Historical In Maharashtra Brahmins have had a wider occupational basis, including as priests, vedic scholars, administrators, warriors, courtiers, business and politics. For decades together during the era of the
Deccan sultanates Deshasthas and Saraswats were significant recruits to administrative roles and as tax collectors. They were also administrators during the period of the
Maratha Empire, spanning the 17th and 18th centuries, when some Chitpavans also emerged as
peshwas and thus the de facto rulers. During the peshwa rule, Pune became the de facto financial capital of the empire with the bankers (sawakar in Marathi) being mainly Maharashtrian brahmins. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many Marathi brahmins migrated north to Hindu holy city of
Benaras on the
Ganga River. During this period Benaras had become an important center of learning. Seven Marathi brahmin clans became the intellectual elites of the city with patronage from wealthy benefactors during the early Mughal era or even from an earlier period. The clans included Sesa, Bhat, Dharmadhikari, Bharadvaja, Payagunde, Puntambekar and Chowdhuri. These brahmins were collectively called dakshinatya brahmins. The clans dominated the study of
Sanskrit scriptures and Hindu laws in the city for many centuries. Most them also mentioned maintained close connections to their original homes in the centers of learning on the
Godavari River such as
Paithan,
Puntamba, and
Trimbakeshwar. All these clans had expertise in particular area of Sanskrit literature. During this era, Benaras also became a base from which scholars could go to regional courts and display their learning. The Bhatta family, for example, had branches in Benaras,
Amer and
Mathura. A number of Maharashtrian brahmins settled in the
Kumaon and
Garhwal region of present day Indian state of
Uttarakhand in places such as
Almora. These brahmins now form part of the Kumaoni brahmin community and the Garhwali Pandit Community. John Roberts has argued that from the time of the Maratha Empire and into the period when the
British East India Company was forming the administrative unit of the
Bombay Presidency, they were mostly urban dwellers, along with other non-Brahmin clerical castes, and shunned trading roles. This view appears to be distinct to that of Edmund Leech and S. N. Mukherjee, who note the Chitpavan incomers to the region as being involved also in trade and cultivation.
Modern era The British rulers of Maharashtra region during early years of colonial rule in the nineteenth century recruited for clerical and lower level administrative work mainly from castes such as brahmin and
CKP whose traditional occupations involved scholarship, teaching, and record keeping. Incidentally, these castes had considerable experience in government administration during the Peshwa rule which preceded the British rule. Brahmins and CKP were also the first to take to western education. This was their gate way to rise to positions of dominance in many fields during the nineteenth century colonial era. These included positions in professions such as teaching, law, medicine, and engineering. Maharashtrian brahmins also dominated lower level jobs in the colonial government. The 19th century social reformer,
Jyotirao Phule lamented the brahmin domination in education and government jobs. In the early 20th century, however, different governments in the region such as the
Bombay Presidency or the princely state of
Kolhapur started reservation policies in government jobs at lower levels that discriminated against the brahmins. Being the first to receive western education, Maharashtrian brahmins such as
Justice Ranade, or
Gopal Hari Deshmukh were at the forefront of social reform, female education, and participation in political process at the local level. They were also equally opposed by more orthodox members' of their own communities such as
Lokmanya Tilak for advocating reforms. In the twentieth century, Maharashtrian brahmins such as
Savarkar formulated the
Hindutva ideology, and
Hedgewar, and his successor
Golwalkar founded or led the Hindu nationalist organization, the
RSS. In the last one hundred years, many brahmin families such
Kirloskar, Garware, Ogale, and Mhaiskar have been successful in creating large manufacturing, and construction businesses. ==Society and culture==