Maratha

Borrowed from Marathi मराठा (marāṭhā). Doublet of Maharashtra.

• (India) IPA^(key): /məˈɾaː.ʈʰə /
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈɹɑdə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈɹɑːtə/

Maratha (plural Maratha or Marathas)

1. A Hindu caste (or caste cluster) that is particularly associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra; a member of said caste.
   • 2004, D. L. Sheth, Ram Manohar Lohia on Caste in Indian Politics, [extracts from 1996, Lokayan Bulletin], Ghanshyam Shah (editor), Caste and Democratic Politics in India, Wimbledon Publishing Company (Anthem Press), page 81,

     The Marathas are a peculiar caste of Maharashtra, who claim to be Kshatriyas but are more like the cultivator-Sudras of north India.

   • 2004, Kumar Suresh Singh (general editor), B. V. Bhanu, et al. (editors), People of India: Maharashtra, Volume 30, Part 2, Anthropological Survey of India, Popular Prakashan, page 1434,

     The Maratha are a numerically dominant caste in Maharashtra. As said earlier, Maratha is not a caste but a caste cluster, the main component[s] of which are the Marathas proper and the Kunbis or Kulwadis. […] The Maratha speak mainly Marathi, the language of the region.

   • 2021, Anagha Ingole, Caste Panchayats and Caste Politics in India, Springer Nature (Palgrave Macmillan), page 111:

     The latter^{[of two elements of anti-casteism]} was dominated by the Maratha caste and a Maratha leadership and was supported by the Maratha ruler of Kolhapur, Chattrapati Shahu, appealing primarily to Maratha-Kunbi cluster in its struggle against upper caste domination.

2. (more broadly, among historians) A Marathi-speaking people particularly associated with Maharashtra; a member of said people (regardless of caste); frequently used attributively.
   • 1961, Sailendra Nath Sen, Anglo-Maratha Relations During the Administration of Warren Hastings, Volume 1, Popular Prakashan, page 77:

     (3) Maratha vessels were to have free access to all French ports, and vice versa.

   • 2023, Sangita Govindrao Ghar, Marathas Contribution in Deccan Plateau, Lulu, page 1,

     The first major threat to Moghul imperial power came from a Hindu tribal confederacy known as the Marathas. Located in the mountainous regions of the Deccan, the Marathas were mainly drawn from the lowest caste of society, but they became a powerfully militant community under their ruler, King Sivaji, who died in 1680.

   • 2003, Randolf G. S. Cooper, The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India, Cambridge University Press, page 126:

     Then around 2 pm, a detachment of Maratha irregular horse approached and engaged the allied contingent of Mysore horse that were riding forward outpost duty for the British.

• Marathi

Maratha

1. The Marathi language.

• Armatha, Ramatha, Tamarah

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μάραθα (Máratha).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈma.ra.tʰa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmaː.ra.t̪a]

Maratha f sg (genitive Marathae); first declension

1. A town of Arcadia situated near Buphagium, in Cynuria

First-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

• “Maratha”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly