Dhabu

The phrase Dhabu or Dhaboo is an improvised version of the Marathi word "Dhabbu", which means money. The word "Dhabbu" is of archaic origin from the Vidarbha region of present Maharashtra. There used to be an ancient currency coin, called "Dhabbu Paisa", and the British started spelling this as "Dhabu" instead of "Dhabbu".

Some families of Vidarbha region, who were in the profession of making these coins, were later identified with the surname "Dhabbu" or "Dhaboo", which later on, i.e. during the British Era, became "Dhabu". Some families were also in the business of trading in Gold and Silver and some of them changed their surname to Saraf.

DHABUs or DHABOOs are basically Marathi speaking families, belonging to Deshastha Brahmin caste. The origin of the DHABUs is the present Vidarbha region (Central Provenience in the pre-independence era).

People with the Dhabu/Dhaboo surname can be found in Nagpur, Pune, Nasik and Mumbai of Maharashtra, Korba, Raipur, Kanker, Bhilai and Rajnandgaon of CG, Jabalpur and Rewa of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jamshedpur and also in Andhra Pradesh. Even today some people in Andhra Pradesh use the word Dabbu for money.

References

This article "Dhabu" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.