Maratha clan system
The Marāthā clan system (also referred to as 96 Kuli Marathas or 96K) refers to the network of families and surnames within the Maratha culture of India. The Maratha primarily reside in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Tamilnadu.[1] Various lists have been compiled, purporting to list the 96 clans (24 Chandravanshi, 24 Suryavanshi, 24 Nagavanshi and 24 Bramhavanshi), but these lists are often at great variance with each other.[2]
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[edit] Structure
The list of ninety-six clans is divided into five ranked tiers, the highest of which contains the five primary Marathan clans[3] namely the Peshwa of Poona, Sindhia of Gwalior, Holkar of Indore, Bhonsle of Nagpur and Gaekwad of Baroda.
[edit] Kunbi name adoption
The issue is clouded by the fact that members of the Kunbi cultivator class living in Maharashtra also adopted some of the Maratha names, whether to indicate allegiance to a Maratha chief of that name, or as an attempt at upward mobility. As an example of the latter, researcher Rosalind O'Hanlon quoted the Marathi proverb: Kunbi majhala Maratha jhala ("When a kunbi prospers he becomes a Maratha").[2]
[edit] History
One of the clans, the Bhonsle, launched the Maratha Empire which covered a large part of India in the 17th and 18th centuries.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Maratha (people)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/363851/Maratha.
- ^ a b Rosalind O'Hanlon (22 August 2002). Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 9780521523080. http://books.google.com/books?id=5kMrsTj1NeYC&pg=PA17. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
- ^ Louis Dumont (1980). Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications. University of Chicago Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 9780226169637. http://books.google.com/books?id=XsOtRGdvIigC&pg=PA121. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
- ^ "The Marathas". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2009. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India/46986/The-Marathas.
