Jyoti at 23:44, 25 September 2017

2017-09-25T23:44:18Z

Pdewan: Created page with "=Maharashtra= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article has been extracted from
THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.

2016-01-01T20:47:14Z

Created page with "=Maharashtra= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%"> This article has been extracted from <br/> THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/..."

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=Maharashtra=
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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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''Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value. ''

The name given to the country in which the
Marathi language is spoken, and more especially to the Deccan in its
most restricted sense. The origin of the word is still a subject of
speculation. Molesworth in his Dictionary of the Marathi language
gives currency to the derivation from Alahar and rdshfra, i. e. the
country of the Mahars, an early and now socially degraded tribe found
throughout the Deccan ; but a better opinion seems to be that it is
derived from Maharatha, i. e. the great Ratha or Ratta, the Rattas
having been once the ruling race in the Southern Maratha Country
A branch of this tribe, the Rashtrakutas, ruled in the Deccan between
the sixth and tenth centuries a. d. In su})port of this derivation, there
is an inscription of the second century in which the terms ' Maharatha '
and ' Mahablioja " are used, which suggests that Maha is an honorific
affix. In the third century before Christ, Asoka is reported to have
sent Buddhist missionaries to the country. In the time of the early
Chalukyas, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (a. d. 640) refers to their
kingdom as Mo-ho-lo-cha, i. e. Ma-ha-ra-tha.

The country between Gujarat and the Carnatic, in which Marathi
is spoken, includes the line of the western Ghats for many hundred
miles, and the country lying below and above this barrier. On the
west it is a country of gorge and mountain, the trap formation of the
hills offering a natural line of fortifications, of which the Marathas in
their early struggles for power were not slow to avail themselves.
Inland from the crest of the Ghats the country for some distance
resembles the spurs and valleys lying below, and both were formerly
classed together as the Konkan Ghat Matha, or 'spurs of the Ghats.'
Farther east the rocky promontories become less marked until ihey
sink into isolated hills, the country assuming the aspect of a vast
and almost treeless plain, intersected by numerous rivers, but for the
most part scantily watered and infertile.

Maharashtra is the country of the Marathas, who form 30 per cent,
of its population. Once a large tribe, the Marathas have divided into
numerous occupational castes, such as the Maratha Brahman, the
Maratha Kumhar, Shimpi, Dhobi, &c., who do not usually describe
themselves as Marathas in their own country. The term is now
reserved for the descendants of the old fighting stock, a hardy and
vigorous class once the terror of India, now merged very largely in the
cultivating class known as Kunbls. A Maratha and a Maratha Kunbi
differ only in social precedence. Thus the leading Maratha families
wear the sacred thread, do not allow widow marriage, and claim the
rites and position of Kshattriyas, while the Maratha Kunbis allow
widow marriage, and neither wear the thread nor claim to be ' twice-
born.' As a body, the Marathas are divided into numerous clans, whose
surnames betray Aryan, Rajput, and Uravidian elements, the last
being the strongest. There are traces of an original totemistic organiza-
tion still to be detected among them. Three million persons in the
Konkan and Deccan returned themselves as Marathas in the Census
of 1 90 1, and form the backbone of the population of the Bombay
Presidency. Fond of their traditions of deeds of valour, embodied in
the ballads of the country-side, the Maratha peasantry are a frugal and
peace-loving people, content to extort a bare subsistence from the
stony Deccan uplands or the rocky spurs of the Ghats. At holiday
seasons they make pilgrimages to numerous shrines of saints and
heroes scattered over the country-side, and expend small sums in harm-
less merrymaking when the business of the pilgrimage has been
disposed of. It is possible that the Marathas are connected with the
Reddis of the Telugu country.

For the salient facts of Maratha history see Bombay Presidency.

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 ''Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value. ''