Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: “The tradition of Marathi language and literature is great. References to it can be found from the second century. Hence, the Marathi language was accorded the status of Classical Language (CL). There are 12,000 dialects in the world. It is a matter of pride that Marathi received the status of CL. Now the responsibility of Marathi people has also increased,” said Rishikesh Kamble, veteran critic.
He was speaking in ‘Abhijat Marathi Bhasha Krutadnya Sohla,’ a programme organised to express gratitude for giving Marathi a CL status at the Marathi Department of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) on Friday. Dr Dasu Vaidya and Dr Kailas Ambhure were seated on the dais.
Dr Kamble said, “The number of scripted languages in India is 16. Tamil comes first in the ancient written language. After that comes the Marathi language. Many attempts were made to polish the language in the medieval period. Saint poets of medieval times and great men of modern times worked to enrich the language through their literature.”
Hanuman Giri conducted the proceedings of the programme while Gautam Ghadge proposed a vote of thanks.