Who are the Marathas: land, language, bhakti foundation

The Marathas · section 1 of 10

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Marathas are natives of the Deccan plateau — the high, flat, rocky tableland of peninsular India.
Their core home is present-day Maharashtra.
This land shapes everything later: hills, steep passes and hilltop forts. A small force can hold such ground against a big army. Remember this when you read about Shivaji's fort warfare.

The group is identified by its language — Marathi.
Marathi has a continuous literary history since the 12th century. Literary history = the record of how writing (prose and poetry) grew in a language.
Continuous is the key word. Kings changed, rulers changed, but writing in Marathi never stopped.
The Government of India granted Marathi the status of a Classical Language on 3 October 2024, along with Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali [2].
One test for classical status is a recorded history of 1,500-2,000 years and an original literary tradition [2].

In the 13th century, most of Maharashtra was ruled by the Yadava dynasty.
Their capital was Devagiri, which is present-day Daulatabad.
The Yadavas ruled a 12th-14th century kingdom in what is now Maharashtra. They began as a feudatory (a junior ruler paying loyalty to a bigger one) of the Chalukyas of Kalyani [3].
Bhillama (c. 1187-91) made the dynasty the top power in the Deccan and founded Devagiri as capital [3].
Under Singhana (reigned c. 1210-47) the Yadavas were at their peak, fighting the Hoysalas in the south, Kakatiyas in the east, Paramaras in the north [3].
The last Yadava king was Ramachandra (reigned 1271-c. 1309) [3].

In the early 14th century the Yadavas were overcome by the Khilji Sultanate of Delhi.
Alauddin Khalji raided the wealthy Devagiri in 1296. The loot paid for his seizure of the Delhi throne [3].
Devagiri was finally annexed to the Sultanate in 1313 [3].
Devagiri was later renamed Daulatabad. Daulatabad Fort is today a centrally protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) [4].

Rulers changed. The bhakti tradition did not stop. Bhakti = loving devotion to god.
Between the 7th and 17th centuries, saints all over India composed devotional songs.
These saints came from many different sections of society, not one caste or class.
They sang in the languages of ordinary people, not only Sanskrit.
They preferred bhakti to mere external ritualism — that is, real love of god beats show-off ceremonies.

Four names to fix: Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Ramdas.
They translated the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita into Marathi. Deep philosophy became readable for common people.
Dnyaneshwar (Jnanadeva) — born 1275 at Alandi, died 1296. He wrote the Bhavarthadipika, better known as the Jnaneshvari: a Marathi verse translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita [5].
Namdev — born c. 1270 at Narasi, died c. 1350 at Pandharpur. He became the foremost voice of the Varkari Panth ("Pilgrims' Path") [6].
Tukaram — born 1608 at Dehu, near Pune, died 1649. His abhangas ("unbroken" hymns) are among the most famous Indian poems [7].
Note the dates. Tukaram is alive in the same decades as Shivaji's rise. Bhakti and Maratha politics overlap in time.
The Varkari school centres on the Vitthal (Vithoba) temple at Pandharpur. Vitthal is a form of Vishnu. Pilgrims walk there every year, reaching Pandharpur in early July [8].
The Varkari saints rejected ritualism, show of piety, and social difference based on birth [8].

Some of these saints did more than sing. They also worked on social organisation and political awareness.
The NCERT chapter compares this with the Sikh gurus — devotion plus community organisation plus political consciousness.
Result: a solid cultural foundation. People across castes shared one language, one set of songs, one pilgrim route. That shared identity later helped the Marathas organise as a political power.
By the 17th century some Maratha chiefs tried for sovereignty (independent rule of their own) but failed.
The break came with Chhatrapati Shivaji, who united them.

Marathi has a continuous literary history from the 12th century.
Devagiri = present-day Daulatabad; capital of the Yadava dynasty.
Devagiri was founded as capital by Bhillama (c. 1187-91) [3].
Yadava peak ruler: Singhana (c. 1210-47); last ruler: Ramachandra (1271-c. 1309) [3].
Alauddin Khalji raided Devagiri in 1296; annexed 1313 [3].
Bhakti saints composed across the 7th-17th centuries.
Dnyaneshwar (1275-1296) wrote the Jnaneshvari / Bhavarthadipika — Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita [5].
Namdev (c. 1270-1350) — chief exponent of the Varkari Panth; linked to Pandharpur [6].
Tukaram (1608-1649) of Dehu — famous for abhangas [7].
Varkari pilgrimage ends at the Vitthal temple, Pandharpur [8].
Marathi declared a Classical Language on 3 October 2024 [2].

Language + bhakti built a shared identity before the state existed. One spoken language with 12th-century roots, plus saint-songs sung by all castes, gave scattered Deccan groups a common "we". Shivaji did not invent Maratha unity; he mobilised a unity already made by poets.
Bhakti as social levelling, and its limits. Varkari saints rejected birth-based rank and outward ritual [8]. This widened the recruiting base for later Maratha armies and administration. But the caste order was not abolished — a standard debate point: cultural openness did not equal social revolution.
Compare Maharashtra's saints with the Sikh gurus. Both used the people's language, both went past pure devotion into community organisation and political awareness. Useful for a comparative GS-I answer on regional identity formation under Sultanate/Mughal rule.
Political defeat did not mean cultural defeat. The Yadavas fell to the Khiljis by 1313 [3], yet Marathi writing and bhakti continued unbroken for another three centuries — showing that regional culture can outlast the dynasty that patronised it, and later supply the base for a new political order.