[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [A History of the Mahrattas](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826) › v1.c19.137 # A History of the Mahrattas v1.c19.137 A History of the Mahrattas v1.c19.137 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c19.137](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19.137) ² This word was no doubt adopted from the old name of the Beejapoor revenue officer. The Mahrattas are not very choice in their etymology, and appear to have been particularly arbitrary in fixing their revenue nomenclature. Nargounda, for instance, which is a corruption of the common Carnatic name for head Patell (Sur Patell, in Maharashtra), was applied to express three per cent. upon their whole revenue, exclusive of the Surdeshmookhee. The office of Nargounda, or Nargaora, was common under the Beejapoor government, in the districts south of the Kistna. Nar in the Carnatic is (I believe) applied, like turuf in Maharashtra, as a name for a smaller division of a district, and Gaora is synonymous with Patell. When Shao got possession of Panalla, he bestowed the hereditary right of Nargaora on his Chitnees, which, for some reason unexplained, had been forfeited by a Mahratta named Nagojee Bhaskur to the Beejapoor government. In this case, the Nargaora wutun, having been granted in the Arabic year 1110, A.D. 1709-10, before the plan of revenue distribution was thought of, it was simply an hereditary right, as head Patell of the turuf. \[Nargounda is the Kanarese word Nādagāvuda (pronounced Nārgauda); nāda or nādu meaning a province, district, or the country, and gāvuda a headman. In Mysore the word denotes (a) the non-official headman of a district who settles caste disputes; (b) an official headman of several villages. (Kittel's Kanarese Dictionary.)\] - [Previous: v1.c19.136](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19.136) - [Next: v1.c19.138](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19.138) - [Up: v1.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19.137](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.grantduff-1826.v1.c19.137) · Pramāṇa