Pathare Prabhu

Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). These people are among earliest settlers in the city. They are known to have one of the oldest academic traditions amongst Hindus on par with Brahmins. They were amongst the first of the Hindus to adopt to British educational practice and be well educated in it. They never treated women badly but offered complete freedom, occasionally even sending them to study in foreign universities. They advocated widow re-marriage, an act considered a taboo in the orthodox Hindu society of those times and they were amongst the first in abolishing hunda (dowry) custom.