जुन्या वाड्मयाचा जीर्णोद्धार ४२७
“ Mahars
This is the most numerous of the Untouchable castes of Maharashtra. There is almost no village in this region where there are no Mahars. One finds them from the Arabian sea-coast to the jungles of Raipur and Bastar. Everywhere they speak the Marathi language and are hereditary village servants. Though a small bit of land is given to the Mahar community of each village, it is never sufficient to procure the livelihood of the community which has to depend on the good-will of the villagers for their subsistence. The hereditary work of the Mahars is to remove the dead cattle from the village, to sweep the village streets, to run errands for the village officers, and to keep a watch on the village property etc. The Mahar is generally the principal witness in disputes about boundaries of fields etc. Itis said that the Mahar walks more than all the villagers put together. In modern times the cities with their growing factories have offered the Mahars the opportunity to escape from the narrow tyranny of hereditary serfdom and untouchability and they have availed themselves greedily of this opportunity. The main labour force in the Nagpur textile Mills is that of Mahars. The makers of native leaf- cigarettes in the eastern districts of Bhandara and Gondia are .nostly Mahars. The textile mills of Bombay have drawn Mahar labour and the sugar-mills of the Nagar district are also manned toa large extent by the Mahars. They are thus becoming rapidly urbanised. Alarge number was also converted to Christianity in the last century but conversions have practically stopped now except in Eastern Maharashtra where the Missions are still very active. The Mahar sample is drawn from Nagpur, Poona and Belapur (near Nagar). The Bavane sample is drawn from the region east of the wainganga river called the Bavan Thadi and is treated separately. The Mahars are divided into numerous endogamous regional divisions. The septs are not always clearly defined. The surnames which are used as clan-names are in many cases the same as those of the Marathas and Kunbis. Cross-cousin marriage is allowed. Divorce and widow remarriage are also allowed. A widow does not marry her husband's brother. The Mahars claim to be about ten per cent of the whole Marathi population. It is a very mixed community ranging in skin colour from very fair to dark and cannot generally be distinguished from the other communities except through their poverty and dress.” '
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1: Maharashtra State Gazetteer, 1968, P. 32.