Maratha, Mahratta._--The military caste of southern India which manned
the armies of Sivaji, and of the Peshwa and other princes of the
Maratha confederacy. In the Central Provinces the Marathas numbered
34,000 persons in 1911, of whom Nagpur contained 9000 and Wardha
8000, while the remainder were distributed over Raipur, Hoshangabad
and Nimar. In Berar their strength was 60,000 persons, the total for
the combined province being thus 94,000. The caste is found in large
numbers in Bombay and Hyderabad, and in 1901 the India Census tables
show a total of not less than five million persons belonging to it.

2. Double meaning of the term Maratha

It is difficult to avoid confusion in the use of the term Maratha,
which signifies both an inhabitant of the area in which the
Marathi language is spoken, and a member of the caste to which
the general name has in view of their historical importance been
specifically applied. The native name for the Marathi-speaking
country is Maharashtra, which has been variously interpreted as
'The great country' or 'The country of the Mahars.' [201] A third
explanation of the name is from the Rashtrakuta dynasty which was
dominant in this area for some centuries after A.D. 750. The name
Rashtrakuta was contracted into Rattha, and with the prefix of Maha
or Great might evolve into the term Maratha. The Rashtrakutas have
been conjecturally identified with the Rathor Rajputs. The _Nasik
Gazetteer_ [202] states that in 246 B.C. Maharatta is mentioned as
one of the places to which Asoka sent an embassy, and Maharashtraka
is recorded in a Chalukyan inscription of A.D. 580 as including three
provinces and 99,000 villages. Several other references are given
in Sir J. Campbell's erudite note, and the name is therefore without
doubt ancient. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned
before the thirteenth or fourteenth century. [203] The antiquity of
the name would appear to militate against the derivation from the
Rashtrakuta dynasty, which did not become prominent till much later,
and the most probable meaning of Maharashtra would therefore seem to
be 'The country of the Mahars.' Maharatta and Maratha are presumably
derivatives from Maharashtra.

3. Origin and position of the caste

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 separat