
Under the Muslim rule, Marathi got slightly Persianized.

Some of the most popular works include Dnyaneshwar’s ‘Dnyaneshwari’ (an essay on Bhagavat Gita) and Eknath’s ‘Eknathi Bhagavat’ and ‘Bharud’. His works were devoted to God Vishnu (or, Vitthala). However, it was Tukaram who metamorphosed Marathi into a lush literary language.

However, there was still no sign of literature. These records tell us that Marathi was used as a written language in the 12th century. These also included a land-grant (1118 CE) which was found in Shravanabelagola and was written by the Hoysalas. Few other inscriptions in Marathi were also uncovered under the Shilahara dynasty. It is a stone epitaph that was found in Akshi, situated in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. The earliest inscription that was written entirely in Marathi dates back to 1012 CE (when the Shilaharas ruled). However, these texts were supplemented with either Sanskrit or Kannada. Thereafter, several inscriptions were discovered in the latter half of the 11th century. Marathi language was first sighted in 739 CE, on a copper-plated inscription.

It is believed that many centuries ago, ‘Ratta’ or the Dravidian natives resided in present-day Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. These included Ardhamagadhi, Magadhi, Shauraseni, Gandhari, and Maharashtri. There were about 21 prakrits, spoken across the country. With time, Sanskrit degenerated into several ‘Prakrits’ which were basically corrupt forms of the Sanskrit language. Indo-Aryan (or, Vedic Sanskrit) is one of the most ancient languages of India. Indo-Aryan (or, Vedic Sanskrit) derived from the Indo-Iranian language group which in turn branched out of the Indo-European family of languages. Marathi is the southern most Indo-Aryan language.

Though there are several dialects of the language spoken across the country, the two main dialects are Standard Marathi and Varhadi. In fact, Marathi has a strong influence on other Indian languages such as Konkani and Koli. This gender-inclusive language, blusters other modern Indian languages since its literature (especially ‘saint-literature’) dates as far back as 900 AD (approximately). One of the 22 scheduled languages of India, Marathi boasts of about 83 million speakers and is rated as the 3rd highest language to have the most number of native speakers. This is the best ever tool to convert your English Typing to Marathi. You just have to type something in English, then press space. You can easily type in Marathi online using this website. Want to write in Marathi online? This is the best website to do so.
