Marathi poetry
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Marathi poetry (मराठी काव्य)
Ramdas’ (1608-1681) Dasabodha is an inspiring and impressive piece in Marathi. 18th century poetry is well represented by Vaman Pandit (Yathartha Dipika), Raghunath Pandit (Nala Damayanti Swayamvara) and Shridhar Pandit (Pandavpratap, Harivijay and Ramvijay).
However, the most versatile and voluminous writer among the poets was Moropanta (1729-1794) whose Mahabharata was the first epic poem in Marathi. The historical section of the old Marathi literature was unique as it contained both prose and poetry. The prose section contained the Bakhars that were written after the foundation of the Maratha kingdom by Shivaji. The poetry section contained the Padavas and the Katavas composed by the Shahirs. The period from 1794 to 1818 is regarded as the closing period of the Old Marathi literature and the beginning of the Modern Marathi literature.
Keshavasuta (1866-1905), the first Marathi revolutionary poet, launched Modern Marathi poetry with his first poem. The later poets like Keshavsuta, Balakavi, Govindagraj, and the poets of Ravi Kiran Mandal like Madhav Julian wrote poetry which was influenced by the Romantic and Victorian English poetry. It was largely sentimental and lyrical.PK Atre, the renowned satirist and a politician wrote a parody of this sort of poetry in his collection Jhenduchi Phule
Ravikiran Mandal and Kavi Tambi, bothencouraged some great poets like Ananta Kanekar (Chandarat), Kavi Anil (Phulwat) and N G Deshpande. Prose after 1945 explores human life in all its shades. The major paradigm shift in sensibility began in the forties with the avant-garde modernist poetry of B.S. Mardhekar. Mardhekar set the fashion of this trend for P S Rage, Vinda Karandikar, Vasant Bapat and Shanta Shelke. Prominent modern literary figures include Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar who also receieve Jnanapith award for Vishakha.
In the post nineties, this 'new little magazine movement' gained momentum and poets like manya joshi, hemant divate, sachin ketkar, mangesh kale, salil wagh, nitin kulkarni, shridhar tilve, varjesh solanki touched the new areas of post-modern life. The poetry collections broughtout by abhidhanantar prakashan and the regular issues of the magazine abhidhanantar, khel, shosthav are taking marathi poetry to the global standards. Aayushyavar bolu kahi (Let us speak something on life) by Sandeep Khare and Saleel Kulkarni is appealing the masses of popular Marathi audience.
