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The surname Sabnis was actually a designation of a post during the time of the the Great Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Persons who looked after kept all types of accounts on the forts of Shivaji were doing " Sab-navishi " Navis is a "Farsee"or Persian word meaning writing ,recording,accounting etc. Over the years Sab navis became sab-nis. In the same manner all those surnames that end with a suffix of " nis " are all designations during the Maratha rule in Maharashtra, India .Potnis, Kotnis,Waknis,Khasnis, Phadnis,Phadanvis, are all such surnames. My surname was Pusal kar that is we belonged to a village called Pusal. In Shivaji's times we were more known by our designation and over the years we dropped the earlier surname and assumed the designation as our surname