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{{short description|Buddhists of Marathi ethnic and linguistic identity}}
{{infobox ethnic group
|group= Marathi Buddhists
|image=Deekshabhoomi - panoramio.jpg
|caption=[[Deekshabhoomi]] monument, located in [[Nagpur]], [[Maharashtra]], where [[B. R. Ambedkar]] converted to Buddhism in 1956, is the largest [[stupa]] in Asia.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bhagwat|first=Ramu|title=Ambedkar memorial set up at Deekshabhoomi|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Ambedkar-memorial-set-up-at-Deekshabhoomi/articleshow/189472379.cms|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016083900/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2001-12-19/mumbai/27228796_1_dr-ambedkar-narayanan-smarak-samiti|url-status=live|archive-date=16 October 2013|access-date=1 July 2013|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|date=19 December 2001}}</ref>
|population = {{flag|India}} 6,531,200 (2011)
|popplace = [[Maharashtra]]
|langs = [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
|rels= [[Navayana|Navayana Buddhism]]
|related= [[Marathi people]]
}}

'''Marathi Buddhists''' ({{lang|mr-Latn|Marāṭhī Bauddha}}) are [[Buddhist]]s of [[Marathi people|Marathi ethnic]] and [[Marathi language|linguistic]] [[Identity (social science)|identity]]. The religious community resides in the [[Indian state]] of [[Maharashtra]]. They speak [[Marathi language|Marathi]] as their [[mother-tongue]] (first language). The Marathi Buddhist community is the largest Buddhist community in India. According to the 2011 Indian census, Marathi Buddhists constitute 5.81% of the population in Maharashtra, which is 77% of the total Buddhist population in India.<ref name="census2011">{{cite web|title=Population by religion community – 2011|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-01/DDW00C-01%20MDDS.XLS|website=Census of India, 2011|publisher=The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825155850/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-01/DDW00C-01%20MDDS.XLS|archive-date=25 August 2015}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Dr. Ambedkar delivering speech during conversion.jpg|thumb|Ambedkar delivering speech during conversion, Nagpur, 14 October 1956]]

Almost all Marathi Buddhists belong to the [[Navayana]] tradition, a 20th-century [[Dalit Buddhist movement|Buddhist revival movement]] in India that received its most substantial impetus from [[B. R. Ambedkar]] who called for the conversion to Buddhism by rejecting the [[Caste system in India|caste]]-based society of Hinduism. This was through a socio-religious movement and the term "Navayana" was used to "simplify the present cultural complexities" in other sects of Buddhism. Overall this was not a completely new sect culturally and ritually as it borrows most of its traditions from Theravada sect of Sri Lanka.
B. R. Ambedkar publicly converted on 14 October 1956, at [[Deekshabhoomi]], [[Nagpur]], over 20 years after he declared his intent to convert. He converted approximately 600,000 people to Buddhism.<ref name="Buswell2013p34">{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Buswell Jr.|author2=Donald S. Lopez Jr.|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ |year=2013| publisher= Princeton University Press|isbn =978-1-4008-4805-8|page=34}}</ref> The conversion ceremony was attended by Medharathi, his main disciple Bhoj Dev Mudit, and Mahastvir Bodhanand's Sri Lankan successor, Bhante Pragyanand.<ref name="maren_roots"/> Ambedkar asked the oppressed classes not to get entangled in the existing branches of Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana), and called his version [[Navayana]] or 'Neo-Buddhism'. Ambedkar would die less than two months later, just after finishing his definitive work on Buddhism. Many Buddhists employ the term "Ambedkarite Buddhism" to designate the Buddhist movement, which started with Ambedkar's conversion.<ref name="maren_roots">{{Cite book|last=Bellwinkel-Schempp|first=Maren|chapter=Roots of Ambedkar Buddhism in Kanpur|editor-last=Jondhale|editor-first=Surendra|editor2-last=Beltz|editor2-first=Johannes|title=Reconstructing the World: B.R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India|location=New Delhi|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|pages=221–244|chapter-url=http://www.maren-bellwinkel.de/artikel/ambedkarbuddhism.pdf|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801180947/http://www.maren-bellwinkel.de/artikel/ambedkarbuddhism.pdf|archive-date=1 August 2012}}</ref> Converted people call themselves "Bauddha" i.e. Buddhists.

==Population==
[[File:District wise Buddhist population percentage, India census 2011.png|thumb|District wise Buddhist population percentage, India census 2011. India's West-centre area, [[Maharashtra]] shows Marathi Buddhist population.]]

Almost all Marathi Buddhists are converts from [[Hinduism]]. Most Buddhist Marathi people belong to the former [[Mahar]] community who adopted Buddhism with Ambedkar in 1956.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste|year=2005|publisher=Orient Blackswan Publisher|isbn=8178241560|pages=119–131|chapter=The ‘Solution’ of Conversion}}</ref><ref name="zelliot">{{cite book |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Bardwell L. |title=Religion and the Legitimation of Power in South Asia |year=1978 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=9004056742 |pages=88–90 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2Jzn_LuLasC&pg=PA88 |first=Eleanor |last=Zelliot |author-link=Eleanor Zelliot |chapter=Religion and Legitimation in the Mahar Movement}}</ref>

In the 1951 census of India, In Maharashtra, 2,487 (0.01%) respondents said they were Buddhist. The 1961 census, taken after B. R. Ambedkar adopted Navayana Buddhism with his millions of followers in 1956, showed an increase to 2,789,501 (7.05%).<ref>Kantowsky, Detlef (1997). [https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd2-k06kantowsky.pdf Buddhisten in Indien heute], Indica et Tibetica 30, 111</ref>

Marathi Buddhists account for 77.36% of all [[History of Buddhism in India|Buddhists in India]].<ref name="census2011"/> According to the [[2011 Census of India]] there are 6.5 million Buddhists in Maharashtra but Buddhist leaders claim there are about 10 to 12 million Buddhists in Maharashtra. Among cities [[Mumbai]] has largest Buddhist population accounting for 4.85% of total Mumbai population. Almost 90 per cent of [[Navayana]] Buddhists live in the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.asianews.it/index.php?art=3482&l=en|title=INDIA Indian Buddhists reject religious census|website=m.asianews.it}}</ref> 5,204,284 (79.68%) Marathi Buddhists belong to the [[Scheduled Caste]] category.<ref>{{cite news|title=बौद्ध बढ़े, चुनावी चर्चे में चढ़े|url=https://aajtak.intoday.in/story/huge-increase-in-the-population-of-dalit-budhist-in-india-1-872858.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=aajtak.intoday.in|language=hi}}</ref>

==Notable Marathi Buddhists==

[[File:Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.jpg|right|thumb|[[B. R. Ambedkar]], Marathi scholar and the revivalist of [[Buddhism in India]]]]
* [[B. R. Ambedkar]] (1891–1956), jurist, barrister, and first Law and Justice Minister of India
* [[R. D. Bhandare]] (born 1916), governor of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh
* [[Bhushan Gavai]] (born 1960), the current and 52nd [[Chief Justice of India]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=petWCgAAQBAJ&q=r+s+gavai+religion&pg=PT170|title=Living with Religious Diversity|last1=Sikka|first1=Sonia|last2=Puri|first2=Bindu|last3=Beaman|first3=Lori G.|author3-link=Lori G. Beaman|date=2015-08-11|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317370987|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Sunil Baliram Gaikwad]] Member of Parliament 16th loksabha, author, advocate
* [[B. C. Kamble]] (born 1919), jurist and lawyer
* [[Sanjay Bansode]], state minister of Maharashtra<ref name="divyamarathi.bhaskar.com">{{Cite web|url=https://divyamarathi.bhaskar.com/news/23-ministers-belong-to-the-maratha-community-in-thackeray-government-126408482.html|title=उद्धव ठाकरे सरकारच्या ४३ सदस्यीय मंत्रिमंडळात २३ मंत्री मराठा समाजाचे|date=December 31, 2019|website=Divya Marathi}}</ref>
* [[Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare]], Governor of Odisha
* [[B. D. Khobragade]], Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
* [[Mukul Wasnik]], Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment
* [[Nashikrao Tirpude]], first Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
* [[Raja Dhale]] (1940–2019), social activist and writer
* [[Namdeo Dhasal]] (1949–2014), Padma Shri social activist and writer

==Culture==
[[File:Gate of Vipassana Buddha Vihar and Aurangabad caves, and Ambedkar statue.jpg|thumb|Marathi Buddhists are celebrating 62nd Dhammachakra Pravartan Din at [[Aurangabad Caves]] area in [[Aurangabad, Maharashtra|Aurangabad]], [[Maharashtra]] on 18 October 2018.]]

===Festivals===
* [[Buddha Purnima]], public holiday in Maharashtra
* [[Ambedkar Jayanti|Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti]], public holiday in Maharashtra
* [[Dhammachakra Pravartan Day]], public holiday in Maharashtra
* [[Asalha Puja|Ashadha Puja]]
* [[Magha Puja]]

==See also==
* [[Buddhist Society of India]]
* [[Dalit Buddhist movement]]
* [[Lord Buddha TV]]
* [[Marathi people]]
* [[Religion in Maharashtra]]
* [[Buddhism in Mizoram]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180708074717/http://blog.cpsindia.org/2016/01/religion-data-of-census-2011-xi_19.html?m=1 Indian Buddhist Data from the 1951 census to the 2011 census]

{{Buddhism topics}}
{{Social groups of Maharashtra}}

[[Category:Buddhism in Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Buddhist communities of India]]
[[Category:Demographics of India]]
[[Category:Navayana Buddhists|*]]
[[Category:Social groups of Maharashtra]]

Marathi Buddhists - Revision history

Portileostah at 08:01, 22 February 2026