A History of the Mahrattas v1.c20.22

v1.c20.22

Colonel T. B. Jervis, whose account is reproduced at pp. 678, 679 of Forrest’s *Selections (Maratha Series)*, i. (1885), states that the ancestors of the Gaekwār’s family were Pātels of the village of Dhāvri Nimbgāon, near Poona, and that Pilājī Gaekwār was originally an officer with fifteen retainers in the service of the Kadam Bandi brothers, ‘whose flag the family still uses.’ The Kadam family, which held the hereditary pātelship of Vadgāon on the Bhīma, served as officials of the Bijāpur Sultāns, but they attached themselves to Sivājī when the latter rose to power. They are said to derive their surname of Bandi from a square flag which they used, and which both the Gaekwār and Holkar subsequently adopted. When the Kadam family subsequently fell into disgrace, their place was taken by Pilājī Gaekwār (J.B.B.R.A.S., xxii. 63.) For an interesting note on the origin of the word ‘Bahādur,’ see Yule, *Hobson-Jobson*, ed. Crooke, 1903, s.v. ‘Bahaudur.’]