_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