The incident causing the split in the greater Pathare Prabhu caste occurred in the year 1777, when, during the marriage ceremony in the caste, a small boy assigned the job of anointing the guests' foreheads with sandalwood paste failed to do so in case of a one elderly guest.
The side against the boy being larger in number decided, on the spot, in the heat of the moment, to sever the relations with the boy-supporting smaller group.
[1]: 46 [2]: 122 The estrangement between the two groups only grew as the time passed, and due to their separation from the bigger community the smaller faction was unable to arrange suitable marriages for its members for the next 60 years, because of which its number shrank to the 300 from the original 400.
[1]: 43–49 Both the Kancholes and the non-Kancholes consider themselves to be the true Pathare Prabhus, as each of the groups is a faction of the original community, which divided on the pretext of a quarrel in the marriage ceremony, wherein all the members of the caste were invited as per the custom of that time.
[1]: 49–51 [further explanation needed]The Kanchole faction does not claim, what they consider to be their justifiable right, to a 30% share in the community's property, which is being withheld by the larger Pathare Prabhu group from the time of the division, considering the Kancholes were 15% of the total number at the time of the division, and more than 50% of the withheld property has been disposed of by the larger group in the recent past.