A fine and early specimen of written Marathi, an Indic language spoken mainly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, but also in Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, and Kerala. One of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with 83 million speakers, Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindustani and Bengali, and ranks 13th in the list of languages with most native speakers in the world. It can boast some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages.
The German missionary Benjamin Schultze (1689-1760) went to Tranquebar in 1719 and was ordained there the following year. He left for Madras in 1726, where he established the first Christian mission in 1728, with the support of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It became known as the "English Mission". Schultze returned to Halle, where he was active as a translator. Among his efforts were a translation of the Bible into Tamil with Peter Maleiappen (1700-1739), printed in 1728, and part of Genesis into Hindi, printed at Halle in 1745.
On the verso of the front cover, the work is titled and gifted in a contemporary hand: "Liber Scripturae Balabandu in charta Indica. Lingua haec sacra est Maratharum in India, eadem fere quae popularis sed litteris diversis, quae fere congruunt cum litteris Brahmanicis superioris Indiae. Donum Domini Beniaminas Schulzii, missionarii in Madrasta". The following page is superscribed, "Scriptura Balabandica Maratharum sacra". A rare survival of an 18th-century manuscript written in the Marathi language.
Some spotting and staining, the wrapper is slightly frayed along the spine. Otherwise in good condition.