Maharashtri prakrit

Maharashtri prakrit (ancestor of Marathi) 

This was the ancestor of modern Marathi ,Konkani , Divehi(Maldivian language)
Maharashtri was spoken from South rajputana till the Krishna river according to many historians ex- C.V Vaidhya in his book medieval India states so. It evolved as a separate Prakrit around  500 BC.
In one of the blogs by name Controversies in history there is an article named "The myth of maharashtri prakrit" and according to modi sattva(the guy  who wrote it ) Marathi never evolved from Maharashtri instead Marathi is mixture (combination of prakrit ,kannada and telugu) When i argued with him he asked me to produce words from Maharashtri and asked to prove that Maharashtri was spoken or not , I lost the argument as could not produce the things he had asked for .
He even argued that Maharashtri never existed . 


So i decided to get some information about Maharashtri and how it evolved into Modern Marathi .
The Government's submission for making Marathi a classical language to the Central Government is a marvelous document which describes the history of the Marathi language     here. (Or see all links at मराठी भाषा विभाग > Antargat Saunstha > Abhijaat Marathi Bhasha)

Other lines of the inscriptions can be seen here.

Gaha Sattasai (or in Sanskrit known as Gatha Saptasati) is a collection of poems written in Maharashtra Prakrit. It is dated between 200 BCE to 200 CE and the authorship is attributed to the Satavahana King Hala. Some more snippets from the above document follow:

Another extract from the document, about some indigenous Maharashtri Prakrit words:

Now have a look at these Maharashtri works and the words have similarity to Modern Marathi and go through the link above on the history of Marathi , those are not mere blogs but official documents produced and approved by the govt of India . I do not support language supremacy all languages are beautiful in their own way  , This was about the language and regarding answering those blogs on history i will be doing it in part two . Hope i shared some good reliable and genuine information.

Satavahanas origin

Original identity of Satavahanas

Original Identity of Satavahanas

The claims  of Kannadigas   in those blogs are -
1. Marathis did not have an own kingdom prior to Chatrapathi shivaji maharaj (1630-1680)
2.Kannadigas ruled Maharashtra majority of the time.
3. Maharastra as we know today was a Kannada speaking land ,
4.Marathi language has a large influence of Kannada
5.Marathi people(southern Maharashtra) as we know them today were kannadigas and they adopted Marathi later during peshwa rule
6. And there's a blog named as controversies in history by Modi sattva has made some serious claims .

This is a continuation of my first part on this topic . In the first part i have talked about the language and in this one i will be throwing some info about the history of these parts of  India , in those pro Kannada blogs ( Controversies of history ) they have highlighted the Kannada kingdoms with pride but according to them Marathi people never a kingdom before SHIVAJI Maharaj. Now let us go through some history of that region .

Whole of  Deccan was under MAURYAN RULE until 200-232 BC as soon as the their empire collapsed the major power to rise in Deccan was that of the satavahanas . 

Satavahanas   230 BC - 220 AD

The satavahanas came to power in 230 BC and rules till 220 AD  so they ruled around 470 years .

The above image is their rule at their peak . and there is another image as well have a look at it 

In this image the borders of western sakas and Satavahanas  overlap each other as they were in constant conflict over those regions . Majority of Andhra Karnataka was under this empire .

The Satavahana dynasty played the most significant role in Indian history in the period between the fall of the Mauryas and the rise of Gupta Empire.

With Asoka’s death his descendants lost control over parts of South India. Naturally the local chiefs seized the opportunity and assumed independence.

Now in those blogs they have claimed that Satavahanas were a Kannada kingdom and there is claims that Satavahanas were a Telugu kingdom as well , But i say they were the first MARATHI kingdom and let us go through certain facts to prove my point . THE first claim that they were andhras -

It is because of the name andhras that the Satavahana empire is assumed as a Telugu one , But if we examine their documents, inscriptions , literary works ,coins etc...... no where it is mentioned that they are andhras the name first appears in the puranas (Hindu historical and religious texts ). The puranas refer them as "Andhrabrithyas " this word has two meanings 

1) the subordinates of Andhras...............................................................................................

2) The overlords of andhras ...................................................................................................

Now  let us examine the both the meanings the first one says that they were subordinates of Andhras which cant be logically true as they were a powerful dynasty in whole of Indian subcontinent . and the second meaning maybe be true because the Andhra Ishkvakus were feudatories  of Satavahanas . even this is not enough to prove my point we have to look at their documents, inscriptions , literary works ,coins to find out who they actually where and their origin .   

Geographical evidence  - 

The  earliest found inscriptions of satavahanas are  in Nanaghat and Nasik  in Western Deccan, the absence of any early Satavahana  inscriptions in Eastern Deccan or Andhra region, Gautamiputra Satakarni’s reference of Mahendra hills as the eastern boundary of his kingdom, the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela of Kalinga which mentioned the Satavahanas as its western neighbour while the Andhra region was its southern neighbor – all these show that

they were originally from Western Deccan . 

SIMUKHA  the first ruler of the empire is said to have conquered malwa and adjacent areas 

the greatest ruler of this empire was Gauthamiputra satkarni.  

The list of rulers 

• Simuka or Sisuka (r. 230–207 BCE).
• Krishna (r. 207–189 BCE), ruled 18 years.
• Sri Mallakarni (or Sri Satakarni) (r. 189–179 BCE), ruled 10 years.
• Purnotsanga (r. 179–161 BCE), ruled 18 years
• Skandhastambhi (r. 161–143 BCE), ruled 18 years
• Sātakarnī I (r. 143–87 BCE), ruled 56 years
• Lambodara, ruled 18 years.(r. 87–67 BCE)

Probably as vassals of Kanva dynasty (75–35 BCE):

• Apilaka, ruled 12 years.
• Meghasvati (or Saudasa), ruled 18 years.
• Svati (or Svami), ruled 18 years.
• Skandasvati, ruled 7 years.
• Mahendra Satakarni (or Mrgendra Svatikarna, Satakarni II), ruled 8 years.
• Kuntala Satakarni (or Kuntala Svatikarna), ruled 8 years.
• Svatikarna, ruled 1 year.

• Pulomavi (or Patumavi), ruled 36 years.
• Riktavarna (or Aristakarman), ruled 25 years.
• Hāla (r. 20–24 CE), author of the Gathasaptasati, an Indian literature classic, ruled 5 years.
• Mandalaka (or Bhavaka, Puttalaka), ruled 5 years.
• Purindrasena, ruled 5 years.
• Sundara Satakarni, ruled 1 year.
• Cakora Satakarni (or Cakora Svatikarna), ruled 6 months.
• Sivasvati, ruled 28 years.
• Gautamiputra Sātakarni, or Gautamiputra, popularly known as Shalivahan (r. 78 CE–102 CE), ruled 21 years.
• Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi, or Puloma, Puliman (r.102 CE–130 CE), ruled 28 years.
• Vashishtiputra Sātakarni (r. 130–160), or Shiva Sri, Sivasri, ruled 7 years.
• Shivaskanda Satakarni, (157–159), ruled 7 years.
• Yajna Sri Satakarni, (r. 167–196 CE), ruled 29 years.
• Vijaya, ruled 6 years.
• Canda Sri Satakarni, ruled 10 years.
• Pulomavi IV, 7 years.
• Madhariputra Svami Sakasena (r. c. 190)

and the capital was Prathisthana ( Paithan) in the beginning , Krishna the successor of Simukha  conquered present day andhra pradesh . and Amaravathi  was made a capital later . 

Linguistic evidence 

The claims by those blogs are that  Kannada , Telugu were the languages of satavahana empire and when i checked in wikipedia about 3 years ago it stated Maharashtri prakrit and Telugu were the official languages of that empire but now it states Prakrit , Kannada ,Telugu and Tamil!!!!!! well pure chauvinistic crap the Tamils claim almost everything , so i wont take them into consideration .

Ans as far inscriptions  are found its only Maharashtri prakrit which was the official language of the empire ,Chutus who were feudatories of satavahanas were a Kannada speaking dynasty .

The coins of satavahanas found around Karimnagar , and many parts of Telangana contain reverse inscriptions in Telugu it was to make sure the local population of that region would understand it. 

Hala a king of this empire was the author of the famous Gaha_Sattasai a collection of poems in Maharashtri and it was one of the earliest works in Maharashtri Prakrit .

The Naneghat inscription by a Satavahana queen is considered the earliest inscription in Maharashtri Prakrit. See the full details of this inscription 

google.co.in

here

I'm producing the translation given in the first document. 

The  first  and  the  earliest  stone  inscription  in  Marathi  is  in  Nāṇeghāta
near  Junnara  in  Pune district.  (Appendix-1)  The  text  is  in  Mahāraṭhī
language in the Brāhmī  script and dates back to about 2200 years. Though
some text in the third line of the stone inscription is not legible, the word
Mahāraṭhino  can be noticed clearly. Mirashi (1979, p. 10) has reproduced
the stone inscription
 (''...  य  महरठीनो  अंगीयकुलवधनस  सगररगिरीवलयाय  पथविय  पथमवीरस
वस...  य  महतो  मह...'')  Mirashi  (1979,  p.  14)  offers  the  following  Marathi
translation,
''...  महारठी  अंगिय  कुलोत्पन्न  गिरीसमुद्रवलयांकित  पृथ्वीवरील  वीरश्रेष्ट्ठ  ....  महान अशा पुरुषात श्रेष्ट्ठ अशा ...'' [“Mahāraṭhī people are those who speak the Mahāraṭhī
language and the country of the speakers of Mahāraṭhī is Mahāraṭhī  region,”
that  is,  Marathi  region.]

there is a Blog called "Controversies in history" which claims a Kannadiga origin of this Kingdom that Blogger is a clear Kannada chauvinist so to counter him i have started this blog  .