Dhani (settlement type)

Dhani[1] (Hindi: ढाणी ḍhāṇī) or Thok[2] is a type of hamlet, the smallest conglomeration of houses, in the sandy Bagar region of the northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab in India.

80% of the villages have a population of less than 1000 people and each consists of a cluster of hamlets (e.g. dhani, nesada, pada, bigha).

An isolated collection of several dhanis, which could be few hundred meters apart,[3] constitutes a gram panchayat village community.

Houses in dani nowadays are made of modern brick and mortar, specially in affluent higher-per-capita-income states of Haryana and Punjab, and some richer families of Rajasthan.

Thus, in the context of a hamlet, the corrupted form of Hindi word dhani is pronounced dhaani (ढाणी)[12] in Haryanvi and Rajasthani languages, which implies the "wealth or possessed settlement" (of the owner).