Biodata format in Marathi: the rows a Maharashtrian family looks for

A lagnacha biodata is not a Hindi biodata with different spellings. Devak, kul, janmavar and janmanav have no Hindi counterpart — and about a dozen everyday words are different too.

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What a lagnacha biodata carries that other biodatas do not

In Maharashtra the document is usually called a लग्नाचा बायोडाटा or a परिचय पत्र, and it circulates through a slightly different system than in the Hindi belt. A वधू-वर सूचक मंडळ — a marriage bureau, very often run by a caste or community association — keeps a register, and a मेळावा is a gathering where families meet in a hall and physically hand over or pin up printed one-page biodatas. That is why the one-page-at-A4 constraint is not theoretical here: a stapled two-pager gets separated on the table, and the page that goes home with the other family is whichever one happened to be on top.

The content differs too, in ways that are not spelling. A Marathi biodata carries जन्मवार, the day of the week you were born on, which almost never appears on a Hindi one. It often carries जन्मनाव, the name given according to the birth nakshatra and used in religious rites, which may be nothing like the name you are called by. And where a Brahmin family reads गोत्र, a Maratha or Kunbi family reads देवक — a family totem inherited down the male line, doing the same job of ruling out a match within one lineage — while both read कुलदैवत, the deity the family has worshipped for generations.

The last difference is who is reading. Because community associations maintain caste-specific registers, पोटजात is doing real filing work rather than being a formality: देशस्थ, कोकणस्थ and कऱ्हाडे among Brahmins, or the 96 कुळी identification among Marathas. If your family is not matching on this, take the row off. If it is, an incomplete one means the मंडळ cannot place your biodata in the right file, which is the practical reason it keeps being asked for.

The Marathi labels, row by row

Devanagari label, English gloss, and what goes in the value. Where Marathi practice offers two spellings the one given is what the shipped Marathi sample uses, since that is the wording a Maharashtrian reader recognises fastest.

वैयक्तिक माहितीPersonal details

Nine or ten rows, and the ones a मंडळ reads before anything else on the page.

जन्मतारीखDate of Birth: “19 मार्च 1998”. Note तारीख, not the Hindi तिथि — a तिथी in Marathi is the lunar date, which is a different thing and is occasionally given as an extra row alongside this one.
जन्मवेळTime of Birth: With सकाळी, दुपारी, संध्याकाळी or रात्री — “सकाळी 7:25”. Take it from the birth record, because the नक्षत्र and therefore the whole पत्रिका depends on it and a twenty-minute error changes the answer.
जन्मवारDay of birth: The weekday: सोमवार, मंगळवार, बुधवार and so on. This row is standard on Marathi biodatas and essentially absent from Hindi ones. It is there because it is checked against the पत्रिका.
जन्मस्थळPlace of Birth: Also written जन्म ठिकाण. Town and district — “पुणे”, “वाई, जि. सातारा”.
जन्मनावBirth name: Also written जन्म नाव. The नक्षत्र-based name given at the naming ceremony and used in religious rites, often quite different from the name you go by. Worth giving if your family will use it at the wedding; harmless to omit if nobody in the family knows it.
उंचीHeight: “5 फूट 3 इंच (160 सेंमी)”. उंची — not the Hindi ऊँचाई, and not ऊंची, which is what a great many Marathi web pages carelessly reprint.
रक्तगटBlood Group: रक्तगट, not the Hindi रक्त समूह — गट is the Marathi word for a group. The value itself stays in Latin: “A+”.
वर्णComplexion: Values गोरा, निमगोरा, सावळा — and गोरी or सावळी when the biodata is for a woman, because Marathi adjectives take gender. The row is optional and plenty of families now leave it off entirely.
आहारDiet: शाकाहारी, मांसाहारी. A real filter in most Maharashtrian households, and the cheapest row on the page to fill in.
वैवाहिक स्थितीMarital Status: अविवाहित, घटस्फोटित, विधुर, विधवा. स्थिती with the long ī, not the Hindi स्थिति.

धार्मिक माहितीReligious and horoscope details

The पत्रिका block. Which rows matter depends heavily on community — गोत्र for Brahmin families, देवक for Marathas and Kunbis, कुलदैवत for almost everybody, and none of it at all for a family that does not match horoscopes.

धर्मReligion: हिंदू, मुस्लिम, ख्रिश्चन, जैन, बौद्ध. Note ख्रिश्चन and बौद्ध, both common in Maharashtra and both spelled differently from their Hindi forms.
जात / पोटजातCaste / Sub-caste: पोटजात is the Marathi word for a sub-caste — not उपजाति. “ब्राह्मण / देशस्थ ऋग्वेदी”, “मराठा / 96 कुळी”. This is the row a community मंडळ files you under, so an incomplete one has a practical cost.
गोत्रGotra: The exogamous clan name, read closely by Brahmin families: भारद्वाज, कश्यप, वसिष्ठ.
देवकDevak: A family totem — a plant, a tree, an object — inherited down the male line, and the Maharashtrian equivalent of the gotra check: families traditionally do not marry within the same देवक. It has no counterpart on a Hindi biodata, and a Maratha or Kunbi family will look for it. If your family does not observe it, leave the row out rather than filling it with a guess.
कुळ / कुलदैवतKul / family deity: The lineage and the deity the family has worshipped for generations — खंडोबा (जेजुरी), तुळजाभवानी, विठोबा (पंढरपूर), महालक्ष्मी (कोल्हापूर), रेणुका, भैरवनाथ. Traditional families weight this heavily; urban families often skip it.
राशीRashi (moon sign): राशी with the long ī, not the Hindi राशि: मीन, वृश्चिक, कन्या. From the birth chart, not from a newspaper column.
नक्षत्र / चरणNakshatra and pada: “रेवती, तृतीय चरण”. The चरण is part of the answer rather than an optional extra, and dropping it means the other side's astrologer has to ask.
मंगळMangal (Manglik): “आहे” or “नाही”. The word is मंगळ, not the Hindi मांगलिक — a Marathi family asks “मंगळ आहे का?”, and some biodatas write मंगळ दोष. A blank row is read as आहे.
गण / नाडीGan / Nadi: देव, मनुष्य or राक्षस गण; आदि, मध्य or अंत्य नाडी. Both are derived from the नक्षत्र and both feed the 36-guna match, so having them on the page saves a phone call. Written in Latin here on purpose: the Hindi compound गुण मिलान is not the Marathi phrasing, and Marathi families more often just ask whether the पत्रिका जुळते.

शिक्षण व व्यवसायEducation and career

Five rows. Degree and employer names sit in whichever script the certificate uses; everything around them is Marathi.

शिक्षणQualification: “बी.आर्क. (वास्तुशास्त्र), सावित्रीबाई फुले पुणे विद्यापीठ — 2021”. विद्यापीठ, not the Hindi विश्वविद्यालय: every Maharashtrian university calls itself a विद्यापीठ in Marathi.
व्यवसायOccupation: The job in plain words. Marathi biodatas often print नोकरी / व्यवसाय / शेती as the three options, because a family farm is a real and respected answer and not a fallback.
कार्यरत संस्थाOrganisation: The employer by name, with the area where the area tells a reader something: “सह्याद्री डिझाईन स्टुडिओ, कोथरूड”.
कार्यस्थळWork location: City. This is where the couple would live, so it gets read carefully by both sides.
वार्षिक उत्पन्नAnnual Income: उत्पन्न, not the Hindi आय: “₹8 लाख प्रतिवर्ष”. A figure or a range, or leave the row out — not an adjective.

कौटुंबिक माहितीFamily details

Marathi biodatas often go a generation wider than Hindi ones, because close-relation and same-देवक matches are avoided and the मंडळ wants enough on the page to check.

वडिलांचे नावFather's Name: With श्री. This is the row a community मंडळ indexes the family under, so write the name as it appears on documents rather than as the family shortens it.
वडिलांचा व्यवसायFather's Occupation: “निवृत्त बँक अधिकारी”, “शेती”, or the line of business if it is a business.
आईचे नावMother's Name: With सौ. — short for सौभाग्यवती, the honorific used for a married woman in Marathi, and what a printed Marathi biodata uses in place of the Hindi श्रीमती.
आईचा व्यवसायMother's Occupation: गृहिणी is an occupation and is written as one. “शिक्षिका, नूतन मराठी विद्यालय”.
भावंडेSiblings: भावंडे is the collective word; some biodatas use बहीण and भाऊ as two separate rows instead. Give the age order, the marital status and what each one does.
नातेसंबंधRelations: The maternal and paternal side — मामा, आत्या, मावशी, काका — and where they are settled. Readers from other states find this row surprising; it is there so both families can rule out a close-relation or same-देवक match before anybody meets.
कुटुंब प्रकारFamily Type: “एकत्र कुटुंब” or “विभक्त कुटुंब”. कुटुंब, not the Hindi परिवार; एकत्र, not संयुक्त.
मूळ गावNative Place: Village and district: “वाई, जि. सातारा”. In Maharashtra this row carries real weight — the गाव places a family for anyone who knows the district, and that recognition is often what moves a match along.

माझ्याविषयीAbout Me

Three sentences in Marathi, in the first person. This is the only block a reader can tell was written rather than filled in.

What you do and the part of it you actually like, where the family is from and how the household keeps its festivals, and one or two real interests. The shipped Marathi sample is the right shape: the kind of design work she most enjoys, the village the family comes from and how गणपती, हळदी-कुंकू and दिवाळी are kept there, then trekking in the Sahyadris, reading and cooking.

Marathi marks gender on the verb, so check the endings: a woman writes “मी काम करते”, a man “मी काम करतो”. Templates are the usual source of this error — a sample written for one gender, edited for the other, and left with the original verb endings — and it is the very first thing a Marathi reader notices.

जोडीदाराकडून अपेक्षाPartner Expectations

Two or three sentences, phrased as अपेक्षा rather than as conditions. Short and specific beats long and thorough here.

Age band, education, diet, and where they should be settled — पुणे, मुंबई परिसर, or willingness to move to the गाव, which is a genuine question in a lot of Maharashtrian matches rather than a formality. Leave out anything you have no real preference about.

Then say the two things that otherwise get discovered late: whether you intend to keep working after marriage, and whether living with parents is expected. The Marathi sample states the first in one clause — “लग्नानंतरही मला माझा व्यवसाय सुरू ठेवायचा आहे” — and that is enough. Both questions end more matches after two meetings than anything else on the page.

संपर्क माहितीContact Details

Three rows, and worth settling before the file leaves the house rather than after it is in the मंडळ's register.

संपर्क व्यक्तीContact Person: Name and relationship: “श्री. अनिल कुलकर्णी (वडील)”. A reader needs to know who will answer and how to address them.
मोबाईल क्रमांकPhone: क्रमांक is the Marathi word for a number in a series; नंबर is widely understood but क्रमांक is what a printed Marathi form uses. One number that is answered.
पत्ताAddress: Area and city on a forwarded copy. The full address goes on the printed copy handed to one family at a मेळावा or a meeting.

The words that are Marathi, not Hindi

Most bad Marathi biodatas are Hindi biodatas with the section headings changed. These are the rows where the two languages genuinely part company, and they are the ones a Marathi reader notices immediately. The Marathi column is the one that belongs on your document; the struck-through column is the Hindi form to keep off it.

Row	Marathi	Hindi form to avoid	Why
Height	उंची	~~ऊँचाई~~	Also avoid ऊंची, a Hindi spelling that a great many Marathi web pages reprint by mistake.
Manglik	मंगळ	~~मांगलिक~~	A Marathi family asks “मंगळ आहे का?”. मांगलिक is understood but reads as imported.
Moon sign	राशी	~~राशि~~	Long ī in Marathi. The same word with a different vowel length, and the difference is visible.
Sub-caste	पोटजात	~~उपजाति~~	पोट- is the Marathi prefix for a sub-division. उपजाति does not appear on Marathi biodatas.
Blood group	रक्तगट	~~रक्त समूह~~	गट is the Marathi word for a group, so रक्तगट is one word rather than two.
Date of birth	जन्मतारीख	~~जन्म तिथि~~	तिथी in Marathi means the lunar date, which is a separate row if you give it at all.
Marital status	वैवाहिक स्थिती	~~वैवाहिक स्थिति~~	स्थिती, with the long ī — the same vowel-length difference as राशी, and just as visible to a Marathi reader.
Annual income	वार्षिक उत्पन्न	~~वार्षिक आय~~	उत्पन्न is the ordinary Marathi word for income; आय is not used here.
Joint family	एकत्र कुटुंब	~~संयुक्त परिवार~~	कुटुंब, not परिवार; एकत्र, not संयुक्त. The nuclear form is विभक्त कुटुंब.
University	विद्यापीठ	~~विश्वविद्यालय~~	Every Maharashtrian university calls itself a विद्यापीठ in Marathi.
Siblings	भावंडे	~~भाई / बहन~~	भावंडे covers both; split into rows they are बहीण and भाऊ.
Phone number	मोबाईल क्रमांक	~~मोबाइल नंबर~~	क्रमांक is what a printed Marathi form uses, though नंबर is understood.

Printing for a मेळावा

The one-page rule has a physical reason in Maharashtra. At a वधू-वर मेळावा families carry twenty or thirty printed copies and hand them across a table, or the मंडळ pins them to a board. A stapled two-pager gets separated, and the page that survives is whichever one was on top.

Print at A4 on plain paper, single-sided, with a margin wide enough that a pin or a staple through the corner does not go through text. A thin border is normal and looks right. Glossy photo paper curls, marks with every thumb, and reads as trying too hard. Take more copies than you think you need — the whole point of a मेळावा is that you do not know in advance who is in the hall.

Typing Marathi, and the gendered verbs

Gboard's Marathi layout transliterates: type “janmatarikh” and it offers जन्मतारीख. Set the keyboard to Marathi rather than Hindi, because the Hindi layout will happily hand you राशि and ऊँचाई — which is exactly the error this page is about, arriving through the keyboard rather than through the template.

Then read the two prose blocks aloud once and check the verb endings, because Marathi marks gender on the verb: करते and करतो, राहते and राहतो, with the rest of the sentence agreeing. An edited template with the wrong endings is the most common thing wrong with a Marathi biodata after the vocabulary itself, and unlike a wrong label it cannot be fixed by find-and-replace.

पत्रिका, and what goes on a second page

Many Maharashtrian families ask for the पत्रिका — the birth chart — before they ask for anything else, and some ask for it instead of a biodata. Keep the two as two files. The biodata carries the derived rows (राशी, नक्षत्र with the चरण, गण, नाडी, मंगळ) so a first check can be done without the chart; the chart itself is sent when it is asked for.

If you do put the पत्रिका on a second page, also send it as its own PDF with its own filename. On WhatsApp a two-page document is one file, and a family that forwards a screenshot of page one — which happens constantly — has forwarded a biodata with no chart and no way of knowing it went missing.

Send the biodata as a PDF rather than an image, for the same reason as any Devanagari document: recompression eats the matras above the headline stroke first, and a lost matra changes a word rather than merely blurring it. Name the file with a Latin transliteration — “Shravani_Kulkarni_Biodata.pdf” — so it can be found again after twenty forwards.

What Maharashtrian families notice first

A Hindi biodata with Marathi headings
राशि instead of राशी, ऊँचाई instead of उंची, संयुक्त परिवार instead of एकत्र कुटुंब. It reads as a template nobody finished, and it quietly undermines the rows that actually matter.
Wrong gendered verbs in माझ्याविषयी
“मी काम करतो” on a woman's biodata is a template error and it is the first thing read. Check every verb in both prose blocks, not only the obvious one.
देवक left off a Maratha biodata
For a Maratha or Kunbi family this is a load-bearing row — the same-devak check is the reason it exists. Leaving it blank means the मंडळ or the other family has to ask, which is friction you introduced yourself.
मंगळ left blank
Read as आहे. Answer it, or remove the whole horoscope block on the grounds that your family does not match पत्रिका at all — but do not leave the row sitting there empty.
Two pages at a मेळावा
Half of a stapled biodata does not go home with the other family. If it will not fit on one page, shorten the नातेसंबंध row before you cut anything else.
No मूळ गाव
In Maharashtra the native village is often what makes a family recognisable to a distant connection, and a connection is usually what moves a match along. It costs one line.

Questions people actually ask

How do I make a lagnacha biodata in Marathi?

Keep the seven Marathi blocks — वैयक्तिक माहिती, धार्मिक माहिती, शिक्षण व व्यवसाय, कौटुंबिक माहिती, माझ्याविषयी, जोडीदाराकडून अपेक्षा and संपर्क माहिती — and use Marathi vocabulary rather than Hindi: उंची, राशी, रक्तगट, पोटजात, एकत्र कुटुंब, वार्षिक उत्पन्न. Add the rows only Marathi biodatas carry, which are जन्मवार, जन्मनाव, and देवक or कुलदैवत where your community uses them. Then fit the whole thing on one A4 page, because a printed page is what gets handed over at a मेळावा.

What is देवक on a Marathi biodata, and do I need it?

देवक is a family totem — usually a plant, a tree or an object — inherited down the male line in Maharashtrian families, chiefly Maratha and Kunbi ones. Its function on a biodata is the same as a gotra's: families traditionally avoid a match where both sides share the same देवक. If your family observes it, put it on the page, because the other side will ask for it. If your family does not — many Brahmin families read गोत्र instead, and many urban families read neither — leave the row out rather than filling it with a guess.

Is a Marathi biodata different from a Hindi one?

Yes, in three ways. The vocabulary differs on about a dozen rows: उंची not ऊँचाई, राशी not राशि, पोटजात not उपजाति, रक्तगट not रक्त समूह, वार्षिक उत्पन्न not वार्षिक आय, एकत्र कुटुंब not संयुक्त परिवार. Marathi biodatas carry rows that Hindi ones do not, notably जन्मवार, जन्मनाव, देवक and कुलदैवत, and often a नातेसंबंध row listing the maternal and paternal sides. And Marathi marks gender on the verb, so the two prose blocks have to agree with the person the biodata is for.

Should the पत्रिका go on the biodata?

Put the rows derived from it on the biodata — राशी, नक्षत्र with the चरण, गण, नाडी and मंगळ — so that a first check can be made without the chart. Send the chart itself as a separate PDF when it is asked for. Combining them into one two-page file is how people end up forwarding a biodata whose second page was left behind, because a screenshot of page one is what actually travels through WhatsApp.

Can I make a Marathi biodata free on my phone?

Yes. PaperKit's biodata maker opens on a complete Marathi biodata — Marathi labels, Marathi sample values and a photo slot — and runs in a phone browser with no app and no account. You type over the sample and download a one-page A4 PDF whose Devanagari is real selectable text, so it prints properly for a मेळावा and stays readable after being forwarded rather than turning into a blurred image.

Make a Marathi biodata now, free

The builder opens on a finished Marathi biodata with Marathi labels, not a translated form. Type over it, add your photograph, and download a one-page A4 PDF with real selectable Devanagari — ready to print for a मेळावा or send on WhatsApp. No account, no watermark. Three biodata templates are built in, and switching between them carries your Marathi across untouched — no round trip through Canva or Word.