Negotiating Status and Power: A Critical Study of Caste Hierarchies in Pre-Colonial Maharashtra

International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 11 November 2025 Received: 2 November 2025 627 Revised: 17 November 2025 Accepted: 29 November 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17768990 Negotiating Status and Power: A Critical Study of Caste Hierarchies in Pre-Colonial Maharashtra Mr. S. K. Aware Associate Professor and Head Dept of History MVP’s Arts, Science and Commerce College, Ozar (Mig), Nashik Maharashtra, India [email protected] Abstract This research paper critically examines the formation, consolidation, and negotiation of caste hierarchies in pre-colonial Maharashtra, focusing on the period between the late medieval era and the rise of the Maratha polity in the 17th–18th centuries. Drawing from historical records, literary sources, inscriptions, customs, and socio-cultural practices, the study explores how caste structured everyday life, governed economic production, shaped political participation, and regulated access to ritual status. The paper argues that caste in pre-colonial Maharashtra functioned not merely as a rigid system of stratification but as a dynamic field of negotiation wherein communities, rulers, and religious institutions continuously contested, redefined, and reproduced social power. Concepts from subaltern studies, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social capital, and anthropological frameworks on ritual authority are used to analyze these interactions. The study demonstrates that while the varna model provided ideological justifications, actual jati-based caste relations were deeply localized, diverse, conflictual, and often fluid in practice. Ultimately, the paper offers a critical understanding of how caste hierarchies shaped the socio-political landscape of pre-colonial Maharashtra and how marginalized groups engaged in subtle and overt strategies of resistance, negotiation, and mobility. Keywords: Caste hierarchy, Pre-colonial Maharashtra, Maratha society, Ritual power, Social stratification, Subaltern studies, Jati, Varna, Social mobility, Brahmanical authority. Introduction Caste has long served as a fundamental organizing principle of Indian society, shaping economic roles, cultural expressions, ritual practices, and political formations. In pre-colonial Maharashtra, caste was not a static structure imposed uniformly across communities but a dynamic institution shaped by regional histories, local customs, and socio-political transformations. This study offers a critical inquiry into how status and power were negotiated within caste hierarchies in this period, emphasizing the plural and often contradictory nature of social relations. The pre-colonial era in Maharashtra—particularly the Yadava (12th–13th century), Bahmani and Deccan Sultanate (14th–16th century), and Maratha period (17th–18th century)—provides a rich field for examining the evolution of caste structures. These centuries witnessed intense socio-cultural transformations: the spread of bhakti movements, the rise of non-Brahman elites such as Marathas, Kunbis, and Prabhus, and significant interactions between agrarian communities, warrior groups, pastoralists, artisans, and priestly classes. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 11 November 2025 Received: 2 November 2025 628 Revised: 17 November 2025 Accepted: 29 November 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17768990 Against this backdrop, caste hierarchy manifested as a system of both dominance and negotiation. Communities competed for ritual recognition, economic privileges, and political authority, while religious institutions functioned as key sites of legitimization. This paper therefore investigates the following questions: 1. How were caste hierarchies structured and enforced in pre-colonial Maharashtra? 2. In what ways did social groups negotiate status, mobility, and autonomy within caste relations? 3. How did political power—especially under the Marathas—intersect with caste identities? 4. What strategies did marginalized or lower-status communities use to resist or reshape hierarchical norms? The answers reveal a rich, multidimensional social landscape that challenges the simplistic view of caste as a rigid, unchanging system. Caste has been one of the most defining and enduring institutions in Indian society, shaping social relations, political structures, and economic interactions for centuries. In the context of pre-colonial Maharashtra, caste was not a monolithic or static framework but a dynamic, historically negotiated system that evolved alongside changes in regional polities, agrarian structures, religious movements, and military formations. Maharashtra’s cultural and political landscape—from the rule of the Yadavas to the rise of the Deccan Sultanates and eventually the Maratha polity—produced a distinctive configuration of caste hierarchies. These hierarchies were embedded in everyday practices of labor, devotion, landholding, taxation, and state service. At the same time, spaces of socio-religious mobility emerged through the Bhakti movement, military recruitment under the Marathas, and the flexibilities created by agrarian expansion. This paper critically analyses the development, functioning, and negotiation of caste hierarchies in pre-colonial Maharashtra, arguing that caste was simultaneously a tool of social control and a mechanism through which marginalized groups sought opportunities for mobility and assertion Literature Review Early Historical Approaches Traditional historiography, influenced by colonial administrators and early Indologists, viewed caste as an ancient, uniform Hindu institution derived from the varna model in Sanskrit texts such as the Manusmriti. Scholars like Risley and Hocart emphasized the ritual basis of hierarchy and Brahmanical dominance. However, such approaches obscured regional variations. Regional and Social Histories Historians such as G.S. Sardesai, J.N. Sarkar, and Setu Madhav Pagdi explored the sociopolitical structures of the Maratha period, highlighting the rise of Maratha clans but giving limited attention to subaltern communities. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 11 November 2025 Received: 2 November 2025 629 Revised: 17 November 2025 Accepted: 29 November 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17768990 Subaltern Studies and Modern Interventions The Subaltern Studies collective—particularly scholars like Ranajit Guha and Gail Omvedt—shifted attention to marginalized groups, conflict, and peasant resistance. Their work inspired new investigations into caste as an arena of negotiation rather than a fixed hierarchy. Anthropologists like M.N. Srinivas (with concepts such as sanskritization and dominant caste) provided frameworks to understand mobility. Meanwhile, Bourdieu’s ideas on social, cultural, and symbolic capital have helped reinterpret caste as a dynamic system of power circulation. Need for a Critical Regional Study Despite growing scholarship, a comprehensive study specifically focusing on caste hierarchies in pre-colonial Maharashtra—integrating political, economic, and cultural dimensions— remains limited. This paper fills that gap. The roots of caste organization in Maharashtra may be traced to early medieval agrarian expansion and the gradual integration of tribal and pastoral communities into settled agrarian society. Land grants made to Brahmins under the Yadava dynasty and other early regional powers reinforced the authority of priestly groups and created a rural social order based on ritual superiority. The establishment of Brahmadeya and Agrahara settlements facilitated the migration of Brahmin families into different parts of the Deccan, where they assumed roles as priests, record-keepers, educators, and intermediaries between the state and the peasantry. The shastric hierarchy placed Brahmins at the apex, followed by warrior and landholding groups, artisan castes, pastoral communities, and finally those placed outside the formal varna system. Yet, this formal hierarchy only partially reflected lived social reality. Many communities in Maharashtra maintained their own customary rights and clan-based status systems, which produced a complex and layered social hierarchy rather than a rigid, uniform structure. During the period of the Deccan Sultanates, significant shifts occurred in occupational patterns and military organization. The region witnessed the movement and resettlement of Maratha, Dhangar, Ramoshi, Kunbi, and various artisan groups, who participated in the expanding military labor market. The Deccan armies relied heavily on local martial peasantry, which provided opportunities for groups like the Marathas and Mahars to gain status as soldiers, messengers, and fort-keepers. This period also witnessed the rise of specialized service castes such as the Bhandaris, Kolis, and Nhavis, whose roles expanded as the administrative and commercial networks of the Sultanates grew. While caste identities remained deeply entrenched, the mobility created by military and administrative employment complicated inherited hierarchies and fragmented traditional boundaries. The interplay between state formations and caste structures in this period reveals that caste was both reinforced by political power and reshaped by the demands of regional economies. The Bhakti movement in Maharashtra, led by poet-saints such as Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Chokhamela, Janabai, and Eknath, generated a powerful critique of caste inequality. These saints articulated a devotional ideology centered on spiritual egalitarianism, questioning the ritual supremacy of Brahmins and affirming the moral worth of marginalized castes. Their poetry, captured in the abhang tradition, addressed social discrimination and emphasized inner International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 11 November 2025 Received: 2 November 2025 630 Revised: 17 November 2025 Accepted: 29 November 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17768990 purity over birth-based status. Although the Bhakti movement did not fully dismantle caste hierarchies, it created spaces for new forms of identity, collective expression, and moral negotiation. Its influence on rural consciousness and community bonds was significant, and it played a key role in shaping the cultural ethos of pre-colonial Maharashtra. The Maratha polity both challenged and maintained caste hierarchies, depending on political imperatives. While upward mobility became possible for certain Maratha and Kunbi lineages through military service and land grants, Brahmin elites continued to hold ideological and administrative authority. Meanwhile, communities at the bottom of the hierarchy remained bound to hereditary occupations. Thus, the social structure of pre-colonial Maharashtra was characterized by a paradox: caste boundaries were permeable in moments of political expansion, yet deeply entrenched in everyday economic and social relations. Religious institutions further shaped caste identities. Temples functioned as centers of social authority where rituals, festivals, and offerings were controlled by dominant castes. Brahmins served as priests, while Marathas provided patronage and protection. Lower castes participated in temple activities through labor, music, dance, and peripheral services, but were often barred from central ritual spaces. At the same time, community-specific deities and local shrine traditions allowed non-Brahmin groups to maintain parallel religious systems that affirmed their shared identity and cultural autonomy. Such spaces reveal the plurality of religious experience in pre-colonial Maharashtra and challenge the notion of a uniform Brahmanical dominance. The interaction between caste and gender also shaped social hierarchy. Women’s access to ritual, property, and mobility varied significantly across castes. Elite women in Brahmin and Maratha households enjoyed some degree of household influence but were bound by strict norms of purity and honor. Women from artisan and service castes often engaged in productive labor, contributing to the household economy, but faced vulnerabilities tied to their caste status. Devadasi traditions in temple towns and the roles of women in Bhakti communities further complicate our understanding of gendered caste experiences. By the eighteenth century, caste hierarchies in Maharashtra had become deeply intertwined with state structures, market networks, and religious institutions. Yet they remained dynamic, with negotiation, contestation, and mobility occurring at various levels of society. The arrival of colonial rule in the nineteenth century would later freeze many of these fluidities, codifying caste categories within administrative and legal frameworks. But in the pre-colonial period, caste in Maharashtra was best understood as a negotiated order: shaped by power, challenged by devotion, reconfigured by military and agrarian changes, and continually adapted to social realities. Conclusion Caste hierarchies in pre-colonial Maharashtra were neither entirely rigid nor uniformly oppressive; rather, they were dynamic systems shaped by power, economics, ritual authority, and socio-political change. Communities negotiated their status through political service, economic accumulation, religious participation, and cultural assertion. Marginalized groups resisted domination through subtle and overt forms of defiance. This study highlights the International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 11 November 2025 Received: 2 November 2025 631 Revised: 17 November 2025 Accepted: 29 November 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17768990 complexity of caste relations and underscores the importance of analyzing regional histories to understand the broader patterns of Indian social structures. References 1. Gordon, Stewart. The Marathas: 1600–1818. Cambridge University Press, 1993. 2. O’Hanlon, Rosalind. 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