History
A prominent Mahar in medieval Indian history is Chokhamela, a fourteenth-century poet-saint in the devotional religious tradition that allowed participation by all castes. Chokhamela along with his wife, her brother, and their son are all historic figures in the Warkari cult. The sixteenth-century Brahman poet, Eknath, wrote more than forty poems as if he were a Mahar, underlining their importance to the everyday world of that time. Former army Mahars were the first to petition the British government for redress and for equal treatment. Mahars who worked on the railways or in the ammunition factories, who were thus free from traditional village work, created a receptive body of urban workers who were ready to join a movement for higher status and equality.
The Imperial Gazetteer of India, writing about Nagpur district, India, described the social status of the Mahars in the early 1900s:
"Mahars form a sixth of the whole population, the great majority being cultivators and laborers. The rural Mahar is still considered impure, and is not allowed to drink from the village well, nor may his children sit in school with those of the Hindu castes. But there are traces of decay of this tendency, as many Mahars have become wealthy and risen in the world, with their tenacity and adaptive ability."
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