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Madval

washerman community in Konkan region

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2025
Entity authorityQ16931857
Source-derived summary

Madval, sometimes also known as Dhobi, is a washerman community of Goa and rest of the Konkan. They claim to be Rajakas.The occupation of washermen is hereditary. The services of washermen are essential for the people of the urban as well as rural areas alike. They have their own localities which are sometimes gifted to them by the temples for the services they render and agriculture farmers.

Maddval refers to a traditional community life and cultural practices observed in the Mahad region of the Konkan in western India. The traditions reflect a blend of Hindu and Muslim influences, with both groups living in close association.

Daily life and traditions

The people of Mahad are described as leading a simple and content lifestyle. They value honesty and place importance on community harmony. Folk songs known as barya barop are sung in rhythm with swords and shields. Village leadership is associated with a figure called the mahalkar.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Madval” is washerman community in Konkan region. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Madval, washerman and community, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 155-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Madval, washerman and community is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “washerman community in Konkan region” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16931857. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Madval”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Madval primary sources, Madval archive and Madval research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Madval”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Madval” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.