Victor6053: small improved section based on references and updated info

2026-03-11T07:09:00Z

small improved section based on references and updated info

UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

2022-06-09T05:47:56Z

robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:17, 9 June 2022
(No difference)

ImportMaster: robot: import pages using Special:Import

2022-02-26T17:59:25Z

robot: import pages using Special:Import

New page

{{Short description|Clan system within Marathas of India}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

The '''Maratha clan system''' (also referred to as '''Shahannava Kuli Marathas''', '''96 Kuli Marathas''' or '''96K'''), refers to the network of 96 clans of families and essentially their surnames, within the [[Maratha (caste)|Maratha]] caste of India. The Marathas primarily reside in the Indian state of [[Maharashtra]], with smaller regional populations in other states.<ref name="Britannica1">{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|year=2009|chapter=Maratha (people)|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/363851/Maratha}}</ref>

In Maratha society, membership of a Kul or clan is acquired in a [[Patrilineality|patrilineal]] manner. People belonging to a clan usually have a common surname, a common [[Kuladevata|clan deity]], and a common clan totem ([[Devak]]).
<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=A. T. |title=A Comparative Analysis of Systems of Kinship and Marriage in South Asia. |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1973 |volume=1973 |issue=1973 |pages=29–54 |doi=10.2307/3031719 |jstor=3031719 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3031719 |access-date=27 September 2020}}</ref> Various lists have been compiled, purporting to list the 96 "true Maratha" clans, but these lists vary greatly and are disputed.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8PJFLeURhsC&pg=PA34 |title=The Culture of India |editor=Kathleen Kuiper |publisher=Rosen |year=2010 |isbn=9781615301492 |page=34 }}</ref><ref name="O'Hanlon2002">{{cite book|author=Rosalind O'Hanlon|title=Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kMrsTj1NeYC&pg=PA17 |access-date=13 May 2011 |year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521523080|pages=17–}}</ref> The list of ninety-six clans is divided into five ranked tiers, the highest of which contains the five primary Maratha clans.<ref>{{cite book|author=Louis Dumont|title=Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsOtRGdvIigC&pg=PA121|access-date=13 May 2011|year=1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226169637|page=121 }}</ref>

Within a clan, ranking also depends on whether a man is progeny of proper marriage or a product of hypergamy. High ranking Maratha clans also historically held rights to hereditary estate or [[Vatandar|Watan]].This included land grants, tax collection rights (revenue [[Patil (title)|Patilki]] or policing (Police Patilki) of a village. Higher ranking clans held rights to larger estates or [[Jagir]]s. Clans with watan usually hold written [[Genealogy|genealogical]] records stretching back several generations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=A. T. |title=A Comparative Analysis of Systems of Kinship and Marriage in South Asia. |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1973 |volume=1973 |issue=1973 |pages=29–54 |doi=10.2307/3031719 |jstor=3031719 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3031719 |access-date=27 September 2020}}</ref>

Prominent modern Indian and western historians and anthropologists state that the '''96 kul(clans)''' and genealogies were fabricated after the [[Maratha]] gained political prominence. Maratha caste was formed after the families from various peasant subgroups in Maharashtra separated from their original caste and amalgamated into the Maratha caste. These families employed genealogists to fabricate the clans.<ref name="Gordon1993">{{cite book|author=Stewart Gordon|title=The Marathas 1600-1818|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA15|date=16 September 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-26883-7|pages=15–17|quote=Looking backward from ample material on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we know that Maratha as a category of caste represents the amalgamation of families from several castes - Kunbi, Lohar, Sutar, Bhandari, Thakar, and even Dhangars (shepherds) – which existed in the seventeenth century and, indeed, exist as castes in Maharashtra today. What differentiated, for example, "Maratha" from "Kunbi"? It was precisely the martial tradition, of which they were proud, and the rights (watans and inams) they gained from military service. It was these rights which differentiated them from the ordinary cultivator, ironworkers and tailors, especially at the local level}}</ref><ref name="Eraly2000">{{cite book|author=Abraham Eraly|title=Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04ellRQx4nMC&pg=PA435|year=2000|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-100143-2|pages=435|quote=The early history of the marathas is obscure, but they were predominantly of the sudra(peasant) class, though later, after they gained a political role in the Deccan, they claimed to be Kshatriyas(warriors) and dressed themselves up with pedigrees of appropriate grandeur, with the Bhosles specifically claiming descent from the Sidodia's of Mewar. The fact however is that the marathas were not even a distinct caste, but essentially a status group, made up of individual families from different Maharashtrian castes..}}</ref><ref name="Keay2011">{{cite book|author=John Keay|title=India: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IquM4BrJ4YC&pg=PT565|date=12 April 2011|publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic|isbn=978-0-8021-9550-0|pages=565|quote=marathas not being accounted as of kshatriya status, a bogus genealogy had to be fabricated}}</ref><ref name="Jaffrelot2006">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEWTSAe-KkQC&pg=PA39|year=2006|publisher=Permanent Black|isbn=978-81-7824-156-2|pages=39|quote=His theory, which is based on scant historical evidence , doubtless echoed this episode in Maharashtra's history,whereas in fact Shivaji, a Maratha-Kunbi, was a Shudra. Nevertheless, he had won power and so expected the Brahmins to confirm his new status by writing for him an adequate genealogy. This process recalls that of [[Sanskritisation]], but sociologists refer to such emulation of Kshatriyas by Shudras as ' Kshatriyaisation ' and describe it as a variant of Sanskritisation.}}</ref> These clans were flexible enough that most of the Kunbi population got absorbed into these clans even in the 20th century.<ref name="Rao1989">{{cite book|page=XVI|author=M. S. A. Rao|title=Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwluAAAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|quote=An indication that the Shudra varna of elite marathas remained unchanged was the maratha practice of hypergamy which permitted inter-marriage with rising peasant kunbi lineages, and created a hierarchy of maratha kuls, whose boundaries were flexible enough to incorporate, by the twentieth century, most of the kunbi population.}}</ref> Thus, these clans have no ritual foundation.<ref name="Ferreira">{{cite book|title=Totemism in India|pages=191, 202|author=John Vincent Ferreira|year=1965|publisher=Oxford University Press|quote=Together with the Marathas, the Maratha Kunbi belonged originally, says Enthoven, to the same caste; and both their exogamous kuls and exogamous devaks are identical with those of the Marathas. Enthoven opines that the totemic nature of their devak system suggests that they are largely of a non-Aryan origin. ... The Kunbi cultivators are also Marathas but of a somewhat inferior social standing. The Maratha claim to belong to the ancient 96 Kshatriya families has no foundation in fact and may have been adopted after the Marathas became with Shivaji a power to be reckoned with.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4XGwAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Maratha dynasties and states]]
*[[Maratha (caste)#Origin|Maratha caste origin]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maratha Clan System}}
[[Category:Maratha clans| ]]

Maratha clan system - Revision history

Victor6053: small improved section based on references and updated info

UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

ImportMaster: robot: import pages using Special:Import