Marathi People

Religion : Hinduism (majority), Islam, Parsee, Jewish

Language : Marathi, Hindi

Regional Spread : Maharashtra, parts of Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India.

Population : 70 million

Food Habits : Staple food of the Marathi people is rice while huge variety of vegetables and coconut form the essential part of the diet. Those living in coastal areas are fond of exotic sea food. Peanut oil is predominantly used as a cooking medium. Marathis are very much fond of snacks too, most of which are savored by the entire nation.

Marriage Preference : Prefer marriages with Marathis of their own caste.

Famous Personalities

• Business and Industry : Aabasaheb Garware, Dhirubhai - Anil and Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Shantanurao Laxmanrao Kirloskar
• Actors : Nana Patekar, Laxmikant Berde, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Amol Palekar, Emraan Hashmi, John Abraham
• Actresses : Kajol, Meena Kumari, Nutan, Tanuja, Madhuri Dixit, Sonali Bendre, Varsha Usgaonkar, Durga Khote, Mamta Kulkarni, Shilpa Shirodkar, Namrata Shirodkar, Padmini Kolhapure, Smita Patil, Supriya Pathak
• Music : Zakir Hussain, Zubin Mehta, Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, Anuradha Paudwal (Singer)
• Politics : Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, B. R. Ambedkar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Bal Thackeray, Manohar Joshi, Pramod Mahajan, Sharad Pawar, Suresh Kalmadi, Sushilkumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh
• Cricket : Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Vinod Kambli, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Bangar, Sameer Dighe, Pravin Amre, Kiran More, Salil Ankola, Chandrakant Pandit, Vijay Manjrekar, Sandip Patil, Anshuman Gaekwad, Ajit Wadekar, Vijay Hazare, Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad
• Other Sports : Anjali Ved Pathak Bhagwat, Nitin Kirtane, Tejaswini Sawant

History and Origin :

The Marathi people are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. They are closely related to the neighboring Gujaratis and their language, Marathi, is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages. Marathis have an extraordinary military history going back to the time of the Maratha warrriors and have founded several Maratha empires in the subcontinent before the arrival of the British. They are mostly descended from the ancient Aryans as well as the Dravidians and the Indo-Scythians.

About Marathi People :

Marathis are a industrious people. They have made their mark in the fields of art, culture, sports, music and business and have brought lot of fame for the country.