मराठी साम्राज्याचे संस्थापक आणि एक आदर्श शासनकर्ता म्हणून ओळखले जाणारे छत्रपती शिवाजीराजे भोसले एक सर्वसमावेशक, सहिष्णू राजा म्हणून महाराष्ट्रात आणि इतरत्रही वंदिले जातात. शत्रूविरुद्ध लढ्याकरता महाराष्ट्रातल्या डोंगर-दर्‍यांमधे अनुकूल असलेली गनिमी काव्याची पद्धत वापरून त्यांनी तत्कालीन विजापूरची आदिलशाही, अहमदनगरची निजामशाही आणि बलाढ्य मुघल साम्राज्यशाही ह्यांच्याशी लढा दिला, आणि मराठी साम्राज्याचे बीजारोपण केले. आदिलशाही, निजामशाही आणि मुघलसाम्राज्य बलाढ्य असली तरी महाराष्ट्रात त्यांची सगळी भिस्त स्थानिक सरदारांवर आणि किल्लेदारांवर होती. ते सरदार/ किल्लेदार जनतेवर अन्याय-अत्याचार करत असत. शिवाजीमहाराजांनी त्या अन्याय-अत्याचारातून जनतेची सुटका केली, आणि उत्तम शासनाचे एक उदाहरण भावी राज्यकर्त्यांसमोर ठेवले.
जिजाबाई ह्या शहाजीराजांच्या प्रथम पत्‍नी. शिवाजीमहाराजांचा जन्म जिजाबाईंच्या पोटी इ.स. १९ फेब्रुवारी १६२७ (फाल्गुन कृष्ण तृतीया) रोजी पुण्यापासून ४० मैलांवर असलेल्या शिवनेरी किल्ल्यावर झाला.
शहाजीराजे प्रथम अहमदनगरच्या निजामशहाच्या पदरी एक सरदार म्हणून होते. मलिक अंबर ह्या निजामशहाच्या प्रभावी वजिराच्या मृत्यूनंतर मुघल सम्राट शहाजहानच्या सैन्याने इ.स. १६३६ मधे अहमदनगरवर चाल करून ते शहर आपल्या ताब्यात घेतल्यानंतर शहाजीराजे विजापूरच्या आदिलशहाच्या पदरी सरदार म्हणून रुजू झाले. आदिलशहाने त्यांना पुण्याची जहागिरी दिली. शहाजीराजांनी तुकाबाईंशी आपला दुसरा विवाह केला. लहान शिवाजीराजांना घेऊन जिजाबाई पुण्याला रहायला आल्या. तुकाबाई आणि शहाजीराजे ह्यांच्या एकोजी भोसले (व्यंकोजी भोसले) ह्या पुत्रांनी पुढे सध्याच्या तामिळनाडूमधील तंजावरला आपले राज्य स्थापन केले.
जिजाबाई पुण्यात रहायला गेल्या त्यावेळी पुण्याची फार दुरवस्था झालेली होती. तेव्हा छोटे शिवाजीराजे आणि कारभारी दादोजी कोंडदेव ह्यांच्या हस्ते पुण्यात एका शेतात प्रतीकादाखल सोन्याच्या मुलाम्याचा नांगर फिरवून, जिजाबाईंनी पुण्याची पुन:स्थापना करायला सुरवात केली. शिवाजीराजे लहानाचे मोठे होत असताना आणि मोठे झाल्यावरही (मोठेपणीच्या सिंहगडावरच्या स्वारीसारख्या) प्रत्येक महत्त्वाच्या प्रसंगी त्यांना जिजाबाईंनी खंबीर मार्गदर्शन दिले. शिवाजीमहाराजांच्या त्या आद्यगुरू होत. हिंदवी स्वराज्यस्थापनेचे स्वप्न साकार करायला शिवाजीमहाराजांना जिजाबाईंनी स्फूर्ती दिली असे काही इतिहासकार मानतात.
लोककथा आणि इतिहास ह्यांमधे कालौघात पुष्कळदा सरमिसळ होते, आणि त्यामुळे इतिहासाचा नेमका मागोवा घेणे कठीण होते. शिवाजीमहाराजांच्या बाबतीत ती सरमिसळ खूपच आहे; परिणामी शिवाजीराजांना कोणाचे मार्गदर्शन किती मिळाले हे नक्की ठरवणे निदान आज तरी कठीण आहे. युद्धाभ्यास आणि रणनीती ह्यांसबंधी प्राथमिक मार्गदर्शन त्यांना शहाजीराजांकडून, राजकारभाराचे दादोजी कोंडदेवांकडून तर परकीय सत्तेविरूद्ध लढा करण्याकरता छत्रपती शिवाजीराजे भोसलेआवश्यक असलेल्या शिस्तीचे शिक्षण जिजाबाईंकडून मिळाले असे मात्र उपलब्ध ऐतिहासिक माहितीरून निश्चितपणे सांगता येते. समर्थ रामदासस्वामी आणि संत तुकाराममहाराज ह्यांचे महत्त्वाचे आध्यात्मिक मार्गदर्शनही शिवाजीराजांना लाभले होते.
सह्याद्रीच्या दोन डोंगररांगांच्या मधल्या खोर्‍याला "मावळ" म्हणतात. पुण्याखाली १२ आणि जुन्नर-शिवनेरीखाली १२ अशी एकूण २४ मावळ आहेत.:--- पवन मावळ,आंदर मावळ, कानद मावळ , गुंजण मावळ, पौड मावळ ,मुठाखोरे ,रोहिड खोरे ,हिरडस मावळ
शिवाजी महाराजांचे मावळामधील सवंगडी :- तानाजी मालुसरे , बाजी पासलकर,कान्होजी जेधे,बाजी प्रभू देशपांडे ,नेताजी पालकर हंबीरराव मोहिते आणि मुरारबाजी.
शिवाजी महाराजांचे सरसेनापती :- नेताजी पालकर, प्रतापराव गुजर, हंबीरराव मोहीते
WE ARE PROUD TO SAY "Mi Marathi"
Maharashtra: The land of Great Marathi People
The name Maharashtra first appeared in a 7th century, its name may have originated from rathi, meaning "chariot driver" and referring to builders and drivers of chariots who formed a maharathis, a "fighting force." This region seems to have attained prominence as early as 90 A.D., when king Vedishri made Junnar the capital of his kingdom, thirty miles north of Pune. For the 900 years ending in the early fourteenth century, with the overthrow of the Devgiri Yadavs by the northern Muslim powers, no historical information in this region is available. In 1526, first Mughal king, Babar, established his prominanace in Delhi and soon the Mughal power spread to the southern India. The Mughals were to dominate India till the early eighteenth century. The Marathi people are also known as Maharashtrians. In the Marathi language, they refer to themselves as marathi manoos. They are called Marathi people because of the language they speak, Marathi. The Marathi people have a long literary tradition which started in the ancient era. There are many different castes & communities of Marathi people, with variant forms of traditions
Do you know this about "MARATHI"?
Marathi is the language spoken by the native people of Maharashtra. Marathi belongs to the group of Indo-Aryan languages which are a part of the larger of group of Indo-European languages, all of which can be traced back to a common root. Among the Indo-Aryan languages, Marathi is the southern-most language. All of the Indo-Aryan languages originated from Sanskrit. Three Prakrit languages, simpler in structure, emerged from Sanskrit. These were Saurseni, Magadhi and Maharashtri. Marathi is said to be a descendent of Maharashtri which was the Prakrit spoken by people residing in the region of Maharashtra.
The saint poet JNAneshwar proudly said about Marathi that 'MAjhA MarAThAchi bolu kavatuke, amRitAtehi paijA jinke, aisI akshare rasike meLavIn' which means that 'I will speak my Marathi (language) only with pride and I will give such arathi words to the ardent listeners which will even win bets against the nectar (amRit).' The script currently used in Marathi is called 'bALbodh' which is a modified version of Devnaagari script. Earlier, another script called 'moDI' was in use till the time of the Peshwas(18th century). Today only the Devnaagari script is used which is easier to read but does not have the advantage of faster writing.
Some of The Notable Marathi People
RULERS:
Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj - 1630 - 1680A revolutionary leader and the founder of the Maratha Empire
Shrimant Maharaja Sir Sayajirao III Gaekwad - Ruler of Baroda
Shrimant Sardar Malharrao Holkar - Ruler of Indore
Rajmata Ahilyabai Holkar - Queen of Malwa
Peshwa Bajirao - Prime minister of the Maratha Empire
Chattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj - Son of Shivaji; Second Emperor of Maratha Empire; Dharmaveer.
REFORMERS:
Gopal Krishna Gokhale - He established the Servants of India Society and represented Indian interests in the imperial legislative council. Mahatma Gandhi considered him his Guru.
Dhondo Keshav Karve - Maharshi Karve fought for the upliftment of women, started a college for them and established the first Indian University for women, named SNDT Women's University. He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1958.
Raghunath Karve - Pioneer of Family Planning and Birth Control clinics in India.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar - Freedom Fighter; Revolutionary; Creator of political "Hindutva".
Lokmanya Tilak - National leader of pre-Gandhi era.
Gadge Maharaj - He dedicated his life for fight against social evils. He built inns, schools, animal shelters and medical centres. Cleanliness was his mantra.
Jyotiba Phule - Mahatma Jyotiba Phule started education for women and struggled hard for the upliftment of the depressed classes.
Tatya Tope - Great freedom fighter.
Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj - Prince of Kolhapur, known for his social work.
ACADEMICS:
Ajit Rangnekar - Deputy Dean, International School Of Business, Hyderabad.
Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane - Sanskrit scholar. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University. Recipient of Bharat Ratna 1963.
Irawati Karve - Doctorate in Anthropology from Berlin University in 1930.
Professor Pramod Khargonekar - Dean, College of Engineering at the University of Florida, and well known researcher in the field of control systems.
Wrangler R.P. Paranjpe - First Indian to become a senior Wrangler at Cambridge University. He sacrificed higher salaries and worked as the principal of Fergusson College for over twenty years.
Professor Suhas Patankar - Inventor of the groundbreaking SIMPLE algorithm for solution of Navier-Stokes equation that revolutionalized the world of Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Dr Pramod Pandurang Vitkar - Director, RS College of Engineering, Pune. Prominent Soil Technologist.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar - Mathematician. Known for his contributions to singularity theory and Abhyankar's conjecture.
Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar - Founder and Former Executive Director of the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Indian government and recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award. Instrumental in developing India's first supercomputer.
Ashok Gadgil - Inventor of UV-disinfection method.
Anil Kakodkar - Director of BARC and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.
D. R. Kaprekar - Mathematician. Famous for his work on Number Theory.
Narendra Karmarkar - Mathematician. Renowned for developing Karmarkar's algorithm.
Dr. Raghunath A. Mashelkar - Director, CSIR.
Dr. Jayant Narlikar - Prominent Astrophysicist His work on conformal gravity theory with Sir Fred Hoyle, called Hoyle-Narlikar theory, demonstrated a synthesis can be achieved between Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and Mach's principle.
S.V Kogekar - A renowned professor and a scientist in Fergussion college in Pune university.
Raj Yavatkar - Intel Fellow.
CINEMA & THEATRE:
Amol Palekar - 70s Bollywood's thinking man's actor and then critically acclaimed director
Bhagwan Dada - Film director, producer and actor
Bhalji Pendharkar - Revolutionary maratha filmmaker
Dada Kondke - Revolutionised Marathi comedy
Dadasaheb Phalke - Directed the first Indian feature film
Dilip Prabhavalkar - Leading stage artiste. Last seen as Gandhi in Lage Raho Munnabhai
Gautam Rajadhyaksha - Photographer
Laxmikant Berde - Leading Marathi actor of 80s and 90s
Madhur Bhandarkar - Bollywood director
Mohan Joshi - Popular Bollywood villain of the 90s
N Chandra - Bollywood director
Ramesh Deo - Popular villain of 60s Bollywood
Reema Lagoo - Acted in various Marathi dramas, Marathi movies, Bollywood movies and Hindi and Marathi TV
Sachin Pilgaonkar - Bollywood and Marathi actor, director and producer fondly known as Sachin.
Sai Paranjpe - A noted film-director, scriptwriter and theatre personality, Director of movies like Sparsh, Katha, Chashme-Badoor, Drishti and Saaz. Grand daughter of Wrangler R.P. Paranjpe and daughter of Shakuntala Paranjpe
Shobhana Samarth - Actress and mother of Nutan and Tanuja.
Sulochana - Popular Character actress
Vikram Gokhale - Reputed actor
V. Shantaram - Award winning film Director
Sudhir Joshi - Late Marathi actor
Dr.Shriram Lagu - Popular Marathi actor
LIERATURE:
Acharya Atre - Popular satirist, poet, editor, activist, writer, also known for his work in "Maharashtra Ekkikaran Chalwal".
Jaywant Dalvi - Acclaimed playwright
Hamid Dalwai - Acclaimed novelist and social activist
P.L. Deshpande - Famous Marathi writer
Gangadhar Gadgil - Popular writer
V. P. Kale - Famous writer
Vinda Karandikar - Jnanapeeth awardee
V.S. Khandekar - Jnanapeeth awardee
Arun Kolatkar - Celebrated bilingual poet.
Ga Di Ma - Modern Valmiki of India
Na Dho Mahanor - Popular poet, known for taking up the Dalit cause
Shahir Sable - Famous "Shahir", known for his popular song "Jai Jai Maharashtra Mazaa"
Shahir Shaikh - Famous poet and "Shahir", known for his work in "Maharashtra Ekkikaran Chalwal".
Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar - Jnanapeeth awardee
Vijay Tendulkar - Controversial but acclaimed playwright
Ratnakar Matkari - Supernatural story writer
MUSIC:
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande - (August 10, 1860 – September 19, 1936) was an Indian classical musician widely acclaimed to have brought in a renaissance in Indian music.
Asha Bhosle - (born September 8,1933)- Belongs to the legendary Mangeshkar family.
Lata Mangeshkar (born September 28, 1929)- Recipient of Bharat Ratna in 2001.
Hridayanath Mangeshkar - Music director (and brother of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar).
C. Ramchandra - ( or Ramchandra Chitalkar), (1918-1977)- Hindi film Music director.
Laxmikant Kudalkar - (1937-1998) - of the duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
Sudhir Phadke - (25 July 1919 Kolhapur - 29 July 2002)- Legendary Marathi music composer, composed music for "Geet Ramayan".
Ramlaxman - Music composer of hits like Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun.
Ashok Patki - Popular Marathi music composer
Suresh Wadkar - Popular trained classical singer
Anuradha Paudwal - Popular devotional and Bollywood playback singer
Ajit Kadkade - Popular folk vocalist
Kishori Amonkar - (born April 10, 1931) - Classical singer
Arun Date - Legendary Marathi playback singer
{source-http://www.mimarathi.tv/mimarathi.html#maharashtra}
