Mahar

The Mahar is an Indian community found largely in the state of Maharashtra, where they comprise 10% of the population, and neighboring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed social reformer B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism in the middle of the 20th century. The community is included in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category by the Indian government.

Etymology

The Mahars have often been considered as the original inhabitants of what is now the Indian state of Maharashtra and, according to Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar, a historian of the region, the state's name derives from theirs (Maharance raṣṭra means land of the Mahars).

History

Middle Ages

During the Bhakti era of Hinduism several Mahar saints such as Chokhamela, Karmamela, Banka, Nirmala., Soyarabai and Bhagu became popular.

Peshwa Rule

The Mahar were subjected to painful degradation during the rule of the Peshwas, who treated them as untouchables.

British India

Mahars were considered an Untouchable caste by the Hindu community but under British rule they became aware of scope for social and political advancement. Their traditional role had been low-status but important in the village system. Traditionally, they lived on the outskirts of villages. Their duties included those of village watchman, messenger, wall mender, adjudicator of boundary disputes, street sweeper, and remover and processor of carcasses. They also worked as agricultural labourers and held some land, though they were not primarily farmers.

Pellucidar

Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth invented by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. In a notable crossover event between Burroughs' series, there is a Tarzan story in which the Ape Man travels into Pellucidar.

The stories initially involve the adventures of mining heir David Innes and his inventor friend Abner Perry after they use an "iron mole" to burrow 500 miles into the Earth's crust. Later protagonists include indigenous caveman Tanar and additional visitors from the surface world, notably Tarzan, Jason Gridley, and Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst.

Geography

In Burroughs' concept, the Earth is a hollow shell with Pellucidar as the internal surface of that shell. Pellucidar is accessible to the surface world via a polar opening allowing passage between the inner and outer worlds through which a rigid airship visits in the fourth book of the series. Although the inner surface of the Earth has an absolute smaller area than the outer, Pellucidar actually has a greater land area, as its continents mirror the surface world's oceans and its oceans mirror the surface continents.

Mahar (disambiguation)

Mahar is an Indian caste group.

Mahar may also refer to: