The Marathi Wikipedia (Marathi: मराठी विकिपीडिया) is the Marathi language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia, and was launched on 1 May 2003. The project is one of the leading Wikipedia among other South Asian language Wikipedia's in various quality matrices.[1] It has grown on to become a wiki containing more than 90,000 articles. As of 26 November 2024, it has 98,541 articles and 166,783 registered users.[2] Among the most visited Marathi-language websites, the Marathi Wikipedia is ranked tenth by Alexa.[3]
History
Beginning
The Marathi Wikipedia was available in the wikipedia.org domain from 2003 May 1. 'Vasant Panchami'(वसंत पंचमी)[4] (Vasant Panchami) and 'Audumbar' (औदुंबर (कविता)), a poem by the poet Balkavi[5] were the first articles created on Marathi Wikipedia on 2 May 2003.
Initial growth phase
The Marathi Wikipedia picked up growth from 2006 onwards. On 13 January 2006 Marathi Wikipedia had 1500 articles.
Marathi Daily news paper Maharashtra Times was the first to cover and recommend 'Marathi language Wikipedia' on 27 July 2006.
Fonts and input methods
One can use ULS "अक्षरांतरण" (Transliteration) or "मराठी लिपी" (Inscript) typing options to search or edit Marathi Wikipedia articles as shown in this video clip; One can click on the 'cc to change the subtitle languages to Marathi, English, Sanskrit, Kokani, Ahirani languages.
Any one of Unicode Marathi fonts input system is fine for Marathi Wikipedia. Some people use inscript. Majority uses either Google phonetic transliteration or input facility Universal Language Selector provided on Marathi Wikipedia. Phonetic facility provided initially was java-based later supported by Narayam extension for phonetic input facility. Currently Marathi Wikipedia is supported by Universal Language Selector (ULS), that offers both phonetic keyboard (Aksharantaran, Marathi: अक्षरांतरण) and InScript keyboard (Marathi: मराठी लिपी).
