Marathi Department was established in 1992. M.A. in the college in 2007-8. Marathi was launched. This department conducts UG and PG courses in Marathi. The faculty of the department are well experienced. Because the college is dominated by tribals. Students are given that type of project writing so that tribal culture, festivals, traditions can be preserved through students. To preserve the tradition of tribal musical instruments, the college has completed Best Practices for Tribal Musical Instruments. Students are inculcated in poetry writing so that the natural beauty of tribal areas can reach other people. Every year at least one poet happens in the college. The department plays an important role in preserving the Marathi language. Every year the department celebrates Marathi Language Gaurav Din (Marathi Raj Bhasha Day) and organizes different programs to make students realize the importance of Marathi as a first language. The department conducts training sessions to motivate students to do creative writing in Marathi. The department organizes many workshops, conferences, seminars/webinars and poetry festivals at international, national and state levels to make students aware of recent trends and job opportunities in Marathi language.
Conservation of Musical Instruments from Surgana Taluka.
Surgana Taluka is a tribal region where most of the people are from Konkan tribe. Geographically this region is surrounded by valleys and mountain ranges of Sahyadri mountains dense forest area. Highest rainfall is recorded every year from Surgana region. This region is surrounded by full of natural beauty during the rainy season. The Konkans are the majority tribe among the tribals in this taluka followed by tribes like 'Hindu MahadevKoli, Warli, Harijan and Charan’ communities living in harmony with each other. All these tribes celebrate many festivals during the year. They play music at every occasion. Musical instruments are very unique which are made from natural resources. A traditional music of unknown authorship, which is transmitted orally, is what one calls folk music. The origin of it is the beliefs and customs of ordinary people of a community. There are some musical instruments of these people, which represent all forms of the traditional songs of the community. Yatpagai, Duff, Dak, Madhal, Tarpa, Kathya, Dera, Kingari, Timki, Chitkora, Tur, Piri, Bana, Tipri. , Nagara, Ghangali, Kundudi, Pava, Ghungru, Tasha, Dholaki, Dholtuntunehe are the instruments used by the tribal people of this region.Tribal people sings and dance along with these instruments and celebrate the festivals of Dongarya Dev, Diwali, Holi, Akshay Tritiya, Bhaya, etc. Music is common practice one the occasion of the wedding ceremony. Songs or instruments are also played on the occasion of one's death. Thus music is unavoidable part of these communities.
This Practice is run by the Department of Marathi of our college. Various instruments from local communities are collected, restored and conserved in the department. Special awaarenss is crated among students of the department about these instruments by assigning different projects to B.A. as well as M.A. students. Most of the students belong to tribal communities. But in this modern era and changing life culture, these students are forgetting the old traditional knowledge and cultural heritage of music. In the past, tribal people used to entertain themselves through musical instruments, but also used it as a means of survival or earning. They make money by selling these musical instruments, playing them on various occasions. In order to make these college students aware of this, they are given projects like project writing, interviews with musicians and instrumentalists. The College has Purchased all these equipments and kept them in the Marathi Department. The College Provides training in Playing this instrument and this cultural heritage will be preserved in the form of playing the instrument. and some Students are trained to play the instrument from those who are familiar with the traditional musical arts of their Village.
Due to the availability of tribal musical instruments in the college, Student’s enthusiastically writing research projects on it. Some students are getting training from local communities to play this instrument. In Surgana taluka, banjo is played at bandlagna. Many students are working in the local music bands where they are playing these traditional musical instruments. Through traditional musical instruments the traditional culture is preserve for the next generation.
Some of the above instruments are out of date. There is no knowledge about how to prepare them. Today, the banjo is not played in the band. There are some traditional musical instrument are available but we still don’t know how to play them. Most of the instruments from the past were made from particular material which is not available now so now these instruments are being made from different materials. The college has preserved that old instrument as a historical treasure.
As Surgana is a tribal dominated taluka, all the students here want to learn musical instruments. This is rich cultural heritage of this region which can be prove to be means of livelihood of many people from this region. The college is playing instrumental role in preserving, restoring and conserving the musical heritage of this region.