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ARE THE MARATHAS KSHATRIYAS OR SUDRAS?
APRIL, 1874.]
of importance that the question should be thoroughly discussed, and I herewith contribute my mite to that discussion, in the hope that it will be followed up by abler and more learned contributions. Dr. Wilson touched on the point once before the Bombay Branch of the Roy. Asiat. Soc. (Journal, vol. IX. p. cxliv.), but he merely noted then the existence of Kshatriya tribal names among the higher classes of the Maratha people, and did not favour Orientalists with his opinion on the question to which attention is now invited. Probably his longlooked-for work on Caste, when it appears, will furnish materials for a conclusion one way or the other. Meantime, I would suggest the pros and cons of the case as far as they have occurred to me.
To commence with some standard authorities on Indian matters, Mounstuart Elphinstone (History, p. 56, ed. 1857) distinctly states that the Marathâs are Sûdras. Grant Duff, does not give a direct opinion, but states that the pure Kshatriyas are considered extinct, the Rajputs being the least degenerate of their descendants, and then goes on to observe that the Sûdras "are properly the cultivators, and, as such, are known in the Marâthâ Country by the name of Kunabi" (Hist. of the Mahrattas, original edition, vol. I. page 13). Steele, in his Summary of Custes (p. 96, original edition), mentions that some of the leading families of Mahârâshtra wear the janare and claim to be Kshatriyas, but are considered by the Brâhmans to be Śûdras.
On the other hand, when we find among the Marathas numerous family or tribal names identical with similar designations still in use among the Rajputs, such as Cho hân, Powår, Jadhava, Solankhi, and Surya: van si, it is hard to believe that those who use these designations are not descended from common ancestors; and the identity of the names is still more striking when we find a Marâțhâ Powâr occupying Dhår, from which upwards of seven centuries previously a race of Rajpût chiefs of the Pram âr or Powâr tribe had been expelled. The great Marâthâ families, too, nearly all claim to be of Rajpût origin, and I
The present Powårs of Dhår, however, do not claim to be descended from the family that had formerly reigned there. See Malcolm's Central India, vol. I.
p. 99.
+ The state of Mudhal or Mûdhôl, in the Southern Ma
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remember seeing a letter from the Raja of Sâtára to the Government of Bombay, asking them to procure for him from Û dai pûr a work detailing Rajpût rites and ceremonies, as he was himself a Râjpût. A curious legend regarding the origin of the Sâtâra and other families is given by Clunes in his "Historical Sketch of the Princes of India," p. 130, which is worth transcribing here:
"By the legend it appears that the family (Sivaji's) trace their pedigree from the famous Bappa Rawal of Chittur, who reigned over Rajpûtâna in the year 134 of the Christian era. But as any accounts of his very early descendants do not belong, or are immaterial, to the Maratha history, it may be briefly observed that one of the descendants of Bhimsî, a son of Bâppâ Râwal, who had settled in Nipâl, returned to the land of his forefathers in 1442, and founded the principality of Dungarpur and Banswâdâ. The thirteenth ruler of this race at Dungarpur, named Abhisi, and styled the Maha Rânâ, left the government to his sister's son in prejudice of his own children. One of the latter, named Sajansi, came to the Dekhan and entered the service of the King of Bijapur, who conferred on him the district of Modhal, comprising 84 villages, with the title of Râja.+ Sagansi had four sons-Bajî Râja, in whose line descended the Mudhalkar estate; the second died without family; from Walabsi is Ghorpade of Kâpsi; and Sugaji, the youngest, had a son named Bhosâji, from whom are derived all the Bhonsles. He had ten sons: the eldest settled at Deulgâm, near Pâtas, the Pâtil of which, Mâluji Raja, was an active partizan under the king of. Ahmadnagar, and had a jaghir conferred on him, which descended to his son, Shahji, afterwards a principal Maratha leader under the Bijapur dynasty. He acquired in jaghir nearly the whole of what now forms the Collectorship of Punâ, together with part of the territory nov under Sâtâra; and it was in these valleys that his son Śivaji matured his plan of Hindu independent sovereignty. The second settled at Hingni; the third at Bherdi, from whom
ratha Country, is still held by the lineal descendant of the original grantee.
The Ghorpade of Kapsi is the hereditary Senapati of the Kolhapur Rajas, and still holds the dignity conferred on his great ancestor Santaji by Rajaram the son of Sivaji.
