Marhatta (region)

Marhatta or Maharatta/Maharatha was a historical region in western Maharashtra in present-day Konkan and Desh regions. The region primarily comprised the stretch 60 kilometers deep on either side of the Western Ghats stretching from Nashik and Thane in the north to Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Belgaum in the South. The core of the region was around Pune, Ahmednagar, Satara and Sangli. The region is invoked, along with Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Orissa, Bengal and South India as the different cultural regions of India in Rabindranath Tagore's poem which was chosen as the national anthem "Jana Gana Mana" of the newly-established Indian republic in 1950. The Marathi people originate from the place.

Etymology

The exact etymology of the name is uncertain. A theory is that the term is derived from Maha ("great") and ratha / rathi (chariot / charioteer), which refers to a skillful northern fighting force that migrated southward into the area.[1] According to Dr. Bhandarkar, the origin of the name lies in a tribe mentioned by Mauryan Emperor Ashoka in a copy of his rock-cut edicts (B. C. 245) preserved at Girnar where he is mentioned as sending ministers to the rattas (or rashtrikas "nations"), the suggestion being that a couple of the rattas took the name of Maharatta "great rattas". This is supported by the practice of the Bhoja rulers of the Konkan and West Deccan, who are styled "Bhojas" in Ashoka's thirteenth edict (B. C. 240) and "Mahabhoja" in rock-cut inscriptions in the Bedsa caves in Pune.

History

The Nashik Gazetteer states that in 246 BC "Maharatta" is noticed, as per the Mahavanso, as one of the ten places to which Ashoka sent an embassy,[2] and the word "Marhatta" (later used for the Marathas) is found in the Jain Maharashtri literature.[3]
In his book on the history of the Deccan, Persian historian Firishta (1560-1600) mentions, in his account of the conquest of the region under Alauddin Khilji, the province of Maharat (or Mherat) with its people "dependent on Daulatabad apparently considered to centre in Paithan or, as it is written, Mheropatan" as does the tenth century Arab geographer Al-Biruni as a country beginning seventy-two miles south of the Narmada[2] with Thane as its capital. In 1342, the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta referred to all the native inhabitants of Deogiri region as belonging collectively to the "tribe of Marhata", whose elite included both Brahmins and Ksytriyas.[4].

References
  1. K. Balasubramanyam (1965). the mysore. Mittal Publications. p. 174. GGKEY:HRFC6GWCY6D. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  2. "The People - Hindus". Nasik District Gazetteers.
  3. Suri, Udyotan. Kuvalayamala Kaha.
  4. Eaton, Richard Maxwell. A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761. p. 191.

See also


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