Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Mahanti

by Edgar Thurston

Mahanti.___Mahanti is, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, defined as "a caste akin to the Koronos or Karnams (writers and accountants). The name is sometimes taken by persons excommunicated from other castes." The word means great, or prestige. According to a note submitted to me, the Mahantis gradually became Karnams, with the title of Patnaik, but there is no intermarriage between them and the higher classes of Karnams. The Mahantis of Orissa are said to still maintain their respectability, whereas in Ganjam they have as a class degenerated, so much so that the term Mahanti is now held up to ridicule.