One of a numerous people inhabiting the southwestern part of India. Also, the language of the Mahrattas; Mahrati. It is closely allied to Sanskrit.  [1913 Webster]

 A Sanskritic language of western India, prob. descended from the Maharastri Prakrit, spoken by the Marathas and neighboring peoples. It has an abundant literature dating from the 13th century. It has a book alphabet nearly the same as Devanagari and a cursive script translation between the Devanagari and the Gujarati.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]