Thakur (title)

Some scholars suggest that it is not mentioned in the Sanskrit texts preceding 500 BCE, but speculates that it might have been a part of the vocabulary of the dialects spoken in northern India before the Gupta Empire.

[10] The meaning of the word Thakur was suggested to be "god" by S. K. Das;[3]: 31  "lord" by Blair B. Kling;[11] and "master of the estate" by H. B.

Sinha notes that many scholars, such as Buddha Prakash, Frederick Thomas, Harold Bailey, Prabodh Bagchi, Suniti Chatterji, and Sylvain Lévi, have suggested that Thakura is a borrowed word in the Indian lexis from the Tukhara regions of Current Uzbekistan.

[12] Sinha observed: "It may be noted that in South India among orthodox Brahmins, Thakura or Thakur is not a popular term obviously because of its Tukhara or Turuska background.

[17] Some academics have suggested that "Thakur was merely a title and not an office whereby a holder was entitled to wield some power in the state".

Sons of thakurs were given the Sanskrit title of Kumara ('prince'), popular usage being Kunwar in the North and Kumar in Bengal and southern India.