Rajput (from
Sanskritraja-putra 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the
Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various
patrilineal clans historically associated with
warriorhood. All these Rajput clans are descended from the
Vedic Kshatriyas. There are four major branches of Vedic Kshatriyas which are
Suryavansh,
Chandravansh,
Agnivansh and
Rishivansh.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
There are three basic lineages (vanshas or vamshas) among Rajputs. Each of these lineages is divided into several clans (kula) (total of 36 clans).[7]Suryavanshi denotes descent from the solar deity
Surya,
Chandravanshi (
Somavanshi) from the lunar deity
Chandra, and
Agnivanshi from the fire deity
Agni. The Agnivanshi clans include
Parmar, Chaulukya (
Solanki),
Parihar and Chauhan.[8][1]
Lesser-noted vansh include Udayvanshi,
Rajvanshi,[9] and
Rishivanshi[citation needed]. The histories of the various vanshs were later recorded in documents known as vamshāavalīis; André Wink counts these among the "status-legitimizing texts".[10][1]
Beneath the vansh division are smaller and smaller subdivisions: kul, shakh ("branch"), khamp or khanp ("twig"), and nak ("twig tip").[11] Marriages within a kul are generally disallowed (with some flexibility for kul-mates of different gotra lineages). The kul serves as the primary identity for many of the Rajput clans, and each kul is protected by a family goddess, the kuldevi. Lindsey Harlan notes that in some cases, shakhs have become powerful enough to be functionally kuls in their own right.[12][1]
Suryavanshi (Ikshvaku) lineage of Rajputs
The Suryavanshi lineage (also known as the Raghuvanshies or Solar Dynasty) are clans who claim descent from Surya, the Hindu Sun-god.[13]
In medieval Indian history, Rajputs made several regiments, special battalions and mercenaries specially during Rajput Era to fight against foreign invaders which consisted of Rajput soldiers from some or all Rajput clans. Their descendents still use those regiment Rajput surnames.[18][19][20]
The 36 royal races (Chathis Rajkula) is a listing of Indian social groups purported to be the royal (ruling) clans of several states and Janapads spread over northern Indian subcontinent. Among the historical attempts at creating a comprehensive listing of the 36 are the Kumarapala Prabandha of
Acharya Jinamandan Gani of 1435 AD,[22]Prithviraj Raso of uncertain date, and Colonel
James Tod, writing in 1829.
A listing of the 36 was attempted by Tod in his 1829 work Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (volume 1). The "races" are further subdivided into 157 branches ( i.e. sakhas), and genealogical, cultural, and geographic information given for each, though some of the sakhas are extinct.[25]
The principal ones like the Ghilote having 24 sub-branches, the Tuar or Tanwar or Toor 17, the Rathor 13, the Parmara 35, the Chamhan or Chauhan 26, the Challook or Solanki 16, and the Pratihara 12. Each sakha has its Gotracharya of genealogical creed describing the characteristics, religious practices, and the locale of the clan.[26]
As early as 1872, Tod's list was criticised in the Calcutta Review:
It seems a pity that Tod's classification of 36 royal races should be accepted as anything but a purely ornamental arrangement, founded as it was on lists differing considerably both in the numbers and names of the tribes included in it...[27]
Tod listed the
Jats as one of the 36 royal races. The Persian form of the ancient term Jit is Jatt (जट्ट) with short vowel and double short ‘t’.[28] Tod included "Raj Pali" on the list and described them as
Aheer or Ahir.[29][30]
^
abcdeKumar Cheda Singh Verma (21 April 2024).
Kshatriyas and Would-be Kshatriyas. It is proved in this book that Rajputs are the pure Vedic Kshatriyas. Rajput is a synonym of Rajputra, which is equivalent term used to denote Kshatriyas. This book proves that Rajputs are descended from Vedic Kshatriyas.
^Eugenia Vanina 2012, p. 140:Regarding the initial stages of this history and the origin of the Rajput feudal elite, modern research shows that its claims to direct blood links with epic heroes and ancient kshatriyas in general has no historic substantiation. No adequate number of the successors of these epically acclaimed warriors could have been available by the period of seventh-eights centuries AD when the first references to the Rajput clans and their chieftains were made. [...] almost all Rajput clans originated from the semi-nomadic pastoralists of the Indian north and north-west.
^Daniel Gold (1 January 1995).
David N. Lorenzen (ed.).
Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. State University of New York Press. p. 122.
ISBN978-0-7914-2025-6. Paid employment in military service as Dirk H. A. Kolff has recently demonstrated, was an important means of livelihood for the peasants of certain areas of late medieval north India... In earlier centuries, says Kolff, "Rajput" was a more ascriptive term, referring to all kinds of Hindus who lived the life of the adventuring warrior, of whom most were of peasant origins.
^Richard Eaton 2019, p. 87,
[1]In Gujarat, as in Rajasthan, genealogy proved essential for making such claims. To this end, local bards composed ballads or chronicles that presented their patrons as idea warriors who protected Brahmins, cows and vassals, as opposed to the livestock herding chieftains that they actually were, or had once been. As people, who created and preserved the genealogies, local bards therefore played critical roles in brokering for their clients socio-cultural transitions to a claimed Rajput status. A similar thing was happening in the Thar desert region, where from the fourteenth century onwards mobile pastoral groups gradually evolved into landed, sedentary and agrarian clans. Once again, it was bards and poets, patronized by little kings, who transformed a clan's ancestors from celebrated cattle-herders or cattle-rustlers to celebrated protectors of cattle-herding communities. The difference was subtle but critical, since such revised narratives retained an echo of a pastoral nomadic past while repositioning a clan's dynastic founder from pastoralist to non-pastoralist. The term 'Rajput', in short, had become a prestigious title available for adoption by upwardly mobile clan in the process of becoming sedentary. By one mechanism or another, a process of 'Rajputization' occurred in new states that emerged from the turmoil following Timur's invasion in 1398, especially in Gujarat, Malwa and Rajasthan.