The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 4

Rājpūt, Rāthor

Rājpūt, Rāthor, Rāthaur.—The Rāthor of Jodhpur or Mārwār is one of the most famous clans of Rājpūts, and that which is most widely dominant at the present time, including as it does the Rājas of Jodhpur, Bikaner, Ratlām, Kishengarh and Idar, as well as several smaller states. The origin of the Rāthor clan is uncertain. Colonel Tod states that they claim to be of the solar race, but by the bards of the race are denied this honour; and though descended from Kash, the second son of Rāma, are held to be the offspring of one of his progeny, Kashyap, by the daughter of a Dait (Titan). The view was formerly held that the dynasty which wrested Kanauj from the descendants of Harsha Vārdhana, and held it from A.D. 810 to 1090, until subverted by the Gaharwārs, were Rāthors, but proof has now been obtained that they were really Parihār-Gūjars. Mr. Smith suggests that after the destruction of Kanauj by the Muhammadans under Shihāb-ud-Dīn Ghori in A.D. 1193 the Gaharwār clan, whose kings had conquered it in 1090 and reigned there for a century, migrated to the deserts of Mārwār in Rājputāna, where they settled and became known as Rāthors.559 It has also been generally held that the Rāshtrakūta dynasty of Nāsik and Mālkhed in the Deccan which reigned from A.D. 753 to 973, and built the Kailāsa temples at Ellora were Rāthors, but Mr. Smith states that there is no evidence of any social connection between the Rāshtrakūtas and Rāthors.560 At any rate Siāhji, the grandson or nephew of Jai Chand, the last king of Kanauj, who had been drowned in the Ganges while attempting to escape, accomplished with about 200 followers—the wreck of his vassalage—the pilgrimage to Dwārka in Gujarāt. He then sought in the sands and deserts of Rājputāna a second line of defence against the advancing wave of Muhammadan invasion, and planted the standard of the Rāthors among the sandhills of the Luni in 1212. This, however, was not the first settlement of the Rāthors in Rājputāna, for an inscription, dated A.D. 997, among the ruins of the ancient city of Hathūndi or Hastikūndi, near Bāli in Jodhpur State, tells of five Rāthor Rājas who ruled there early in the tenth century, and this fact shows that the name Rāthor is really much older than the date of the fall of Kanauj.561

In 1381 Siāhji’s tenth successor, Rao Chonda, took Mundore from a Parihār chief, and made his possession secure by marrying the latter’s daughter. A subsequent chief, Rao Jodha, laid the foundation of Jodhpur in 1459, and transferred thither the seat of government. The site of Jodhpur was selected on a peak known as Joda-gīr, or the hill of strife, four miles distant from Mundore on a crest of the range overlooking the expanse of the desert plains of Mārwār. The position for the new city was chosen at the bidding of a forest ascetic, and was excellently adapted for defence, but had no good water-supply.562 Joda had fourteen sons, of whom the sixth, Bīka, was the founder of the Bikaner state. Rāja Sur Singh (1595–1620) was one of Akbar’s greatest generals, and the emperor Jahāngīr buckled the sword on to his son Gaj Singh with his own hands. Gaj Singh, the next Rāja (1620–1635), was appointed viceroy of the Deccan, as was his successor, Jaswant Singh, under Aurāngzeb. The Mughal Emperors, Colonel Tod remarks, were indebted for half their conquests to the Lākh Tulwār Rāhtorān, the hundred thousand swords which the Rāthors boasted that they could muster.563 On another occasion, when Jahāngīr successfully appealed to the Rājpūts for support against his rebel son Khusru, he was so pleased with the zeal of the Rāthor prince, Rāja Gaj Singh, that he not only took the latter’s hand, but kissed it,564 perhaps an unprecedented honour. But the constant absence from his home on service in distant parts of the empire was so distasteful to Rāja Sur Singh that, when dying in the Deccan, he ordered a pillar to be erected on his grave containing his curse upon any of his race who should cross the Nerbudda. The pomp of imperial greatness or the sunshine of court favour was as nothing with the Rāthor chiefs, Colonel Tod says, when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the Rāthor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned from in disgust to the recollection of the green pulse of Mundore, or his favourite rabi or maize porridge, the prime dish of the Rāthor.565 The Rāthor princes have been not less ready in placing themselves and the forces of their States at the disposal of the British Government, and the latest and perhaps most brilliant example of their loyalty occurred during 1914, when the veteran Sir Partāp Singh of Idar insisted on proceeding to the front against Germany, though over seventy years of age, and was accompanied by his nephew, a boy of sixteen.

The Ratlām State was founded by Ratan Singh, a grandson of Rāja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, who was born about 1618, and obtained it as a grant for good service against the Usbegs at Kandahār and the Persians in Khorasān about 1651–52. Kishangarh was founded by Kishan Singh, a son of the same Rāja Udai Singh, who obtained a grant of territory from Akbar about 1611. Idar State in Gujarāt has, according to its traditions, been held by Rāthor princes from a very early period. Jodhpur State is the largest in Rājputāna, with an area of 35,000 square miles, and a population of two million. The Mahārāja is entitled to a salute of twenty-one guns. A great part of the State is a sandy desert, and its older name of Mārwār is, according to Colonel Tod, a corruption of Mārusthān, or the region of death. In the Central Provinces the Rāthor Rājpūts number about 6000 persons, and are found mainly in the Saugor, Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangābād Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 persons enumerated in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rāthor Telis.

Rājpūt, Sesodia

Rājpūt, Sesodia, Gahlot, Ahāria.—The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally admitted to be the premier Rājpūt clan. Their chief is described by the bards as “The Sūryavānsi Rāna, of royal race, Lord of Chitor, the ornament of the thirty-six royal races.” The Sesodias claim descent from the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rāma of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewār consisted of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurāshtra or Kāthiāwār, where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Silāditya, who was killed by an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohāditya, ruled in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west of Mewār. From him the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar, however, from a detailed examination of the inscriptions relating to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of the line were Nāgar Brāhmans from Vadnagar in Gujarāt, the first of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its name of Gahlot566 The family were also connected with the ruling princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes, and also the Nāgar Brāhmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who, like the Gūjars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar’s account really agrees quite closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, except that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nāgar Brāhman of Valabhi, and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied to the Huns, while the bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia, who migrated to Surat and established the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is Sīla, A.D. 646, and he was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bāpa, the founder of the Gahlot clan in Mewār, was, according to tradition, sixth in descent from Gohāditya, and he had his capital at Nāgda, a few miles to the north of Udaipur city.567 A tradition quoted by Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bāpa was the son of Grahadāta. He succeeded in propitiating the god Siva. One day the king of Chitor died and left no heir to his throne. It was decided that whoever would be garlanded by a certain elephant would be placed on the throne. Bāpa was present on the occasion, and the elephant put the garland round his neck not only once, but thrice. Bāpa was thus seated on the throne. One day he was suffering from some eye-disease. A physician mixed a certain medicine in alcoholic liquor and applied it to his eyes, which were speedily cured. Bāpa afterwards inquired what the medicine was, and learnt the truth. He trembled like a reed and said, “I am a Brāhman, and you have given me medicine mixed in liquor. I have lost my caste,” So saying he drank molten lead (sīsa), and forthwith died, and hence arose the family name Sesodia.568 This story, current in Rājputāna, supports Mr. Bhandarkar’s view of the Brāhman origin of the clan. According to tradition Bāpa went to Chitor, then held by the Mori or Prāmara Rājpūts, to seek his fortune, and was appointed to lead the Chitor forces against the Muhammadans on their first invasion of India.569 After defeating and expelling them he ousted the Mori ruler and established himself at Chitor, which has since been the capital of the Sesodias. The name Sesodia is really derived from Sesoda, the residence of a subsequent chief Rāhup, who captured Mundore and was the first to bear the title of Rāna of Mewār. Similarly Ahāria is another local name from Ahār, a place in Mewār, which was given to the clan. They were also known as Rāghuvansi, or of the race of king Rāghu, the ancestor of the divine Rāma. The Rāghuvansis of the Central Provinces, an impure caste of Rājpūt origin, are treated in a separate article, but it is not known whether they were derived from the Sesodias. From the fourteenth century the chronicles of the Sesodias contain many instances of Rājpūt courage and devotion. Chitor was sacked three times before the capital was removed to Udaipur, first by Ala-ul-Din Khilji in 1303, next by Bahādur Shāh, the Muhammadan king of Gujarāt in 1534, and lastly by Akbar in 1567. These events were known as Sāka or massacres of the clan. On each occasion the women of the garrison performed the Johar or general immolation by fire, while the men sallied forth, clad in their saffron-coloured robes and inspired by bhāng, to die sword in hand against the foe. At the first sack the goddess of the clan appeared in a dream to the Rāna and demanded the lives of twelve of its chiefs as a condition of its preservation. His eleven sons were in their turn crowned as chief, each ruling for three days, while on the fourth he sallied out and fell in battle.570 Lastly, the Rāna devoted himself in order that his favourite son Ajeysi might be spared and might perpetuate the clan. At the second sack 32,000 were slain, and at the third 30,000. Finally Aurāngzeb destroyed the temples and idols at Chitor, and only its ruins remain. Udaipur city was founded in 1559. The Sesodias resisted the Muhammadans for long, and several times defeated them. Udai Singh, the founder of Udaipur, abandoned his capital and fled to the hills, whence he caused his own territory to be laid waste, with the object of impeding the imperial forces. Of this period it is recorded that the Rānas were from father to son in outlawry against the emperor, and that sovereign had carried away the doors of the gate of Chitor, and had set them up in Delhi. Fifty-two rājas and chiefs had perished in the struggle, and the Rāna in his trouble lay at nights on a counterpane spread on the ground, and neither slept in his bed nor shaved his hair; and if he perchance broke his fast, had nothing better with which to satisfy it than beans baked in an earthen pot. For this reason it is that certain practices are to this day observed at Udaipur. A counterpane is spread below the Rāna’s bed, and his head remains unshaven and baked beans are daily laid upon his plate.571 A custom of perhaps somewhat similar origin is that in this clan man and wife take food together, and the wife does not wait till her husband has finished. It is said that the Sesodia Rājpūts are the only caste in India among whom this rule prevails, and it may have been due to the fact that they had to eat together in haste when occasion offered during this period of guerilla warfare.

In 1614 Rāna Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition that he should never have to present himself in person but might send his two sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, the heir-apparent Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by Jahāngīr and shortly afterwards the imperial troops were withdrawn from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave a daughter in marriage to any of the Musalmān emperors, and for many years ceased to intermarry with other Rājpūt families who had formed such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698–1710) made a league with the Mahārājas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rāna unfortunately added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led to the conquest of the country by the Marāthas, at whose hands Mewār suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumāri at the time when Rājputāna was being devastated by the Marāthas and Pindāris; and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be produced.572

The Mahārāna of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three minor states, Partābgarh, Dungarpur and Banswāra, are held by members of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of the Nerbudda Division.

Rājpūt, Solankhi

Rājpūt, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya.—This clan was one of the Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been Gurjaras or Gūjars. Their original name is said to have been Chaluka, because they were formed in the palm (chalu) of the hand. They were not much known in Rājputāna, but were very prominent in the Deccan. Here they were generally called Chalukya, though in northern India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin I. made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Bādāmi In the Bijāpur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most powerful kingdom south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries, when it was overthrown by the Rāshtrakūtas573. Pulākesin II. of this Chalukya dynasty successfully resisted an inroad of the great emperor Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj, who aspired to the conquest of the whole of India. The Rāshtrakūta kings governed for two centuries, and in A.D. 973 Taila or Tailapa II., a scion of the old Chalukya stock, restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory, and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyān, which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries and a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190. In the tenth century apparently another branch of the clan migrated from Rājputāna into Gujarāt and established a new dynasty there, owing to which Gujarāt, which had formerly been known as Lāta, obtained its present name574. The principal king of this line was Sidh Rāj Solankhi, who is well known to tradition. From these Chalukya or Solankhi rulers the Baghel clan arose, which afterwards migrated to Rewah. The Solankhis are found in the United Provinces, and a small number are returned from the Central Provinces, belonging mainly to Hoshangābād and Nimār.

Rājpūt, Somvansi

Rājpūt, Somvansi, Chandravansi.—These two are returned as separate septs, though both names mean ‘Descendants of the moon.’ Colonel Tod considers Sūrajvansi and Somvansi, or the descendants of the sun and moon as the first two of the thirty-six royal clans, from which all the others were evolved. But he gives no account of them, nor does it appear that they were regularly recognised clans in Rājputāna. It is probable that both Somvansi and Chandravansi, as well as Sūrajvansi and perhaps Nāgvansi (Descendants of the snake) have served as convenient designations for Rājpūts of illegitimate birth, or for landholding sections of the cultivating castes and indigenous tribes when they aspired to become Rājpūts. Thus the Sūrajvansis, and Somvansis of different parts of the country might be quite different sets of people. There seems some reason for supposing that the Somvansis of the United Provinces as described by Mr. Crooke are derived from the Bhar tribe;575 in the Central Provinces a number of Somvansis and Chandravansis are returned from the Feudatory States, and are probably landholders who originally belonged to one of the forest tribes residing in them. I have heard the name Somvansi applied to a boy who belonged to the Baghel clan of Rājpūts, but he was of inferior status on account of his mother being a remarried widow, or something of the kind.

Rājpūt, Sūrajvansi

Rājpūt, Sūrajvansi.—The Sūrajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod gives no account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that the Sūrajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarāt in A.D. 224, but this is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the late dates now assigned for the origin of the important Rājpūt clans. Sūrajvansi should properly be a generic term denoting any Rājpūt belonging to a clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different times have been adopted by Rājpūts who were no longer recognised in their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous tribes who aspired to become Rājpūts. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned their own tribal name and call themselves Sūrajvansi Rājpūts;576 and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central Provinces the Sūrajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangābād, and here they form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other Rājpūt clans. Hence they would not be recognised as proper Rājpūts, and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste.

Rājpūt, Tomara

Rājpūt, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar.—This clan is an ancient one, supposed by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yādavas or lunar race. The name is said to come from tomar a club.577 The Tomara clan was considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramāditya, whose reign was the Hindu Golden Age, was held to have been sprung from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as that of Delhi having been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pāl I., in A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993–994, and Anangapāla, a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In 1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of Chandragupta Vikramāditya is incised, from its original position, probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the great mosque.578 This act apparently led to the tradition that Vikramāditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical antiquity being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisāl Deo, the Chauhān chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Rāj, reigned at Delhi, but was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently, perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Dīn Khilji, a Tomara dynasty established itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425–1454), had executed the celebrated rock-sculptures of Gwalior.579 In 1518 Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced to the status of an ordinary jāgīrdār. The Tomara clan is numerous in the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank, but in the United Provinces it is not so much esteemed.580 No ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the Tomaras or Tunwars belong principally to the Hoshangābād District The zamīndārs of Bilāspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara Rājpūts on the strength of the similarity of the name.

Rājpūt; Yādu

Rājpūt; Yādu, Yādava, Yādu-Bhatti, Jādon. 581—The Yādus are a well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yādu was the most illustrious of all the tribes of Ind, and became the patronymic of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu) race. It is not clear, even according to legendary tradition, what, if any, connection the Yādus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held to have been a prince of this tribe and founded Dwārka in Gujarāt with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been killed. Colonel Tod states that the Yādu after the death of Krishna, and their expulsion from Dwārka and Delhi, the last stronghold of their power, retired by Multān across the Indus, founded Ghazni in Afghānistān, and peopled these countries even to Samārcand. Again driven back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and founded Salbhānpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej and Gāra into the Indian deserts, where they founded Tannote, Derawāl and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 1157. It has been suggested in the main article on Rājpūt that the Yādus might have been the Sākas, who invaded India in the second century A.D. This is only a speculation. At a later date a Yādava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital at Deogiri or Daulatābād and its territory lying between that place and Nāsik.582 Mr. Smith states that these Yādava kings were descendants of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts of western India and also Gujarāt. The Yādu clan can scarcely, however, be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that case it would not probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member. The Yādava dynasty only lasted from A.D. 1150 to 1318, when the last prince of the line, Harāpala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to whom the king, his father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated, was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yādu-Bhatti Rājpūts of Jaisalmer claim descent from Sālivāhana, who founded the Sāka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era belonged to the Sāka dynasty of Gujarāt, where, according to the tradition given above, the Yādus also settled. This point is not important, but so far as it goes would favour the identification of the Sākas with the Yādavas.

The Bhatti branch of the Yādus claim descent from Bhāti, the grandson of Sālivāhana. They have no legend of having come from Gujarāt, but they had the title of Rāwal, which is used in Gujarāt, and also by the Sesodia clan who came from there. The Bhattis are said to have arrived in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city being founded much later in A.D. 1183. Jaisalmer State, the third in Rājputāna, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is desert, and a population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the title of Mahārāwal and receives a salute of fifteen guns. The Jareja Rājpūts of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yādus who have largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent from Jāmshīd, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states, the title of their rulers is Jām. They were formerly much addicted to female infanticide. The name Yādu has in other parts of India been corrupted into Jādon, and the class of Jādon Rājpūts is fairly numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have become a caste, its members marrying among themselves. This is also the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jādum, and have been treated under that name in a separate article. The small State of Karauli in Rājputāna is held by a Jādon chief.