Chapter VIII: Part 8

In general terms the Mahrattas, in the wider sense, may be described
under two main heads: first the Brahmans, and secondly the low-caste
men. The Mahratta Brahmans possess, in an intense degree, the
qualities of that famous caste, physical, intellectual and moral. They
have generally the lofty brow, the regular features, the spare upright
figure, and the calm aspect which might be expected in a race
maintained in great purity yet upon a broad basis. In modern times
they have proved themselves the most able and ambitious of all the
Brahmans in the Indian Empire. They are notably divided into two
sections: the Konkanast, coming from the Konkan or littoral tract on
the west coast below the Western Ghat mountains; and the Deshast,
coming from the uplands or Deccan, on the east of the mountains.
Though there have been many distinguished Deshasts, yet the most
remarkable of all have been Konkanasts. For instance, the peshwas, or
heads of the Mahratta confederation which at one time dominated nearly
all India, were Konkanast Brahmans. The birthplaces of these persons
are still known, and to this day there are sequestered villages,
nestling near the western base of the Ghats, which are pointed to as
being the ancestral homes of men who two centuries ago had political
control over half India.

Apart from the Brahmans, the Mahrattas may be generally designated as
Sudras, the humblest of the four great castes into which the Hindu
race is theoretically divided. But the upper classes claim to be
Kshattriyas or Rajputs. They probably are aborigines fundamentally,
with a mixture of what are now called the Scythian tribes, which at a
very early time overran India. The ordinary Mahrattas, who form the
backbone of the nation, have plain features, an uncouth manner, short
stature, a small but wiry frame. Though not powerful physically as
compared with the northern races of the Punjab and Oudh, they have
much activity and an unsurpassed endurance. Born and bred in or near
the Western Ghat mountains and the numerous tributary ranges, they
have all the qualities of mountaineers. In recent times they enter
military service less and less, betaking themselves mainly to
cultivation and to the carrying business connected with agriculture.
As husbandmen they are not remarkable; but as graziers, as cartmen, as
labourers, they are excellent. As artisans they have seldom signalized
themselves, save as armourers and clothweavers.

In the Konkan there are some superior proprietors termed Khots. With
this and perhaps some other exceptions, there are not in the Mahratta
country many large landlords, nor many of the superior tenure-holders
whose position relatively to that of the peasantry has caused much
discussion in other parts of India. There are indeed many Mahratta
chiefs still resident in the country, members of the aristocracy which
formerly enjoyed much wealth and power. They are sometimes in the
position of landlords, but often they are the assignees of the land
revenue, which they are entitled under special grants to collect for
themselves instead of for government, paying merely a small sum to
Government by way of quit-rent. Under them the cultivators are by
British arrangements placed in the position of peasant proprietors.
The village community has always existed as the social unit in the
Mahratta territories, though with less cohesion among its members than
in the village communities of Hindustan and the Punjab. The ancient
offices pertaining to the village, as those of the headmen (_patel_),
the village accountant, &c., are in working order throughout the
Mahratta country.

The Mahratta peasantry possess manly fortitude under suffering and
misfortune. Though patient and good-tempered in the main, they have a
latent warmth of temper, and if oppressed beyond a certain limit they
would fiercely turn upon their tormentors. As a rule they are orderly
and law-abiding, but traditions of plunder have been handed down to
them from early times, and many of them retain the predatory instincts
of their forefathers. The neighbourhood of dense forests, steep
hill-sides, and fastnesses hard of access offers extraordinary
facilities to plunderers for screening themselves and their booty.
Thus gang robbery is apt to break out, gains head with rapidity, and
is suppressed with difficulty. In times of peace it is kept under, but
during war, or whenever the bands of civil order are loosened, it
becomes a cause of anxiety and a source of danger. The women have
frankness and strength of character; they work hard in the fields, and
as a rule evince domestic virtue.

The peasantry preserve a grave and quiet demeanour, but they have
their humble ideas of gaiety, and hold their gatherings on occasions
of births or marriages. They frequently beguile their toil with
carols. They like the gossiping and bartering at the rural markets and
in the larger fairs, which are sometimes held in strikingly
picturesque localities. They are superstitious, and worship with
hearty veneration any being or thing whose destructive agency they
fear. They even speak of the tiger with honorific titles. They are
Hindus, but their Hinduism is held to be of a non-Aryan type. They are
sincerely devout in religion, and feel an awe regarding "the holy
Brahmans," holding the life and the person of a Brahman sacred, even
though he be a criminal of the deepest dye. They of course regard the
cow as equally sacred. There are two principal sects among modern
Hindus--those who follow Vishnu, and those who follow Siva. The
Mahrattas generally follow Siva and his wife, a dread goddess known
under many names. The Mahratta war-cry, "Har, Har, Mahadeo," referred
to Siva. All classes high and low are fond of the religious festivals,
the principal of which, the Dasahra, occurs in October, when the first
harvest of the year has been secured and the second crops sown. This
has always been held with the utmost pomp and magnificence at every
centre of Mahratta wealth and power. The people frequently assemble in
bowers and arbours constructed of leafy boughs to hear kathas recited.
These recitations are partly religious, partly also romantic and
quasi-historical. After them national resolves of just resistance or
of aggressive ambition have often been formed.

Apart from the Mahratta Brahmans, as already mentioned, the Mahratta
nobles and princes are not generally fine-looking men. There is
general truth in what was once said by a high authority to the effect
that, while there will be something dignified in the humblest Rajput,
there will be something mean in the highest Mahratta. Bluff
good-nature, a certain jocoseness, a humour pungent and ready, though
somewhat coarse, a hot or even violent disposition, are
characteristics of Mahratta chieftains. They usually show little
aptitude for business or for sedentary pursuits; but, on the other
hand, they are born equestrians and sportsmen. Mahratta ladies and
princesses have often taken a prominent part, for good or evil, in
public affairs and dynastic intrigues.

Though they have produced some poetry, the Mahrattas have never done
much for literature. Nor have they been distinguished in industrial
art. Their architecture in wood, however, was excellent; and the teak
forests of their country afforded the finest timber for building and
for carving. They had also much skill in the construction of works for
the supply of drinking water on a large scale and for irrigation.

The range of the Western Ghats enabled the Mahrattas to rise against their Mahommedan conquerors, to reassert their Hindu nationality against the whole power of the Mogul Empire, and to establish in its place an empire of their own. It is often stated that in India British conquest or annexation succeeded Mahommedan rule; and to a considerable extent this was the case. But, on the other hand, the principal power, the widest sovereignty, which the British overthrew in India was that of the Mahrattas.

During the earlier Moslem invasions in 1100 and in subsequent years, the Mahrattas do not seem to have made much resistance. They submitted to several Mahommedan kings under the changing circumstances of those times. It was against the Mahommedan king of Bijapur in the Deccan that Sivaji, the hero of Mahratta history, first rebelled in 1657. Sivaji and his fighting officers were Mahrattas of humble caste, but his ministers were Brahmans. When the Mogul Empire absorbed the Bijapur kingdom he defied the emperor. He imparted a self-reliant enthusiasm to his countrymen, formed them into an army, and organized them as a political community; his mountaineer infantry, though limited in numbers, proved desperately courageous; his cavalry was daring and ubiquitous. The Moslems, having once overcome the Hindus in almost all parts of India, had not for centuries met with any noteworthy uprising. Sivaji, however, planned their expulsion, and before the end of his restless life made much progress in the execution of that design. The new state which he founded was maintained under various vicissitudes after his death. Mahratta resistance, once aroused by him, was never extinguished, and the imperial resources were worn out by ceaseless though vain efforts to quell it. The great Mogul emperor's impoverished and enfeebled successor was fain to recognize the Mahratta state by a formal instrument. The Mahratta king, a descendant of Sivaji, had become a _roi fainéant_, and the arrangement was negotiated by his Brahman minister, whose official designation was the peshwa. The office of peshwa then became hereditary in the minister's family, and grew in importance as the Mahratta kingdom rose, while the king sunk into the condition of a puppet. Thus the Mahratta power was consolidated throughout nearly the whole of Maharashtra under the Brahman peshwa as virtual sovereign, with his capital at Poona, while the titular Mahratta raja or king had his court at the neighbouring city of Satara. Despite his political importance, however, the raja was still venerated as the descendant of Sivaji.

Then several chiefs carved out principalities of their own from among the ruins of the Mogul Empire. Thus Raghoji Bhonsla established himself in the tracts lying underneath the southern base of the Satpura range (namely, Nagpur and Berar), overran Orissa and entered Bengal. Damaji Gaekwar descended from the Western Ghats upon the alluvial plains of Gujarat around Baroda; Tukoji Holkar subdued the uplands of Malwa beyond the Vindhya range on the north bank of the Nerbudda; and Mahadji Sindhia obtained possession of large tracts immediately south of Agra and Delhi, marched into Hindustan and became virtually the master of the Mogul emperor himself (see GWALIOR). Sivaji's own father had founded a dominion at Tanjore in the extreme south, which, however, never had relations with the central power at Poona. The same may be said of the state of Kolhapur, allotted to a younger branch of Sivaji's family.

But these principalities, though independent respecting internal administration, and making war or peace with their neighbours according to opportunity, owned allegiance to the peshwa at Poona as the head of the Mahratta race. On state occasions heads of principalities would visit Poona by way of acknowledging the superior position of the peshwa. On the other hand, the peshwa was careful to obtain the sanction of his nominal sovereign at Satara to every important act of state. Thus a confederation was formed of which the Brahman peshwa or head was at Poona, governing the adjacent territories, while the members, belonging to the lower castes, were scattered throughout the continent of India. Such was the Mahratta Empire which supplanted the Mogul Empire. The Mahratta power grew and prospered till it embraced all western and most of central India. Its culminating point was reached about 1750, or about a century after Sivaji first rebelled against his Mahommedan sovereign.

Its armies drew soldiers from all parts of India. The infantry was not of good quality; but its cavalry was really an enormous force, numbering fully a hundred thousand in all. The horsemen were splendidly audacious in riding for long distances into the heart of a hostile country, without support, striking some terrific blows, and then returning rapidly beyond reach of pursuit. They could truly boast of having watered their horses in every Indian river from the Cauvery to the Indus. If attacked, however, in a competent manner, they would not stand; and afterwards, in conflict with the British, whole masses of them behaved in a dastardly manner. As their ambition grew the chiefs began to organize their troops after the system learnt from the English and French. In this way several Frenchmen--Benoit de Boigne, Perron and others--rose in the Mahratta service to a position dangerous to the British. But the new system was unsuited to the Mahratta genius; it hampered the meteoric movements of the cavalry, which was obliged to manoeuvre in combination with the new artillery and the disciplined battalions. Mahratta elders hence uttered predictions of military disaster which were in the end more than fulfilled.

The rapid and amazing success of the Mahratta confederation rendered it the largest Hindu power that ever existed in India. But it lacked the elements of true greatness. It was founded by plundering expeditions, and its subsequent existence was tainted by the baseness of this predatory origin. With the exception of the peshwas, its chiefs were little more than free-booting warriors, for the most part rude, violent and unlettered. Their custom was to offer their neighbours or victims the alternative of paying _chouth_, that is, one-fourth of the revenue, or being plundered and ravaged. Thus the Mahratta _chouth_ came to have an ominous significance in Indian history. Desultory efforts were made to establish a civil government, but in the main there was no administration formed on statesmanlike principles. The peshwas, on the other hand, as Brahmans, were men of the highest education then possible in India. But they were absorbed by the direction of military and political combinations, and by intrigues for the preservation of their own power; and, even allowing for all this, they failed to evince the civil capacity which might have been anticipated. While several displayed commanding abilities, and some possessed many virtues, one alone attempted to conduct an administration in an enlightened manner, and he died prematurely.

There were at the same time powers existing in India to keep the Mahrattas in check, and some parts of India were excepted from their depredations. The English power was rising at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The nascent Sikh power prevented Mahratta incursions from being permanently successful in the Punjab. As the Mogul Empire broke up, some separate Mahommedan powers rose upon its ruins. The nizam of the Deccan established himself at Hyderabad, comparatively near the headquarters of the peshwa. Hyder Ali was proclaimed sultan of Mysore in the south. Ahmed Shah Abdali burst upon India from Afghanistan. The Mahrattas bravely encountered him at Panipat near Delhi in 1761, and were decisively defeated. The defeat, however, did not essentially shake the Mahratta confederation. It was collision with the English that broke that wonderful fabric to pieces.

The first collision with the English occurred in 1775, arising from a disputed succession to the peshwaship. The English government at Bombay supported one of the claimants, and the affair became critical for the English as well as for the Mahrattas. It was at this conjuncture that Warren Hastings displayed his political genius and rendered signal service to his country, by succouring from Bengal the defeated Bombay army and negotiating a peace (in 1782) that restored the _status quo_.

The next collision happened in 1803. The peshwa had fallen into grave difficulties with some of the principal members of the Mahratta confederation. He therefore placed himself under British protection, and this led to the great Mahratta War, in which the Marquis Wellesley displayed those talents for military and political combination which rendered him illustrious. It was during the campaigns which ensued that General Arthur Wellesley defeated Sindhia and the Bhonsla raja at Assaye, and General Lake won the victories of Farrukhabad, Dig and Laswari over Sindhia and Holkar. The three confederates, Sindhia, Holkar and the Bhonsla, concluded peace with the British government, after making large sacrifices of territory in favour of the victor, and submitting to British control politically. It was during these events that the British won the province of Orissa, the old Hindustan afterwards part of the North-Western Provinces, and a part of the western coast in Gujarat.

The third collision came to pass between 1816 and 1818, through the conduct, not only of the confederates, but also of the peshwa (Baji Bao) himself. During the previous war the peshwa had been the protégé and ally of the British; and since the war he had fallen more completely than before under British protection--British political officers and British troops being stationed at his capital. He apparently felt encouraged by circumstances to rebel. Holkar and the Bhonsla committed hostile acts. The predatory Pindaris offered a formidable resistance to the British troops. So the peshwa ventured to take part in the combination against the British power, which even yet the Mahrattas did not despair of overthrowing. After long-protracted menaces, he attacked the British at Kirkee, but failed utterly, and fled a ruined man. Ultimately he surrendered to Sir John Malcolm, and was sent as a state pensioner to Bithur, near Cawnpore. The British, however, released the raja of Satara from the captivity in which he had been kept during the peshwa's time, and reinstated him on the throne, with a limited territory. Owing to these events the British government became possessed of the Konkan and of the greater part of the Deccan.

It remains to mention briefly the fortunes of each remaining member of the once imperial confederation. The principality of Satara was held to have lapsed in 1848 by the death of the raja without lineal heirs, and was annexed by the British government. The Bhonsla raja of Nagpur died without lineal heirs in 1853, and his territory was likewise annexed. The house of Holkar remained faithful to its engagements with the British government, and its position as a feudatory of the empire was maintained. In Sindhia's territory, by reason of internal feuds, the British had to undertake measures which were successfully terminated after the battles of Maharajpur and Panniar in 1843. But on the whole the house of Sindhia remained faithful. Sindhia himself was actively loyal during the Mutiny. The gaekwar gradually fell under British control towards the close of the 18th century, and his house never engaged in hostilities with the British government. The ex-peshwa lived to old age at Bithur, and died in 1857. His adopted son grew up to be the Nana Sahib, of infamous memory, who took a leading part in the Mutiny.

See J. Grant Duff, _History of the Mahrattas_ (3 vols., 1826); T. D.
Broughton, _Letters written in a Mahratta Camp_ (1813); M. G. Ranade,
_Rise of the Maratha Power_ (Bombay, 1900). (R. T.; J. S. Co.)

MAHSEER, or MAHASEER (_Barbus mosal_), a kind of barbel, abundant in the rivers of India, especially in pools of the upper and more rapid streams where they issue from the mountainous part of the country. It is one of the largest species of the Cyprinid family, attaining to a length of 3 to 5 ft., and sometimes exceeding a weight of 70 lb. Its body is well-proportioned, rather elongate, and somewhat like that of the European barbel, but covered with very large scales, of which there are only twenty-five or twenty-seven placed along the lateral line; the dorsal fin is armed with a long and strong spine, and the mouth provided with four slender and short barbels. The lips are sometimes produced into fleshy lobes. To the fisherman in India the mahseer affords the same kind of sport as the salmon in the British Isles, and it rivals that fish as regards size, strength and activity. Its flesh is likewise much esteemed.

MAI, ANGELO (1782-1854), Italian cardinal and philologist, was born of humble parents at Schilpario in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy, on the 7th of March 1782. In 1799 he entered the Society of Jesus, and in 1804 he became a teacher of classics in the college of Naples. After completing his studies at the Collegium Romanum, he lived for some time at Orvieto, where he was engaged in teaching and palaeographical studies. The political events of 1808 necessitated his withdrawal from Rome (to which he had meanwhile returned) to Milan, where in 1813 he was made custodian of the Ambrosian library. He now threw himself with characteristic energy and zeal into the task of examining the numerous MSS. committed to his charge, and in the course of the next six years was able to restore to the world a considerable number of long-lost works. Having withdrawn from the Society of Jesus, he was invited to Rome in 1819 as chief keeper of the Vatican library. In 1833 he was transferred to the office of secretary of the congregation of the Propaganda; on the 12th of February 1838 he was raised to the dignity of cardinal. He died at Castelgandolfo, near Albano, on the 8th of September 1854.

It is on his skill as a reader of palimpsests that Mai's fame chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong: Fragments of Cicero's _Pro Scauro, Pro Tullio, Pro Flacco, In Clodium et Curionem, De aere alieno Milonis, De rege_ (_Alexandrino_ (1814); _M. Corn. Frontonis opera inedita, cum epistolis item ineditis, Antonini Pii, Marci Aurelii, Lucii Veri et Appiani_ (1815; new ed., 1823, with more than 100 additional letters found in the Vatican library); portions of eight speeches of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus; fragments of Plautus; the oration of Isaeus _De hereditate Cleonymi_; the last nine books of the _Antiquities_ of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and a number of other works. _M. Tullii Ciceronis de republica quae supersunt_ appeared at Rome in 1822; _Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e vaticanis codicibus edita_ in 1825-1838; _Classici scriptores e vaticanis codicibus editi_ in 1828-1838; _Spicilegium romanum_ in 1839-1844; and _Patrum nova bibliotheca_ in 1845-1853. His edition of the celebrated _Codex vaticanus_, completed in 1838, but not published (ostensibly on the ground of inaccuracies) till four years after his death (1858), is the least satisfactory of his labours and was superseded by the edition of Vercellone and Cozza (1868), which itself leaves much to be desired. Although Mai was not as successful in textual criticism as in the decipherment of manuscripts, he will always be remembered as a laborious and persevering pioneer, by whose efforts many ancient writings have been rescued from oblivion.

See B. Prina, _Biografia del cardinale Angelo Mai_ (Bergamo, 1882), a
scientific work, which gives a full and, at the same time, a just
appreciation of his work; Cozza-Luzi, _Epistolario del card. Angelo
Mai_ (Bergamo, 1883); life by G. Poletto (Siena, 1887).

MAIA, in Greek mythology, the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleïone. She and her sisters, born on Mt Cyllene in Arcadia, are sometimes called mountain goddesses. In a cave of Cyllene Maia became by Zeus the mother of the god Hermes. The story is told in the _Hymn to Hermes_ attributed to Homer. She was identified by the Romans with Maia Majesta, an old Italian goddess of spring, to whom a sacrifice was offered on the 1st of May by the priest of Vulcan.

MAIDA, a town of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Catanzaro, from which it is 30 m. W.S.W. direct, and 12 m. N.N.E. of Pizzo by rail (the station is 8 m. W. of the town). Pop. (1901), 5190. The town gives its name to the plain of Maida, where in 1806 British troops under Sir John Stuart defeated the French under Regnier. The names Maida Hill and Maida Vale in London are derived from this battle.

MAIDAN, an Indian term for any open plain. The Maidan is the name of the park in Calcutta, surrounding Fort William, where society people drive in the afternoon. The name is also applied to one of the valleys in the Afridi country of Tirah, and to the plateau portion of the state of Mysore.

MAIDEN, or MAID, a young unmarried girl. "Maid" is a shortened form of "maiden," O. Eng. _maegden_, which represents a diminutive of a Teutonic word meaning "young person," of either sex. An old English word "may," meaning a kinsman or kinswoman, and also a virgin or girl, represents the original. In early usage "maiden" as meaning "virgin" is frequently applied to the male sex, thus, in Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, Sir Percyvale is called a "parfyte clene megden." Apart from the direct applications of the word to the unmarried state, such as "maiden name," "maiden lady," &c., the word is used adjectivally, implying the preservation of the first state of an object, or indicating a first effort of any kind. Probably a "maiden" fortress is one which has never fallen, though the _New English Dictionary_ suggests that the various "maiden castles" in England, usually ancient earthworks, may have been so called from being so strong that they could be defended by maidens, and points out that Edinburgh Castle, called "maiden-castle" by William Drummond of Hawthornden (_Speech for Edinburgh to the King_), is styled _Castrum puellarum_, the "castle of the maidens," in Geoffrey of Monmouth. A "maiden" assize, circuit or session is one at which there are no prisoners for trial; a "maiden over" or "maiden" in cricket is an over from which no runs are scored. A "maiden speech" is the first speech made by a member of parliament in the house. In the _Annual Register_ for 1794 (quoted in _N.E.D._) the expression, with reference to Canning's first speech, is said to be "according to the technical language of the house." "Maiden" is applied to several objects, to a movable framework or horse for drying and airing of linen, to a washerwoman's "dolly" or wooden beater, to the "kirnbaby" formed of the last sheaf of corn reaped which formerly figured in the Scottish harvest homes, and to the beheading instrument, known as the "Scottish maiden" (see below). "Maid," apart from its primary sense of an unmarried woman, is chiefly used for a domestic female servant, usually with a qualifying word prefixed, such as "housemaid," "parlour-maid," &c.

The title of "MAID OF HONOUR" is given to an unmarried lady attached to the personal suite of a queen. The custom of sending young girls of noble or good birth to the court of a prince or feudal superior, for the purpose, primarily, of education, goes back to early feudal times, and is parallel with the sending of boys to act as pages and squires to the feudal castles. The regular establishment of maids of honour (_filles d'honneur_) appears first in the royal court of France. This has usually been attributed to Anne of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII.; she had a group of unmarried girls of high rank at her court as part of her household, in whom she took a lively and parental interest, educating them and bestowing a dowry upon them on their marriage. A slightly earlier instance, however, has been found. When the young Margaret of Austria came to France on her espousal to Charles VIII., broken by his marriage to Anne of Brittany, there were in her train several _filles d'honneur_, whose names appear in the _Comptes d'argenterie de la reine Marguerite d'Autriche_, from 1484-1485 and 1488-1489 (_Archives de l'empire K. K. 80 and 81_ quoted by A. Jal, _Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire_). It is from the days of Francis I. that the _chroniques scandaleuses_ begin which circle round the maids of honour of the French court. The maids of Catherine de Medici, celebrated as the "flying squadron," _l'escadron volant_, are familiar from the pages of Pierre de l'Estoile (1574-1611) and Brantôme. Among those whose beauty Catherine used in her political intrigues, the most famous were Isabelle de Limeuil, Mlle de Montmorency-Fosseux, known as _la belle Fosseuse_, and Charlotte de Baune. The _filles d'honneur_, as an institution, were suppressed in the reign of Louis XIV., at the instigation of Mme de Montespan--who had been one of them--and their place was taken by the _dames de palais_. In the English court, this custom of attaching "maids of honour" to the queen's person was no doubt adopted from France. At the present day a queen regnant has eight maids of honour, a queen consort four. They take precedence next after the daughters of barons, and where they have not by right or courtesy a title of their own, they are styled "Honourable."

THE SCOTTISH MAIDEN was an instrument of capital punishment formerly
in use in Scotland. It is said to have been invented by the earl of
Morton, who is also said to have been its first victim. This, however,
could not have been the case, as the maiden was first used at the
execution of the inferior agents in the assassination of Rizzio (1561)
and Morton was not beheaded till 1581. The maiden was practically an
early form of guillotine. A loaded blade or axe moving in grooves was
fixed in a frame about ten feet high. The axe was raised to the full
height of the frame and then released, severing the victim's head from
his body. At least 120, suffered death by the maiden, including the
regent Morton, Sir John Gordon of Haddo, President Spottiswood, the
marquis and earl of Argyll. In 1710 it ceased to be used; it is now
preserved in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in
Edinburgh.

MAIDENHAIR, in botany, the common name for a fern, _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris_, characterized by the spreading hairlike branches of the frond, the ultimate pinnules of which are ½ to 1 in. long with a rounded crenate outer edge and repeatedly forked veins; the sori (or masses of spore-capsules) are in the crenatures of the pinnules, and are protected by a kidney-shaped involucre. The plant is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions, and is occasionally found in the western counties of England, the Isle of Man, and west Ireland, growing on damp rocks or walls especially near the sea. The genus _Adiantum_ is a large one containing many handsome species both tropical and temperate, well known in greenhouse and hothouse cultivation.

MAIDENHAIR-TREE is a popular name for _Ginkgo biloba_, a remarkable
and handsome gymnospermous tree, the fan-shaped leaves of which with
their forked veins recall those of the maidenhair (see GYMNOSPERMS).

MAIDENHEAD, a market town and municipal borough in the Wokingham parliamentary division of Berkshire, England; 24½ m. W. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901), 12,980. Area, 2125 acres. It is pleasantly situated on and above the west (right) bank of the Thames, and is much in favour as a residential town and a resort of boating parties. Though of high antiquity it is wholly modern in appearance, and a large number of handsome houses have been built in its vicinity. A beautiful timbered house of the 15th century, however, survives in Ockwells, a short distance south of the town. The stone bridge carrying the London road over the Thames dates from 1772; but the crossing is of ancient importance. Maidenhead has trade in malt and grain. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors.

The history of Maidenhead (Maydenhutt, Maydenhith) is bound up with that of the ancient bridge. It is not mentioned in Domesday. Edward I. (1297) gave a grant of pontage in aid of the bridge, which was almost broken down; similar grants to the "bailiffs and good men of Maydenhithe" were made by succeeding sovereigns. In 1451 Henry VI. incorporated the gild of the Brethren and Sisters of Maydenhith to provide certain necessaries for the celebration of Mass and to keep the bridge in order: the gild, dissolved at the Reformation, was revived by Elizabeth, who, however, later (1581) substituted for it a corporation consisting of a warden, bridgemaster, burgesses and commonalty: the governing charter until the 19th century was that of James I. (1685) incorporating the town under the title of the mayor, bridgemaster and burgesses. In 1400 Thomas Holand, earl of Kent, held the bridge in the interests of the deposed Richard II., but was eventually forced to retire. In 1643 a meeting took place in the town between Charles I. and three of his children. In the 18th century a considerable trade was done in carrying malt, meal and timber in barges to London: at that time three fairs were held which have now practically disappeared. The Wednesday market is held under a charter of Elizabeth (1582).

MAID MARIAN, a personage incorporated in the English legend of Robin Hood. There is no evidence that she had originally any connexion with the Robin Hood cycle. She seems to have been an essential feature of the morris dance, and in the may-game was paired sometimes with Robin-Hood, but oftener with Friar Tuck. The well-known pastoral play of Adam de la Hale, _Jeu de Robin et Marion_, and the many French songs on the subject, account for the association of the names. In the ballads on Robin Hood her name is twice casually mentioned, but there is a late ballad, by a certain S. G. (F. J. Child, _English and Scottish Ballads_, i. 219), which tells how Maid Marian sought Robin in the forest disguised as a page, and fought with him for an hour before she recognized him by his voice. S. G. was perhaps acquainted with the two plays, written in 1598, of _The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon_, by Anthony Munday and Harry Chettle. In _The Downfall_ Matilda Fitz Walter escapes from the persecution of King John by following her lover to Sherwood Forest, where they took the names of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and lived apart until they could be legally united. Perhaps this tale has some connexion with the romance of the outlaw Fulk Fitz Warin. Matilda or Mahaud, widow of Theobald Walter, escaped from John's solicitations by marrying the outlawed Fulk and following him to the forest. There were in semi-historical legends three Matildas pursued by King John, of whom particulars are given by H. L. D. Ward in his _Catalogue of Romances_ (i. 502). Their several histories were fused by the Elizabethan dramatists, and associated with the Maid Marian of the morris dance, who up to that time had probably only a vague connexion with Robin Hood.

MAIDSTONE, a market town and municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county town of Kent, England, 41 m. E.S.E. of London by the South Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901), 33,516; area, 4008 acres. It lies principally on the eastern bank of the river Medway, the modern part spreading over the western slopes of a picturesque valley, which is intersected and environed by orchards and hop gardens, this being the richest agricultural district of Kent. The hop grounds form the so-called middle growth of Kent, and the town has the principal grain market in the county. Archbishop Boniface in 1260 established a hospital here (Newark hospital) for poor pilgrims, the chapel of which, with modern additions, is now St Peter's Church. The parish church of St Mary, which had existed from Norman times, was demolished in 1395 by Archbishop Courtenay, who erected on the site the present church of All Saints. This fine Perpendicular building contains, besides many excellent monuments, the richly carved sedilia and the twenty-eight oak seats used by the collegiate priests. Courtenay also founded a college of secular canons, the ruins of which are an interesting specimen of 14th-century architecture. From the reign of John until the Reformation the archbishops had a residence here, at which Stafford and Courtenay died. This Perpendicular building, with its Elizabethan east front, was acquired by the corporation as a memorial of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887, and houses the school of science and art. The rectory, with the manor, passed into lay hands at the Reformation; and, having been a perpetual curacy for three hundred and twenty years, the living became a vicarage in 1866. The grammar school was founded in 1549, and endowed with the estates of the local Corpus Christi fraternity, then dissolved; the hall in which the gild assembled remains, but the school is established in modern buildings on a new site. There are oil-mills, rope, sacking and twine factories, and cement, lime, and brick works. There is a considerable carrying trade on the Medway. A museum, with public library, was opened in 1858, in an interesting building of the early part of the 16th century. This is the headquarters of the Kent Archaeological Society, founded by the Rev. L. B. Larking in 1858. In 1890 an art gallery was added. The West Kent and General hospital, the county ophthalmic hospital, county gaol and barracks may be mentioned among other institutions. From Saxon times down to 1830 condemned malefactors were executed, and all the great county meetings were held, on Penenden Heath, a common situated about a mile north-east of the town, and enclosed by the corporation as a public recreation ground. The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returns one member. The town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.

There is evidence of a Roman settlement at Maidstone. The name Maidstone (Medwegestun, Meddestane, Maydestan), probably meaning Medway Town, is presumably of Saxon origin. At the time of the Domesday Survey it belonged to the archbishop of Canterbury, and from the reign of John the archbishops had a residence there. Its position in the centre of Kent gave it an early importance; the shire-moot was held on Penenden Heath in the 11th century, and Maidstone was an assize town in the reign of Edward I. In 1537 Cranmer exchanged the manor of Maidstone with the king, and it was granted by Edward VI. to Sir Thomas Wyatt. Edward also incorporated the town by the title of the mayor, jurats and commonalty; it had formerly been governed by a portreve and 12 "brethren." This charter was forfeited through Wyatt's rebellion; a second charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1559 and confirmed by subsequent sovereigns. A new charter constituting a governing body of a mayor, 12 jurats and 40 common councilmen was given at the petition of the inhabitants by George II. in 1747, and remained the governing charter until 1835. Four fairs were granted by the charter of 1559; these are now held on the 13th of February, the 12th of May, the 20th of June and the 17th of October. A Thursday market was granted by Henry III. to Archbishop Boniface, and a market every second Tuesday in the month by charter of George II. A corn market on Tuesday and a cattle market on Thursday are still held. The manufacture of linen and woollen goods was introduced by Walloons, who settled here in 1567. This was succeeded by paper-making, now the chief industry of the town. The cultivation of hops has been carried on since the 17th century.

Maidstone has been associated with various incidents of general history. Wat Tyler broke into the prison, liberated John Ball the rebel preacher, and committed various depredations. Several of the leading inhabitants joined Jack Cade's rising. The rising of the Kentish Royalists in 1648 collapsed at Maidstone, where on the 1st of June Fairfax, after five hours' obstinate fighting, captured the town at midnight.

See _Victoria County History, Kent_; I. M. Russell, _History of
Maidstone_ (1881).

MAIHAR, a native state of Central India, in the Baghelkhand agency. Area, 407 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 63,702; estimated revenue, £4700. The state, which is watered by the Tons river, consists mainly of alluvial soil covering sandstone, and is fertile except in the hilly district of the south. A large area is under forest, the produce of which provides a small export trade. The chief, whose title is raja, claims descent from the Kachwaha Rajput clan. The state suffered severely from famine in 1896-1897. The town of Maihar (pop. 6802) is on the East Indian railway, 97 m. N. of Jubbulpore. Extensive ruins of shrines and other buildings in its neighbourhood indicate a former much greater extent of the place.

MAIL. (1) (Through Fr. _maille_, from Lat. _macula_, a spot or hole, the mesh of a net), properly a metal ring or link which, joined closely with other links, formed the fabric of body and other armour in the middle ages, till it was superseded by plate-armour. The word "mail," properly applied to this form of chain-armour, is also used of armour generally, whether plate or chain, and is also transferred to the horny defensive coverings of animals, such as the tortoise, crab, &c. (see ARMS AND ARMOUR). (2) (O. Eng. _mál_, speech; probably the same as O. Saxon _mahal_, assembly; in meaning connected with O. Norse _mále_, stipulation), a Scots law term meaning rent, tax. "Mails and duties" are the rents, whether in kind or money, of an estate. In English the word only survives in "blackmail" (q.v.). (3) (Through O. Fr. _male_, mod. _malle_, a Teutonic word surviving in Dutch _maal_), properly a bag, especially one used in travelling; this word, which appears in Chaucer, is now applied chiefly to the despatch and delivery of postal matter. In this sense "mail" is properly the bag in which such matter is conveyed, and hence is applied to the contents of the mail, postal matter collectively, and to the train, carts, or other means used in the despatch and delivery of the same. In general usage "mail" is confined to the "foreign" as opposed to the "inland" despatch of letters, &c., and to which the word "post" is chiefly applied; in official language, the word refers to the inland despatch. The word appears also in "mail-coach," a coach used for conveying the mails, and in "mail-cart," a cart similarly employed. This word is also applied to a light low vehicle propelled or drawn by hand, suitable for young children. The "mail phaeton" is a type of phaeton with high seat for two persons and drawn by a pair of horses.

MAILLY, LOUISE JULIE, COMTESSE DE (1710-1751), mistress of Louis XV. of France, was the daughter of Louis, marquis de Nesle. She was the eldest of three sisters who succeeded one another as favourites of the king. In 1726 she married her cousin, Louis Alexandre de Mailly. Although Louis XV. had paid her attentions from 1732, she did not become titular mistress until 1738. She did not use her position either to enrich herself or to interfere in politics. She was supplanted by her sister, the duchess of Châteauroux, and obliged to leave court in 1742.

See E. and J. de Goncourt, _La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs_
(1879); Toussaint, _Anecdotes curieuses de ... Louis XV._ (2 vols.,
1905); J. B. H. R. Capefigue, _Mesdemoiselles de Nesle et la jeunesse
de Louis XV._ (1864).

MAIMANA, a town and khanate of Afghan Turkestan. The town is situated 100 m. S.W. of Balkh, and only some 25 m. from the frontier of Russian Turkestan. It is about two-thirds the size of Herat, square built and surrounded by a ruined wall and moat. The khanate was for long in dispute between Bokhara and Kabul, but in 1868 Abdur Rahman laid siege to the town, and it was compelled to come to terms. Its political status as an Afghan province was definitely fixed by the Russo-Afghan boundary commission of 1885. The inhabitants are chiefly Uzbegs.

MAIMAND, a town in the province of Fars, Persia, a few miles east of Firuzabad and about 70 m. from Shiraz. It has a population of about 5000, almost wholly occupied with the manufacture and sale of rose-water, which is largely exported to many parts of Persia as well as to Arabia, India and Java. The district also produces great quantities of almonds. The rose gardens cover several square miles. In 1349 a great part of Maimand and of three little villages belonging to it became _wakf_ (pious endowment) of the shrine at Shiraz of Mïr Ahmed, surnamed Shah Chiragh, a son of Musa Kazim, the seventh imam of the Shiahs, and the remainder of the Maimand grounds was given to the shrine by Mir Habbib Ullah Sharifi and by Shah Ismail in 1504; the administration of the Maimand property as well as the guardianship of the shrine is still with the descendants of Mir Habbib Ullah.

MAIMBOURG, LOUIS (1610-1686), French Jesuit and historian, was born at Nancy. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and after studying at Rome became a classical master in the Jesuit college at Rouen. He afterwards devoted himself to preaching, but with only moderate success. After having taken some part in minor controversies he threw himself with energy into the dispute which had arisen as to the Gallican liberties; for his _Traité historique sur les prérogatives de l'Église de Rome_ (1682) he was by command of Innocent XI. expelled from the Society, but rewarded by Louis XIV. with a residence at the abbey of St Victor, Paris, and a pension. He died on the 13th of August 1686. His numerous works include histories of Arianism, the iconoclastic controversy, the Greek schism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and of the pontificates of Leo I. and Gregory I.; they are mere compilations, written indeed in a very lively and attractive style, but inaccurate and untrustworthy.

_The History of Arianism_ was published in English (1728-1729) by
William Webster, with an appendix on the English writers in the
Socinian and Arian controversies.

MAIMING, mutilation, a physical injury which involves the loss of, or incapacity to use, a bodily member. The verb "to maim," in M. E. _maynhe_, _mahayme_, _mayme_, &c. was adopted from O. Fr. _mahaignier_: cf. It. _magagnars_, Med. Lat. _mahemiare_, _mahennare_, &c. (see Du Cange, _Gloss._, _s.v._ "Mahamium"). Maiming or mutilation is and has been practised by many races with various ethnical and religious significances, and was a customary form of punishment on the principle of an "eye for an eye" (see MUTILATION). In law "maiming" is a criminal offence; the old law term for a special case of maiming of persons was "mayhem" (q.v.), an Anglo-French variant form of the word. Maiming of animals by others than their owners is a particular form of the offences generally grouped as "malicious damage." For the purpose of the law as to this offence animals are divided into cattle, which includes horses, pigs and asses, and other animals which are either subjects of larceny at common law or are usually kept in confinement or for domestic purposes. The punishment for maiming of cattle is three to fourteen years' penal servitude. Malicious injury to other animals is a misdemeanour punishable on summary conviction. For a second offence the penalty is imprisonment with hard labour for over twelve months. (Malicious Damage Act 1861.) Maiming of animals by their owner falls under the Cruelty to Animals Acts.

MAIMON, SALOMON (1754-1800), German philosopher, was born of Jewish parentage in Polish Lithuania, and died at Nieder-Siegersdorf on the 22nd of November 1800. He married at the age of twelve, and studied medicine in Berlin. In 1770 he severed his connexion with his orthodox co-religionists by his critical commentary on the _Moreh Nebuhim_ of Maimonides, and devoted himself to the study of philosophy on the lines of Wolff and Moses Mendelssohn. After many vicissitudes he found a peaceful residence in the house of Count Kalkreuth at Nieder-Siegersdorf in 1790. During the ensuing ten years he published the works which have made his reputation as a critical philosopher. Hitherto his life had been a long struggle against difficulties of all kinds. From his autobiography, it is clear that his keen critical faculty was developed in great measure by the slender means of culture at his disposal. It was not till 1788 that he made the acquaintance of the Kantian philosophy, which was to form the basis of his lifework, and as early as 1790 he published the _Versuch über die Transcendentalphilosophie_, in which he formulates his objections to the system. He seizes upon the fundamental incompatibility of a consciousness which can apprehend, and yet is separated from, the "thing-in-itself." That which is object of thought cannot be outside consciousness; just as in mathematics [root](-1) is an unreal quantity, so "things-in-themselves" are _ex hypothesi_ outside consciousness, i.e. are unthinkable. The Kantian paradox he explains as the result of an attempt to explain the origin of the "given" in consciousness. The _form_ of things is admittedly subjective; the mind endeavours to explain the _material_ of the given in the same terms, an attempt which is not only impossible but involves a denial of the elementary laws of thought. Knowledge of the given is, therefore, essentially incomplete. Complete or perfect knowledge is confined to the domain of pure thought, to logic and mathematics. Thus the problem of the "thing-in-itself" is dismissed from the inquiry, and philosophy is limited to the sphere of pure thought. The Kantian categories are, indeed, demonstrable and true, but their application to the given is meaningless and unthinkable. By this critical scepticism Maimon takes up a position intermediate between Kant and Hume. Hume's attitude to the empirical is entirely supported by Maimon. The casual concept, as given by experience, expresses not a necessary objective order of things, but an ordered scheme of perception; it is subjective and cannot be postulated as a concrete law apart from consciousness. The main argument of the _Transcendentalphilosophie_ not only drew from Kant, who saw it in MS., the remark that Maimon alone of his all critics had mastered the true meaning of his philosophy, but also directed the path of most subsequent criticism.

Maimon's chief works, in addition to the above quoted, are _Philos.
Wörterbuch_ (1791); _Streifereien im Gebiete der Philos._(1793); _Über
die Progresse der Philos._ (1793); _Die Kategorien des Aristoteles mit
Anmerkungen erläutert_ (1794); _Versuch einer neuen Logik_ (1794 and
1798); _Kritische Untersuchungen über den menschl. Geist_ (1797). See
_S. Maimons Lebensgeschichte von ihm selbst beschrieben_ (1792, ed. K.
P. Moritz; Eng. trans. by J. C. Murray, 1888); Wolff, _Maimoniana_
(1813); Witte, _S. Maimon_ (1876).

MAIMONIDES, the common name of RABBI MOSES BEN MAIMON (1135-1204), also known from the initials of these last words as RAMBAM, Jewish philosopher. His life falls into three epochs, which may be typified by the towns in which they were passed, viz. Cordova, Fez and Cairo. He was born in Cordova on the 20th of March 1135, the eve of Passover; he had a brother, David, and one sister. His early years were spent in his native town, which had then just passed the zenith of its glory. The Arab rulers had fostered the development of science, art, medicine, philosophy, literature and learning. All these influences played their part in the education of Maimonides, whose father, besides training him in all branches of Hebrew and Jewish scholarship, implanted in the youth a sound knowledge of these secular studies as well. In 1148 Cordova was taken from the last Fatimite caliph by the victorious Almohades, who had spread over Spain from N. Africa. These militant revivalists strove to re-establish Islam in what they considered its primitive simplicity. They laid great stress on the unity of God, and tolerated neither schism within the faith nor dissent without. The position of the orthodox Spanish Jews became intolerable, and Maimon, after ten years of hardships, wanderings and escapes, decided to take his family out of the country. He settled in Fez. The years which Maimonides spent there (1160-1165) were memorable for his friendship with Abdul Arab Ibn Muisha--a Moslem poet and theologian--and for the commencement of his literary activity. His energies were diverted towards stimulating the religious feelings of his brethren and combating assimilation. In consequence he became alarmed for his own safety, and in 1165 left for Egypt, where he settled after a passing visit to the Holy Land. Cordova taught him the humanities; Fez humanity. Cairo, besides giving him prominence at court and in the Jewish community, was the centre of the almost world-wide influence which he exercised over Jewry by his monumental writings and dominant personality. By 1177 Maimonides was the recognized chief of the Cairene congregation and consulted on important matters by communities far and wide. Here he was joined by his most famous disciple, Joseph Aknin. But his early life in Egypt was fraught with deep sorrow. His father died soon after their arrival, and Maimonides himself suffered severely from prostration and sickness. His brother David, jointly with whom he carried on a trade in gems, was shipwrecked in the Indian Ocean. With him perished the entire fortune of the family. Forced to earn a livelihood, Maimonides turned to medicine. The fame of his skill eventually brought him the appointment of body physician to Saladin, to whom, it is said, he was so attached that when Richard I. wrote from Ascalon, offering him a similar post at the English court, Maimonides refused. He married the sister of Ibn al Mali, one of the royal secretaries. In 1186, his son Abraham was born. His remaining years were spent in ceaseless activity and in controversy, which he sought to avoid. He died amidst universal sorrow and veneration.