A History of the Mahrattas v1.c24.51

v1.c24.51

¹ [The Pratinidhīs were Deshasth Brahmans, while the Pēshwās were Konkanasth (Chitpāvan) Brahmans. The imprisonment of the Pratinidhī Dādobā, alias Jagjīvanrāo, by Bālājī Bājīrāo, at the time of Shāhu’s death, marks the end of Deshasth Brahman political influence in the Deccan. The Deshasths, as their name implies, are the Brahmans of the desh or country above the Western Ghāts in which Marāthi is spoken, though they are now found in many other parts of Western India and in the Baroda, Indore, Gwālior and other states. Many of the Marāthi poets were Deshasth Brahmans. The majority follow secular employment as agents, writers, accountants, merchants, cultivators, and add to their names the honorary affix of Pant, Rāo, Dēsāi, Dēshpānde, Dēshmukh, Kulkarni, Pātel, according to their position and the former occupations of their families. Generally speaking, they are of darker complexion than the Konkanasths (Chitpāvans). Their ancestors may have availed themselves of the old Brahmanical law authorizing a Brahman to marry the daughter of a Sudra, as well as of the three upper classes, the issue of such marriage having been admissible to Brahmanhood in the seventh generation. (Wilson, Indian Caste (1877), ii. 18, 19.) See footnote on the Chitpāvans, pp. 370–1, ante.]