Marathi Wikipedia

Screenshot Screenshot of the Marathi Wikipedia home page
Type of site	Internet encyclopedia project
Available in	Marathi
Owner	Wikimedia Foundation
URL	mr.wikipedia.org
Commercial	No
Registration	Optional, but required for certain tasks including  editing of protected pages   non-talk page creation (autoconfirmed for articles)   page moving (autoconfirmed)
Users	160,091 as of 22 January 2024
Launched	1 May 2003; 20 years ago (2003-05-01)
Content license	Creative Commons Attribution/ Share-Alike 3.0 (most text also dual-licensed under GFDL) Media licensing varies

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 22 January 2024, it has 94,678 articles and 160,091 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.

On 27 February, Marathi Day is celebrated.

Progress

Users and editors

Community and events

The Marathi Wikipedia has various events organised by volunteers from all over the state. Some of the notable events include,

1. Marathi Wikipedia Vachan Prerna Saptah
2. Wikipedia Asian Month
3. Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din etc.

Media coverage and increased growth

Marathi Daily news paper Maharashtra Times was the first to cover and recommend 'Marathi language Wikipedia' on 27 July 2006.

Fonts and input methods

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).