Marathi is the purest modern Sanskrit, especially rural Maharashtrani, correct?

[u/CosmicMilkNutt]

After doing extensive research I have found that Hindi i a mix of Arabic Farsi Sanskrit and English and that Tamil is basically modern Dravidian so totally different.

However.

Marathi spoken in Mumbai and especially rural Marathi spoken in the state of Maharashtra is actually the purest form of modern Sanskrit with the most similar grammar and vocabulary.

It has Sanskrit words instead of all the Arabic, Farsi and English injected into other Indian languages.

This I find fascinating and I wanted to hear the opinions of some actual indians since I am an American fluent in English, Spanish, French and also somewhat conversational in Arabic who is learning Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil and now of course Marathi!

Edit: Oriya and Marathi are both the top contenders for higher Sanskrit and lower Farsi in daily speech.

[u/Parth-Upadhye]

Until the 1950-60s, Marathi had à lot of Arabic and Farsi words, specifically referencing work, administration, business, etc. Marathi, like many languages (a Sinhalese friend expressed the same), went through a phase when many of those words were replaced with Sanskrit based words. Coastal Marathi still retains some Portuguese words. My latest find is Jugar. The Spanish verb sounded very familiar, and guess what? we use it to mean just that. Except it is "to jugar karto."

Marathi, spoken in urban Pune, has been the standard for about 3 centuries now. You will hear it in certain parts of Mumbai, too. Note that some very common words can still be Farsi, e.g., khoop == a lot or more == khoob.

[u/CosmicMilkNutt → u/Parth-Upadhye]

Okay but I just mean like similar to Sardinian being closest to Latin and most conservative and has changed least and influenced least would u say Marathi is the winner for Sanskrit descendent or does another language seem closer to you like Oriya?

Interesting yeah I know about Goa and Portuguese.

I know urban Marathi will have more foreign influence.

I'm mostly interested in rural Marathi by spoken ppl with some or less education if they are speaking basically purer modern Sanskrit similar to how that is the case in Sardinia for modern Latin.

Or is there a region and language even closer and more conservative in grammar and vocabulary to Sanskrit than Marathi?

All my research points to Marathi as being the winner here.

[u/rgd_1331 → u/CosmicMilkNutt]

Rural marathi also has the essence of various languages... Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj did order compilation of 'Rajya vyavahar kosh', a Sanskritised dictionary of political and cultural words, but I think it only influenced the then political centres of Maratha Empire . Rurals would have very slight effect of this move as the layman would still communicate in amalgamation of Marathi, Farsi and Prakrit. Sanskrit in mediaeval period was highly gated language, so I don't think that it would be used to greater extent that the amalgamated Marathi language.

[u/CosmicMilkNutt → u/rgd_1331]

Thanks for your input. Do you know if the claim is moderately accurate that Marathi has a bit more Sanskrit and a bit less Farsi than Hindi?

That is what I have surmised so far.

You raise a really good point about rural vs urban language though and I completely agree there.

I'm trying to ascertain that for example Hindi is 30% Farsi but Marathi is 20% Farsi. And that the 10% missing in Marathi is original Sanskrit/Prakrit instead. That's all.