The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) is an ethnic group of India that inhabits the Maharashtra region and as well as some border districts such as Belgaon and Karwar of Karnataka and Madgaon of Goa states in western India. Their language, Marathi, is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages. The group has been classified by British colonial era anthropologists as either Indo-Aryan or Scytho-Dravidian. Although their history goes back more than two millennia, the community came to prominence when Maratha warriors under Shivaji Maharaj established the Maratha Empire in 1674. Marathi people are credited to a large extent for ending the Mughal rule in India.