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Maratha (caste)

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Marathas
ClassificationKshatriya
ReligionsHinduism
LanguagesMarathi
Populated statesMaharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
Subdivisionsninety-six clans

"The Marāthās" (Marathi: मराठा)is a collective term referring to an Indo Aryan group of Hindu warriors and peasants hailing mostly from the present-day state of Maharashtra, who created a substantial empire, covering a major part of India, in the late 17th and 18th centuries AD.

The "Marathas" were known by that name since their native tongue was almost invariably Marathi; however, not all those whose native tongue is Marathi are Marathas. In present time, the term "Maratha" refers only to those marathi-speaking people who also belong to certain specific Hindu castes: for one available listing, refer to Maratha clan system. Thus, the terms "Marathi people" and "Maratha people" are not interchangeable and should not be confused for each other. Historically, however, the term Maratha has been used to describe Marathi people.

The Marathas were designated by the British as a Martial Race. Martial Race is a designation created by officials of British India to describe "races" (peoples) that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities like courage, loyalty, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, hard working, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the colonial army.

Etymology

Several theories have been proposed by various scholars for the etymology of the words "Marātha" and "Marāthi". One theory holds that a reference to a clan known as "Rāshtrika" in some of Ashoka's inscriptions alludes to a people of the Deccan who were progenitors of the Marathi-speaking people; that the later "Mahārāshtri Prakrit" is associated with these people; and that Marāthi is a derivation of the word Mahārāshtri. This theory does not address the deeper root of the word Rāshtrika and its use in reference exclusively to a specific people in south-central India. The Sanskrit word "Rāshtra" is presently translated to "nation" (Rāshtrika meaning "national") but in millennia past, the word could apparently be applied to any sizable administrative division.

Other theories link the words Marātha and Rāshtri with Ratta, supposedly a corruption of Rāshtrakuta, the name of a dynasty that held sway over the Deccan from the 8th-10th centuries CE. However, the Ashokan inscriptions predate the Rashtrakutas by more than a millennium, and these theories cannot be reconciled.

All theories however affirm, as do linguists, that the modern Marathi language has developed from the Prakrit known as Mahārāshtri.

File:Shivaji and Marathas.jpg
Shivaji and his faithful Maratha comrades

Maratha clans

Main article: Maratha clan system

According to some sources, every maratha must belong to one of 96 different clans (the "96 Kuli Marathas"). The list of 96 Maratha clans is different as per different historians. An authoritative listing was apparently first attempted in 1888 and a list finalised in 1956 by the Government of India.

Features

Marathas are thought to have originated from Indo-Aryans. Though, they have been some of Dravidian, Hunnic as well as Indo-Scythian descent as well. Also, the Maratha population is extremely large (close to 40 million), which makes it very difficult to have a standard for common features among them. The complexion of Marathas range from being extremely fair-complexioned to being extremely dark. Most Marathas are well-built, unlike other Marathi castes and have a distinctive look which distinguishes them from other Indians.

Historical prominence

Maratha empire c.1760 AD
Main article: Maratha Empire

Different Maratha (also called as Rastriks or Maha-rathis or Mahrattas) rulers during Medieval period (before 12th century) include Satavahana, Rashtrakuta, Yadhav-Jadhavs. They re-united into historical prominence under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the 17th century. Shivaji Maharaj, born into the Bhosale clan of Marathas, secured an independent state by dint of lifelong struggle and thereby founded an empire, the remnants of which lasted until the independence of India in 1947. The state thus founded by Chhatrapati Shivaji attained its zenith under the tutelage of the Brahmin Peshwas in the 18th century, extending from the Indus in present-day Pakistan to Orissa in the east and from the Punjab to central Karnataka in the south. The kingdom of Thanjavur in present-day Tamil Nadu was also ruled by a Maratha dynasty, albeit outside the ambit of the main Maratha Empire. At its peak, the Maratha Empire established a protectorate over the mughal emperor and paramountcy over the numerous Rajput chieftains of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Central India and elsewhere. They had also managed to bring Punjab under their sway and end Muslim rule there aand keeping the field open for the Sikhs. This vast empire declined gradually after the third battle of Panipat (1761); by 1818, all of present-day India had fallen to the British East India Company.

The history of the states and dynasties comprising the Maratha Empire constitutes a major portion of the history of late medieval India. While that extensive history is detailed elsewhere, it is noteworthy that the rise of the Marathas:

  • represented the revival of the political power of the Hindus in north India after many centuries of Muslim overlordship;
  • prevented the spread of the Mughal Empire and associated Islamic culture to south India;
  • was the primary cause of the decline of the Mughal Empire, a momentous development;
  • led to the dilution of the caste system as an overwhelming number of Brahmins too, fought along with them;
  • led to social reform as for the first-time in Indian history, lower-caste members (Dhangars) like Holkars became rulers;
  • led to the modernisation of India's armed forces, as they introduced indigenously designed and manufactured muskets(known as Gardi muskets)
  • encouraged the development of the Marathi language and was seminal to the consolidation of a distinct Maharashtrian identity.

Maratha states

Since the marathas ruled much of India in the period immediately preceding the consolidation of British rule in India, the maratha states came to form the largest bloc of princely states in the British Raj, if size be reckoned by territory and population. Prominent maratha states included:

Ruins of the Raigad Fort which served as a capital of Maratha Empire in the 17th century

Prominent Maratha dynasties

Non-Marathi Marathas

The empire also resulted in the voluntary relocation of substantial numbers of maratha and other Marathi-speaking people outside Maharashtra, and across a big part of India. Thus, there are today several small but significant communities descended from these emigrants living in the north, south and west of India. These communities tend often to speak the languages of those areas, although many do also speak Marathi in addition. Gujarati, Hindi, Konkani, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil are some of the other languages thus spoken

Notable Marathas (Historical)

Notable Marathas (Political)

Notable Maratha Writers

  • Ranjit Desai
  • Shivaji Savant
  • Vishwas Patil
  • Ananad Yadav
  • Shankar Patil
  • R. R. Borade
  • Shridhar Tilve
  • Saleel Wagh
  • Varjesh Solenki
  • Divate Hemant
  • Kale Mangesh
  • Jayant Gadgil
  • Vispute Ganesh

Notable Maratha Wrestlers

  • Khashaba Jadhav (Helsinki olympic, bronze medal winner)
  • Maruti Mane (Hindkesari)
  • Harishchandra Biradar (Hindkesari)
  • Yuvaraj Chaugle (Hindkesari)
  • Kaka Pawar
  • Ganapatrao Andalkar
  • Dadu Chougule (Hindkesari)
  • Vinod Chougule (Maharashtra kesari)

Notable Maratha Armymen

  • Major R.R.Rane , receipent of Paramvir Chakra
  • Havaldar Namdev Jadhav,receipent of Victoria cross
  • Major General Jaggannath rao Bhosale
  • Lt General S.S.Thorat

References

  1. Glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and NWFP, H A Rose
  1. Haplogroups of the Marathi people
  2. Molecular insight into the genesis of ranked caste populations of western India by Sonali Gaikwad and VK Kashyap
  3. Influence of language and ancestry on genetic structure of contiguous populations by Sanghamitra Sahoo and VK Kashyap
  4. Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists by Sengupta et al.

See also

External links

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