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{{Short description|Breed of horse}}

[[File:Deccani pony by Kipling.jpg|thumb|right|A money-lender on a Deccan pony - John Lockwood Kipling, Beast and Man in India.]]
The '''Bhimthadi''' or '''Deccani horse''' is an almost extinct breed of Indian horses. It was developed in [[Pune district]] in 17th and 18th centuries during the [[Maratha empire|Maratha rule]] by crossing [[Arabian horse|Arabian]] and Turkic breeds with local ponies.

==History==
[[File:BOMBAY C 1890.jpg|thumb|right|Rue de [[Bombay]] en 1890, avec des charrettes à bœufs et à poneys.]]
The "Bhimthadi", also known as Deccani or "Deccan breed" gets its name from the vast Deccan Plateau in India. A major trade in [[arabian horse]]s in the ports of Deccan began after the [[Bahamani Sultanate]] revolted against the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref name="Eaton2005">{{cite book|author=Richard M. Eaton|title=A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761: Eight Indian Lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGd2huLXEVYC&pg=PR12|date=17 November 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-25484-7|pages=59–62}}</ref> Later in the period also the heavy war horses sought by the Mughals and the Sultans of the Deccan were always imported, especially from Iran.<ref>Mushirul Hasan, India partitioned: the other face of freedom, vol. 1, Lotus Collection, 1995, 120 p. ({{ISBN|8174360123}}), p. 103.</ref>

The Bhimthadi breed was developed in [[Pune district]] in 17th and 18th centuries during the [[Maratha empire|Maratha rule]] by crossing [[Arabian horse|Arabian]] and Turkic breeds with local ponies.<ref name="CABI">{{cite book|last1=Porter |first1=Valeria|last2=Alderson|first2=Lawrence|last3=Hall|first3=Stephen J. G.|last4=Sponenberg|first4=D. Phillip|title=Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding|date=2016|publisher=: CABI|isbn=978-1845934668|pages=460–461|url=https://books.google.com/?id=2UEJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA461&dq=bhimthadi+breeding#v=onepage&q=bhimthadi%20breeding&f=false|accessdate=13 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bakshi|first1=G.D.|title=The rise of Indian military power : evolution of an Indian strategic culture|date=2010|publisher=KW Publishers|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-8187966524|url=https://books.google.com/?id=FEG6DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&dq=+bhimthadi+horse#v=onepage&q=bhimthadi%20&f=false}}</ref> These horses proved excellent for [[Shivaji]]'s forces in fighting the [[Mughal empire|Mughal army]] in the hilly terrains of Western [[Maharashtra]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bakshi|first1=GD|title=The Rise of Indian Military Power: Evolution of an Indian Strategic Culture: Evolution of an Indian Strategic Culture|date=2015|publisher=KW publishers|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-93-83649-49-5|url=https://books.google.com/?id=FEG6DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT10&dq=bhimthadi+ponies#v=onepage&q=bhimthadi%20ponies&f=false}}</ref>
During their conquests in the 18th century, the Marathas were proud to claim that the Deccan horses had quenched their thirst with waters of the [[Indus]]<ref>Haig, W., 1930. The Maratha Nation. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 78(4049), pp.870-884.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41358538?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents]</ref>
The warrior and Maharajah Maratha Yashwantrao Holkar (1776-1811) is reputed to have always battle mounted a mare named Mahua, of Bhimthadi breed.

It seems that the Marathas raised a specific breed from the end of 18th century.<ref>Gommans, J., 1994. The horse trade in eighteenth-century South Asia. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient/Journal de l'histoire economique et sociale de l'Orient, pp.228-250.</ref> According to local oral tradition from early 19th century, the breed was crossed with 500 Arabian horses and mares, obtained by the Nizam and nobles of Hyderabad directly Arabia. The breed is described as "Bhimthadi" in British sources. The breed also had some genetic contribution Persian and Turkish varieties. The best Bhimthadi horses were reputed to come from the valleys of the Bhima and Nira rivers in the present day Pune district.

However, the breed was allowed to degenerate during British rule in India.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Ahmadnagar district|journal=Imperial Gazetteer 2 of India|volume=5|page=117|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/text.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V05_125.gif}}</ref>

The government of Gujarat took an initiative in 2010 to perform research on saving Bhimthadi and other near extinct breeds.<ref name="CABI"/>

In his description of the economy of India at the end of the 19th century, Sir [[George Watt (botanist)|George Watt]] was very impressed with this breed, he considers it one of the best in India. He reports that the best ponies are named "Dhangar" or "Khilari". The people see them as a separate breed, but Watt believes that this distinction comes from a difference in breeding practices, the breeders from the [[Dhangar]] community used to castrate their animals. The latter raise groups of 20 to 30 ponies.

After their conquest of Maratha territories, the British encouraged inhabitants of the Bombay area to continue horse breeding in order to restore the old characteristics that are useful to them in the breed, by investing from around 1827 about £100,000 in a stud farm in Alegaon Paga. The experiment was abandoned fifteen years later in 1842. Famines and various British conquests that hit the region in the 19th century wiped out the livestock of Marathas. In 1850, the so-called Deccan race of the south completely disappeared. In 1898, the British could no longer find these ponies for their regiments and therefore replaced them with mules, because the race was decimated during the second campaign of Afghanistan. In 1907, the race horse breeder, [[Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 3rd Baronet|Sir Humphrey Francis De Trafford]] reported that the Deccani breed lives "bad days".

==Livestock distribution==
The breed originates from the valley of the Bhima River in the Pune District, hence its name, Bhimthadi.{{sfn|Porter|Alderson|Hall|Sponenberg|2016|p=460}}<ref>Chandra, R., 2004. Cities and towns of India. Commonwealth Publishers.</ref> Deccani has become extremely rare: in 1988, according to the count sent to FAO, they numbered less than 100. It was later added to the list of indigenous breeds of horses by FAO, around 1999, with Chummarti and Sikang, two other endangered breeds. CAB International (2002) 26 and other sources (2004) consider race to be "virtually extinct". Its threat level is still considered "critically endangered" by FAO in 2007, as well as the Uppsala University study conducted for FAO in 2010, which lists it as an Asian breed local population in critical danger of extinction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Global Horse Population with respect to Breeds and Risk Status|url=http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/7676/17/khadka_r_150305.pdf|author=Rupak Khadka|location=Uppsala|agency=Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science - Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics|pages=57 et 64|year=2010|publication-date=}}.</ref> In 2014, the encyclopaedia Delachaux and Niestlé underlines the lack of information about this breed, presumed "very rare". In 2016, CAB International also cites it as "near extinct".

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Horse breeds of India}}

[[Category:Horse breeds]]
[[Category:Horse breeds originating in India]]
[[Category:Maharashtra| ]]
[[Category:Maratha Empire]]

Bhimthadi horse - Revision history

>ShortDescBot at 21:25, 1 April 2021