A blog that captures the happenings in Maharashtra and rest of the Marathi World (Bruhanmaharashtra) through the eyes of a 3M – Madhyamvargiya Marathi Manoos (Middleclass Marathi Man). Neither is it a view of the anglicized minority which has lost touch with its roots... nor does it speak for the Marathi masses who may lack the “worldview”. Just a somewhere-in-between viewpoint… but a firm viewpoint indeed!
Marathas ruled the entire Indian sub continent and made maps so essential for military operations and revenue administration. The maps had the East to the top and the West at the bottom unlike modern maps that have north at the top.
A map that shows the revenue units of South Konkan (Malvan) between the Devgad and Terekhol rivers is given below....One can see the short Konkan rivers joining the Arabian sea at the bottom...
3M loved the song that has a distinct'Paowalla' flavour with Sandras from Bandra sprinkled over it... with awesome Vasai-meets-Goa-at-Bandra-via-Mangalore syntax! Hats off to Daniel B George for coming up with this'Kolaveri of Christmas'...
Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog! --------------------------------------------------------------- Lyrics of the song:
An office colleague was miffed that people on streets of Vile Parle (E) refused to speak to her in Hindi... her logic was that all Indians should know the "National Language"! So 3M devised an "Indian Language Quiz" for her... and I am sure it will be an eyeopener for the readers of this blog too!
All readers are supposed to answer this quiz without Googling! The answers will be posted tomorrow...
SO HERE WE GO.....
1] Which is the National Language of India?
a) Hindi b) English c) Tamil d) None of these
2] After Hindi, which language has the most number of newspaper readers in India?
a) Malayalam b) Marathi c) Tamil d) English
3] Of the languages given below, which one has more native speakers than French in 2012?
a) Tamil b) Gujarati c) Kannada d) Marathi
4] Which of these languages has lesser number of native speakers than those of Tamil in India?
a) Bengali b) Telugu c) Marathi d) None of the above
5] Which of these Indo-Aryan languages has the oldest literary tradition?
a) Hindi b) Bengali c) Marathi d) Gujarati
6] In which Indian language was the first non-English newspaper published?
a) Hindi b) Tamil c) Marathi d) Gujarati
7] Which of these Indian languages was not included in the Voyager Golden Record sent in outer space for Extraterrestrials?
a) Hindi b) Marathi c) Malayalam d) Oriya
8] Which of these languages has the oldest modern theatre tradition?
a) Hindi b) Telugu c) Marathi d) Bengali
9] What was the mother toungue of the first man (Raghunath D) to propose in Indian Parliament that Hindi should be our national language?
a) Hindi b) Bengali c) Punjabi d) Marathi
10] Most coins of Maratha Empire were stuck in which language
a) Marathi b) Sanskrit c) Hindi d) Persian
3M gets irritated when Chhatrapati Shivaji is referred to as
“Marathi/ Mahrashtrian Hero”. We have to realise that his impact was far wider
and that his embryonic Maratha Empire went on to dismantle the centuries old
Mughal Empire in less than half a century from his death.
But it is interesting to know that even at its peak, Shivaji's kingdom covered less that 20% of current day state of Maharashtra...
essentially hugging the Sahyadri mountain range! Post coronation, he realised
that his fledgling kingdom will require strategic depth in case of an all out Mughal
attack. So he embarked on a southern conquest which
is popularly known as “Dakshin Digvijay”. This foresighted action ensured that
the Maratha capital was shifted to Gingee in Tamil Nadu by his son Rajaram during Aurangzeb’s‘War of 27 Years’!
The above map shows that Shivaji’s kingdom (Hindavi Swaraj) was
spread in current day states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh & Tamil Nadu... and you still look upon Shivaji as "just a Maharashtrian Hero”???
