The Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture has been set up with the express purpose of modernising the Marathi language as a part of the Central Government's programme for modernising the regional languages. While framing and pursuing its multilateral programme for the enrichment of Marathi literature, the Board found that, like the literature in all the other regional languages in India, Marathi literature is singularly deficient in books on scientific subjects including subjects coming under the category of "Humanities". It is not, therefore, surprising that books dealing with linguistics in general and a scientific analysis of the Marathi language, in particular, including its phonetics, grammar, etymology, etc. have been almost wanting in the whole gamut of Marathi literature.
While the State Board does not expect to work miracles overnight in a field neglected by the Marathi writers for so many years past, a modest beginning has been made by the State Board by undertaking publication of standard books on many varied scientific subjects like Eugenics, Dietetics, Anatomy, Medicine, Statistics, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Zoology, Botany and others. Efforts are also being made to get standard books on linguistics translated into Marathi by eminent scholars.
The Marathi language is rich in linguistic and cultural heritage, constituted by its host of dialects. It is considered by scholars of linguistics that an analytical study of a selected number of Marathi dialects will afford broad points of reference for dialectal studies and linguistic surveys of a more comprehensive nature. Their study will also open the door for the study of local culture and folk literature. Such an analytical study is thus very important and also urgent because the local dialects which constitute the worthy heritage are fast disappearing owing to the spread of literacy in standard Marathi as well as the wide circulation of dailies, weeklies and other periodicals in standard Marathi. It has, besides, a great scientific value for linguistic studies in Maharashtra and for the wider field of Indian languages.
With the full help and co-operation of the Linguistics Department of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Poona, the State Board has undertaken the scheme for a scientific survey of the Marathi dialects and, initially, it is intended to study, in fair detail, some seven or eight dialects of Marathi according to the modern methods of descriptive analysis so as to give a fairly good picture of the dialects themselves as wholes. Dr. A. M. Ghatge, a former Member of the State Board is conducting the dialectal surveys on behalf of the Board. The "Warli of Thana" is his seventh work in the dialectal survey series.
The Warlis are an aboriginal tribe with their concentration in the northern parts of the Thana district. They are also spread rather thinly, in the other adjoining districts of Surat, Nasik and Dhulia. From their physical features, it is obvious that they belong to the local population of the area, which is also represented by the other tribes neighbouring them. At present they are a completely settled community and there are no traces of a nomadic life with them. They live close to the villages and in the outskirts of the forests according to their occupations which are agriculture, dealing in forest produce and other manual labours. The significance of their community name Varli is not known. Their settlements consist mostly of a group of huts or thatched houses and are generally scattered over the area. Their food consists of the produce of the land like rice, nagli, jawar and they also partake of fish and flesh of such animals as are usually considered clean in the Hindu society. Some of the more secluded groups also eat such animals as dead monkeys, bats and field rats. The family is primarily patrilocal though the custom of taking a gharorya is also current, according to which the prospec-tive husband of a daughter comes to live and work in the family. The terms of relationship show nothing parti-cular and are of the usual type found in other Hindu communities. Their common life is mostly ruled by the system of the panchayat, and the chief person among them called jätelā decides all matters of tribal customs and other petty disputes. Their religion is also of the popular type. They worship animal gods like the Väghya, Väghobā, trees like pipal and some other tribal gods like Naran dev, Hirvä and Himai. The Bhagat is their priest, medicine man and the charmer. The stories which they tell about their gods are undeveloped and simple and appear to be some garbled versions of the myths current in the Hindu society. They engage in tribal dances and recitations of songs on ceremonial occasions. Their marriage ceremony is fairly simple and the Brahmin priest has no part to play in it. The woman called dhavaleri sings songs on the occasion of the marriage. Polygyny is allowed though not common. Divorce is permitted and the widow can remarry usually the brother of the deceased husband. Their funeral customs show some special features.
The tribal divisions of the Warlis are not fully explored. The major endogamous groups go by the names of Murdes and Davar to the north and Nihirs and Shud Warlis to the south. Some of them are also known as Pathars as they live in the plains. These bigger groups are subdivided into smaller clans of exogamous nature called Varganes or Kuls. As regards the language they speak, it is possible to group them into two major dialects, one to the north to which the speech of the Davars belong and one to the south which includes the speech of the Nihirs and Shud Warlis. While the northern form of speech is greatly influenced by Gujarati which they know as their contact language, the southern speech is certainly a dialect of Marathi, very close to the speech of the Kunabis of the locality. But a more extensive and detailed survey of the area is needed to be able to fix up the dialects and areas of Warli speech.
The dialect described in this monograph belongs to the southern type. It represents the speech of an older and a younger Warli who live at Bordi and work at Kosbad. They say that they are not Davars, nor Nihirs but Shud Warlis. The older informant is uneducated while the younger one has completed his vernacular final examination. They know and understand Marathi.
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