The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c14.s3.18

v2.c14.s3.18

In the latter half of the thirteenth century flourished the great Jñāneśvara, who composed his immortal commentary on the *Gītā*, the *Jñāneśvarī*, in A.D. 1290, when he was still in his teens. Though almost the first man of letters to write in Marathi, Jñāneśvara had supreme confidence in the capacity of this language to express the most profound thoughts and the most elusive and delicate emotions; he foretold that his work would prove sweeter than nectar to its readers and would win the applause of the learned, and his prediction has indeed been amply justified. The *Jñāneśvarī* is in effect the first¹ really important work in Marathi, and no later book can compare with it either as a piece of poetry or as a treatise on religion and philosophy. Jñāneśvara was a gifted poet, a scholar of parts, an original thinker, and a deeply religious personality. No other writer in the Marathi language has combined all these qualities in himself as completely and thoroughly as did Jñāneśvara. Though ostensibly a commentary on the *Gītā*, the *Jñāneśvarī* is really an independent philosophical treatise.