The Department of Marathi was established in 1950 with the aims of promoting Marathi language & culture and also study of it's history.  Starting from the post of one Professor and one Research Assistant, the department was increased and now it has 7 faculty members.  During the period of five decades the department has remained the center of various literary & research activities.  Several notable scholars & critiques are attached with the department as faculty, guest lecturers & past students.

 Dr.S.G.Tulpule, authority on Medieval Marathi literature & linguistics, was the first professor & Head of the Department.  He succussfully completed the ambitious project of Old Marathi Inscriptions.  He also undertook another big project called "Dialect Dictionary of Marathi".  He led the department very successfully. Dr.R.S.Walimbe, a renowned personality in Marathi Criticism, accepted the leadership in 1969 and gave more status to the department.  In his tenure from 1976 to 1991 Dr.M.S.Kanade took great efforts for the expansion of the department.  The number of teachers was increased and also the Chair of  Sant Dnyandeo was establisted.  Dr.Anand Yadav succeded him and  led the department for  next five years.  Apart from these heads, Dr. Bhalchandra Phadake's contribution to update the department in the areas like New Trends in Marathi literature, is also noteworthy.

 From the beginning the department has developed relations with other leading institutions in the field.  There has been a continuous exchange through the programs like the guest lecture-series etc. Students of the department always have an access with the experts in various fields & trends in literature & criticism.

 Department of Marathi has been a center of research from the beginning.  Scholors like Dr. Kalyan Kale, Dr.S.R.Chunekar as faculty and research guide had maintained the leading position of the department  in this field.  At present, most of the teachers are guiding for  Ph.D. and M.Phil. students and the department is full with research activities.  Till now, 106 Ph.D. and 229 M.Phil. students have completed their work for the respective degrees through the department.

 It has been a tradition of the department to arrange at least 1 State Level seminar every year.  Besides that, 5 Lecturer-series related to different fields are also arranged regularly.  Teachers and students from other institutions and colleges also participate in these activities of the department.

 The Dept. has a plan for having a separate building in future.  Due to the limited space, students cannot use the rich collection of books and reference material.  The future complex is going to be used as a center for Marathi language, literature and culture.  There is a plan for library, seminar rooms, separate cubicles for research fellows etc.  The Dept. has a good collection of old valuable manuscripts and we are in process of retriving and collecting many more such valuable documents.  Today we need more resources for maintenance and development of the same.

Contact :

Phone : 5696061 (Ext.2187)
E-mail: marathi@unipune.ernet.in