Raghunath Pandit was a 17th-century

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

poet. He was born in a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin (DRB) family of scholars.

Marathi poetry Marathi poetry is a poetry written in the Marathi language, including its various dialects. The poet-saints Namdev (Devanagari: नामदेव) and Dnyaneshwar (Devanagari: ज्ञानेश्वर), from Maharashtra, India, wrote the ...

went through a phase where text drew heavily on religious mythology and was dominated by language influenced by

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, a language which few in contemporary times understand. This literature is called Pant-Sahitya. Raghunath Pandit was one of its major practitioners, writing the Nal-Damayanti Swayamwar Akhyan. Other exponents of Pant-Sahitya were Vaman Pandit (1608–1695), Shridhar Pandit (1658–1729) and Moropant (Paradkar) (1729–1794). Several scholars were experts in this field around the year 1900 but slowly their numbers dwindled. Laxman Ramchand (La Raa) Pangarkar was an authority on Sant-Sahitya and Pant-Sahitya. Tukaram and Ramdas were the last major poets of Sant-Sahitya and Bhakti Parampara. The next phase of Bhakti was marked by Pant-Sahitya. Around this time, other forms of poetry such as Powada, Phatka, Lavani also existed. Starting with Keshavasut in the late 19th century, Marathi poetry made a departure from Pant parampara. It became more modern in outlook, easier to understand, expanded its horizons, and the new brigade of poets was also influenced by English poetry.

References

{{Reflist Marathi-language writers