The Marathas are a caste formed from military service, and it seems
probable that they sprang mainly from the peasant population of Kunbis,
though at what period they were formed into a separate caste has not
yet been determined. Grant-Duff mentions several of their leading
families as holding offices under the Muhammadan rulers of Bijapur and
Ahmadnagar in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the Nimbhalkar,
Gharpure and Bhonsla; [204] and presumably their clansmen served in the
armies of those states. But whether or no the designation of Maratha
had been previously used by them, it first became prominent during the
period of Sivaji's guerilla warfare against Aurangzeb. The Marathas
claim a Rajput origin, and several of their clans have the names of
Rajput tribes, as Chauhan, Panwar, Solanki and Suryavansi. In 1836
Mr. Enthoven states, [205] the Sesodia Rana of Udaipur, the head of
the purest Rajput house, was satisfied from inquiries conducted by an
agent that the Bhonslas and certain other families had a right to be
recognised as Rajputs. Colonel Tod states that Sivaji was descended
from a Rajput prince Sujunsi, who was expelled from Mewar to avoid
a dispute about the succession about A.D. 1300. Sivaji is shown as
13th in descent from Sujunsi. Similarly the Bhonslas of Nagpur were
said to derive their origin from one Bunbir, who was expelled from
Udaipur about 1541, having attempted to usurp the kingdom. [206]
As Rajput dynasties ruled in the Deccan for some centuries before
the Muhammadan conquest, it seems reasonable to suppose that a Rajput
aristocracy may have taken root there. This was Colonel Tod's opinion,
who wrote: "These kingdoms of the south as well as the north were
held by Rajput sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original
population, produced that mixed race of Marathas inheriting with the
names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the
names of their abodes as titles, as the Nimalkars, the Phalkias, the
Patunkars, instead of their tribes of Jadon, Tüar, Püar, etc." [207]
This statement would, however, apply only to the leading houses and
not to the bulk of the Maratha caste, who appear to be mainly derived
from the Kunbis. In Sholapur the Marathas and Kunbis eat together,
and the Kunbis are said to be bastard Marathas. [208] In Satara the
Kunbis have the same division into 96 clans as the Marathas have, and
many of the same surnames. [209] The writer of the _Satara Gazetteer_
says: [210] "The census of 1851 included the Marathas with the Kunbis,
from whom they do not form a separate caste. Some Maratha families
may have a larger strain of northern or Rajput blood than the Kunbis,
but this is not always the case. The distinction between Kunbis
and Marathas is almost entirely social, the Marathas as a rule being
better off, and preferring even service as a constable or messenger to
husbandry." Exactly the same state of affairs prevails in the Central
Provinces and Berar, where the body of the caste are commonly known
as Maratha Kunbis. In Bombay the Marathas will take daughters from
the Kunbis in marriage for their sons, though they will not give
their daughters in return. But a Kunbi who has got on in the world
and become wealthy may by sufficient payment get his sons married into
Maratha families, and even be adopted as a member of the caste. [211]
In 1798 Colonel Tone, who commanded a regiment of the Peshwa's army,
wrote [212] of the Marathas: "The three great tribes which compose the
Maratha caste are the Kunbi or farmer, the Dhangar or shepherd, and the
Goala or cowherd; to this original cause may perhaps be ascribed that
great simplicity of manner which distinguishes the Maratha people."
It seems then most probable that, as already stated, the Maratha
caste was of purely military origin, constituted from the various
castes of Maharashtra who adopted military service, though some of
the leading families may have had Rajputs for their ancestors. Sir
D. Ibbetson thought that a similar relation existed in past times
between the Rajputs and Jats, the landed aristocracy of the Jat caste
being gradually admitted to Rajput rank. The Khandaits or swordsmen of
Orissa are a caste formed in the same manner from military service. In
the _Imperial Gazetteer_ Sir H. Risley suggests that the Maratha
people were of Scythian origin:
"The physical type of the people of this region accords fairly
well with this theory, while the arguments derived from language
and religion do not seem to conflict with it.... On this view the
wide-ranging forays of the Marathas, their guerilla methods of warfare,
their unscrupulous dealings with friend and foe, their genius for
intrigue and their consequent failure to build up an enduring dominion,
might well be regarded as inherited from their Scythian ancestors."