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Rājpūt

[The following article is based mainly on Colonel Tod’s classical Annals and Antiquities of Rājasthān, 2nd ed., Madras, Higginbotham, 1873, and Mr. Crooke’s articles on the Rājpūt clans in his Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Much information as to the origin of the Rājpūt clans has been obtained from inscriptions and worked up mainly by the late Mr. A.M.T. Jackson and Messrs. B.G. and D.R. Bhandarkar; this has been set out with additions and suggestions in Mr. V.A. Smith’s Early History of India, 3rd ed., and has been reproduced in the subordinate articles on the different clans. Though many of the leading clans are very weakly represented in the Central Provinces, some notice of them is really essential in an article treating generally of the Rājpūt caste, on however limited a scale, and has therefore been included. In four cases, Panwār, Jādum, Rāghuvansi and Daharia, the original Rājpūt clans have now developed into separate cultivating castes, ranking well below the Rājpūts; separate articles have been written on these as for independent castes.]

1. Introductory notice

Rājpūt, Kshatriya, Chhatri, Thākur.—The Rājpūts are the representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior class, the second of the four main castes or orders of classical Hinduism, and were supposed to have been made originally from the arms of Brahma. The old name of Kshatriya is still commonly used in the Hindi form Chhatri, but the designation Rājpūt, or son of a king, has now superseded it as the standard name of the caste. Thākur, or lord, is the common Rājpūt title, and that by which they are generally addressed. The total number of persons returned as Rājpūts in the Province in 1911 was about 440,000. India has about nine million Rājpūts in all, and they are most numerous in the Punjab, the United Provinces, and Bihār and Orissa, Rājputāna returning under 700,000 and Central India about 800,000.

The bulk of the Rājpūts in the Central Provinces are of very impure blood. Several groups, such as the Panwārs of the Wainganga Valley, the Rāghuvansis of Chhindwāra and Nāgpur, the Jādams of Hoshangābād and the Daharias of Chhattīsgarh, have developed into separate castes and marry among themselves, though a true Rājpūt must not marry in his own clan. Some of them have abandoned the sacred thread and now rank with the good cultivating castes below Banias. Reference may be made to the separate articles on these castes. Similarly the Sūrajvansi, Gaur or Gorai, Chauhān, and Bāgri clans marry among themselves in the Central Provinces, and it is probable that detailed research would establish the same of many clans or parts of clans bearing the name of Rājpūt in all parts of India. If the definition of a proper Rājpūt were taken, as it should be correctly, as one whose family intermarried with clans of good standing, the caste would be reduced to comparatively small dimensions. The name Dhākar, also shown as a Rājpūt clan, is applied to a person of illegitimate birth, like Vidūr. Over 100,000 persons, or nearly a quarter of the total, did not return the name of any clan in 1911, and these are all of mixed or illegitimate descent. They are numerous in Nimār, and are there known as chhoti-tur or low-class Rājpūts. The Bāgri Rājpūts of Seoni and the Sūrajvansis of Betal marry among themselves, while the Bundelas of Saugor intermarry with two other local groups, the Panwār and Dhundhele, all the three being of impure blood. In Jubbulpore a small clan of persons known as Pāik or foot-soldier return themselves as Rājpūts, but are no doubt a mixed low-caste group. Again, some landholding sections of the primitive tribes have assumed the names of Rājpūt clans. Thus the zamīndārs of Bilāspur, who originally belonged to the Kawar tribe, call themselves Tuar or Tomara Rājpūts, and the landholding section of the Mundas in Chota Nāgpur say that they are of the Nāgvansi clan. Other names are returned which are not those of Rājpūt clans or their offshoots at all. If these subdivisions, which cannot be considered as proper Rājpūts, and all those who have returned no clan be deducted, there remain not more than 100,000 who might be admitted to be pure Rājpūts in Rājputāna. But a close local scrutiny even of these would no doubt result in the detection of many persons who have assumed and returned the names of good clans without being entitled to them. And many more would come away as being the descendants of remarried widows. A Rājpūt of really pure family and descent is in fact a person of some consideration in most parts of the Central Provinces.

2. The thirty-six royal races

Traditionally the Rājpūts are divided into thirty-six great clans or races, of which Colonel Tod gives a list compiled from different authorities as follows (alternative names by which the clan or important branches of it are known are shown in brackets):

• 1. Ikshwaka or Sūrajvansi.

• 2. Indu, Somvansi or Chandravansi.

• 3. Gahlot or Sesodia (Rāghuvansi).

• 4. Yādu (Bhatti, Jareja, Jādon, Banāphar).

• 5. Tuar or Tomara.

• 6. Rāthor.

• 7. Kachhwāha (Cutchwāha).

• 8. Prāmara or Panwār (Mori).

• 9. Chauhān (Hāra, Khichi, Nikumbh, Bhadauria).

• 10. Chalukya or Solankhi (Baghel).

• 11. Parihār.

• 12. Chawara or Chaura.

• 13. Tāk or Takshac (Nāgvansi, Mori).

• 14. Jit or Gete.

• 15. Hūna.

• 16. Kāthi.

• 17. Balla.

• 18. Jhalla.

• 19. Jaitwa or Kamari.

• 20. Gohil.

• 21. Sarweya.

• 22. Silar.

• 23. Dhābi.

• 24. Gaur.

• 25. Doda or Dor.

• 26. Gherwāl or Gaharwār (Bundela).

• 27. Badgūjar.

• 28. Sengar.

• 29. Sikarwāl.

• 30. Bais.

• 31. Dahia.

• 32. Johia.

• 33. Mohil.

• 34. Nikumbh.

• 35. Rājpali.

• 36. Dahima.

And two extra, Hul and Daharia.

Several of the above races are extinct or nearly so, and on the other hand some very important modern clans, as the Gautam, Dikhit and Bisen, and such historically important ones as the Chandel and Haihaya, are not included in the thirty-six royal races at all. Practically all the clans should belong either to the solar and lunar branch, that is, should be descended from the sun or moon, but the division, if it ever existed, is not fully given by Colonel Tod. Two special clans, the Sūrajvansi and Chandra or Somvansi, are named after the sun and moon respectively; and a few others, as the Sesodia, Kachhwāha, Gohil, Bais and Badgūjar, are recorded as being of the solar race, descended from Vishnu through his incarnation as Rāma. The Rāthors also claimed solar lineage, but this was not wholly conceded by the Bhāts, and the Dikhits are assigned to the solar branch by their legends. The great clan of the Yādavas, of whom the present Jādon or Jādum and Bhatti Rājpūts are representatives, was of the lunar race, tracing their descent from Krishna, though, as a matter of fact, Krishna was also an incarnation of Vishnu or the sun; and the Tuar or Tomara, as well as the Jit or Gete, the Rājpūt section of the modern Jāts, who were considered to be branches of the Yādavas, would also be of the moon division, The Gautam and Bisen clans, who are not included in the thirty-six royal races, now claim lunar descent. Four clans, the Panwār, Chauhān, Chalukya or Solankhi, and Parihār, had a different origin, being held to have been born through the agency of the gods from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu. They are hence known as Agnikula or the fire races. Several clans, such as the Tāk or Takshac, the Hūna and the Chaura, were considered by Colonel Tod to be the representatives of the Huns or Scythians, that is, the nomad invading tribes from Central Asia, whose principal incursions took place during the first five centuries of the Christian era.

At least six of the thirty-six royal races, the Sarweya, Silar, Doda or Dor, Dahia, Johia and Mohil, were extinct in Colonel Tod’s time, and others were represented only by small settlements in Rājputāna and Surat. On the other hand, there are now a large number of new clans, whose connection with the thirty-six is doubtful, though in many cases they are probably branches of the old clans who have obtained a new name on settling in a different locality.

3. The origin of the Rājpūts

It was for long the custom to regard the Rājpūts as the direct descendants and representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior class of the Indian Aryans, as described in the Vedas and the great epics. Even Colonel Tod by no means held this view in its entirety, and modern epigraphic research has caused its partial or complete abandonment Mr. V.A. Smith indeed says:⁴⁶⁰ “The main points to remember are that the Kshatriya or Rājpūt caste is essentially an occupational caste, composed of all clans following the Hindu ritual who actually undertook the act of government; that consequently people of most diverse races were and are lumped together as Rājpūts, and that most of the great clans now in existence are descended either from foreign immigrants of the fifth or sixth century A.D. or from indigenous races such as the Gonds and Bhars.” Colonel Tod held three clans, the Tāk or Takshac, the Hūna and the Chaura, to be descended from Scythian or nomad Central Asian immigrants, and the same origin has been given for the Haihaya. The Hūna clan actually retains the name of the White Huns, from whose conquests in the fifth century it probably dates its existence. The principal clan of the lunar race, the Yādavas, are said to have first settled in Delhi and at Dwārka in Gujarāt. But on the death of Krishna, who was their prince, they were expelled from these places, and retired across the Indus, settling in Afghānistan. Again, for some reason which the account does not clearly explain, they came at a later period to India and settled first in the Punjab and afterwards in Rājputāna. The Jit or Jāt and the Tomara clans were branches of the Yādavas, and it is supposed that the Jits or Jāts were also descended from the nomad invading tribes, possibly from the Yueh-chi tribe who conquered and occupied the Punjab during the first and second centuries.⁴⁶¹ The legend of the Yādavas, who lived in Gujarāt with their chief Krishna, but after his defeat and death retired to Central Asia, and at a later date returned to India, would appear to correspond fairly well with the Sāka invasion of the second century B.C. which penetrated to Kāthiāwār and founded a dynasty there. In A.D. 124 the second Sāka king was defeated by the Andhra king Vilivāyakura II. and his kingdom destroyed.⁴⁶² But at about the same period, the close of the first century, a fresh horde of the Sākas came to Gujarāt from Central Asia and founded another kingdom, which lasted until it was subverted by Chandragupta Vikramaditya about A.D. 390.⁴⁶³ The historical facts about the Sākas, as given on the authority of Mr. V.A. Smith, thus correspond fairly closely with the Yādava legend. And the later Yueh-chi immigrants might well be connected by the Bhāts with the Sāka hordes who had come at an earlier date from the same direction, and so the Jāts⁴⁶⁴ might be held to be an offshoot of the Yādavas. This connection of the Yādava and Jāt legends with the facts of the immigration of the Sākas and Yueh-chi appears a plausible one, but may be contradicted by historical arguments of which the writer is ignorant. If it were correct we should be justified in identifying the lunar clans of Rājpūts with the early Scythian immigrants of the first and second centuries. Another point is that Buddha is said to be the progenitor of the whole Indu or lunar race.⁴⁶⁵ It is obvious that Buddha had no real connection with these Central Asian tribes, as he died some centuries before their appearance in India. But the Yueh-chi or Kushān kings of the Punjab in the first and second centuries A.D. were fervent Buddhists and established that religion in the Punjab. Hence we can easily understand how, if the Yādus or Jāts and other lunar clans were descended from the Sāka and Yueh-chi immigrants, the legend of their descent from Buddha, who was himself a Kshatriya, might be devised for them by their bards when they were subsequently converted from Buddhism to Hinduism. The Sākas of western India, on the other hand, who it is suggested may be represented by the Yādavas, were not Buddhists in the beginning, whether or not they became so afterwards. But as has been seen, though Buddha was their first progenitor, Krishna was also their king while they were in Gujarāt, so that at this time they must have been supposed to be Hindus. The legend of descent from Buddha arising with the Yueh-chi or Kushāns might have been extended to them. Again, the four Agnikula or fire-born clans, the Parihār, Chalukya or Solankhi, Panwār and Chauhān, are considered to be the descendants of the White Hun and Gūjar invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries. These clans were said to have been created by the gods from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu for the re-birth of the Kshatriya caste after it had been exterminated by the slaughter of Parasurāma the Brāhman. And it has been suggested that this legend refers to the cruel massacres of the Huns, by which the bulk of the old aristocracy, then mainly Buddhist, was wiped out; while the Huns and Gūjars, one at least of whose leaders was a fervent adherent of Brāhmanism and slaughtered the Buddhists of the Punjab, became the new fire-born clans on being absorbed into Hinduism.⁴⁶⁶ The name of the Huns is still retained in the Hūna clan, now almost extinct. There remain the clans descended from the sun through Rāma, and it would be tempting to suppose that these are the representatives of the old Aryan Kshatriyas. But Mr. Bhandarkar has shown⁴⁶⁷ that the Sesodias, the premier clan of the solar race and of all Rājpūts, are probably sprung from Nāgar Brāhmans of Gujarāt, and hence from the Gūjar tribes; and it must therefore be supposed that the story of solar origin and divine ancestry was devised because they were once Brāhmans, and hence, in the view of the bards, of more honourable origin than the other clans. Similarly the Badgūjar clan, also of solar descent, is shown by its name of bara or great Gūjar to have been simply an aristocratic section of the Gūjars; while the pedigree of the Rāthors, another solar clan, and one of those who have shed most lustre on the Rājpūt name, was held to be somewhat doubtful by the Bhāts, and their solar origin was not fully admitted. Mr. Smith gives two great clans as very probably of aboriginal or Dravidian origin, the Gaharwār or Gherwāl, from whom the Bundelas are derived, and the Chandel, who ruled Bundelkhand from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, and built the fine temples at Mahoba, Kālanjar and Khajarāho as well as making many great tanks. This corresponds with Colonel Tod’s account, which gives no place to the Chandels among the thirty-six royal races, and states that the Gherwāl Rājpūt is scarcely known to his brethren in Rājasthān, who will not admit his contaminated blood to mix with theirs, though as a brave warrior he is entitled to their fellowship.⁴⁶⁸ Similarly the Kāthi clan may be derived from the indigenous Kāthi tribe who gave their name to Kāthiāwār. And the Sūrajvansi, Somvansi and Nāgvansi clans, or descendants of the sun, moon and snake, which are scarcely known in Rājputāna, may represent landholding sections of lower castes or non-Aryan tribes who have been admitted to Rājpūt rank. But even though it be found that the majority of the Rājpūt clans cannot boast a pedigree dating farther back than the first five centuries of our era, this is at any rate an antiquity to which few if any of the greatest European houses can lay claim.

4. Subdivisions of the clans

Many of the great clans are now split up into a number of branches. The most important of these were according to locality, the different sachae or branches being groups settled in separate areas. Thus the Chalukya or Solankhi had sixteen branches, of which the Baghels of Rewah or Baghelkhand were the most important. The Panwārs had thirty-five branches, of which the Mori and the Dhunda, now perhaps the Dhundele of Saugor, are the best known. The Gahlot had twenty-four branches, of which one, the Sesodia, became so important that it has given its name to the whole clan. The Chamār-Gaur section of the Gaur clan now claim a higher rank than the other Gaurs, though the name would apparently indicate the appearance of a Chamār in their family tree; while the Tilokchandi Bais form an aristocratic section of the Bais clan, named after a well-known king, Tilokchand, who reigned in upper India about the twelfth century and is presumably claimed by them as an ancestor. Besides this the Rājpūts have gotras, named after eponymous saints exactly like the Brāhman gotras, and probably adopted in imitation of the Brāhmans. Since, theoretically, marriage is prohibited in the whole clan, the gotra divisions would appear to be useless, but Sir H. Risley states that persons of the same clan but with different gotras have begun to intermarry. Similarly it would appear that the different branches of the great clans mentioned above must intermarry in some cases; while in the Central Provinces, as already stated, several clans have become regular castes and form endogamous and not exogamous groups. In northern India, however, Mr. Crooke’s accounts of the different clans indicate that marriage within the clan is as a rule not permitted. The clans themselves and their branches have different degrees of rank for purposes of marriage, according to the purity of their descent, while in each clan or subclan there is an inferior section formed of the descendants of remarried widows, or even the offspring of women of another caste, who have probably in the course of generations not infrequently got back into their father’s clan. Thus many groups of varying status arise, and one of the principal rules of a Rājpūt’s life was that he must marry his daughter, sometimes into a clan of equal, or sometimes into one of higher rank than his own. Hence arose great difficulty in arranging the marriages of girls and sometimes the payment of a price to the bridegroom; while in order to retain the favour of the Bhāts and avoid their sarcasm, lavish expenditure had to be incurred by the bride’s father on presents to these rapacious mendicants.⁴⁶⁹ Thus a daughter became in a Rājpūt’s eyes a long step on the road to ruin, and female infanticide was extensively practised. This crime has never been at all common in the Central Provinces, where the rule of marrying a daughter into an equal or higher clan has not been enforced with the same strictness as in northern India. But occasional instances formerly occurred in which the child’s neck was placed under one leg of its mother’s cot, or it was poisoned with opium or by placing the juice of the ākra or swallow-wort plant on the mother’s nipple.

5. Marriage customs

Properly the proposal for a Rājpūt marriage should emanate from the bride’s side, and the customary method of making it was to send a cocoanut to the bridegroom. ‘The cocoanut came,’ was the phrase used to intimate that a proposal of marriage had been made.⁴⁷⁰ It is possible that the bride’s initiative was a relic of the Swayamwāra or maiden’s choice, when a king’s daughter placed a garland on the neck of the youth she preferred among the competitors in a tournament, and among some Rājpūts the Jāyamāla or garland of victory is still hung round the bridegroom’s neck in memory of this custom; but it may also have been due to the fact that the bride had to pay the dowry. One tenth of this was paid as earnest when the match had been arranged, and the boy’s party could not then recede from it. At the entrance of the marriage-shed was hung the toran, a triangle of three wooden bars, having the apex crowned with the effigy of a peacock. The bridegroom on horseback, lance in hand, proceeded to break the toran, which was defended by the damsels of the bride. They assailed him with missiles of various kinds, and especially with red powder made from the flowers of the palās⁴⁷¹ tree, at the same time singing songs full of immoral allusions. At length the toran was broken amid the shouts of the retainers, and the fair defenders retired. If the bridegroom could not attend in person his sword was sent to represent him, and was carried round the marriage-post, with the bride, this being considered a proper and valid marriage. At the rite of hātleva or joining the hands of the couple it was customary that any request made by the bridegroom to the bride’s father should meet with compliance, and this usage has led to many fatal results in history. Another now obsolete custom was that the bride’s father should present an elephant to his son-in-law as part of the dowry, but when a man could not afford a real elephant a small golden image of the animal might be substituted. In noble families the bride was often accompanied to her husband’s house by a number of maidens belonging to the servant and menial castes. These were called Devadhari or lamp-bearers, and became inmates of the harem, their offspring being golas or slaves. In time of famine many of the poor had also perforce to sell themselves as slaves in order to obtain subsistence, and a chiefs household would thus contain a large number of them. They were still adorned in Mewār, Colonel Tod states, like the Saxon slaves of old, with a silver ring round the left ankle instead of the neck. They were well treated, and were often among the best of the military retainers; they took rank among themselves according to the quality of the mothers, and often held confidential places about the ruler’s person. A former chief of Deogarh would appear at court with three hundred golas or slaves on horseback in his train, men whose lives were his own.⁴⁷² These special customs have now generally been abandoned by the Rājpūts of the Central Provinces, and their weddings conform to the usual Hindu type as described in the article on Kurmi. The remarriage of widows is now recognised in the southern Districts, though not in the north; but even here widows frequently do marry and their offspring are received into the caste, though with a lower status than those who do not permit this custom. Among the Baghels a full Rājpūt will allow a relative born of a remarried widow to cook his food for him, but not to add the salt nor to eat it with him. Those who permit the second marriage of widows also allow a divorced woman to remain in the caste and to marry again. But among proper Rājpūts, as with Brāhmans, a wife who goes wrong is simply put away and expelled from the society. Polygamy is permitted and was formerly common among the chiefs. Each wife was maintained in a separate suite of rooms, and the chief dined and spent the evening alternately with each of them in her own quarters. The lady with her attendants would prepare dinner for him and wait upon him while he ate it, waving the punkah or fan behind him and entertaining him with her remarks, which, according to report, frequently constituted a pretty severe curtain lecture.