Mark their words

It took the organisation more than six years to collect the primary data – selecting the books,putting together difficult and unpopular words and deriving the meanings of such words. The core team of 10 members,included eminent scholars,professors,writers,critics,researchers and literateurs mainly from different parts Maharashtra. More than 4500 books were read,starting from stories,poems,autobiographies,kadambari (novels),plays and so on. The entire dictionary will have the meaning of more than 35000 words. While the first volume will have 250 pages,the second volume will be bigger,with 1000 pages.

Gangadhar Pantawane,chief editor of the shabdakosh ,says,“Untill the 1950’s,only the writers from middle-class Maharastrian families contributed to Marathi literature. But post-independence; Marathi literature saw a sudden influx of several dalit and rural writers. Since they were mostly unlettered and came from small villages,their writing style,as well as the word-play,were very different and difficult to understand.” These writers from the scheduled castes and tribes mainly wrote in languages like Konkani,Varadi,Marathwadi and other sub-languages of Marathi. “Dalit literature has not only broadened the horizon of Marathi literature,but has also thrown light on the lives and experiences of the dalits and the rural writers,” adds Pantawane.

Some of the writers from whose books the difficult words have been picked are Namdev Dasal,Rajan Gawas,Uttam Bandutupe,Annabhau Sathe,Anand Yadav,Voni Dandekar,Sadanand Deshmukh,Prayee Sonkambale,Shankar Sakharam and Nagnaath Kotapalle. “The most unique part of the dictionary is that aside from mentioning the word and its meaning,it also carries other details like the name of the book from which it originates,its author,page number and the sentence in which it has been used,” said Girish Patke,who works as a desk officer at Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha.

Some of the members who are associated with the project since its inception include Krishna Kirawale (Kolhapur),Kisan Patil (Jalgaon),Urmila Pawar (Mumbai),Shashikant Sawant (Indore) and so on. The team members working on the project met twice a month to discuss books,words and their meanings. “The entire process was very informative,interesting,but time-consuming,” adds Pantawane.

Marathi author,Shridhar Madgulkar,who recently released his book Mantharlelya Athavani,says,“The Dalit dialects contained mostly slangs and was very different. The difference also arises from the economic conditions they have experienced. This made their language style a lot more different from that of other Marathi writers.”