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Rājpūt, Chauhān

Rājpūt, Chauhān.—The Chauhān was the last of the Agnikula or fire-born clans, According to the legend: “Again Vasishtha seated on the lotus prepared incantations; again he called the gods to aid; and as he poured forth the libation a figure arose, lofty in stature, of elevated front, hair like jet, eyes rolling, breast expanded, fierce, terrific, clad in armour with quiver filled, a bow in one hand and a brand in the other, quadriform (Chaturanga), whence his name was given as Chauhān.” This account makes the Chauhān the most important of the fire-born clans, and Colonel Tod says that he was the most valiant of the Agnikulas, and it may be asserted not of them only but of the whole Rājpūt race; and though the swords of the Rāhtors would be ready to contest the point, impartial decision must assign to the Chauhān the van in the long career of arms.⁵¹⁷ General Cunningham shows that even so late as the time of Prithwi Rāj in the twelfth century the Chauhāns had no claim to be sprung from fire, but were content to be considered descendants of a Brāhman sage Bhrigu.⁵¹⁸ Like the other Agnikula clans the Chauhāns are now considered to have sprung from the Gurjara or White Hun invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries, but I do not know whether this is held to be definitely proved in their case. Sāmbhar and Ajmer in Rājputāna appear to have been the first home of the clan, and inscriptions record a long line of thirty-nine kings as reigning there from Anhul, the first created Chauhān. The last but one of them, Vigraha Rāja or Bisāl Deo, in the middle of the twelfth century extended the ancestral dominions considerably, and conquered Delhi from a chief of the Tomara clan. At this time the Chauhāns, according to their own bards, held the line of the Nerbudda from Garha-Mandla to Maheshwar and also Asīrgarh, while their dominions extended north to Hissar and south to the Aravalli hills.⁵¹⁹ The nephew of Bisāl Deo was Prithwi Rāj, the most famous Chauhān hero, who ruled at Sāmbhar, Ajmer and Delhi. His first exploit was the abduction of the daughter of Jaichand, the Gaharwār Rāja of Kanauj, in about A.D. 1175. The king of Kanauj had claimed the title of universal sovereign and determined to celebrate the Ashwa-Medha or horse-sacrifice, at which all the offices should be performed by vassal kings. Prithwi Rāj alone declined to attend as a subordinate, and Jaichand therefore made a wooden image of him and set it up at the gate in the part of doorkeeper. But when his daughter after the tournament took the garland of flowers to bestow it on the chief whom she chose for her husband, she passed by all the assembled nobles and threw the garland on the neck of the wooden image. At this moment Prithwi Rāj dashed in with a few companions, and catching her up, escaped with her from her father’s court.⁵²⁰ Afterwards, in 1182, Prithwi Rāj defeated the Chandel Rāja Parmāl and captured Mahoba. In 1191 Prithwi Rāj was the head of a confederacy of Hindu princes in combating the invasion of Muhammad Ghori. He repelled the Muhammadans at Tarāin about two miles north of Delhi, but in the following year was completely defeated and killed at Thaneswar, and soon afterwards Delhi and Ajmer fell to the Muhammadans. The Chauhān kingdom was broken up, but scattered parts of it remained, and about A.D. 1307 Asīrgarh in Nimār, which continued to be held by the Chauhāns, was taken by Ala-ud-Dīn Khilji and the whole garrison put to the sword except one boy. This boy, Raisi Chauhān, escaped to Rājputāna, and according to the bardic chronicle his descendants formed the Hāra branch of the Chauhāns and conquered from the Mīnas the tract known as Hāravati, from which they perhaps took their name.⁵²¹ This is now comprised in the Kotah and Bundi states, ruled by Hāra chiefs. Another well-known offshoot from the Chauhāns are the Khīchi clan, who belong to the Sind-Sāgar Doāb; and the Nikumbh and Bhadauria clans are also derived from them. The Chauhāns are numerous in the Punjab and United Provinces and rank as one of the highest Rājpūt clans. In the Central Provinces they are found principally in the Narsinghpur and Hoshangābād Districts, and also in Mandla. The Chauhān Rājpūts of Mandla marry among themselves, with other Chauhāns of Mandla, Seoni and Bālāghāt They have exogamous sections with names apparently derived from villages like an ordinary caste. The remarriage of widows is forbidden, but those widows who desire to do so go and live with a man and are put out of caste. This, however, is said not to happen frequently. A widow’s hair is not shaved, but her glass bangles are broken, she is dressed in white, made to sleep on the ground, and can wear no ornaments. Owing to the renown of the clan their name has been adopted by numerous classes of inferior Rājpūts and low Hindu castes who have no right to it. Thus in the Punjab a large subcaste of Chamārs call themselves Chauhān, and in the Bilāspur District a low caste of village watchmen go by this name. These latter may be descendants of the illegitimate offspring of Chauhān Rājpūts by low-caste women.

Rājpūt, Dhākar

Rājpūt, Dhākar.—In the Central Provinces this term has the meaning of one of illegitimate descent, and it is often used by the Kirārs, who are probably of mixed descent from Rājpūts. In northern India, however, the Dhākars are a clan of Rājpūts, who claim Sūrajvansi origin; but this is not generally admitted. Mr. Crooke states that some are said to be emigrants from the banks of the Nerbudda; but the main body say they came from Ajmer in the sixteenth century. They were notorious in the eighteenth century for their lawlessness, and gave the imperial Mughal officers much trouble in the neighbourhood of Agra, rendering the communications between that city and Etāwah insecure. In the Mutiny they broke out again, and are generally a turbulent, ill-conducted sept, always ready for petty acts of violence and cattle-stealing. They are, however, recognised as Rājpūts of good position and intermarry with the best clans.⁵²²

In the Central Provinces the Dhākars are found principally in Hoshangābād, and it is doubtful if they are proper Rājpūts.

Rājpūt, Gaharwār

Rājpūt, Gaharwār, Gherwāl.—This is an old clan. Mr. V.A. Smith states that they had been dominant in Central India about Nowgong and Chhatarpur before the Parihārs in the eighth century. The Parihār kings were subsequently overthrown by the Chandels of Mahoba. In their practice of building embankments and constructing lakes the Chandels were imitators of the Gaharwārs, who are credited with the formation of some of the most charming lakes in Bundelkhand.⁵²³ And in A.D. 1090 a Rāja of the Gaharwār clan called Chandradeva seized Kanauj (on the Ganges north-west of Lucknow), and established his authority certainly over Benāres and Ajodhia, and perhaps over the Delhi territory. Govindachandra, grandson of Chandradeva, enjoyed a long reign, which included the years A.D. 1114 and 1154. His numerous land grants and widely distributed coins prove that he succeeded to a large extent in restoring the glories of Kanauj, and in making himself a power of considerable importance. The grandson of Govindachandra was Jayachandra, renowned in the popular Hindu poems and tales of northern India as Rāja Jaichand, whose daughter was carried off by the gallant Rai Pithora or Prithwi Rāj of Ajmer. Kanauj was finally captured and destroyed by Shihāb-ud-Dīn in 1193, when Jaichand retired towards Benāres but was overtaken and slain.⁵²⁴ His grandson, Mr. Crooke says,⁵²⁵ afterwards fled to Kantit in the Mīrzāpur District and, overcoming the Bhar Rāja of that place, founded the family of the Gaharwār Rājas of Kantīt Bijaypur, which was recently still in existence. All the other Gaharwārs trace their lineage to Benāres or Bijaypur. The predecessors of the Gaharwārs in Kantit and in a large tract of country lying contiguous to it were the Bhars, an indigenous race of great enterprise, who, though not highly civilised, were far removed from barbarism. According to Sherring they have left numerous evidences of their energy and skill in earthworks, forts, dams and the like.⁵²⁶ Similarly Elliot says of the Bhars: “Common tradition assigns to them the possession of the whole tract from Gorakhpur to Bundelkhand and Saugor, and the large pargana of Bhadoi or Bhardai in Benāres is called after their name. Many old stone forts, embankments and subterranean caverns in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Mīrzāpur and Allahābād, which are ascribed to them, would seem to indicate no inconsiderable advance in civilisation.”⁵²⁷ Colonel Tod says of the Gaharwārs: “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.”⁵²⁸ It is thus curious that the Gaharwārs, who are one of the oldest clans to appear in authentic history, if they ruled Central India in the eighth century before the Parihārs, should be considered to be of very impure origin. And as they are subsequently found in Mīrzāpur, a backward forest tract which is also the home of the Bhars, and both the Gaharwārs and Bhars have a reputation as builders of tanks and forts, it seems likely that the Gaharwārs were really, as suggested by Mr. V.A. Smith, the aristocratic branch of the Bhars, probably with a considerable mixture of Rājpūt blood. Elliot states that the Bhars formerly occupied the whole of Azamgarh, the pargana of Bara in Allahābād and Khariagarh in the Kanauj tract. This widespread dominance corresponds with what has been already stated as regards the Gaharwārs, who, according to Mr. V.A. Smith, ruled in Central India, Kanauj, Oudh, Benāres and Mīrzāpur. And the name Gaharwār, according to Dr. Hoernle, is connected with the Sanskrit root gah, and has the sense of ‘dwellers in caves or deep jungle.’⁵²⁹ The origin of the Gaharwārs is of interest in the Central Provinces, because it is from them that the Bundela clan of Saugor and Bundelkhand is probably descended.⁵³⁰

The Gaharwārs, Mr. Crooke states, now hold a high rank among Rājpūt septs; they give daughters to the Baghel, Chandel and Bisen, and take brides of the Bais, Gautam, Chauhān, Parihār and other clans. The Gaharwārs are found in small numbers in the Central Provinces, chiefly in the Chhattīsgarh Districts and Feudatory States.

Rājpūt, Gaur

Rājpūt, Gaur, Chamar Gaur.—Colonel Tod remarks of this tribe: “The Gaur tribe was once respected in Rājasthān, though it never there attained to any considerable eminence. The ancient kings of Bengal were of this race, and gave their name to the capital, Lakhnauti.” This town in Bengal, and the kingdom of which it was the capital, were known as Ganda, and it has been conjectured that the Gaur Brāhmans and Rājpūts were named after it. Sir H.M. Elliot and Mr. Crooke, however, point out that the home of the Gaur Brāhmans and Rājpūts and a cultivating caste, the Gaur Tāgas, is in the centre and west of the United Provinces, far removed from Bengal; the Gaur Brāhmans now reside principally in the Meerut Division, and between them and Bengal is the home of the Kanaujia Brāhmans. General Cunningham suggests that the country comprised in the present Gonda District round the old town of Sravāsti, was formerly known as Gauda, and was hence the origin of the caste name.⁵³¹ The derivation from Gaur in Bengal is perhaps, however, more probable, as the name was best known in connection with this tract. The Gaur Rājpūts do not make much figure in history. “Repeated mention of them is found in the wars of Prithwi Rāj as leaders of considerable renown, one of whom founded a small state in the centre of India. This survived through seven centuries of Mogul domination, till it at length fell a prey indirectly to the successes of the British over the Marāthas, when Sindhia in 1809 annihilated the power of the Gaur and took possession of his capital, Supur.”⁵³²

In the United Provinces the Gaur Rājpūts are divided into three groups, the Bāhman, or Brāhman, the Bhāt, and the Chamār Gaur. Of these the Chamār Gaur, curiously enough appear to rank the highest, which is accounted for by the following story: When trouble fell upon the Gaur family, one of their ladies, far advanced in pregnancy, took refuge in a Chamār’s house, and was so grateful to him for his disinterested protection that she promised to call her child by his name. The Bhāts and Brāhmans, to whom the others fled, do not appear to have shown a like chivalry, and hence, strange as it may appear, the subdivisions called after their name rank below the Chamār Gaur.⁵³³ The names of the subsepts indicate that this clan of Rājpūts is probably of mixed origin. If the Brāhman subsept is descended from Brāhmans, it would be only one of several probable cases of Rājpūt clans originating from this caste. As regards the Bhāt subcaste, the Chārans or Bhāts of Rājputāna are admittedly Rājpūts, and there is therefore nothing curious in finding a Bhāt subsection in a Rājpūt clan. What the real origin of the Chamār Gaurs was is difficult to surmise. The Chamār Gaur is now a separate clan, and its members intermarry with the other Gaur Rājpūts, affording an instance of the subdivision of clans. In the Central Provinces the greater number of the persons returned as Gaur Rājpūts really belong to a group known as Gorai, who are considered to be the descendants of widows or kept women in the Gaur clan, and marry among themselves. They should really therefore be considered a separate caste, and not members of the Rājpūt caste proper. In the United Provinces the Gaurs rank with the good Rājpūt clans. In the Central Provinces the Gaur and Chamār-Gaur clans are returned from most Districts of the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda divisions, and also in considerable numbers from Bhandāra.

Rājpūt, Haihaya

Rājpūt, Haihaya, Haihaivansi, Kālaehuri.—This well-known historical clan of the Central Provinces is not included among the thirty-six royal races, and Colonel Tod gives no information about them. The name Haihaya is stated to be a corruption of Ahihaya, which means snake-horse, the legend being that the first ancestor of the clan was the issue of a snake and a mare. Haihaivansi signifies descendants of the horse. Colonel Tod states that the first capital of the Indu or lunar race was at Mahesvati on the Nerbudda, still existing as Maheshwar, and was founded by Sahasra Arjuna of the Haihaya tribe.⁵³⁴ This Arjuna of the thousand arms was one of the Pāndava brothers, and it may be noted that the Ratanpur Haihaivansis still have a story of their first ancestor stealing a horse from Arjuna, and a consequent visit of Arjuna and Krishna to Ratanpur for its recovery. Since the Haihayas also claim descent from a snake and are of the lunar race, it seems not unlikely that they may have belonged to one of the Scythian or Tartar tribes, the Sākas or Yueh-chi, who invaded India shortly after the commencement of the Christian era, as it has been conjectured that the other lunar Rājpūt clans worshipping or claiming descent from a snake originated from these tribes. The Haihaivansis or Kālachuris became dominant in the Nerbudda valley about the sixth century, their earliest inscription being dated A.D. 580. Their capital was moved to Tripura or Tewar near Jubbulpore about A.D. 900, and from here they appear to have governed an extensive territory for about 300 years, and were frequently engaged in war with the adjoining kingdoms, the Chandels of Mahoba, the Panwārs of Mālwa, and the Chalukyas of the south. One king, Gangeyadeva, appears even to have aspired to become the paramount power in northern India, and his sovereignty was recognised in distant Tirhūt. Gangeyadeva was fond of residing at the foot of the holy fig-tree of Prayāga (Allahābād), and eventually found salvation there with his hundred wives. From about A.D. 1100 the power of the Kālachuri or Haihaya princes began to decline, and their last inscription is dated A.D. 1196. It is probable that they were subverted by the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla, the first of whom, Jadurai, appears to have been in the service of the Kālachuri king, and subsequently with the aid of a dismissed minister to have supplanted his former-master.⁵³⁵ The kingdom of the Kālachuri or Haihaya kings was known as Chedi, and, according to Mr. V.A. Smith, corresponded more or less roughly to the present area of the Central Provinces.⁵³⁶

In about the tenth century a member of the reigning family of Tripura was appointed viceroy of some territories in Chhattīsgarh, and two or three generations afterwards his family became practically independent of the parent house, and established their own capital at Ratanpur in Bilāspur District (A.D. 1050). This state was known as Dakshin or southern Kosāla. During the twelfth century its importance rapidly increased, partly no doubt on the ruins of the Jubbulpore kingdom, until the influence of the Ratanpur princes, Ratnadeva II. and Prithwideva II., may be said to have extended from Amarkantak to beyond the Godāvari, and from the confines of Berār in the west to the boundaries of Orissa in the east.⁵³⁷ The Ratanpur kingdom of Chedi or Dakshin Kosāla was the only one of the Rājpūt states in the Central Provinces which escaped subversion by the Gonds, and it enjoyed a comparatively tranquil existence till A.D. 1740, when Ratanpur fell to the Marāthas almost without striking a blow. “The only surviving representative of the Haihayas of Ratanpur,” Mr. Wills states,⁵³⁸ “is a quite simple-minded Rājpūt who lives at Bargaon in Raipur District. He represents the junior or Raipur branch of the family, and holds five villages which were given him revenue-free by the Marāthas for his maintenance. The mālguzār of Senduras claims descent from the Ratanpur family, but his pretensions are doubtful. He enjoys no privileges such as those of the Bargaon Thākur, to whom presents are still made when he visits the chiefs who were once subordinate to his ancient house.” In the Ballia District of the United Provinces⁵³⁹ are some Hayobans Rājpūts who claim descent from the Ratanpur kings. Chandra Got, a cadet of this house, is said to have migrated northwards in A.D. 850⁵⁴⁰ and settled in the Sāran District on the Ganges, where he waged successful war with the aboriginal Cheros. Subsequently one of his descendants violated a Brāhman woman called Maheni of the house of his Purohit or family priest, who burnt herself to death, and is still locally worshipped. After this tragedy the Hayobans Rājpūts left Sāran and settled in Ballia. Colonel Tod states that, “A small branch of these ancient Haihayas yet exist in the country of the Nerbudda, near the very top of the valley, at Sohāgpur in Baghelkhand, aware of their ancient lineage, and, though few in number, are still celebrated for their valour.”⁵⁴¹ This Sohāgpur must apparently be the Sohāgpur tahsīl of Rewah, ceded from Mandla after the Mutiny.

Rājpūt, Hūna

Rājpūt, Hūna, Hoon.—This clan retains the name and memory of the Hun barbarian hordes, who invaded India at or near the epoch of their incursions into Europe. It is practically extinct; but in his Western India Colonel Tod records the discovery of a few families of Hūnas in Baroda State: “At a small village opposite Ometa I discovered a few huts of Huns, still existing under the ancient name of Hoon, by which they are known to Hindu history. There are said to be three or four families of them at the village of Trisavi, three kos from Baroda, and although neither feature nor complexion indicate much relation to the Tartar-visaged Hun, we may ascribe the change to climate and admixture of blood, as there is little doubt that they are descended from these invaders, who established a sovereignty on the Indus in the second and sixth centuries of the Christian era, and became so incorporated with the Rājpūt population as to obtain a place among the thirty-six royal races of India, together with the Gete, the Kāthi, and other tribes of the Sacae from Central Asia, whose descendants still occupy the land of the sun-worshipping Saura or Chaura, no doubt one of the same race.”