Maharaja - Etymology

Etymology

The word Maharaja originates in the Sanskrit language and is a compound karmadharaya term (from mahānt "great" and rājan "king"). It has the Latin cognates (accusative case) magnum ("great") and rēgem ("king"). Due to Sanskrit's major influence on the vocabulary of most languages in India and Asia, the term 'maharaja' is common to many modern Indian languages, such as Hindi, Rajasthani, Malvi, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, etc. The Sanskrit title maharaja was originally used only for kings who ruled a considerably large region with minor tributary kings under them. Since the mediaeval times the title was used even by rulers of smaller states since they claimed to be the descendants of the ancient maharajas.


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