Hinduism is a religion from the Indian sub-continent. Hinduism is a polytheist anthropomorphic way of life where in most followers tend to practice highly ritualized forms of worship; at the same time the Hindu way of life offers ample liberty and choice to create or adopt philosophy and/or rituals at individual, family and social group levels. Respect for different perceptions and plurality of thought are essentials.
People watching Hindu practices from a distance tend to think that Hindu's worship multiple things, the perception is only partially correct since most Hindus accept at back of the mind that the creator is only one. It would be easier to understand usually one finds a Hindu is either just respecting or worshiping different powers or facets of omnipresent creator, the nature around himself and various values he belives in.
The canon of books and poems that define Hinduism were written in Sanskrit and are of ancient origin. They range from Epics about the lives and loves of the Gods, philosophical treatises on metaphysical questions, and law books. The Hindu religion has provided the roots of Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. In the West it can be found in the Hare Krishna movement. Hinduism is the majority religion of India, Nepal, and Mauritius and a significant minority religion in Fiji, Suriname, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Singapore.
There are following categories of people who use or study Marathi as second language.
People having Marathi mother-tongue but studied in English or semi-English medium
People having Marathi mother-tongue but lost or on the verge of losing touch with Marathi language
Such people whose family is multilingual in the sense one of the parent or family member is Marathi speaking.
Such people whose mother-tongue is other than Marathi but studied Marathi language as first or second language.
Pupils of Marathi speaking non resident Indians
Pupils of Migrants to non Marathi speaking areas
Those who want to learn Marathi language as foreign language.
If one informs us on talk page of this article, which of the above background people want to learn Marathi language, then probable we can have more customised support for the given audience.
The teaching approach
While the traditional teaching method will be available; We additionally provide here a different approach. Adult education experts say that human beings usually remember words as pictures and not as single alphabet so we support here with randomly displayed Marathi words with pronunciation with few additional tips on the main page itself so every time you visit you learn new word with ease is the target.
Similarly we are also supporting on this page with learn with pictures feature This helps to understand words with cultural context and again makes easy to understand and remember.
We will also do an effort to explain words from Marathi songs and rhymes
We will also try to highlight similarities of Marathi and European words as Indoeuropean languages, also along with Latin and Sanskrit info where available.
Marathi language has borrowed words also from Arabic, Persian and other geologically neighbouring languages we will make endeavour to explain those words also wherever possible.
For advance users we will show sentence translations randomly. And also in near future for those who know Hindi already we will try to provide support from Hindi language Wikibooks project.
Have you understood the concepts and if you have some good ideas you also can join adding up info to this book as you learn.
For this book we need support also from flash 'Gif' image experts and sound experts
So we hope you will enjoy learning and contributing to knowledge with this book.
Learn with pictures
दिंडी = dinDi; a ritual pilgrimage in Maharashtra.
Note Marathi language does not have small or capital letters, for Roman transliteration when we use small d it pronounced for द as in delhi. When we use capital D pronounced for ड as Doctor as most of D pronunciations in English language.
पगडी = pagaDi; alternate पागोटे = pAgoTe The pinkish red turban traditional Marathi head gear.
उपरणे = uparaNe; a cotton maffalar/stroll (many times used like a long cotton napkin)
कुर्ता = kurtA; a cotton shirt with long sleeves
Every time a different random picture, Keep coming keep learning!
Pronunciation as of English alphabet A same pronunciation is in Marathi as ए = used to seek attention amongst young kids. (Don't use with elderly or unknown people to you)
Remember pronunciation ए is not as of other words starting with A
Remember pronunciation ए is usually like pronunciation as of English vowel e in pet, get
pronunciation ए is also like a in English as of ate,gate,mate,rate
ए is Seventh vowel in Marathi language
Vowels in Marathi language अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ, ऋ,ॠ, ऌ,ॡ, ॲ, ऑ
