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Overview
“Panipat hone” is a phrase in Marathi meaning “complete disaster” representing the terrible loss the Marathas suffered in the Third Battle of Panipat. It is said that every household in western Maharashtra lost a beloved one (“Ek lakh bangdi futli” in Marathi) and the people still discuss the battle in great details. It was a Sankranti festival on 14th January 1761 when the battle took place and people still have a fear of this festival as is known in Marathi “Sankrant kosalane” meaning a terrible fall or collapse of the Sankranti festival.

Nearly 40000 Marathas were slaughtered on that fateful day. Ahmad Shah Durrani also captured around 20000 Marathas.The prisoners included Maratha soldiers, females and children. The plan of the afghans was to make some money by trading Maratha POWs as slaves. All of the prisoners were transported on bullock carts, camels and elephants in bamboo cages.

Siyar-ut-Mutakhirin says:

The unhappy prisoners were paraded in long lines, given a little parched grain and a drink of water, and beheaded... and the women and children who survived were driven off as slaves - twenty-two thousand, many of them of the highest rank in the land.

Although a lot of historical research and books are available on the subject of Third War of Panipat, there is little information available as what happened to those maratha prisoners of War captured and taken by Ahmed shah Durrani. This could also be due to the rugged and almost inaccessible areas of Balochistan and Afghanistan where the prisoners were carried to.

As per new research, some of the captured POWs were settled in Balochistan among Bugti and Marri tribes. Their descendants are muslim by religion but have maintained their distinct identity as Marathas Bugtis or Maratha Marris. Over the last 250 years, these marathas have undergone complete balochisation and think themselves as Baloch but maintain some of the Maratha customs and names.

POW exchange with Baloch and Treaty between Ahmedshah Abdali and Khan Kalat
When Ahmad Shah Durrani was returning home to Afghanistan via Bolan pass, the Maratha prisoners were exchanged with the various Baloch tribes in exchange of the Baloch support and participation in the third battle of Panipat. It is to be noted that the Khan of Kalat (the ruler of Balochistan ) that time, Nasir I of Kalat  had an agreement with  Ahmad Shah Durrani  three years prior (1758) to the Panipat War. As per this agreement, Khan of Kalat agreed to support Abdali during his military campaigns in exchange of Abdali providing financial support to Khan of Kalat for maintaining his army. The battle of Panipat was decisively tilted in favor of Abdali when 10000 Baloch cavalry joined Afghan Army in later stages. After the war, while Abdali was on his way back home to Afghanistan through Balochistan, the Baloch demanded their share of the booty and war expenses. However, Abdali himself did not have much war booty as neither the Marathas nor the other north Indian states parted with any money. So Abdali exchanged the Maratha prisoners of war with the Baloch in support of the war. The Baloch Army was comprised of many tribes and Marathas were distributed to each of these tribes. The number of the Maratha POWs (20000) was quite high as the Afghan’s and Baloch’s themselves would not have numbered more than 50000.The Baloch decided to divide the Marathas in different Baloch tribes as they were fearful of the huge numbers of Marathas and they had earlier seen their brevity in the Panipat War. Today Marathas are found in Bugti, Marri, Mazari, Raisani and other tribes in Balochistan. Among these only the information about the Marathas in Bugti tribe is now available. Here Marathas were divided and named, 1.	A major portion of the 20000 or so POWs were distributed to each of the Bugti sub tribes as slaves. They are now known by the sub caste of Bugti tribe in which they were working as slaves i.e.,Kalper maratha, Massory maratha ,Shambani Maratha, Nothani Maratha ,Perozani Maratha and Raheja Maratha. They are spread over 40000 sq miles of Bugti area in Balochistan.The 1911 census of Balochistan carried out by the British talks about the Mareta Ghulams who are popularly supposed to be descended from Mahrattas led into captivity by Ahmad Shah Durrani. This section of Marathas endured the most hardships from 1761 until 1946 when Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti freed them. Although the relation between a Maratha slave and their Baloch master (Aka) was mostly cordial and Baloch masters thought of their Maratha slaves as a family, some of masters were really cruel and treated the Marathas no less than a cattle. The Marathas from these tribes did various small jobs such as camel caretaker, blacksmiths, cooks etc. However, recently after their freedom from slavery, they have made good progress and they were also the first to get educated. A lot of them are today teachers, engineers and also doing business. Truly they were not meant for slavery but it was only the destiny that brought hardships on these brave sons of Maratha soil. It is really heartening to see them making progress today.

2.	DURRAGH MARHATTA: They are a mixed race between the Maratha slaves and Bugti Sardars and enjoys to reside with perks which other does not have access to. This is the smallest subsection not totaling more than 2000. Some of them are landlords who own huge tract of land. They respect Shivaji Maharaj. Some of the facebook accounts of the Durragh marathas show profile picture of Shivaji Maharaj.

3.	Sau or Shahu MARHATTA: Bugti land is mostly arid but some water do exist in patches. The Bugtis mainly being tribal did not have much skills in agriculture. A small portion of skilled farmers from the Maratha prisoners were given the task to cultivate and irrigate land of Marrav and Siah aaf villages near Dera Bugti. These Marathas were free from the beginning and had a good fortune. They did excellent agriculture and brought good agriculture practices to the Bugti land. They used to give fifty percent of the farm output to the Bugti sardar and all the lands used to belong to the sardar. Although Shahu marathas are now muslim by religion, they still retain some of the Maratha customs especially marriage customs like Ghana bharane, Halad, groom bath before the marriage, cloth tie unknotting by sister. They practice the old Maratha custom of tying a thread to a tree when someone falls sick at home. As such the Also they use Marathi word “Aai” for mother and the word is now used by other Bugtis as well. Some of the names of females still resemble Maratha female names e.g. Kamol(Kamal), Godi(short form of Godawari) ,Gowri(Gouri) etc. Shahu Marathas are further divided into seven sections viz. Rangwani, Peshwani, Garhwani,Kilwani,Ailwani, Dinwani and Sallwani.

Marathas as a whole were more cultured than their Bugti counterparts and rapidly made progress after the education came to Balochistan. A lot of them are now engineers, high post government officials, politicians and more wealthy than the original Bugtis. A research done by Akbar S Ahmed on economics in Balochistan in 1996 notes social inversion caused by the progress made by the Marathas as they are more wealthy than their erstwhile Bugti Masters. Today they are around 30% of the 20000 or so population of Dera Bugti town and 10 percent of the 80000 or so population of Sui town. Currently the vice chairman’s of the Dera Bugti and Sui town municipalities are Marathas and they impart considerable political clout. They have their own Jirga system as per the Baloch tribal customs and the head of the Jirga or Wadera is Wadera Din Mohammed. The Maratha tribe is known by their honesty and straight forward attitude.

A book written during the 1960’s titled “Tigers of Balochistan”. by Sylvia A Matheson talks about “Mratta” (anglicized version of word Maratha) people working in Sui Petrochemical company who are racially and physically (brown or black skin and small to medium height) different than the Bugtis who are tall, fair and of Iranian origin. She also says that “Mrattas” were enslaved during Mughal emperor Humayun’s reign which is incorrect. In fact a lot of Bugti Marathas think that their ancestors were from Delhi (could be a reference to Panipat). The book has couple of other references to Marathas like a young peon by name Aziz Maratha, a lady named Dur Khatun working as a head servant for Nawab Akbar Bugtis wife. Sylvia Matheson being e women herself was concerned about freedom of women.She mentions that the Maratha women did not wear burkha’s and were comparatively free than the women’s belonging to Sardar of Bugtis family who were not allowed to venture out without the burkha (though the later are of higher status).The book also talks about Marathas living in their thatched huts around Dera Bugti town and a story of a Maratha slave who earned his freedom by climbing a stiff hill. The book also talks about two Marathas who used to walk every days about 80 miles(120 KM) collecting letters from Derabugti and Sui. It is the sturdy and hard work nature of the mountainous Marathas that allowed them to quickly adapt to hot and adverse conditions of this almost desert like area.

It is remembered that during 1990’s once a hindi movie was playing in a cinema hall in Dera Bugti featuring Nana Patekar. When Nana Patekar says that “I am a Maratha”, a lot of the Maratha spectators arose in wild celebrations. Such is the pride the Bugti Marathas take in being a Maratha. Many Bugti Marathas have downloaded the Great Maratha serial from the internet and watched it several times.

Marathas have contributed a lot in art as well. Sabz ali Bugti is a famous Balochi singer of Maratha origin whose original Balochi song was adopted for the Hindi movie song Baby Doll.You can very well see the original song sung by Subz Ali Bugti on YouTube.Zahro Bugti was a famous singer who sang a very famous Baluchi Song titled “Laivani Laili”.

Countless Marathas have served in Nawab of Bugtis private army and fought many wars. Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti had Marathas as his personal body guards and never trusted any other tribes apart from Marathas. Indeed the calamities of Panipat War are much more than we think. Apart from the countless people who died on the battlefield much more people had to endure slavery for many generations to come. It took nearly 185 years to come out of the bonds of slavery and further many more years to progress to the current level. We must salute the spirit of those men and women who endured the hardships in those adverse circumstances and still able to inculcate good values in their future generations. Indeed the Marathi song “Marathi Paul Padte Pudhe” (Marathis foot always falls ahead) is apt.