ShudraShudra or Shoodra (Sanskrit: ) is one of the four varnas of the Hindu caste system and social order in ancient India. Various sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. Theoretically, Shudras constituted a class serving other three classes. The word Shudra appears in the Rig Veda and it is found in other Hindu texts such as the Manusmriti, Arthashastra, Dharmashastras and Jyotishshastra. In some cases, Shudras participated in the coronation of kings, or were ministers and kings according to early Indian texts.
Sant (religion)A sant (सन्त्; IAST: ; sɐn̪t̪) is a human being revered as a "truth-exemplar" for their abnormal of "self, truth, [and] reality" in Indic religions, particularly Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. In Sikhism it is used to describe a being who has attained spiritual enlightenment and divine knowledge and power through union with God. "Sant" is sometimes translated as "saint", but this is a false cognate (there is no etymological commonality) as "sant" is derived from the Sanskrit root sat, which can mean "truth, reality, essence", while "saint" is derived from the Latin word sanctus, which means "holy, sacred", derived from Indo-European root sak-, "to sanctify".
Bombay PresidencyThe Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainland territory was acquired in the Konkan region with the Treaty of Bassein (1802). Mahabaleswar was the summer capital.
Pune districtPune district (Marathi pronunciation: [puɳeː]) is a district in Western Maharashtra with Administrative Headquarter in Pune city. Pune district is the most populous district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is one of the most industrialised districts in India. History of Pune According to archaeological discoveries of the Jorwe culture in Chandoli and Inamgaon, portions of the district have been occupied by humans since the Chalcolithic (the Copper Age, 5th–4th millennium BCE).
Marathi languageMarathi (pronməˈrɑːti; Devanagari: मराठी, məˈɾaːʈhiː) is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and an additional official language in the state of Goa. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with 83 million speakers as of 2011. Marathi ranks 13th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world. Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi and Bengali.
Maratha (caste)The Maratha caste is composed of 96 clans, originally formed in the earlier centuries from the amalgamation of families from the peasant (Kunbi), shepherd (Dhangar), pastoral (Gavli), blacksmith (Lohar), carpenter (Sutar), Bhandari, Thakar and Koli castes in Maharashtra. Many of them took to military service in the 16th century for the Deccan sultanates or the Mughals. Later in the 17th and 18th centuries, they served in the armies of the Maratha Empire, founded by Shivaji, a Maratha Kunbi by caste.
EknathEknath (IAST: Eka-nātha, Marathi pronunciation: [eknath]) (1533–1599), was an Indian Hindu saint, philosopher and poet. He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Vitthal and is a major figure of the Warkari movement. Eknath is often viewed as a spiritual successor to the prominent Marathi saints Dnyaneshwar and Namdev. Precise details of his life remain obscure. It is generally believed that Eknath lived during the latter three-quarters of the 16th-century.
Marathi literatureMarathi literature is the body of literature of Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and written in the Devanagari and Modi script. Maharashtri Prakrit was the southern Prakrit that was spoken in the banks of Narmada and Godavari. Maharashtri was an offshoot of Vedic Sanskrit. The earliest example of Maharashtri as a separate language dates to approximately 3rd century BCE: a stone inscription found in a cave at Naneghat, Junnar in Pune district had been written in Maharashtri using Brahmi script.
