Dhani ( ') or Thok is a type of

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

, the smallest conglomeration of houses, in the sandy

Bagar region Bagar, also Bagad (बागड़) a term meaning the "dry country",Nonica Datta The Tribune (Chandigarh), The Tribune, 3 July 1999. is a region refers in north-western India in north Rajasthan, West Haryana, south west Punjab, India where the ...

of the northwestern states of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

and

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Per the

Census of India The decennial census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1872. Post 1949, it has been conducted by the R ...

, 70% of Indians live in villages. 80% of the villages have a population of less than 1000 people and each consists of a cluster of hamlets (e.g. dhani, nesada, pada, bigha). Most dhanis are nucleated settlements, while others are more dispersed. A dhani could be as small as one isolated house for a single family or a small cluster of several houses which could grow in number with successive generations, and even become a village by itself. All families living in a dhani are relatives or at least are of the same

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

. An isolated collection of several dhanis, which could be few hundred meters apart,Khoon Choy Lee, 1999
"A Fragile Nation: The Indonesian Crisis."
pp. 382. constitutes a gram panchayat village community.S. H. M. Rizvi, 198
"Mina, the ruling tribe of Rajasthan: socio-biological appraisal."
pp. 34. A typical dhani in the arid zone of Rajasthan is a cluster of huts with a boundary (''bara'' or ''बाड़ा'') made of dried shrubs around it and with owners' livestock such as goats, sheep and camels inside the ''bara''.Ashutosh Goyal, 2015
"RBS Visitors Guide India - Rajasthan: Rajasthan Travel guide."
Data & Expo India Pvt Ltd, .Rann Singh Mann, K. Mann, 1989
"Tribal Cultures and Change."
pp. 23.Sunil Munshi, P. T. Girish, Anu Tandon, 199
"Pattu weaving of Western Rajasthan."
pp6.Chandana Saha, 2003
".Gender Equity and Equality: Study of Girl Child in Rajasthan"
Rawat Publications, pp257.Jessica Hines, 2014
"Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me"
Chpt.9.Karan
"Off the Beaten Path: Bishnoi Village, Jodhpur"

Maharajas Express India
27 December 2013.C. Rosen, 2000
"World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life."
UN Development Program, World Bank, pp. 185, . Dhani are atypically mud

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...

s in Rajasthan. Houses in dani nowadays are made of modern brick and mortar, specially in affluent higher-per-capita-income states of Haryana and Punjab, and some richer families of Rajasthan. A hamlet is called "Nesada" (''નેસાડા'') in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, "Pada" (''पाडा'', for example

Nagpada Nagpada is a neighbourhood in South Mumbai. The place derives its name from a local Shiva temple, and abode of Naag or the snake wound around Shiva's neck. It has a community basketball court. In 2005, Nagpada was the location of the Sada ...

and Patlipada) in

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 ...

, "

Bigha The bigha or beegah (, , Assamese: বিঘা) is a traditional unit of measurement of area of a land, commonly used in northern & eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. There is no "standard" size of bigha and it varies considerably from place ...

" (''बिघा'', for example Bhagan Bigha and Jhakar Bigha) in Bihar.

Etymology

The word dhan (धन in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, धण in

Haryanvi Haryanvi (हरियाणवी or हरयाणवी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Haryana and the territory of Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which a ...

and

Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...

languages) means ''wealth'' or ''possession'',1997
"A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province"
vol 1, pp 50. and ''dhani'' means wealthy in English (''धनी'' in Hindi, ''धणी'' in Haryanvi and Rajasthani). Thus, in the context of a hamlet, the corrupted form of Hindi word ''dhani'' is pronounced ''dhaani'' (''ढाणी'')"Chokdi Dhani, the fine hamelt"
. in Haryanvi and Rajasthani languages, which implies the ''"wealth or possessed settlement" (of the owner)''. Hence, Dahni's name usually have a prefix, such as ''"xyz's Dhani"'', where ''"xyz"'' is either the name or

gotra In Hindu culture, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) is considered to be equivalent to lineage. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally, the gotr ...

of founder-owner. Examples include Garodia Ki Dhani, Ghaslo Ki Dhani, Gujjaro ki Dhani, Meharon Ki Dhani, Navora Ki Dhani, Pujari Ki Dhani, Salamsingh Ki Dhani, Dhab Dhani and Nimakidhani. Example of gotra based dhani include Taak Ki Dhani, Dhab Poonia.

Caste system

Usually there is one specific

(such as Jat, Kumhar (Prajapat),

Gujjar The Gurjar (or Gujjar, Gujar, Gurjara) are an agricultural ethnic community, residing mainly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were traditionally involved in agriculture, pastoral and nomadic ...

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

Meena Meena () is a tribe from northern and western India which is sometimes considered a sub-group of the Bhil community. It used to be claimed they speak Mina language, a Spurious languages, spurious language. Its name is also transliterated as ' ...

, etc.) or more typically a specific

( Jaglan, Dhillon, Gehlot, etc.) of a particular caste that comprises all or the bulk of population of dhani.

Dhanis as origin of Chak

During the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

when new canals were built to irrigate barren ( bangar, barani and bagar tract) areas of

Punjab region Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, to farm the land migrant farmers were brought in to settle into those areas around the core of new villages hich started out as ''dhanis'' Those new villages falling in under the irrigation of canals were given a unique '' chak'' number each and government left it to those residents to give each ''"chak"'' a proper village name later. Thus, the term ''"village"'' became synonymous with ''"chak"''.Randhir Singh, Sir William Roberts, 1932
An economic survey of Kala Gaddi Thamman (Chak 73 g. b. ) a village in the Lyallpur District of the Punjab

References

{{reflist

External links

Indian Environmental portal

District Level Availability Index

Rajasthani culture Types of populated places Rural geography

Etymology

Caste system

Dhanis as origin of Chak

See also

References

External links