Bible translations into Marathi explained

The first Marathi translation was made by Vaidyanath Sarma under the supervision of the Serampore missionaries and William Carey at Fort William College.^{[1] [2] [3]} However Carey's translation was found lacking,^[4] and was revised by two American missionaries, Gordon Hall and Samuel Newell in 1826, with a subsequent edition in 1830.^{[5] [6]} Further, David Oliver Allen "superintended a translation of the Scriptures into the Mahratta language" while in charge of the Bombay printshop 1844−53.^[7]

The first colloquial version was made by Pandita Ramabai in language easy for Pune women to understand.^{[8] [9] [10]}

Later translators of the Bible include Bapuji Appaji, B. N. Athavle and Ratnakar Hari Kelkar.

In collaboration with Church centric bible translation, Free Bibles India has published a Marathi translation online.

In 2016, the New Testament of New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released by Jehovah's Witnesses in Marathi.^[11] It was published online (also offline in PDF format) with mobile versions released through JW Library application in App stores.

Notes and References

1. Journal of the Asiatic Society: 1 Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India) - 1959 - Thus it may be concluded that after Vaidyanath had translated the Bible into Marathi for six months to Carey's satisfaction, the latter found for him a suitable employment in the Fort William College. The Marathi Bible was, however, ...
2. Journal of sacred literature: 5 p 520 John Kitto, Henry Burgess, Benjamin Harris Cowper - 1853 ... the labours of Charles Rhenius (1790-1838), with the Tamil version ; the Bombay translations of the Bible into Marathi and Gujerati; the Canarese Bible completed at Bellary ; the publication of the entire Hindustani Old Testament by Mr. J. A. Schurman and Mr J. A. F. Hawkins.
3. The Indian postcolonial: a critical reader p178 Elleke Boehmer, Rosinka Chaudhuri - 2010 The history of translation in Europe cannot be rendered independent of translations, for example, of the Bible into Marathi or Bangla, merely two of the languages used in the South Asian subcontinent; or any of the languages used in ...
4. A history of missions in India Julius Richter - 1908 A great deal of work and perseverance has been expended on the translation of the Bible into Marathi. Carey, it is true, had been Professor of Marathi at Fort William College, but his translation of the Bible into this language ...
5. Studies in translation p 134 Ed. Mohit K. Ray - 2008 translated by the Serampore missionaries under the supervision of Dr. William Carey, the members of the American Marathi Mission, founded in Mumbai in 1813, undertook the project of retranslating their Bible into Marathi of an ...
6. American Missionaries and Hinduism: a study of their contacts from ... Sushil Madhava Pathak - 1967 Improving upon the imperfect translation of the Bible into Marathi by Carey, Messrs, Hall and Newell, the two American missionaries at Bombay, brought out a standard Marathi translation of the entire Bible in 1826.
7. National Cyclopædia of American Biography p. 56. 1896.
8. Pandita Ramabai Ramabai Sarasvati (Pandita) - 1979 And, that undertaking she could perhaps have easily accomplished with less trouble and difficulty, than what she was confronted with while translating the Bible into Marathi — simpler form of Marathi, so that any common man with ...
9. She has done a beautiful thing for me: portraits of Christian ... p139 Anne C. Kwantes - 2005 Having studied the biblical languages, Pandita Ramabai began to translate the whole Bible into Marathi, her mother tongue, which was spoken in the Pune area. She used very simple language, so that even poorly educated women would be ...
10. India's Bene Israel: a comprehensive inquiry and sourcebook Shirley Berry Isenberg - 1988 - Miss Victoria Brazier and a Jewish printer Mr. Aaron Jacob Divekar of the Bene Israel community played an important part in the publishing house, [p.292] In 1904 she [Ramabai] started her translation of the Bible into Marathi. ...
11. "WatchTower publications", Watchtower publications Index (1986-2016)