Morè is the name of a Maratha clan as well as a Mahar clan from the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. Members of the More Maratha clan as well as the Mahar clan use the clan name as their surname. The

totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...

associated with the clan is a peacock. Members of the Mahar clan worshipping the same Totem cannot intermarry. 'More' is also an

exogamous Exogamy is the social norm of mating or marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which tw ...

clan in the

Bhils Bhil or Bheel refer to the various indigenous groups inhabiting western India, including parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and are also found in distant places such as Bengal and Tripura. Though they now speak the Bhili language, an Indo-Ar ...

of Maharashtra. According to Kosambi, the adoption of the title 'Chandrarav More' in the Marathas may have been inspired because of the admiration for Candragupta Maurya from the north and locals even to the south of Goa had knowledge of the of "petty 'Mauryans'".

Mores of Javli

The Maratha Morè clan of Javli or Jayavalli came to prominence early in the 16th century when the first sultan of Bijapur granted them the kingdom (

Jagir A jagir (), ( Hindustani: जागीर/جاگیر, ''Jāgīr''), ( Marathi: जहागीर, ''Jahāgīrá'') also spelled as jageer, was a type of feudal land grant in the Indian subcontinent at the foundation of its Jagirdar ( Zamindar ...

) of Javli.This branch was called the Chandrarao Morè branch of Javli. The ruler of the kingdom had a title of Chandrarao. The first recognized Chandrarao was Raja Parsojiraje Bajirao More who was given the jagir of Javli due to his immense valour of killing a tiger alone in a hunt with Adilshah. Javli, near the modern day hill station of

Mahabaleshwar Mahabaleshwar () is a small town and a municipal council in Satara district, Maharashtra, India. It is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus because the Krishna River has its origin here. The British colonial rulers developed the town as a hill sta ...

, occupied a strategic position in the eastern foothills of the Northern Sahyadri mountain range. Within 60 miles length of the mountains there are eight passes through which trade flowed from the coastal

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

ports of

Chiplun Chiplun ( Help:IPA/Marathi, ͡ʃipɭuːɳ is a city in Ratnagiri district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the financial and commercial hubs of Ratnagiri district, and the headquarters of Chiplun taluka. It is about 250 ...

and

Colaba Colaba (; or ISO 15919, ISO: Kolābā) is a part of the city of Mumbai, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other three are Worli, Bandra and Malabar Hill. During the Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was ...

on their way to the inlands of

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

.For eight generations, the Morès amassed great fortune by taxing the trade with a help of a force of 12,000 soldiers.

Controversy on conquest of Javli by Shivaji

Modern historian

Dipesh Chakrabarty Dipesh Chakrabarty (born 1948, in Kolkata, India) is an Indian historian and leading scholar of postcolonial theory and subaltern studies. He is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in history at the University of Chicago, ...

writes about the controversial circumstances in which Javali was obtained by

Shivaji Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

, the founder of

Maratha empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

in 1656. Javli was very important to Shivaji Maharaj for the founding of his Kingdom. Upon review of the documents, prominent historian Sarkar concluded that "the acquisition of Javli was the result of deliberate murder and organized treachery on part of Shivaji". However, Chakrabarty says that this conclusion did not sit well with the nationalist historians from Maharashtra of Sarkar's time. This was despite the fact that all the old Hindu biographers agreed that it was an act of premeditated murder. The remaining son of Chandra rao continued his fight against Shivaji by seeking refuge with the Adil shah. Other members of the clan joined the Mughals and helped the Mughal general, Jai Singh in his campaign against Shivaji. Historian

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Gordon Heuck ...

agrees with Sarkar and concludes based on historical documents that Shivaji had no legal rights to Javali hence this was an act of "conscious treachery" on his part. and Indian historian

Satish Chandra Satish Chandra is a given name of Hindu origin, and may refer to, * Satish Chandra (politician), Indian National Congress leader * Satish Chandra (historian), Indian academic * Satish Chandra Agarwal, Indian politician * Satish Chandra Basumata ...

also comes to the same conclusion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:More (clan) Maratha clans Surnames of Hindu origin Surnames of Indian origin Social groups of Maharashtra