, into majority Marathi-speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati-speaking Gujarat. Maharashtra is home to the Marathi people, the predominant ethno-linguistic group, who speak the Marathi language, the official language of the state. The state is divided into 6 divisions and 36 districts, with the state capital being Mumbai, the most populous urban area in India, and Nagpur serving as the winter capital, which also hosts the winter session of the state legislature. Godavari and Krishna are the two major rivers in the state. Forests cover 16.47 per cent of the state's geographical area. Out of the total cultivable land in the state, about 60 per cent is used for grain crops in the Deccan region, rice in coastal Konkan, and other high rainfall areas.
Shivaji Bhonsale I, also referred to as, Chhatrapati Shivaji, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire. In 1674, he was formally crowned the Chhatrapati of his realm at Raigad Fort.
Sambhaji Bhosale was the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire, ruling from 1681 to 1689. He was the eldest son of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire. Sambhaji's rule was largely shaped by the ongoing wars between the Maratha Empire and the Mughal Empire, as well as other neighbouring powers such as the Siddis, Mysore and the Portuguese in Goa. After Sambhaji's death, his brother Rajaram I succeeded him as the next Chhatrapati.
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai and a few other minor language families and isolates. India has the world's fourth highest number of languages (447), after Nigeria (524), Indonesia (710) and Papua New Guinea (840).
Marathi literature is the body of literature of Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and written in the Devanagari and Modi script.
Bhil or Bheel are an Adivasi Dravidian influenced ethnic group in West India. They speak the Bhil languages, currently a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages. As of 2013, Bhils were the largest tribal group in India.
Navakal is a Marathi daily newspaper. It is based in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Its owner editor is Nilkanth Khadilkar. Robin Jeffery has called Khadilkar one of the most remarkable and self-reliant owners of small newspapers. In the context of pre-independence Mumbai, it has been described as a Congress paper, contemporarily it has been considered to be aligned with the Shiv Sena. In 1999 Nava Kaal had a circulation share of 8% and a readership share of 27% for all of Maharashtra, in the 1950s Nava Kaal's circulation under Nilkanth Khadilkar's father had fallen to 800 and the paper was nearly closed.
Mastani was the daughter of Chhatrasal and Ruhani Bai Begum. She was the second wife of the Maratha Peshwa Baji Rao I. Her relationship within the Maratha Brahmin family has been subject of both admiration and controversy and well adapted in Indian novels and cinema.
Rajaram Bhosle I was the third Chhatrapati of Maratha Empire, who ruled from 1689 to his death in 1700. He was the second son of the Shivaji, the founder of the empire and younger half-brother of Sambhaji, who he succeeded. His eleven-year reign was marked with a constant struggle against the Mughals. He was succeeded by his infant son Shivaji II under the regentship of his widow Tarabai.
The Marathi people or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a Marathi-speaking state of India in 1960, as part of a nationwide linguistic reorganization of the Indian states. The term "Maratha" is generally used by historians to refer to all Marathi-speaking peoples, irrespective of their caste. At present, however, it also refers to a Maharashtrian caste known as the Maratha.
Maharani Soyarabai Bhosale(née Mohite) was one of the eight wives of Shivaji, the founder of Maratha empire in western India. She was mother of Shivaji's second son, Rajaram. She was the younger sister of Maratha army chief Hambirrao Mohite. She was executed in 1681, after she failed to dethrone Sambhaji, her stepson, and the elder son of Shivaji.
Maha Bhakta vijaya is a Marathi text by Mahipati around 1762 that extols the deeds of the saint-poets of the Varkari sect of Hinduism. It has been translated into various languages in India and is widely read. It forms an important part of the prayer for devotees of Vithoba at Pandharpur. An English translation was published under the provisions of the will of Justin E. Abbott in 1933.
Loksatta (Lōksattā) is a Marathi daily newspaper in Maharashtra, India. It is published by The Indian Express Group and was launched on 14 January 1948. Loksatta is published out of Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Palghar, Ahmednagar, Amravati, Aurangabad and Nashik.
Hindusthan Samachar is the first multilingual news agency in India subscribed by more than 200 newspapers and almost all the news channels including Door Darshan (DD). It was set up in 1948 by S. S. Apte, offering its services in 10 languages: Bengali, Odia, Assamese, Telugu, Malayalam, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi. In 1951 the Government of Bihar subscribed to the Hindustan Samachar, followed by many states in India. All India Radio and Radio Nepal were once subscribers. A year after a state of emergency was declared in India in 1975, Hindustan Samachar was merged with Press Trust of India, United News of India and Samachar Bharati to form the media monopoly Samachar.
Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India. It is India's second-most populous state and third-largest state by area.The region that comprises the state has a long history dating back to ca. 1300–700 BCE, although the present-day state was not established until 1960 CE.
Suniti Ashok Deshpande, was an Indian educator, writer, translator and interpreter, best known for her work on spreading the Russian language and culture in India.
Marathi Buddhists are Buddhists of Marathi ethnic and linguistic identity. The religious community resides in the Indian state of Maharashtra. They speak Marathi as their mother-tongue. The Marathi Buddhist community is the largest Buddhist community in India. According to the 2011 Indian census, Marathi Buddhists constitute 5.81% of the population in Maharashtra, which is 77% of the total Buddhist population in India.
