MARAT

marat, jean paul (1743-1793), french revolutionary leader, eldest child of jean paul marat, a native of cagliari in sardinia, and louise cabrol of geneva, was born at boudry, in the principality of neuchatel, on the 24th of may 1743. his father was a designer, who had abandoned his country and his religion, and married a swiss protestant. on his mother's death in 1759 marat set out on his travels, and spent two years at bordeaux in the study of medicine, whence he moved to paris, where he made use of his knowledge of his two favourite sciences, optics and electricity, to subdue an obstinate disease of the eyes. after some years in paris he went to holland, and then on to london, where he practised his profession. in 1773 he made his first appearance as an author with a _philosophical essay on man_. the book shows a wonderful knowledge of english, french, german, italian and spanish philosophers, and directly attacks helvetius, who had in his _de l'esprit_ declared a knowledge of science unnecessary for a philosopher. marat declares that physiology alone can solve the problems of the connexion between soul and body, and proposes the existence of a nervous fluid as the true solution. in 1774 he published _the chains of slavery_, which was intended to influence constituencies to return popular members, and reject the king's friends. its author declared later that it procured him an honorary membership of the patriotic societies of carlisle, berwick and newcastle. he remained devoted to his profession, and in 1775 published in london a little _essay on gleets_, and in amsterdam a french translation of the first two volumes of his _essay on man_. in this year he visited edinburgh, and on the recommendation of certain edinburgh physicians was made an m. d. of st andrews. on his return to london he published an _enquiry into the nature, cause, and cure of a singular disease of the eyes_, with a dedication to the royal society. in the same year there appeared the third volume of the french edition of the _essay on man_, which reached ferney, and exasperated voltaire, by its onslaught on helvetius, into a sharp attack which only made the young author more conspicuous. his fame as a clever doctor was now great, and on the 24th of june 1777, the comte d'artois, afterwards charles x. of france, made him by brevet physician to his guards with 2000 livres a year and allowances. marat was soon in great request as a court doctor among the aristocracy; and even brissot, in his _memoires_, admits his influence in the scientific world of paris. the next years were much occupied with scientific work, especially the study of heat, light and electricity, on which he presented memoirs to the academie des sciences, but the academicians were horrified at his temerity in differing from newton, and, though acknowledging his industry, would not receive him among them. his experiments greatly interested benjamin franklin, who used to visit him and goethe always regarded his rejection by the academy as a glaring instance of scientific despotism. in 1780 he had published at neuchatel a _plan de legislation criminelle_, founded on the principles of beccaria. in april 1786 he resigned his court appointment. the results of his leisure were in 1787 a new translation of newton's _optics_, and in 1788 his _memoires academiques, ou nouvelles decouvertes sur la lumiere_. his scientific life was now over, his political life was to begin; in the notoriety of that political life his great scientific and philosophical knowledge was to be forgotten, the high position he had given up denied, and he himself scoffed at as an ignorant charlatan, who had sold quack medicines about the streets of paris, and been glad to earn a few sous in the stables of the comte d'artois. in 1788 the notables had met, and advised the assembling of the states-general. the elections were the cause of a flood of pamphlets, of which one, _offrande a la patrie_, was by marat, and, though now forgotten, dwelt on much the same points as the famous brochure of the abbe sieyes: _qu'est-ce que le tiers etat?_ when the states-general met, marat's interest was as great as ever, and in june 1789 he published a supplement to his _offrande_, followed in july by _la constitution_, in which he embodies his idea of a constitution for france, and in september by his _tableau des vices de la constitution d'angleterre_, which he presented to the assembly. the latter alone deserves remark. the assembly was at this time full of anglomaniacs, who desired to establish in france a constitution similar to that of england. marat had seen that england was at this time being ruled by an oligarchy using the forms of liberty, which, while pretending to represent the country, was really being gradually mastered by the royal power. his heart was now all in politics; and he decided to start a paper. at first appeared a single number of the _moniteur patriote_, followed on the 12th of september by the first number of the _publiciste parisien_, which on the 16th of september took the title of _l'ami du peuple_ and which he edited, with some interruptions, until the 21st of september 1792. the life of marat now becomes part of the history of the french revolution. from the beginning to the end he stood alone. he was never attached to any party; the tone of his mind was to suspect whoever was in power. about his paper, the incarnation of himself, the first thing to be said is that the man always meant what he said; no poverty, no misery or persecution, could keep him quiet; he was perpetually crying, "nous sommes trahis." whoever suspected any one had only to denounce him to the _ami du peuple_, and the denounced was never let alone till he was proved innocent or guilty. marat began by attacking the most powerful bodies in paris--the constituent assembly, the ministers, the corps municipal, and the court of the chatelet. denounced and arrested, he was imprisoned from the 8th of october to the 5th of november 1789. a second time, owing to his violent campaign against lafayette, he narrowly escaped arrest and had to flee to london (jan. 1790). there he wrote his _denonciation contre necker_, and in may dared to return to paris and continue the _ami du peuple_. he was embittered by persecution, and continued his vehement attacks against all in power, and at last, after the day of the champs du mars (july 17, 1790), against the king himself. all this time he was in hiding in cellars and sewers, where he was attacked by a horrible skin disease, tended only by the woman simonne evrard, who remained true to him. the end of the constituent assembly he heard of with joy and with bright hopes for the future, soon dashed by the behaviour of the legislative assembly. when almost despairing, in december 1791, he fled once more to london, where he wrote his _ecole du citoyen_. in april 1792, summoned again by the cordeliers' club, he returned to paris, and published no. 627 of the _ami_. the war was now the question, and marat saw clearly that it was to serve the purposes of the royalists and the girondins, who thought of themselves alone. again denounced, marat had to remain in hiding until the 10th of august. the early days of the war being unsuccessful, the proclamation of the duke of brunswick excited all hearts; who could go to save france on the frontiers and leave paris in the hands of his enemies? marat, like danton, foresaw the massacres of september. after the events of the 10th of august he took his seat at the commune, and demanded a tribunal to try the royalists in prison. no tribunal was formed, and the massacres in the prisons were the inevitable result. in the elections to the convention, marat was elected seventh out of the twenty-four deputies for paris, and for the first time took his seat in an assembly of the nation. at the declaration of the republic, he closed his _ami du peuple_, and commenced, on the 25th, a new paper, the _journal de la republique francaise_, which was to contain his sentiments as its predecessor had done, and to be always on the watch. in the assembly marat had no party; he would always suspect and oppose the powerful, refuse power for himself. after the battle of valmy, dumouriez was the greatest man in france; he could almost have restored the monarchy; yet marat did not fear to denounce him in placards as a traitor. his unpopularity in the assembly was extreme, yet he insisted on speaking on the question of the king's trial, declared it unfair to accuse louis for anything anterior to his acceptance of _the_ constitution, and though implacable towards the king, as the one man who must die for the people's good, he would not allow malesherbes, the king's counsel, to be attacked in his paper, and speaks of him as a "sage et respectable vieillard." the king dead, the months from january to may 1793 were spent in an unrelenting struggle between marat and the girondins. marat despised the ruling party because they had suffered nothing for the republic, because they talked too much of their feelings and their antique virtue, because they had for their own virtues plunged the country into war; while the girondins hated marat as representative of that rough red republicanism which would not yield itself to a roman republic, with themselves for tribunes, orators and generals. the girondins conquered at first in the convention, and ordered that marat should be tried before the revolutionary tribunal. but their victory ruined them, for on the 24th of april marat was acquitted, and returned to the convention with the people at his back. the fall of the girondins on the 31st of may was a triumph for marat. but it was his last. the skin disease he had contracted in the subterranean haunts was rapidly closing his life; he could only ease his pain by sitting in a warm bath, where he wrote his journal, and accused the girondins, who were trying to raise france against paris. sitting thus on the 13th of july he heard in the evening a young woman begging to be admitted to see him, saying that she brought news from caen, where the escaped girondins were trying to rouse normandy. he ordered her to be admitted, asked her the names of the deputies then at caen, and, after writing their names, said, "they shall be soon guillotined," when the young girl, whose name was charlotte corday (q.v.), stabbed him to the heart. his death caused a great commotion at paris. the convention attended his funeral, and placed his bust in the hall where it held its sessions. louis david painted "marat assassinated," and a veritable cult was rendered to the friend of the people, whose ashes were transferred to the pantheon with great pomp on the 21st of september 1794--to be cast out again in virtue of the decree of the 8th of february 1795. marat's name was long an object of execration on account of his insistence on the death penalty. he stands in history as a bloodthirsty monster, yet in judging him one must remember the persecutions he endured and the terrible disease from which he suffered. besides the works mentioned above, marat wrote: _recherches physiques sur l'electricite, &c._ (1782); _recherches sur l'electricite medicale_ (1783); _notions elementaires d'optique_ (1764); _lettres de l'observateur bon sens a m. de m. ... sur la fatale catastrophe des infortunes pilatre de rozier et romain, les aeronautes et l'aerostation_ (1785); _observations de m. l'amateur avec a m. l'abbe sans ... &c._, (1785); _eloge de montesquieu_ (1785), published 1883 by m. de bresetz; _les charlatans modernes, ou lettres sur le charlatanisme academique_ (1791); _les aventures du comte potowski_ (published in 1847 by paul lacroix, the "bibliophile jacob"); _lettres polonaises_ (unpublished). marat's works were published by a. vermorel, _oeuvres de j. p. marat, l'ami du peuple, recueillies et annotees_ (1869). two of his tracts, (1) _on gleets_, (2) _a disease of the eyes_, were reprinted, ed. j. b. bailey, in 1891. see a. vermorel, _jean paul marat_ (1880); francois chevremont, _marat: esprit politique, accomp. de sa vie_ (2 vols., 1880); auguste cabanes, _marat inconnu_ (1891); a. bougeait, _marat, l'ami du peuple_ (2 vols., 1865); m. tourneux, _bibliographie de l'histoire de paris pendant la revolution francaise_ (vol. ii., 1894; vol. iv., 1906), and e. b. bax, j. p. marat (1900). _the correspondance de marat_ has been edited with notes by c. villay (1908). (r. a.*) marathi (properly _marathi_),[1] the name of an important indo-aryan language spoken in western and central india. in 1901 the number of speakers was 18,237,899, or about the same as the population of spain. marathi occupies an irregular triangular area of approximately 100,000 sq.m., having its apex about the district of balaghat in the central provinces, and for its base the western coast of the peninsula from daman on the gulf of cambay in the north to karwar on the open arabian sea in the south. it covers parts of two provinces of british india--bombay and the central provinces (including berar)--with numerous settlers in central india and madras, and is also the principal language of portuguese india and of the north-western portion of his highness the nizam's dominions. the standard form of speech is that of poona in bombay, and, in its various dialects it covers the larger part of that province, in which it is the vernacular of more than eight and a half millions of people. as explained in the article indo-aryan languages, there were in ancient times two main groups of these forms of speech--one, the language of the midland, spoken in the country near the gangetic doab, and the other, the languages of the so-called "outer band," containing the midland on three sides, west, east and south. the country to the south of the midland, in which members of this outer group of languages were formerly spoken, included the modern rajputana and gujarat, and extended to the basin of the river nerbudda, being bounded on the south by the vindhya hills. in the course of time the population of the midland expanded, and gradually occupied this tract, reaching the sea in gujarat. the language of the outer band was thus forced farther afield. its speakers crossed the vindhyas and settled in the central plateau of the deccan and on the konkan coast. here they came into contact with speakers of the dravidian languages of southern india. as happened elsewhere in india, they retained their own aryan tongue, and gradually through the influence of their superior civilization imposed it upon the aborigines, so that all the inhabitants of this tract became the ancestors of the speakers of modern marathi. in rajputana and gujarat the language (see gujarat) is to a certain extent mixed. near the original midland there are few traces of the outer language, but as we go farther and farther away from that centre we find, as might be expected, the influence of the midland language becoming weaker and weaker, and traces of the outer language becoming more and more evident, until in gujarati we recognize several important survivals of the old language once spoken by the earlier aryan inhabitants. _dialects._--besides the standard form of speech, there is only one real dialect of marathi, viz. konkani (konkani), spoken in the country near goa. there are also several local varieties, and we may conveniently distinguish between the marathi of the deccan, that of the central provinces (including berar), and that of the northern and central konkan. in the southern part of the district of ratnagiri this latter konkani variety of marathi gradually merges into the true konkani dialect through a number of intermediate forms of speech. there are also several broken jargones, based upon marathi, employed by aboriginal tribes surviving in the hill country. _relations with other indo-aryan languages._--marathi has to its north, in order from west to east, gujarati, rajasthani, western hindi and eastern hindi. to its east and south it has the dravidian languages, gondi, telugu and kanarese. elsewhere in india aryan languages gradually fade away into each other, so that it is impossible to fix any definite boundary line between them. but this is not the case with marathi. it does not merge into any of the cognate neighbouring forms of speech, but possesses a distinct linguistic frontier. a native writer[2] says: "the gujarati language agrees very closely with the languages of the countries lying to the north of it, because the gujarati people came from the north. if a native of delhi, ajmere, marwar, mewar, jaipur, &c., comes into gujarat, the gujarati people find no difficulty in understanding his language. but it is very wonderful that when people from countries bordering gujarat on the south, as the konkan, maharashtra, &c. (i.e. people speaking marathi) come to gujarat, the gujarati people do not in the least comprehend what they say." this isolated character of marathi is partly due to the barrier of the vindhya range which lies to its north, and partly to the fact that none of the northern languages belongs now to the outer band, but are in more or less close relationship to the language of the midland. there was no common ground either physical or linguistic, upon which the colliding forms of speech could meet on equal terms. eastern hindi is more closely related to marathi than the others, and in its case, in its bordering dialects, we do find a few traces of the influence of marathi--traces which are part of the essence of the language, and not mere borrowed waifs floating on the top of a sea of alien speech and not absorbed by it. _written character._--marathi books are generally printed in the well-known nagari character (see sanskrit), and this is also used to a great extent in private transactions and correspondence. in the maratha country it is known as the _balbodh_ ("teachable to children," i.e. "easy") character. a cursive form of nagari called _modi_, or "twisted," is also employed as a handwriting. it is said to have been invented in the 17th century by balaji avaji, the secretary of the celebrated sivaji. its chief merit is that each word can be written as a whole without lifting the pen from the paper, a feat which is impossible in the case of nagari.[3] _origin of the language._--the word "marathi" signifies (the language) of the maratha country. it is the modern form of the sanskrit _maharastri_, just as "maratha" represents the old _maha-rastra_, or great kingdom. _maharastri_ was the name given by sanskrit writers to the particular form of prakrit spoken in maharastra, the great aryan kingdom extending southwards from the vindhya range to the kistna, broadly corresponding to the southern part of the bombay presidency and to the state of hyderabad. as pointed out in the article prakrit this maharastri early obtained literary pre-eminence in india, and became the form of prakrit employed as the language not only of lyric poetry but also of the formal epic (_kavya_). dramatic works were composed in it, and it was the vehicle of the non-canonical scriptures of the jaina religion. the oldest work in the language of which we have any knowledge is the _sattasai_, or seven centuries of verses, compiled at pratisthana, on the godavari, the capital of king hala, at some time between the 3rd and 7th centuries a.d. pratisthana is the modern paithan in the aurangabad district of hyderabad, and that city was for long famous as a centre of literary composition. in later times the political centre of gravity was changed to poona, the language of which district is now accepted as the standard of the best marathi. _general character of the language._--in the following account of the main features of marathi, the reader is presumed to be familiar with the leading facts stated in the articles indo-aryan languages and prakrit. in the prakrit stage of the indo-aryan languages we can divide the prakrits into two well-defined groups, an inner, sauraseni and its connected dialects on the one hand, and an outer, maharastri, ardhamagadhi, and magadhi with their connected dialects on the other. these two groups differed in their phonetic laws, in their systems of declension and conjugation, in vocabulary, and in general character.[4] in regard to the last point reference may be made to the frequent use of meaningless suffixes, such as -_alla_, -_illa_, -_ulla_, &c., which can be added, almost _ad libitum_ to any noun, adjective or particle in maharastri and ardhamagadhi, but which are hardly ever met in sauraseni. these give rise to numerous secondary forms of words, used, it might be said, in a spirit of playfulness, which give a distinct flavour to the whole language. similarly the late mr beames (_comparative grammar_, i. 103) well describes marathi as possessing "a very decided individuality, a type quite its own, arising from its comparative isolation for so many centuries." elsewhere (p. 38) he uses language which would easily well apply to maharastri prakrit when he says, "marathi is one of those languages which we may call playful--it delights in all sorts of jingling formations, and has struck out a larger quantity of secondary and tertiary words, diminutives, and the like, than any of the cognate tongues," and again (p. 52):-- "in marathi we see the results of the pandit's file applied to a form of speech originally possessed of much natural wildness and licence. the hedgerows have been pruned and the wild briars and roses trained into order. it is a copious and beautiful language, second only to hindi. it has three genders, and the same elaborate preparation of the base as sindhi, and, owing to the great corruption which has taken place in its terminations, the difficulty of determining the gender of nouns is as great in marathi as in german. in fact, if we were to institute a parallel in this respect, we might appropriately describe hindi as the english, marathi as the german of the indian group--hindi having cast aside whatever could possibly be dispensed with, marathi having retained whatever has been spared by the action of time. to an englishman hindi commends itself by its absence of form, and the positional structure of its sentences resulting therefrom; to our high-german cousins the marathi, with its fuller array of genders, terminations, and inflexions, would probably seem the completer and finer language." in the article prakrit it is explained that the literary prakrits were not the direct parents of the modern indo-aryan vernaculars. each prakrit had first to pass through an intermediate stage--that of the apabhramsa--before it took the form current at the present day. while we know a good deal about maharastri and very little about sauraseni prakrit, the case is reversed in regard to their respective apabhramsas. the saurasena apabhramsa is the only one concerning which we have definite information. although it would be quite possible to reason from analogy, and thus to obtain what would be the corresponding forms of maharastra apabhramsa, we should often be travelling upon insecure ground, and it is therefore advisable to compare marathi, not with the apabhramsa from which it is immediately derived, but with its grandmother, maharastri prakrit. we shall adopt this course, so far as possible, in the following pages. _vocabulary._--in the article indo-aryan languages it is explained that, allowing for phonetic development, the vocabulary of sauraseni prakrit was the same as that of sanskrit, but that the farther we go from the midland, the more examples we meet of a new class of words, the so-called _desyas_, descendants of the old primary prakrits spoken outside the midland, and strange to sanskrit. maharastri prakrit, the most independent of the outer languages, was distinguished by the large proportion of these _desyas_ found in its vocabulary, and the same is consequently the case in marathi. the brahmins of the maratha country have always had a great reputation for learning, and their efforts to create a literary language out of their vernacular took, as in other parts of india, the direction of borrowing _tatsamas_ from sanskrit, to lend what they considered to be dignity to their sentences. but the richness of the language in _desya_ words has often rendered such borrowing unnecessary, and has saved marathi, although the proportion of _tatsamas_ to _tadbhavas_[5] in the language is more than sufficiently high, from the fate of the pandit-ridden literary bengali, in which 80 to 90% of the vocabulary is pure sanskrit. there is indeed a tradition of stylistic chastity in the maratha country from the earliest times, and even sanskrit writers contrasted the simple elegance of the deccan (or _vaidarbhi_) style with the flowery complexity of eastern india. the proportion of persian and, through persian, of arabic words in the marathi vocabulary is comparatively low, when compared with, say, hindostani. the reason is, firstly, the predominance in the literary world of these learned brahmins, and, secondly, the fact that the maratha country was not conquered by the mussulmans till a fairly late period, nor was it so thoroughly occupied by them as were sind, the punjab, and the gangetic valley. _phonetics._[6]--in the standard dialect the vowels are the same as in sanskrit, but _r_ and _l_ only appear in words borrowed directly from that language (_tatsamas_). final short vowels (_a_, _i_ and _u_) have all disappeared in prose pronunciation, except in a few local dialects, and final _i_ and _u_ are not even written. on the other hand, in the nagari character, the non-pronunciation of a final _a_ is not indicated. after an accented syllable a medial _a_ is pronounced very lightly, even when the accent is not the main accent of the word. thus, if we indicate the main accent by ', and subsidiary accents (equivalent to the hebrew _methegh_) by `, then the word _karawat_, a saw, is pronounced _kar^awat_; and _kalakalane_, to be agitated, is pronounced _kal^akal^an_e. in konkani the vowel _a_ assumes the sound of o in "hot," a sound which is also heard in the language of bengal. in dialectic speech _e_ is often interchangeable with short or long _a_, so that the standard _sangit^al_e, it was said, may appear as _sangit^ala_ or _sangit^ala_. the vowels _e_ and _o_ are apparently always long in the standard dialect, thus following sanskrit; but in konkani there is a short and a long form of each vowel. very probably, although the distinction is not observed in writing, and has not been noticed by native scholars, these vowels are also pronounced short in the standard dialect under the circumstances to be now described. when a long _a_, _i_ or _u_ precedes an accented syllable it is usually shortened. in the case of _a_ the shortening is not indicated by the spelling, but the written long _a_ is pronounced short like the _a_ in the italian _ballo_. thus, the dative of _pik_, a ripe crop, is _pikas_, and that of _hat_, a hand, is _hatas_, pronounced _hatas_. almost the only compound consonants which survived in the prakrit stage were double letters, and in m. these are usually simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened in compensation. thus, the prakrit _kanno_ becomes _kan_, an ear; pr. _bhikkha_ becomes _bhik_, alms; and pr. _putto_ becomes _put_, a son. in the pisaca (see indo-aryan languages) and other languages of north-western india it is not usual to lengthen the vowel in compensation, and the same tendency is observable in konkani, which, it may be remarked, appears to contain many relics of the old prakrit (saurastri) spoken in the gujarat country before the invasion from the midland. thus, in konkani, we have _put_ as well as _put_, while the word corresponding to the pr. _ekko_, one, is _ek_ as well as the standard _ek_. on the whole, the consonantal system is much the same as in other indian languages. nasalization of long vowels is very common, especially in konkani. in this article it is indicated by the sign ~ placed over the affected vowel. the palatals are pronounced as in skr. in words borrowed from that language or from hindostani, and also in marathi _tadbhavas_ before _i_, _i_, _e_ or _y_. thus, _cand_ (_tatsama_), fierce; _jama_ (hindostani), collected; _cikhal_ (m. _tadbhava_), mud. in other cases they are pronounced _ts_, _tsh_, _dz_, _dzh_ respectively. thus _tsakar_ (for _cakar_), a servant; _dzane_ (for _jane_), to go. there are two _s_-sounds in the standard dialect which are very similarly distinguished. _s_, pronounced like an english _sh_, is used before _i_, _i_, _e_ or _y_; and _s_, as in english "sin," elsewhere. thus, _simphi_, a caste-name; _sil_, a stone; _set_, a field; _syam_, dark blue; but _sap_, a snake; _sumar_ (persian _shumar_), an estimate; _stri_, a woman. in the dialects _s_ is practically the only sibilant used, and that is changed by the vulgar speakers of konkani to _h_ (again as in north-western india). aspirated letters show a tendency to lose their aspiration, especially in konkani. thus, _bhik_ (for _bhikh_), alms, quoted above; _hat_ (pr. _hattho_), a hand. in konkani we have words such as _boin_, a sister, against standard _bhain_; _ger_, standard _ghari_, in a house; _ami_, standard _amhi_, we. here again we have agreement with north-western india. generally speaking marathi closely follows maharastra when that differs from the prakrits of other parts of india. thus we have skr. _vrajati_, maharastri _vaccai_ (instead of _vajjai_), he goes; konkani _votsu_, to go; sauraseni _genhiduim_, maharastri _ghettum_, to take; marathi _ghet^ale_, taken. there is similarly both in marathi and maharastri a laxness in distinguishing between cerebral and dental letters (which again reminds us of north-western india). thus, skr. _dasati_, maharastri _dasai_, he bites; m. _das^ane_ to bite; skr. _dahati_, maharastri _dahai_, he burns; m. _dadz^ane_, to be hot; skr. _gardabhas_; sauraseni _gaddaho_; hindostani _gadha_; but maharastri _gaddaho_; m. _gadhav_, an ass; and so many others. in maharastri every _n_ becomes _n_, but in jaina mss. when the _n_ was initial or doubled it remained unchanged. a similar rule is followed regarding _l_ and the cerebral _l_ common in vedic sanskrit, in mss. coming from southern india, and, according to the grammarians, also in the pisaca dialects of the north-west. in m. a pr. double _nn_ or _ll_ is simplified, according to the usual rule, to _n_ or _l_ respectively, with lengthening of the preceding vowel in compensation. both _n_ and _l_ are of frequent occurrence in m., but only as medial letters, and then only when they represent _n_ or _l_ in the pr. stage. when the letter is initial or represents a double _nn_ or _ll_ of pr. it is always _n_ or _l_ respectively, thus offering a striking testimony to the accuracy of the jaina and southern mss. thus, ordinary maharastri _na_, but jaina maharastri _na_, m. na, not; maharastri (both kinds) _ghano_, m. _ghan_, dense; maharastri _sonnaam_, jaina _sonnaam_, m. _sone_, gold; maharastri _kalo_, time, southern mss. of the same _kalo_, m. _kal_, time; maharastri _callai_, m. _tsale_, he goes or used to go. in some of the local dialects, following the vedic practice, we find _l_ where _d_ is employed elsewhere, as in (berar) _ghola_ for _ghoda_, a horse; and there are instances of this change occurring even in maharastri; e.g. skr. _tadagam_, maharastri _talaam_, m. _tale_, a pond. the skr. compound consonant _jn_ is pronounced _dny_ in the standard dialect, but _gy_ in the konkan. thus, skr. _jnanam_ becomes _dnyan_ or _gyan_ according to locality. _declension._--marathi and gujarati are the only indo-aryan languages which have retained the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, of sanskrit and prakrit. in rural dialects of western hindi and of rajasthani sporadic instances of the neuter gender have survived, but elsewhere the only example occurs in the interrogative pronoun. in marathi the neuter denotes not only inanimate things but also animate beings when both sexes are included, or when the sex is left undecided. thus, _ghode_, neut., a horse, without regard to sex. in the konkan the neuter gender is further employed to denote females below the age of puberty, as in _cedu_, a girl. numerous masculine and feminine words, however, denote inanimate objects. the rules for distinguishing the gender of such nouns are as complicated as in german, and must be learned from the grammars. for the most part, but not always, words follow the genders of their skr. originals, and the abrasion of terminations in the modern language renders it impossible to lay down any complete set of rules on the subject. we may, however, say that strong bases (see below) in _a_--and these do not include _tatsamas_--are masculine, and that the corresponding feminine and neuter words end in _i_ and _e_ respectively. thus, _mul^aga_, a son; _mul^agi_, a daughter; _mul^age_, a child of so and so. as a further guide we may say that sex is usually distinguished by the use of the masculine and feminine genders, and that large and powerful inanimate objects are generally masculine, while small, delicate things are generally feminine. in the case of some animals (as in our "horse" and "mare") sex is distinguished by the use of different words; e.g. _bokad_, he-goat, and _seli_, a nanny-goat. the nominative form of a _tadbhava_ word is derived from the nominative form in sanskrit and prakrit, but _tatsama_ words are generally borrowed in the form of the sanskrit crude base. thus, skr. crude base _malin_, nom. sing, _mali_; pr. nom. _malio_ (_malio_); m. _mali_ (_tadbhava_), a gardener; skr. base _mati_-; nom. _matis_; m. _mati_ (_tatsama_). some _tatsamas_ are, however, borrowed in the nominative form, as in skr. _dhanin_, nom. _dhani_; m. _dhani_, a rich man. in prakrit the nominative singular of many masculine _tatsamas_ ended in _o_. in the apabhramsa stage this _o_ was weakened to _u_, and in modern marathi, under the general rule, this final short _u_ was dropped, the noun thus reverting as stated above to the form of the sanskrit crude base. but in old marathi, the short u was still retained. thus, the sanskrit _isvaras_, lord, became, as a prakrit _tatsama_, _isvaro_, which in apabhramsa took the form _isvaru_. the old marathi form was also _isvaru_, but in modern marathi we have _isvar_. _tadbhavas_ derived from sanskrit bases in _a_ are treated very similarly, the termination being dropped in the modern language. thus, skr. nom. masc. _karnas_, pr. _kanno_, m. _kan_; skr. nom. sing. fem. _khatva_, pr. _khatta_, m. _khat_, a bed; skr. nom. sing. neut. _grham_, pr. _gharam_, m. _ghar_, a house. sometimes the skr. nom. sing. fem. of these nouns ends in _i_, but this makes no difference, as in skr. and pr. _culli_, m. _cul_, a fireplace. there is one important set of exceptions to this rule. in the article prakrit attention is drawn to the frequent use of pleonastic suffixes, especially of -(a)_ka_- (masc. and neut.), -(i)_ka_(fem.). this could in sanskrit be added to any noun, whatever the termination of the base might be. in prakrit the _k_ of this suffix, being medial, was elided, so that we get forms like skr. nom. sing. masc. _ghota-kas_, pr. ghoda-o, m. ghoda, a horse; skr. nom. sing. fem. ghoti-ka, pr. _ghodi-a_, m. _ghodi_, a mare; skr. _ghota-kam_, pr. _ghoda-(y)am_, m. _ghode_, a horse (without distinction of sex). such modern forms made with this pleonastic suffix, and ending in _a_, _i_ or _e_ are called "strong forms," while all those made without it are called "weak forms." as a rule the fact that a noun is in a weak or a strong form does not affect its meaning, but sometimes the use of a masculine strong form indicates clumsiness or hugeness. thus _bhakar_ (weak form) means "bread," while _bhak^ara_ (strong form) means "a huge loaf of bread." the other pleonastic suffixes mentioned under prakrit are also employed in marathi, but usually with specific senses. thus the suffix -_illa_- generally forms adjectives, while -_da-ka_- (in m. -_da_, fem. -_di_, neut. -_de_) implies contempt. the synthetic declension of sanskrit and prakrit has been preserved in marathi more completely than in any other indo-aryan language. while maharastri prakrit, like all others, passed through the apabhramsa stage in the course of its development, the conservative character of the language retained even in that stage some of the old pure maharastri forms. in the article prakrit we have seen how there gradually arose a laxity in distinguishing the cases. in maharastri the sanskrit dative fell into almost entire disuse, the genitive being used in its place, while in apabhramsa the case terminations become worn down to -_hu_, -_ho_, -_hi_, -_hi_ and -_ha_, of which -_hi_ and -_hi_ were employed for several cases, both singular and plural. there was also a marked tendency for these terminations to become confused, so that in the earliest stages of most of the modern indo-aryan vernaculars we find -_hi_ freely employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -_hi_ for any oblique case of the plural. another feature of prakrit was the simplification of the complicated declensional system of sanskrit by assimilating it in all cases to the declension of _a_-bases, corresponding to the first and second declensions in latin. in the formation of the plural the prakrit declensions are very closely followed by marathi. we shall confine our remarks to _a_-bases, which may be either weak or strong forms, and of which the feminine ends sometimes in _a_, and sometimes in _i_. in prakrit the nom. plur. of these nouns ends masc. _a_, fem. _ao_, _io_, neut. _aim_. we thus get the following:-- +--------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+ | | masculine. | feminine. | neuter. | | +------------+------------+------------+------------+---------------+------------+------------+------------+ | | nom. sing. | nom. plur. | nom. sing. | nom. plur. | nom. sing. | nom. plur. | nom. sing. | nom. plur. | +--------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+---------------+------------+------------+------------+ | weak form. | | | | | | | | | | prakrit | kanno, | kanna | khatta, | khattao | culli, | cullio | gharam, | gharaim | | | an ear. | | a bed. | | a fireplace.| | a house. | | | marathi | kan | kan | khat | khata | cul | culi | ghar | ghare | | strong form. | | | | | | | | | | prakrit | ghodao, | ghodaya | ghodia, | ghodiao | -- | -- | *ghodayam, | *ghodayaim | | | a horse. | | a mare. | | | | a horse. | | | marathi | ghoda | ghode | ghodi | ghodya | -- | -- | ghode | ghodi | +--------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+---------------+------------+------------+------------+ several of the old synthetic cases have survived in marathi, especially in the antique form of the language preserved in poetry. most of them have fallen into disuse in the modern prose language. we may note the following, some of which have preserved the maharastri forms, while others are directly derived from the apabhramsa stage of the language. we content ourselves with giving some of the synthetic cases of one noun, a weak neuter a-base, ghar, a house. +------------------+--------------------+-------------------+----------------+ | | maharastri prakrit.| apabhramsa. | marathi. | | +--------------------+-------------------+----------------+ |sing. | | | | | nominative | gharam | gharu | ghar | | dative | gharassa (genitive)| gharaho (genitive)| gharas (dative)| | locative | ghare | gharahi (-hi) | ghari, ghara | | general oblique | gharassa (genitive)| gharaho (genitive)| gharas, ghara | |plur. | | | | | nominative | gharaim | gharai | ghare | | locative | gharesu | gharahi (-hi) | ghari | | general oblique | gharana (genitive) | gharaha (genitive)| ghara | +------------------+--------------------+-------------------+----------------+ as already stated, in prakrit the genitive is employed instead of the dative, and thus forms the basis of the marathi dative singular. the genitive plural is not used as a dative plural in marathi, but it is the basis of the plural general oblique case. the marathi singular general oblique case is really the same as the marathi dative singular, but in the standard form of speech when so used the final _s_ is dropped, _gharas_, as a general oblique case, being only found in dialects. this general oblique case is the result of the confusion of the various oblique cases originally distinguished in sanskrit and in literary prakrit. in apabhramsa the genitive began to usurp the function of all the other cases. it is obvious that if it were regularly employed in so indeterminate a sense, it would give rise to great confusion. hence when it was intended to show clearly what particular case was meant, it became usual to add, to this indeterminate genitive, defining particles corresponding to the english "of," "to," "from," "by," &c., which, as in all indo-aryan languages they follow the main word, are called "postpositions." before dealing with these, it will be convenient to give the modern marathi synthetic declension of the commoner forms of nouns. the only synthetic case which is now employed in prose is the dative, and this can always be formed from the general oblique case by adding an s to the end of the word. it is therefore not given in the following table. +-----------+---------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------------+ | | masculine. | feminine. | neuter. | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ | meaning. | ear. | horse. | gardener. | bed. | fireplace.| mare. | house.| horse. | pearl. | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ |sing. | | | | | | | | | | | nom. | kan | ghoda | mali | khat | cul | ghodi | ghar | ghode | moti | | gen. obl.| kana | ghodya | malya | khate | culi | ghodi | ghara | ghodya | motya | |plur. | | | | | | | | | | | nom. | kan | ghode | mali | khata | culi | ghodya | ghare | ghodi | motye | | gen. obl.| kana | ghodya | malya | khata | culi | ghodya | ghara | ghodya | motya | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ the usual postpositions are:-- instrumental: _ne_, plural _ni_, by. dative: _la_, plural also _na_, to or for. ablative: _hun_, _un_, from. genitive: _tsa_, of. locative: _~t_, in. we thus get the following complete modern declension of _ghar_, a house (neut.):-- sing. plur. nom. ghar ghare acc. ghar ghare instr. gharane gharani dat. gharas, gharala gharas, gharala, gharana abl. gharahun, gharun gharahun gen. gharatsa gharatsa loc. gharat gharat the accusative is usually the same as the nominative, but when definiteness is required the dative is employed instead. the termination _ne_, with its plural _ni_, is, as explained in the article gujarati, really the oblique form, by origin a locative, of the _na_ or _no_, employed in gujarati to form the genitive. the suffix _na_ of the dative plural is derived from the same word. here it is probably a corruption of the apabhramsa _nau_ or _naho_. the postposition la is probably a corruption of the sanskrit _labhe_, apabhramsa _lahi_, for the benefit (of). as regards the ablative, we have in old marathi poetry a form corresponding to _gharahu-niya_, which explains the derivation. _gharahu_ is a by-form of the prakrit synthetic ablative _gharau_, to which _niya_, another oblique form of _na_, is added to define the meaning. the locative termination _~t_ is a contraction of the pr. _anto_, skr. antar, within. the genitive _gharatsa_ is really an adjective meaning "belonging to the house," and agrees in gender, number and case with the noun which is possessed. thus: _malyatsa ghoda_, the gardener's horse. _malyace ghode_, the gardener's horses. _malyaci ghodi_, the gardener's mare. _malyacya ghodya_, the gardener's mares. _malyace ghode_, the gardener's horse (neut.). _malyaci ghodi_, the gardener's horses (neut.). the suffix _tsa_, _ci_, _ce_, is derived from the sanskrit suffix _tyakas_, pr. _cao_, which is used in much the same sense. in sanskrit it may be added either to the locative or to the unmodified base of the word to which it is attached, thus, _ghotake-tyakas_ or _ghotaka-tyakas_. similarly in marathi, while it is usually added to the general oblique base, it may also be added to the unmodified noun, in which case it has a more distinctly adjectival force. the use of _tsa_ has been influenced by the fact that the sanskrit word _krtyas_, pr. _kiccao_, also takes the same form in marathi. as explained in the article hindostani, synonyms of this word are used in other indo-aryan languages to form suffixes of the genitive.[7] strong adjectives, including genitives, can be declined like substantives, and agree with the qualified noun in gender, number and case. when the substantive is in an oblique case, the adjective is put into the general oblique form without any defining postposition, which is added to the substantive alone. weak adjectives are not inflected in modern prose, but are inflected in poetry. as in other indo-aryan languages, comparison is effected by putting the noun with which comparison is made in the ablative case. the pronouns closely follow the prakrit originals. the origin of all these is discussed in the article hindostani, and the account need not be repeated here. as usual in these languages, there is no pronoun of the third person, its place being supplied by the demonstratives. the following are the principal pronominal forms:-- _mi_, i, instr. _mi_, _mya_, dat. _mala_, obl. _madz_; _amhi_, we, instr. _amhi_, obl. _amha_; _madzha_, my, of me; _amtsa_, our, of us. _tu_, thou, instr. _tu_, _twa_, dat. _tula_, obl. _tudz_; _tumhi_, you, instr. _tumhi_, obl. _tumha_; _tudzha_, thy, of thee; _tumtsa_, your, of you. _apan_, self, obl. _ap^ana_, gen. _ap^ala_. this is also employed as an honorific pronoun of the second person, and, in addition, to mean "we including you." _ha_, this, fem., _hi_, neut. _he_; _to_, he, that, fem. _ti_, neut. _te_; _dzo_, who, fem., _ji_, neut. _je_. _kon_, who? _kay_, what? obl. _kasa_; _koni_, any one; _kahi_, anything. in all these the plural is employed honorifically instead of the singular. _conjugation._--in prakrit (q.v.) the complicated system of sanskrit conjugation had already disappeared, and all verbs fell into two classes, the first, or _a_-, conjugation, and the second, or _e_-, conjugation, in which the _e_ represents the _aya_ of the sanskrit tenth conjugation and of causal and denominative verbs. marathi follows prakrit in this respect and has two conjugations. the first, corresponding to the prakrit _a_-class, as a rule consists of intransitive verbs, and the second, corresponding to the _e_- or causal class, of transitive verbs, but there are numerous exceptions. verbs whose roots end in vowels or in _h_ belong partly to one and partly to the other conjugation. these conjugations differ only in the present and past participles and in the tenses formed from them. here, in the first conjugation an _a_, and in the second conjugation an _i_, is inserted between the base and the termination. the only original prakrit tenses which have survived in marathi are the present and the imperative. the present has lost its original meaning and is now a habitual past. it is also the base of the marathi future. these three tenses, the habitual past, the imperative and the future, are conjugated as follows. they should be compared with the corresponding forms in the article prakrit. the verb selected is the root _uth_, rise, of the first conjugation. +--------+------------------+-----------------+---------------------+ | | habitual past | | | | | (old present), | imperative. | future. | | person.| i used to rise. | let me rise. | i shall rise. | | +--------+---------+-------+---------+----------+----------+ | | sing. | plural. | sing. | plural. | sing. | plural. | +--------+--------+---------+-------+---------+----------+----------+ | 1 | uthe | uthu | uthu | uthu | uthen | uthu | | 2 | uthes | utha | uth | utha | uth^asil | uthal | | 3 | uthe | uthat | utho | uthot | uthel | uth^atil | +--------+--------+---------+-------+---------+----------+----------+ as in rajasthani, bihari and the indo-aryan language of nepal (see pahari), the future is formed by adding _l_, or in the first person singular _n_, to the old present. in the second person singular the _l_ has been added to a form derived from the pr. _utthasi_, which is also the origin of the old present _uthes_. some scholars, however, see in _uthasi_ a derivation of the prakrit future _utthihisi_, thou shalt arise, and a confusion of the prakrit present and future is quite possible. the remaining tenses are modern forms derived from the participles. the verbal nouns, participles and infinitives are as follows:-- +------------------+---------------+------------------+------------------+ | | prakrit | marathi | marathi | | | (first | first | second | | | conjugation). | conjugation. | conjugation. | | +---------------+------------------+------------------+ | verbal noun | utthaniam | uth^ane, the act | mar^ane, the act | | | | of rising. | of killing. | | infinitive | utthium | uthu, to rise. | maru, to kill. | | present | utthanto, | uthat, uth^ata, | marit, marita, | | participle | utthantao | rising. | killing. | | past participle | utthiallao | uth^ala, risen. | marila, killed. | | future participle| utthanaado | uth^anar, about | mar^anar, about | | active | | to rise. | to kill. | | future participle| utthiavvao | uthawa, about | marawa, about | | passive | | to be risen. | to be killed. | | conjunctive | utthiu | uthun, having | marun, having | | participle | | risen. | killed. | +------------------+---------------+------------------+------------------+ the only form that requires notice is that of the conjunctive participle. it is derived from the apabhrarmsa form _utthiu_, to which the dative suffix _n_ (old marathi _ni_, _niya_) has been added. various tenses are formed by adding personal suffixes to the present, past or future passive participle. when the subject of the verb is in the nominative the tense so formed agrees with it in gender, number and person. we may note four such tenses: a present, _uth^ato_, i rise; a past, _uth^alo_, i rose; past conditional, _uth^ato_, had i risen; and a subjunctive, _uthawa_, i should rise. in the present, the terminations are relics of the verb substantive, and in the other tenses of the personal pronouns. in these latter, as there is no pronoun of the third person, the third persons have no termination, but are simply the unmodified participle. we thus get the present and the past conjugated as follows, with a masculine subject:-- +---+----------------------+---------------------+ | | present, i rise. | past, i rose. | | +-----------+----------+-----------+---------+ | | singular. | plural. | singular. | plural. | | +-----------+----------+-----------+---------+ | 1 | uth^ato | uth^ato | uth^alo | uth^alo | | 2 | uth^atos | uth^ata | uth^alas | uth^ala | | 3 | uth^ato | uth^atat | uth^ala | uth^ale | +---+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+ the feminine and neuter forms differ from the above: thus, _uth^ates_, thou (fem.) risest; _uth^alis_, thou (fem.) didst rise; and so on for the other persons and for the neuter. it will be observed that, in the case of transitive verbs, while the present participle is active, the past and future passive participles are passive in meaning. the same is the case with the future passive participle of the intransitive verb. in tenses, therefore, formed from these participles the sentence must be construed passively. the subject must be put into the instrumental case, and the participle inflected to agree with the object. if the object is not expressed, or, as is sometimes the case, is expressed in the guise of a kind of ethic dative, the participle is construed impersonally, and is employed in the neuter form. thus (present tense) _mul^aga_ (nom. masc.) _pothi vacito_, the boy reads a book, but (past tense) _mul^agyane_ (instrumental _pothi_ (nom. fem.) _vacili_ (fem.) the boy read a book, literally, by-the-boy a-book was-read; or _mul^agyane pothila_ (dative) _vacile_ (neuter), the boy read the book, literally, by-the-boy, with-reference-to-the-book, it-(impersonal)-was-read. similarly in the subjunctive formed from the future passive participle, _mul^agyane pothi vacawi_, the boy should read a book (by-the-boy a-book is-to-be-read) or _mul^agyane pothila vacawe_, the boy should read the book [by-the-boy with-reference-to-the-book, it (impersonal)-is-to-be-read]. as an example of the subjunctive of an intransitive verb, we have _twa uthawe_, by-thee it-is-to-be-risen, thou shouldst rise. as in intransitive verbs the passive sense is not so strong, in their case the tense may also be used actively, as in _tu uthawas_, thou shouldst rise, _lit._, thou (art) to-be-risen. it will be noted that when a participle is used passively it takes no personal suffix. we have seen that the present tense is formed by compounding the present participle with the verb substantive. further tenses are similarly made by suffixing, without compounding, various tenses of the verb substantive to the various participles. thus _mi uthat ahe_, i am rising; _mi uthat hoto_, i was rising; _mya uthave hote_ (impersonal construction), i should have risen. in the case of tenses formed from the past participle, the auxiliary is appended, not to the participle, but to the past tense, as in _mi uth^alo ahe_, i have risen; _mya marila ahe_ (personal passive construction) or _mya marile_ ahe (impersonal passive construction), i have killed. similarly _mi uth^alo hoto_ (active construction), i had risen. the usual forms of the present and past of the verb substantive are:-- +---+---------------------+---------------------+ | | present, i am. | past, i was (masc). | | +-----------+---------+-----------+---------+ | | singular. | plural. | singular. | plural. | | +-----------+---------+-----------+---------+ | 1 | ahe | ahe | hoto | hoto | | 2 | ahes | aha | hotas | hota | | 3 | ahe | ahet | hota | hote | +---+-----------+---------+-----------+---------+ the past changes for gender, but the present is immutable in this respect. _ahe_ is usually considered to be a descendant of the sanskrit _asmi_, i am,[8] while _hoto_ is derived from the pr. _homtao_, the present participle of what corresponds to the skr. root _bhu_, become. a potential passive and a causal are formed by adding _av_ to the root of a simple verb. the former follows the first, or intransitive, and the latter the second or transitive conjugation. the potential passive of a neuter verb is necessarily construed impersonally. the causal verb denotes indirect agency; thus, _kar^ane_, to do, _karav^ane_, to cause a person to do; _tyacya-kadun mya te karavile_, i caused him to do that, literally, by-means-of-him by-me that was-caused-to-be-done. the potential, being passive, has the subject in the dative (cf. latin _mihi est ludendum_) or in the instrumental of the genitive, as in _mala_ (dative), or _majhyane_ (instr. of _madzha_, of me), _uth^avate_, i can rise, literally, for-me, or by-my-(action), rising-can-be-done. so, _ramala_, or _ramacyane_, _pothi vac^avali_, ram could read a book (by r. a book could be read). several verbs are irregular. these must be learnt from the grammars. here we may mention _hone_, to become, past participle _dzhala_; _yene_, to come, past participle _ala_; and _dzane_, to go, past participle _gela_. there are also numerous compound verbs. one of these, making a passive, is formed by conjugating the verb _dzane_, to go, with the past participle of the principal verb. thus, _marila dzato_, he is being killed, literally, he goes killed. _literature._--as elsewhere in india, the modern vernacular literature of the maratha country arose under the influence of the religious reformation inaugurated by ramanuja early in the 12th century. he and his followers taught devotion to a personal deity instead of the pantheism hitherto prevalent. the earliest writer of whom we have any record is namdev (13th century), whose hymns in honour of vithoba, a personal form of vishnu, have travelled far beyond the home of their writer, and are even found in the sikh _adi granth_. dnyanoba, a younger contemporary, wrote a paraphrase of the sanskrit _bhagavad gita_, which is still much admired. passing over several intermediate writers we come to the period of the warrior sivaji, the opponent of aurangzeb. he was a disciple of ramdas (1608-1681), who exercised great influence over him, and whose _dasbodh_, a work on religious duty, is a classic. contemporary with ramdas and sivaji was tukaram (1608-1649), a sudra by caste, and yet the greatest writer in the language. he began life as a petty shopkeeper, and being unsuccessful both in his business and in his family relations, he abandoned the world and became a wandering ascetic. his _abhangs_ or "unbroken" hymns, probably so called from their indefinite length and loose, flowing metre, are famous in the country of his birth. they are fervent, but though abounding in excellent morality, do not rise to any great height as poetry. other marathi poets who may be mentioned are sridhar (1678-1728), the most copious of all, who translated the _bhagavata purana_, and the learned mayura or moropant (1729-1794), whose works smell too much of the lamp to satisfy european standards of criticism. mahipati (1715-1790) was an imitator of tukaram, but his chief importance rests on the fact that he collected the popular traditions about national saints, and was thus the author of the _acta sanctorum_ of the marathas. lavanis, or erotic lyrics, by various writers, are popular, but are often more passionate than decent. another branch of marathi literature is composed of _pawadas_ or war-ballads, mostly by nameless poets, which are sung everywhere throughout the country. there is a small prose literature, consisting of narratives of historical events (the so-called _bakhars_), moral maxims and popular tales. in the 19th century the facilities of the printing press are responsible for a great mass of published matter. most of the best works have been written in english by learned natives, upon whom the methods of european scholarship have exercised more influence than elsewhere in india, and have given rise to a happy combination of western science with oriental lore. no vernacular authors of outstanding merit have appeared during the last century. konkani once had a literature of its own, which is said to have been destroyed by the inquisition at goa. temples and manuscripts were burnt wholesale. under roman catholic auspices a new literature arose, the earliest writer being an englishman, thomas stephens (thomaz estevao), who came to goa in 1579, wrote the first konkani grammar, and died there in 1619. amongst other works, he was the author of a konkani paraphrase of the new testament in metrical form, which has been several times reprinted and is still a favourite work with the native christians. since his time there has grown up a considerable body of christian literature from the pens of portuguese missionaries and native converts. authorities.--marathi is fortunate in possessing the best dictionary of any modern indian language, j. t. molesworth's (2nd ed., bombay, 1857). navalkar's (3rd ed., bombay, 1894) is the best grammar. the earliest students of marathi were the portuguese, who were familiar only with the language as spoken on the coast, i.e. with the standard dialect of the northern konkan and with konkani. they have since devoted themselves to these two forms of speech. for the former, reference may be made to the _grammatica da lingua concani no dialecto do norte_, by j. f. da cunha rivara (goa, 1858). for konkani proper, see a. f. x. maffei's _grammar_ (mangalore, 1882) and _dictionaries_ (ibid., 1883). these are in english. monsenhor s. r. dalgado is the author of a _konkan-portuguese dictionary_ (bombay, 1893). for further information regarding marathi in general, see the list of authorities under indo-aryan languages. for accounts of marathi literature, see the preface to molesworth's _dictionary_; also j. murray mitchell's "the chief marathi poets" in _transactions of the congress of orientalists, london, 1892_, i. 282 sqq., and ch. viii. of m. g. ranade's _rise of the maratha power_ (bombay, 1900). for konkani literature, see j. gerson da cunha's "materials for the history of oriental studies among the portuguese," in the _proceedings of the fourth international congress of orientalists_, ii. 179 sqq. (florence, 1881). a full account of marathi, given in great detail, will be found in vol. vii. of the _linguistic survey of india_ (calcutta, 1905). (g. a. gr.) footnotes: [1] the name is sometimes spelt _mahrathi_, with an _h_ before the _r_, but, according to a phonetic law of the aryan languages of western india, this is incorrect. the original _h_ in "maharastri," from which the word is derived, is liable to elision on coming between two vowels. [2] shastri vrajlal kalidas, quoted by beames in _comparative grammar_, i. 102. [3] see b. a. gupte in _indian antiquary_ (1905), xxxiv. 27. [4] for details see dr sten konow's article on maharastri and marathi in _indian antiquary_ (1903), xxxii. 180 seq. [5] for the explanation of these terms see indo-aryan languages. [6] abbreviations: skr. = sanskrit. pr. = maharastri prakrit. m. = marathi. [7] fuller information regarding all the above postpositions will be found in g. a. grierson's article "on certain suffixes in the modern indo-aryan vernaculars," on pp. 473 seq. of the _zeitschrift fur vergleichende sprachforschung_ for 1903. [8] see, however, hoernle, _comparative grammar_, p. 364. marathon,, a plain on the n.e. coast of attica, divided from the plain of athens by the range of pentelicus; it contained four villages--marathon, probalinthos, tricorythos and oenoe--which originally formed an independent _tetrapolis_ and in historical times still upheld peculiar rites and legendary associations, chiefly connected with heracles and theseus. in the 6th century b.c. it served as a base for peisistratus (q.v.), who owned much property in that district, for securing the rest of attica. the plain derives its fame mainly from the battle in which the athenians and plataeans defeated the persians (490 b.c.). the persian force had been sent by king darius to punish the athenians for previous interferences in asia and to restore their tyrant hippias. it was probably by advice of the latter that the generals datis and artaphernes landed their troops, numbering perhaps 50,000, at marathon. the athenians, on the recommendation of their strategus miltiades, resolved to meet this force in the open field, and sent out their full levy of 9000 heavy infantry under the polemarch callimachus. they were joined on the way by 1000 plataeans, but were disappointed of the assistance which they expected from sparta. from their station at the head of the vrana valley, which slopes down to marathon plain, the athenians for some days observed the persian army, which gave no sign of proceeding to attack. after some waiting, miltiades, who seems throughout to have played a more prominent part than his superior callimachus, drew up the athenian army for battle and charged down upon the enemy, whose line was formed on the level about a mile distant. the athenian wings, whose formation had been made specially deep, broke the opposing divisions by their impact; the centre was at first overborne by the superior weight of the native persians, but ultimately was relieved by the victorious wings, which closed in upon the persian centre. the persians were thereupon driven back into the sea all along the line, and, although the majority regained their ships, no less than 6400 were left dead, as against 192 athenians. the persian fleet, of which perhaps a detachment had been sent on before the battle, now sailed round cape sunium in order to effect a landing at phalerum, close by athens, and with the help of traitors within the walls to take the city by surprise. but miltiades, who had suspected some plot all along, and had lately been warned by a signal on mt pentelicus which he interpreted as a message to the persians, marched back the victorious army in time to defend athens. the enemy, upon noticing his presence, did not venture a second disembarcation and retired straightway out of greek waters. the details of the battle, and the persian plan of campaign, are not made clear by our ancient sources, but reconstructions have been attempted by numerous modern authorities. (m. o. b. c.) the tumulus or "soros" was excavated by m. stais in 1891 and 1892. a slight previous excavation had brought to light some prehistoric implements, and it was supposed that the mound had no connexion with the battle; but it has now been discovered that the presence of those prehistoric objects was accidental. underlying the mound was found a stratum about 85 ft. long by 20 broad, consisting of a layer of sand, above which lay the ashes and bones of many corpses; together with these were the remains of many lecythi and other vases, some of them contemporary with the persian wars, some of them of much earlier style, and probably taken in the emergency from neighbouring cemeteries. it is conjectured with some probability that a large vase containing ashes may have been used as the burial urn of one of the athenian generals who fell. there was also, in the middle of the stratum, a trench for funeral offerings about 30 ft. by 3; it contained bones of beasts, with ashes and fragments of vases. there can therefore be no doubt that the tumulus was piled up to commemorate the athenians who fell in the battle, and that it marks the place where the carnage was thickest. a selection from the contents of the tumulus has been placed in the national museum at athens. (e. gr.) see herodotus vi. 102-117; w. m. leake, _the topography of athens_ (london, 1841), ii. 203-227; r. w. macan, _herodotus_, iv.-vi. (london, 1895), ii. 149-248; g. b. grundy, _the great persian war_ (london, 1901), pp. 145-194; j. a. munro in _journal of hellenic studies_, 1899, pp. 186-197. for the tumulus, [greek: harchaiologikon aeltion] 1891, pp. 67 sqq. see also miltiades.