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Marathi Bhasha Diwas: Maharashtra gears up to celebrate Kusumagraj’s birth anniversary today; here’s all you need to know

‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’ is celebrated on the occasion of the birth anniversary of noted Marathi litterateur V V Shirwadkar, popularly known as ‘Kusumagraj.’

Updated: February 27, 2017 11:08 AM IST

By Sandhya Dangwal

Marathi Bhasha Diwas 2020, Marathi Bhasha Diwas messages
Marathi Bhasha Diwas 2020: Maharashtra gears up to celebrate Kusumagraj’s birth anniversary today; here’s all you need to know

Mumbai, Feb 27: Maharashtra is all set to celebrate ‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’ today with various cultural programmes in different parts of the state. ‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’ is celebrated on the occasion of the birth anniversary of noted Marathi litterateur V V Shirwadkar, popularly known as ‘Kusumagraj.’ Major events will take place in Nashik, home town of the noted litterateur while celebrations will be held across the state with great pomp and gaiety. This special occasion is likely to be celebrated in Maharashtra’s neighbouring state Goa, where the Marathi speaking crowd is likely to be a part of the festivities and participate in various events.

Marathi ranks 19th in the list of most spoken languages in the world and has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India. It is the official language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

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Here’s all you need to know about the ‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’:

  • ‘Marathi Bhasha Diwas’ is celebrated on February 27 every year to mark the birth anniversary of noted Marathi litterateur V.V. Shirwadkar alias ‘Kusumagraj’.
  • Kusumagraj, born on 27 February 1912, was an eminent Marathi poet, playwright, novelist, short story writer and humanist.  In his writings, he wrote about freedom, justice and emancipation of the deprived.
  • The government started celebrating the birth anniversary of Kusumagraj as Marathi Rajbhasha Gaurav Din after the Jnanpeeth awardees demise in 1999.
  • Marathi language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, dating from about 900 AD. The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect.
  • Kusumagraj wrote 16 volumes of poems, three novels, eight volumes of short stories, seven volumes of essays and 18 plays and six one-act plays.
  • The famous writer was also the recipient of several State awards, and National awards including the 1974 Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi for Natsamrat, Padma Bhushan (1991) and the Dnyanpith Award in 1987.
  • V. Shirwadkar works like the Vishakha (1942) which is a collection of lyrics is considered one of the masterpieces of Indian literature.

Last year, the celebrations in Shirwadkar’s hometown Nashik were on a large scale wherein ‘Kusumagraj Pahat’, a classical musical extravaganza was being organised by Kusumagraj Memorial. Amongst various other festivities marking birth anniversary of ‘Kusumagraj last year, around 18,000 MSRTC buses and 568 bus stations across Maharashtra were decorated with hoardings and banners. The banners displayed poems of Kusumagraj and other celebrated poets.

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