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Book says Thackerays have their roots in Bihar

The book quotes 'Prabodhankar' Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, the social reformer, journalist and author, who was late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's father.

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Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray (L) along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray
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The Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Uddhav and Raj Thackeray may have kept migrants from Hindi-speaking regions to Mumbai in their cross-hairs. However, ironic as it may sound, their community hails from Bihar, from where they migrated elsewhere, albeit around 2,500 years ago.

This has been mentioned in 'The Cousins Thackeray: Uddhav, Raj and the Shadow of Their Senas' (Penguin Random House), which the first political biography of the warring Thackeray cousins penned by journalist Dhaval Kulkarni. The book quotes 'Prabodhankar' Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, the social reformer, journalist and author, who was late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's father.

The Thackerays belong to the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) community. This is a small but literate and influential caste, with a high occupational status that equals Brahmins.

"In his book, Gramnyancha Sadyanta Itihas Arthat Nokarshahiche Banda (A History of Village Disputes or Rebellion of the Bureaucracy), Prabodhankar writes that Mahapadma Nanda (third to fourth century bc), the ruler of Magadha in present-day Bihar, and first king of the Nanda Empire, was a greedy monarch who squeezed his subjects for money. This led to many CKP families migrating elsewhere, where they earned their living as warriors and scribes," the biography notes.

"The Thackeray family's ancestors added 'Dhodapkar' to their surname as one of them was the killedar (chief) of the Dhodap Fort near Nashik, but this was dropped by Prabodhankar's father," it added.

Born on 17 September 1885 at Panvel in Kulaba (today's Raigad district) near Mumbai, Prabodhankar launched the periodical Prabodhan (Enlightenment) in 1921. Though it ran for just five years, 'Prabodhankar' was permanently prefixed to his name.

The book quotes the Thackeray family patriarch's autobiography, Majhi Jeevangatha (The Story of My Life), to state that his family originally hailed from Pali village in the small principality of Bhor. However, after his brothers insisted on dividing the family property at Pali, Prabodhankar's great-grandfather Krishnaji Madhav 'Appasaheb' relinquished his claim over it and left for Thane. His son Ramchandra aka Bhikoba Dhodapkar, lived at Panvel till his death.

(The author of the book is a DNA journalist)

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