Bhonsle Gotra
भोंसले
At a glance
- Founding Rishi
- Vishwamitra
- Veda
- Rigveda
Related Gotras
Common surnames
About
Bhonsle (also Bhosale, Bhosle) is a Maratha clan of Maharashtra. It is the family of Shivaji and of the Chhatrapati houses of Satara and Kolhapur. Clan tradition traces it to the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar; most historians doubt this. The site's index files the clan under the Kaushik gotra of Vishwamitra.
Founding Rishi
Pravara Lineage
The Pravara is the line of illustrious ancestral rishis recited in ritual, from the first ancestor down:
- 1Vaishwamitra
- 2Devarata
- 3Audala
Regional Spread
The Bhonsle Gotra is predominantly found in:
Etymology
The name is written Bhonsle, Bhosale, Bhosle and Bhonsale. The family account recorded by Kincaid and Parasnis (1918) derives it from Bhosavat, a fief in the Udaipur country held by the clan's supposed Sisodia ancestors. The folklorist R. C. Dhere proposed instead that Bhosale is a form of Hoysala, from the Yadava and Hoysala rulers of the Deccan. Neither derivation is settled.
Historical Journey
The earliest Bhonsles named in the records were village headmen (patil) in the country of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Kincaid and Parasnis (1918) tell of Babaji Bhosle, who bought the headship of Verul near Daulatabad, and of his sons Maloji and Vithoji. Maloji rose in Nizam Shahi service and held Pune and Supe. His son Shahaji served Ahmadnagar and then Bijapur, and later held a jagir in Karnataka. Shahaji's son Shivaji founded the Maratha state and was crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad on 6 June 1674, with the Varanasi scholar Gaga Bhatt officiating. The clan's account of itself is that it descends from the Sisodia Rajputs of Udaipur, through a line that left Mewar for the Deccan. Before the coronation Shivaji's secretary Balaji Avji Chitnis is said to have inquired into the genealogy in Mewar, and Gaga Bhatt accepted it. Jadunath Sarkar, V. K. Rajwade, R. C. Dhere, Allison Busch, John Keay and Audrey Truschke regard the descent as made to secure Kshatriya standing for the coronation. G. S. Sardesai said it was not authentically proved, and Enthoven (1922) found the evidence unconvincing. Andre Wink expects the question to stay open. Sarkar and others place the Bhonsles among the Deccani Maratha-Kunbi cultivators and village headmen. Dhere, working from oral tradition and ethnography, linked them instead to the Yadava and Hoysala chiefs of the Deccan. Enthoven reproduces a published list of seven leading Maratha kuls (sapta kul) that gives Bhosle with the alias Sisode, and calls its aliases unexplained. Enthoven also calls the traditional count of ninety-six Maratha kuls without historical foundation, and Britannica says the lists of the ninety-six vary and are disputed. After Shivaji the name spread through several ruling houses: the Chhatrapati line at Satara, the Kolhapur branch created under Tarabai (the Kolhapur house dates from 1710), the Thanjavur line founded by Shivaji's half-brother Venkoji (Ekoji), the Nagpur line of Raghuji I (from 1739), and the houses of Sawantwadi and Akkalkot. The Satara state was annexed in 1849, Thanjavur in 1855 and Nagpur in 1853.
Migration & Diaspora
The clan's recorded homeland is the Pune, Satara and Verul country of Maharashtra. Shahaji's service in the Deccan sultanates took a branch to his jagir in Karnataka, and his younger son Venkoji (Ekoji) took Thanjavur in the 1670s, where a Maratha court lasted until 1855. The Nagpur Bhonsles ruled Berar and parts of central and eastern India from 1739 to 1853. Today the surname is common across Maharashtra, in Karnataka and in the Thanjavur Maratha community of Tamil Nadu.
Presence Across Regions
Pune, Satara and Kolhapur (Maharashtra)
Maratha
The home country of the clan. The Chhatrapati houses of Satara and Kolhapur are Bhonsle.
Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu)
Maratha
Venkoji (Ekoji), Shivaji's half-brother, founded a Bhonsle court here in the 1670s. It lasted until 1855.
Nagpur and Berar
Maratha
Raghuji I Bhonsle began the Nagpur line in 1739. The state was annexed by the British in 1853.
Sawantwadi and Akkalkot
Maratha
Both princely states are listed among the Bhonsle-ruled states. Sawantwadi lasted to 1947 and Akkalkot to the 1940s.
Notable Personalities
Maloji Bhonsle
Late 16th to early 17th century
Nizam Shahi officer who held Pune and Supe and is counted as the first Bhonsle of rank. Father of Shahaji.
Shahaji Bhonsle
c. 1594 to 1664
General under Ahmadnagar and later Bijapur. Father of Shivaji and Venkoji. He married Jijabai, the daughter of Lakhuji Jadhav.
Shivaji
17th century (crowned 1674)
Founder of the Maratha state. Crowned Chhatrapati at Raigad on 6 June 1674 after a debate over his Kshatriya standing.
Venkoji (Ekoji)
17th century
Half-brother of Shivaji. He took Thanjavur in the 1670s and began the Thanjavur Maratha line.
Raghuji I Bhonsle
18th century
Began the Nagpur Bhonsle state in 1739 and extended Maratha power into Berar and eastern India.
Stories & Legends
Maloji and Bhavani
Kincaid and Parasnis (1918) record a family story. Maloji, searching a forest at night for his brother, saw the goddess Bhavani. She told him that a Shiva incarnation would be born in his house and restore Hindu rule, and she pointed him to an ant-heap with treasure, which he used to build the Ghrishneshwar temple at Verul. He later went on pilgrimage to her temple at Tuljapur. This is a bakhar-style legend, not a record.
The coronation and the Sisodia genealogy
Brahmins in the Deccan had classed Shivaji as a Shudra, so his coronation waited until 1674. Balaji Avji Chitnis is said to have reported a Sisodia descent for Shahaji, and Gaga Bhatt ratified it. Shivaji was given the sacred thread and crowned. Sarkar and others call the genealogy a political construction, Sardesai called it not proved, and Wink thinks it will stay disputed. Dutch company records suggest some Brahmins did not accept the outcome.
Ritual Significance
Among the Shivaji line the family deity is Tulja Bhavani of Tuljapur, in Dharashiv (Osmanabad) district. Dhere and Feldhaus also name Shambhu Mahadev of Shingnapur as a Bhosale kuldevata, and Maloji is said to have built a tank at that temple. Practice differs by branch and village. The site's index lists the clan under Kaushik, the gotra of Vishwamitra; we found no published source that states a gotra for the Bhonsle, and Enthoven notes that many Marathas do not know theirs and that priests' lists conflict. Among Marathas the shared kul and devak, not the gotra, bar marriage.