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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to its former glory, and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyān, which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries and a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190.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.

Rajwār

Rajwār. ⁵⁸³—A low cultivating caste of Bihār and Chota Nāgpur, who are probably an offshoot of the Bhuiyas. In 1911 a total of 25,000 Rajwārs were returned in the Central Provinces, of whom 22,000 belong to the Sargūja State recently transferred from Bengal. Another 2000 persons are shown in Bilāspur, but these are Mowārs, an offshoot of the Rajwārs, who have taken to the profession of gardening and have changed their name. They probably rank a little higher than the bulk of the Rajwārs. “Traditionally,” Colonel Dalton states, “the Rajwārs appear to connect themselves with the Bhuiyas; but this is only in Bihār. The Rajwārs in Sargūja and the adjoining States are peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be fallen Kshatriyas; they do not, however, conform to Hindu customs, and they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which I believe to be of Dravidian origin. The Rajwārs of Bengal admit that they are the descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. They are looked upon as very impure by the Hindus, who will not take water from their hands.” The Rajwārs of Bihār told Buchanan that their ancestor was a certain Rishi, who had two sons. From the elder were descended the Rajwārs, who became soldiers and obtained their noble title; and from the younger the Musāhars, who were so called from their practice of eating rats, which the Rajwārs rejected. The Musāhars, as shown by Sir H. Risley, are probably Bhuiyas degraded to servitude in Hindu villages, and this story confirms the Bhuiya origin of the Rajwārs. In the Central Provinces the Bhuiyas have a subcaste called Rajwār, which further supports this hypothesis, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that the Rajwārs are an offshoot of the Bhuiyas, as they themselves say, in Bihār. The substitution of Kols for Bhuiyas in Bengal need not cause much concern in view of the great admixture of blood and confused nomenclature of all the Chota Nāgpur tribes. In Bengal, where the Bhuiyas have settled in Hindu villages, and according to the usual lot of the forest tribes who entered the Hindu system have been degraded into the servile and impure caste of Musāhars, the Rajwārs have shared their fate, and are also looked upon as impure. But in Chota Nāgpur the Bhuiyas have their own villages and live apart from the Hindus, and here the Rajwārs, like the landholding branches of other forest tribes, claim to be an inferior class of Rājpūts.

In Sargūja the caste have largely adopted Hindu customs. They abstain from liquor, employ low-class Brāhmans as priests, and worship the Hindu deities. When a man wishes to arrange a match for his son he takes a basket of wheat-cakes and proceeding to the house of the girl’s father sets them down outside. If the match is acceptable the girl’s mother comes and takes the cakes into the house and the betrothal is then considered to be ratified. At the wedding the bridegroom smears vermilion seven times on the parting of the bride’s hair, and the bride’s younger sister then wipes a little of it off with the end of the cloth. For this service she is paid a rupee by the bridegroom. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. After the birth of a child the mother is given neither food nor water for two whole days; on the third day she gets only boiled water to drink and on the fourth day receives some food. The period of impurity after a birth extends to twelve days. When the navel-string drops it is carefully put away until the next Dasahra, together with the child’s hair, which is cut on the sixth day. On the Dasahra festival all the women of the village take them to a tank, where a lotus plant is worshipped and anointed with oil and vermilion, and the hair and navel-string are then buried at its roots. The dead are burned, and the more pious keep the bones with a view to carrying them to the Ganges or some other sacred river. Pending this, the bones are deposited in the cow-house, and a lamp is kept burning in it every night so long as they are there. The Rajwārs believe that every man has a soul or Prān, and they think that the soul leaves the body, not only at death, but whenever he is asleep or becomes unconscious owing to injury or illness. Dreams are the adventures of the soul while wandering over the world apart from the body. They think it very unlucky for a man to see his own reflection in water and carefully avoid doing so.

Rāmosi

1. General notice

Rāmosi, Rāmoshi.—A criminal tribe of the Bombay Presidency, of which about 150 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911. They belong to the western tract of the Satpūras adjoining Khāndesh. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Rāmvansi, meaning ‘The descendants of Rāma.’ They say⁵⁸⁴ that when Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyana, was driven from his kingdom by his step-mother Kaikeyi, he went to the forest land south of the Nerbudda. His brother Bharat, who had been raised to the throne, could not bear to part with Rāma, so he followed him to the forest, began to do penance, and made friends with a rough but kindly forest tribe. After Rāma’s restoration Bharat took two foresters with him to Ajodhia (Oudh) and brought them to the notice of Rāma, who appointed them village watchmen and allowed them to take his name. If this is the correct derivation it may be compared with the name of Rāwanvansi or Children of Rāwan, the opponent of Rāma, which is applied to the Gonds of the Central Provinces. The Rāmosis appear to be a Hinduised caste derived from the Bhīls or Kolis or a mixture of the two tribes. They were formerly a well-known class of robbers and dacoits. The principal scenes of their depredations were the western Ghāts, and an interesting description of their methods is given by Captain Mackintosh in his account of the tribe.⁵⁸⁵ Some extracts from this are here reproduced.

2. Methods of robbery

They armed themselves chiefly with swords, taking one, two or three matchlocks, or more should they judge it necessary. Several also carried their shields and a few had merely sticks, which were in general shod with small bars of iron from eight to twelve inches in length, strongly secured by means of rings and somewhat resembling the ancient mace. One of the party carried a small copper or earthen pot or a cocoanut-shell with a supply of ghī or clarified butter in it, to moisten their torches with before they commenced their operations. The Rāmosis endeavoured as much as possible to avoid being seen by anybody either when they were proceeding to the object of their attack or returning afterwards to their houses. They therefore travelled during the night-time; and before daylight in the morning they concealed themselves in a jungle or ravine near some water, and slept all day, proceeding in this way for a long distance till they reached the vicinity of the village to be attacked. When they were pursued and much pressed, at times they would throw themselves into a bush or under a prickly pear plant, coiling themselves up so carefully that the chances were their pursuers would pass them unnoticed. If they intended to attack a treasure party they would wait at some convenient spot on the road and sally out when it came abreast of them, first girding up their loins and twisting a cloth tightly round their faces, to prevent the features from being recognised. Before entering the village where their dacoity or durrowa was to be perpetrated, torches were made from the turban of one of the party, which was torn into three, five or seven pieces, but never into more, the pieces being then soaked with butter. The same man always supplied the turban and received in exchange the best one taken in the robbery. Those who were unarmed collected bags of stones, and these were thrown at any people who tried to interfere with them during the dacoity. They carried firearms, but avoided using them if possible, as their discharge might summon defenders from a distance. They seldom killed or mutilated their victims, except in a fight, but occasionally travellers were killed after being robbed as a measure of precaution. They retreated with their spoils as rapidly as possible to the nearest forest or hill, and from there, after distributing the booty into bags to make it portable, they marched off in a different direction from that in which they had come. Before reaching their homes one of the party was deputed with an offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an offering to their god Khandoba or the goddess Bhawāni in fulfilment of a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Nāik or headman, who divided it into equal shares for members of the gang, keeping a double share for himself.

3. Rāmosis employed as village watchmen

In order to protect themselves from the depredations of these gangs the villagers adopted a system of hiring a Rāmosi as a surety to be responsible for their property, and this man gradually became a Rakhwāldār or village watchman. He received a grant of land rent-free and other perquisites, and also a fee from all travellers and gangs of traders who halted in the village in return for his protection during the night. If a theft or house-breaking occurred in a village, the Rāmosi was held responsible to the owner for the value of the property, unless a large gang had been engaged. If he failed to discover the thief he engaged to make the lost property good to the owner within fifteen days or a month unless its value was considerable. If a gang had been engaged, the Rāmosi, accompanied by the patel and other village officials and cultivators, proceeded to track them by their footprints. Obtaining a stick he cut it to the exact length of the footprint, or several such if a number of prints could be discovered, and followed the tracks, measuring the footprints, to the boundary of the village. The inhabitants of the adjoining village were then called and were responsible for carrying on the trail through their village. The measures of footprints were handed over to them, and after satisfying themselves that the marks came from outside and extended into their land they took up the trail accompanied by the Rāmosi. In this way the gang was tracked from village to village, and if it was run to earth the residents of the villages to which it belonged had to make good the loss. If the tracks were lost owing to the robbers having waded along a stream or got on to rocky ground or into a public road, then the residents of the village in whose borders the line failed were considered responsible for the stolen property. Usually, however, a compromise was made, and they paid half, while the other half was raised from the village in which the theft occurred. If the Rāmosi failed to track the thieves out of the village he had to make good the value of the theft, but he was usually assisted by the village officer. Often, too, the owner had to be contented with half or a quarter of the amount lost as compensation. In the early part of the century the Rāmosis of Poona became very troublesome and constantly committed robberies in the houses of Europeans. As a consequence a custom grew up of employing a Rāmosi as chaukidār or watchman for guarding the bungalow at night on a salary of seven rupees a month, and soon became general. It was the business of the Rāmosi watchman to prevent other Rāmosis from robbing the house. Apparently this was the common motive for the custom, prevalent up to recent years, of paying a man solely for the purpose of watching the house at night, and it originated, as in Poona, as a form of insurance and an application of the proverb of setting a thief to catch a thief. The selection of village watchmen from among the low, criminal castes appears to have been made on the same principle.