Mahar
Traditional Indian society was a collec-
tion of endogamous subgroups (in
which marriage is decreed by law to
occur only between members of the
same group) known as jatis(“birth”).
These jatis were organized (and their
social status determined) by the group’s
hereditary occupation, over which each
group held a monopoly. The Mahars
were an untouchable jati in
Maharashtrian society, performing vari-
ous services and labor for the landlord
communities. The Mahars are famous
for two figures: the medieval bhakti
poet Chokamela, and the modern jurist
and social reformer Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
Maharashtra
Modern Indian state along the Arabian
Sea, stretching east over the Western
Ghats to encompass the northern part
of the DeccanPlateau. Maharashtra is
one of the “linguistic” states formed
after Indian independence in 1947;
these states were created to unite people
with a common language and culture (in
this case, Marathi) under one state gov-
ernment. It was formed in 1960 by split-
ting the former state of Bombay into the
present states of Gujarat and
Maharashtra. Bombay, the capital, is the
financial and industrial center of mod-
ern India. The western regions are heav-
ily industrialized; the eastern regions are
more agricultural, dominated by sugar
plantations. Historically, Maharashtra is
the homeland of the Marathas, a group
whose eighteenth-century empire
stretched across much of northern
India. The Rashtriya Svayamsevak
Sanghand the Shiv Sena, two Hindu
nationalist organizations that have both
tried to influence Indian politics, were
founded in Maharashtra. Along with its
economic and political importance, the
state contains many important histori-
cal, cultural, and religious sites.
Historical and cultural sites include the
rock-cut caves of Ellora, a UNESCOWorld
Heritage Site; the Buddhist caves at
Ajanta; and the cave temple at
Elephantain the Bombay harbor. Places
of religious importance include the
Godavariand Bhima rivers and their
attendant sacred sites (tirthas); the sites
associated with the saints of the Varkari
Panthreligious community, particularly
the temple to the god Vithoba at
Pandharpur; and three of the jyotirlin-
gas, which are sites particularly holy to
the god Shiva: Bhimashankar,
Ghrneshvar, and Tryambakeshvar. For
general information about Maharashtra
and other regions of India, see Christine
Nivin et al., India. 8th ed., Lonely
Planet, 1998.Maharashtri
Southern Indian brahmins who make
up one of the five southern brahmin
communities (Pancha Dravida); the
other four are Gujarati, Karnata,
Andhra, and Dravida. As their name
would indicate, the core region for
Maharashtri brahmins is the modern
state of Maharashtra. The Maharashtri
brahmins are themselves divided
into two subgroups: the Chitpavan, or
Konkanastha brahmins, who live in
the coastal regions, and the
Deshasthabrahmins, who live further
inland in the Deccan.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
(b. Mahesh Prasad Verma, 1911) Hindu
teacher and founder of the religious
technique known as Transcendental
Meditation(TM). The Maharishi (“Great
Sage”) was trained as an engineer, but
eventually renounced the world after
meeting one of the Shankaracharyas, a
name given to the most important mod-
ern Hindu religious leaders. He stayed
with Shankaracharya for the next twelve
years, in pursuit of spiritual knowledge.
He established an ashramat Rishikesh
but was relatively unknown until his
association with the Beatles, the British
musical group who came to India with
him on pilgrimage. In the early 1970s, TM
instructors traveled throughout
American college campuses, touting theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi