Meeting after 244 years

NEW DELHI: Two hundred and forty-four years after the third Battle of Panipat, the Marathas are taking a nostalgic trip back to Haryana.

Descendants of Maratha warriors, who fought the great battle against the Afghans, and hordes of Maratha leaders from various states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, are converging in Karnal, 35 kms from the scene of the battle, north west of Delhi, today.

The gathering, the first of its kind, is intended to foster Maratha brotherhood and develop social and cultural ties between Maratha settlers in Haryana and the rest of the country.

Haryana now boasts of 6.5 lakh Maratha pariwars, mostly descendants of the 200-odd warriors who hid in the state after the defeat of the Maratha Army at the hands of Afghans. The 1911 census recorded the presence of 42,000 Marathas in Haryana.

Maratha Virendra Verma, a retired civil servant, who took a Jat surname and settled in Karnal and Vasant Rao More, retired dean of Shivaji University in Kolapur and expert in Maratha history, have taken the initiative in organising the congregation.
Maratha Jagriti Manch, Haryana, Maratha Seva Sangh, Pune, and Maratha Maha Sangh, Mumbai, have also extended their cooperation.

The convention billed as the 'historic All India Maratha Muilan Samaroh' will be graced among others by the third generation descendants of Chatrapathi Shivaji from Maharashtra.

Chatrapathi Udayanraje will inaugurate the convention and Chatrapathi Kalpanaraje Bhosale will preside. Talking to DNA, Maratha Virendra Verma said that fearing reprisals Marathas had hidden themselves after the 1761 defeat.

To keep their identity masked they took the backward caste name "Rore". More said warriors kept their families in Kurukshetra and after the war went and fetched them and hid in jungles. They took to farming and as the years passed by slowly came back to villages.

The descendants are mostly confined to Panipat, Karnal and Kurukshetra. Verma said the descendants could be easily identified as their features, customs and gotra names matched with Marathas.

An estimated 100,000 Marathas had died in the battle as the light cavalry of Afghans were pitted against the trained artillery of the Marathas. Jealousy among the Maratha commanders and the decision of the cavalry to charge prematurely are cited as reasons for the Afghan victory. Some Rajput Kings also did not help the Marathas.

Earlier, in 1756, the Marathas pursued the fleeing army of Ahmad Shah Durrani (Abdali) upto Attock at the foothills of Afghanistan. Sadashiv Bhau led the Maratha army which was joined by hundreds of middle class men, women and children also who came as pilgrims to see "Aryavarta (Aryan land) and holy Hindu places. Sadadhiv Bhau and his loyal bunch of guards fought the Afghans till the end.

Some of the Marathas were taken to Afghanistan as prisoners after the war. Members of the descendants of prisoners of wars can still be found at least in Bugti and Marri tribal areas of Baluchistan.

Maratha Bugtis and Marris are said to be an interesting case study of what may be a caste forming even under the Islamic rule. Batches of Maratha prisoners were taken to many parts of Afghanistan and their lineage, if any, remains a mystery.