Rajput

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)
For the 1982 film, see Rajput (film).

Rajput
Classification
Pahari (Dogri)
CountryIndia, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh
RegionRajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Eastern Punjab, Western Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,[5] and Sindh
Historical groupingKshatriya

Rajput (from

patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood
: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.

Over time, the Rajputs emerged as a social class comprising people from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds. From 12th to 16th centuries, the membership of this class became largely hereditary, although new claims to Rajput status continued to be made in the later centuries. Several Rajput-ruled kingdoms played a significant role in many regions of central and northern India from seventh century onwards.

The Rajput population and the former Rajput states are found in northern, western, central and eastern India, as well as southern and eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal, and Bangladesh. These areas include

Jammu, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Sindh
.

Origin

Early references

The word rājaputra (

Rajtarangini, it has been used in the sense of a landowner.[10]

Scholars' views

The origin of the Rajputs has been a much-debated topic among historians. Historian

Rajputization by others.[11][12] Modern scholars agree that nearly all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.[13][14][15][16][17]

Vedic Aryan Kshatriyas of the epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata. Vaidya bases this theory on certain attributes - such as bravery and "physical strength" of Draupadi and Kausalya and the bravery of the Rajputs. However, Hiltebeitel says that such "affinities do not point to an unbroken continuity between an ancient epic period" in the Vedic period (3500 BCE - 3000 BCE according to Vaidya) and the "great Rajput tradition" that started in sixteenth-century Rajasthan instead "raise the question of similarities between the epics' allusions to Vedic Vratya warbands and earlier medieval low status Rajput clans". Hiltebeitel concludes that such attempts to trace Rajputs from epic and Vedic sources are "unconvincing"[21] and cites Nancy MacLean and B.D. Chattopadhyaya to label Vaidya's historiography on Rajputs as "often hopeless".[22] A third group of historians, which includes Jai Narayan Asopa, theorised that the Rajputs were Brahmins who became rulers. However, such "one track arguments" and "contrived evidence" such as shape of the head, cultural stereotypes, etc. are dismissed by Hiltebeitel who refers to such claims and Asopa's epic references as "far-fetched" or "unintelligible".[23]

Recent research suggests that the Rajputs came from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds

Raikas, all lay a claim to a Rajput past from where they claim to have 'fallen'. Historical processes, however, suggest just the opposite".[27]

The word "rajput" meant 'horse soldier', 'trooper', 'headman of a village' or 'subordinate chief' before the 15th century. Individuals with whom the word "rajput" was associated before the 15th century were considered varna–samkara ("mixed caste origin") and inferior to Kshatriya. Over time, the term "Rajput" came to denote a hereditary political status, which was not necessarily very high: the term could denote a wide range of rank-holders, from an actual son of a king to the lowest-ranked landholder.[28][29][30][31][32][33]

According to scholars, in medieval times "the political units of India were probably ruled most often by men of very low birth" and this "may be equally applicable for many clans of 'Rajputs' in northern India". Burton Stein explains that this process of allowing rulers, frequently of low social origin, a "clean" rank via social mobility in the Hindu Varna system serves as one of the explanations of the longevity of the unique Indian civilisation.[34][35][36]

The medieval tales on Pabuji depicting Rajput, Charan, Bhil and Rabari warriors fighting side by side as well as other medieval and contemporary texts show claims made by Nomadic tribes of the Thar desert to a higher rank in the society.[37]

Gradually, the term Rajput came to denote a

castes.[40] Thus, the Rajput identity is not the result of a shared ancestry. Rather, it emerged when different social groups of medieval India sought to legitimise their newly acquired political power by claiming Kshatriya status. These groups started identifying as Rajput at different times, in different ways. Thus, modern scholars summarise that Rajputs were a "group of open status" since the eighth century, mostly illiterate warriors who claimed to be reincarnates of ancient Indian Kshatriyas – a claim that had no historical basis. Moreover, this unfounded Kshatriya status claim showed a sharp contrast to the classical varna of Kshatriyas as depicted in Hindu literature in which Kshatriyas are depicted as an educated and urbanite clan.[41][42][43][44][45] Historian Thomas R. Metcalf mentions the opinion of Indian scholar K. M. Panikkar who also considers the famous Rajput dynasties of medieval India to have come from non-Kshatriya castes.[46]

widow remarriage, for example. Such a marriage between someone from a tribal family, and a member of an acknowledged - but possibly poor - Rajput family, would ultimately enable the non-Rajput family to rise to Rajput status. This marriage pattern supports the fact that Rajput was an "open caste category", available to those who served the Mughals.[47]

Rajput formation continued in the colonial era. Even in the 19th century, anyone from the "village landlord" to the "newly wealthy lower caste Shudra" could employ Brahmins to retrospectively fabricate a genealogy and within a couple of generations they would gain acceptance as Hindu Rajputs. This process would get mirrored by communities in north India. This process of origin of the Rajput community resulted in hypergamy as well as female infanticide that was common in Hindu Rajput clans. Scholars refer to this as "Rajputisation", which, like Sanskritisation, was a mode for upward mobility, but it differed from Sanskritisation in other attributes, like the method of worship, lifestyle, diet, social interaction, rules for women, and marriage, etc. German historian Hermann Kulke has coined the term "Secondary Rajputisation" for describing the process of members of a tribe trying to re-associate themselves with the former chief of their tribe who had already transformed himself into a Rajput via Rajputisation and thus become Rajputs themselves.[48][49][50][25][26]

According to some scholars, the term rajputra was reserved for the immediate relatives of a king; scholars like BD Chattopadhyay believe that it was used for a larger group of high-ranking men.[51]

Emergence as a community

Rajputs of Central India

There are historical indications of the group calling themselves Rajputs by sixth century AD which settled in Indo-Gangetic Plain.[52] However, scholarly opinions differ on when the term Rajput acquired hereditary connotations and came to denote a clan-based community.

An opinion asserts that the terms like rajputra and rauta began to be more commonly used from 12th century onwards to denote a large number of people and a Rajput caste established itself well before the thirteenth century. The reference to the clan structure of Rajputs in contemporary historical works like Rajatarangini by Kalhana along with other epigraphic evidences indicates their existence as a community by 12th century.[53][54][55][56]

Historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, based on his analysis of inscriptions (primarily from Rajasthan), believed that by the 12th century, the term rajaputra was associated with fortified settlements, kin-based landholding, and other features that later became indicative of the Rajput status.[51] According to him, the title acquired "an element of heredity" from c. 1300.[57] A study of 11th–14th century inscriptions from western and central India, by Michael B. Bednar, concludes that the designations such as rajaputra, thakkura and rauta were not necessarily hereditary during this period.[57]

Rajputs were involved in nomadic pastoralism, animal husbandry and cattle trade until much later than popularly believed. The 17th century chronicles of Muhnot Nainsi i.e. Munhata Nainsi ri Khyat and Marwar ra Paraganan ri Vigat discuss disputes between Rajputs pertaining to cattle raids. In addition, Folk deities of the Rajputs – Pabuji, Mallinath, Gogaji and Ramdeo were considered protectors of cattle herding communities. They also imply struggle among Rajputs for domination over cattle and pasturelands.[58] The emergence of Rajput community was the result of a gradual change from mobile pastoral and tribal groups into landed sedentary ones. This necessitated control over mobile resources for agrarian expansion which in turn necessitated kinship structures, martial and marital alliances.[27][17][59]

B.D Chattopadhyaya opines that during its formative stages, the Rajput class was quite assimilative and absorbed people from a wide range of lineages.[38] However, by the late 16th century, it had become genealogically rigid, based on the ideas of blood purity, Dirk Kolff writes.[60] The membership of the Rajput class was now largely inherited rather than acquired through military achievements.[57] A major factor behind this development was the consolidation of the Mughal Empire, whose rulers had great interest in genealogy. As the various Rajput chiefs became Mughal feudatories, they no longer engaged in major conflicts with each other. This decreased the possibility of achieving prestige through military action, and made hereditary prestige more important.[61]

According to David Ludden, the word "Rajput" acquired its present-day meaning in the 16th century.[62] According to Kolff, during 16th and 17th centuries, the Rajput rulers and their bards (charans) sought to legitimise the Rajput socio-political status on the basis of descent and kinship.[63] They fabricated genealogies linking the Rajput families to the ancient dynasties, and associated them with myths of origins that established their Kshatriya status.[57][64][26] This led to the emergence of what Indologist Dirk Kolff calls the "Rajput Great Tradition", which accepted only hereditary claims to the Rajput identity, and fostered a notion of eliteness and exclusivity.[65] The legendary epic poem Prithviraj Raso, which depicts warriors from several different Rajput clans as associates of Prithviraj Chauhan, fostered a sense of unity among these clans.[66] The text thus contributed to the consolidation of the Rajput identity by offering these clans a shared history.[51]

Despite these developments, migrant soldiers made new claims to the Rajput status until as late as the 19th century.[60] In the 19th century, the colonial administrators of India re-imagined the Rajputs as similar to the Anglo-Saxon knights. They compiled the Rajput genealogies in the process of settling land disputes, surveying castes and tribes, and writing history. These genealogies became the basis of distinguishing between the "genuine" and the "spurious" Rajput clans.[67]

History

History of Rajput Kingdoms

See also: Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests and List of Rajput dynasties and states
During their centuries-long rule, the Rajputs constructed several palaces. Shown here is the Junagarh Fort in Bikaner, Rajasthan, which was built by the Rathore Rajput rulers (see Rajput architecture).
Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur[68]

The

Rajput kingdoms were disparate: loyalty to a clan was more important than allegiance to the wider Rajput social grouping, meaning that one clan would fight another. This and the internecine jostling for position that took place when a clan leader (raja) died meant that Rajput politics were fluid and prevented the formation of a coherent Rajput empire.[69]

The term "Rajput" has been used as an

Ghurid invaders, although the Rajput identity for a lineage did not exist at this time, these lineages were classified as aristocratic Rajput clans in the later times.[70][71][72][73][74]

However, other scholarly opinion staged emergence of Rajput clans as early as seventh century AD. when they start to make themselves lords of various localities and dominate region in current day

Sisodias, Guhilas
etc.

The Rajput ruled kingdoms repelled early invasions of Arab commanders after

Somnath Temple and its Rajput ruler Bhimdev Solanki fled his capital.[84] Rajput rulers at Gwalior and Kalinjar were able to hold off assaults by Maḥmūd, although the two cities did pay him heavy tribute.[85] By last quarter of 12th century, Mohd Ghori defeated and executed the last of Ghaznavid rulers and captured their region along with plundering Ghazna, the capital of Ghaznavids. After capturing the northwest frontier, he invaded Rajput domain. In 1191, Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer led a coalition of Rajput kings and defeated Ghori near Taraori. However, he returned a year later with an army of mounted archers and crushed Rajput forces on the same battlefield of Taraori, Prithviraj fled the battlefield but was caught near Sirsa and was executed by Ghurids.[86][87] Following the battle, the Delhi Sultanate became prominent in the Delhi region.[88]

The Rajputs fought against Sultans of Delhi from Rajasthan and other adjoining areas. By first quarter of 14th century,

Maldev Rathore of Marwar rose in power controlling almost whole portion of western and eastern Rajasthan.[94]

From 1200 CE, many Rajput groups moved eastwards towards the

Eastern Gangetic plains forming their own chieftaincies.[95] These minor Rajput kingdoms were dotted all over the Gangetic plains in modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.[96] During this process, petty clashes occurred with the local population and in some cases, alliances were formed.[95] Among these Rajput chieftaincies were the Bhojpur zamindars[97] and the taluks of Awadh.[98]

The immigration of Rajput clan chiefs into these parts of the Gangetic plains also contributed the agricultural appropriation of previously forested areas, especially in South Bihar.[99] Some have linked this eastwards expansion with the onset of Ghurid invasion in the West.[99]

From as early as the 16th century,

Purbiya Rajput soldiers from the eastern regions of Bihar and Awadh, were recruited as mercenaries for Rajputs in the west, particularly in the Malwa region.[100]

Mughal period

Akbar's period

See also: Rajput Mughal marriage alliances
Rana Pratap, the Rana of Mewar
, was popularly known for his role in battles against the Mughal Empire
Man Singh I, an important Rajput official of Akbar.

After the mid-16th century, many Rajput rulers formed close relationships with the

jaziya from non-Muslims, a tax considered as discriminatory by several non-Muslims which also consisted of his Hindu Rajput officials.[111]
The ruling
Rana Pratap is renowned as a "Rajput icon" for firmly fighting with Akbar's forces for the cause of Mewar's freedom.[113][114][115] Once Mewar had submitted and alliance of Rajputs reached a measure of stability, matrimonial between leading Rajput states and Mughals became rare.[116]

Shah Jahan's period

One of the most conspicuous event of Shah Jahan's period was rebellion of Bundela rajputs, which was crushed by prince Aurangzeb with iron hand.[117][need quotation to verify]

Aurangzeb's period

See also:
Rajput War (1679–1707)

Akbar's diplomatic policy regarding the Rajputs was later damaged by the intolerant rules introduced by his great-grandson

Jaziya, which had been abolished by Akbar.[103] However, despite imposition of Jaziya Aurangzeb's army had a high proportion of Rajput officers in the upper ranks of the imperial army and they were all exempted from paying Jaziya.[118] The Rajputs then revolted against the Mughal empire. Aurangzeb's conflicts with the Rajputs, which commenced in the early 1680s, henceforth became a contributing factor towards the downfall of the Mughal empire.[119][103]

Later

Historian Lynn Zastoupil states that the Mughal Emperors manipulated the appointment of the successor of the Rajput rulers.[

Maratha Empire (or confederacy) started collecting tribute from and harassing some Rajput states. Some Rajput states, in the 1780s appealed to the British East India Company for assistance against the Marathas but their requests for assistance were denied at the time.[120][121][122][clarification needed][123]

By 1765, Awadh had become ally of the British East India Company and the increase in demand for revenue led to a continuous tussle in between the Nawab of Awadh and Rajput leadership bringing political instability in the region.[124]

In one 18th century example given by Pinch, Rajputs of Awadh countered the upward mobility of some of the peasant castes, who by virtue of their economic prosperity sought higher status by wearing

Janeu, a sacred thread or claimed Kshatriya status. The records indicates that during the tenure of Asaf-ud-Daula in Awadh, when a section of Awadhiya Kurmi were about to be bestowed with the title of Raja, the Rajput constituency of Asaf's court caused stiff opposition to the move despite the fact that the Rajputs themselves were newcomers to the court and were peasant-soldiers a few year before. Rajputs of Awadh along with Brahmins also formed the major groups who gained during Asaf's regime.[125]

British colonial period

Chauhan Rajputs, Delhi (1868)

In the late eighteenth century, despite the request from two Rajput rulers for British support, the British East India company initially refused to support the Rajput states in Rajputana region as they had the policy of non-interference and considered the Rajput states to be weak. In the early nineteenth century, British administrator

Holkars, Pindari, Ameer Khan and Muhammad Shah Khan and that the Rajput rulers made multiple petitions to him requesting British protection. Moreover, the Rajput rulers had argued that "British had replaced the Mughal Empire as the supreme power of India and therefore had the responsibility to protect weaker states from aggressive ones". Charles Metcalfe agreed with this reasoning. One by one, many Rajput states in Rajputana came under British protection and became their allies - Kota, Udaipur, Bundi, Kishangarh, Bikaner, Jaipur, Pratapgarh, Banswara, Dungarpur, Jaisalmer by 1817-18 and Sirohi by 1823. The British promised to protect the Rajput states from their adversaries and not interfere in internal affairs in exchange for tribute. However, David Ochterlony, who was in charge of the Rajput states broke the promise to not interfere as in his view interferences would save the states from "ruin". In 1820, the British removed him from his position and replaced him with Charles Metcalfe. For several decades, "non-interference" in internal affairs remained the official policy. However, according to the historian Lynn Zastoupil, the "British never found it possible or desirable to completely withdraw from interference in Rajput affairs".[126][120]

The medieval bardic chronicles (

masnavi) glorified the Rajput past, presenting warriorhood and honour as Rajput ideals. This later became the basis of the British reconstruction of the Rajput history and the nationalist interpretations of Rajputs' struggles with the Muslim invaders.[127] James Tod, a British colonial official, was impressed by the military qualities of the Rajputs but is today considered to have been unusually enamoured of them.[128][129]
Although the group venerate him to this day, he is viewed by many historians since the late nineteenth century as being a not particularly reliable commentator.[130][131] Jason Freitag, his only significant biographer, has said that Tod is "manifestly biased".[132]

As per the historian Thomas R. Metcalf, Rajput Taluqdars in Oudh provided a large numbers of leaders to the revolt of 1857 in that region. Kunwar Singh, a Rajput Zamindar was an important leader in Bihar region in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[133]

Historian Robert Stern points out that in Rajputana, although there were some revolts in the soldiers commanded by British officers the "Rajpur durbar muskeeters and feudal cavalrymen" did not participate in the 1857 revolt at all.[134] But Crispin Bates is of the opinion that Rajput officers had soft corner for the rebels of 1857 fleeing Delhi who were entering into interior areas of then Rajasthan region. He gives examples of rebels who easily found safe havens in villages of Chittor without arrests.[135]

In reference to the role of the Rajput soldiers serving under the British banner, Captain A. H. Bingley wrote:

Rajputs have served in our ranks from Plassey to the present day (1899). They have taken part in almost every campaign undertaken by the Indian armies. Under Forde they defeated the French at Condore. Under Monro at Buxar they routed the forces of the Nawab of Oudh. Under Lake they took part in the brilliant series of victories which destroyed the power of the Marathas.[136]

The Rajput practices of female infanticide and sati (widow immolation) were other matters of concern to the British. It was believed that the Rajputs were the primary adherents to these practices, which the British Raj considered savage and which provided the initial impetus for British ethnographic studies of the subcontinent that eventually manifested itself as a much wider exercise in social engineering.[137]

During the British rule their love for pork, i.e. wild boar, was also well known and the British identified them as a group based on this.[138]

Some unrelated communities tried to change their status to Rajput during the Colonial era.

Sagar Rajputs. The scholars consider this example as a case among thousands.[140][141]

Post Independence

Princely States

On

Privy purse in exchange for their acquiescence, but a series of land reforms over the following decades weakened their power, and their privy purse was cut off during Indira Gandhi's administration under the 1971 Constitution 26th Amendment Act. The estates, treasures, and practices of the old Rajput rulers now form a key part of Rajasthan's tourist trade and cultural memory.[143]

The Rajput

Kashmir and Jammu acceded to India in 1947,[144] while retaining his title until the monarchy was abolished in 1971 by the 26th amendment to the Constitution of India.[145]

Before the zamindari abolition, the Rajputs in Oudh formed the major Taluqdars and had controlled over 50 percent of the land in the most districts of the region.[146] Historian Thomas R. Metcalf explains that in the province of Uttar Pradesh, majority of the Taluqdars with moderate to large estates were composed of Rajput caste. He also mentions that Rajputs were only next to Brahmins in the ritual hierarchy and also gave the secular elite of the state. According to him, the community controlled most of the best agricultural land in the region and this also helped the Rajput Taluqdars who were usually the head of the local Rajput clan to gather support over non-Rajput rival in the electoral politics of the state.[147]

Sati

There have been several cases of Sati (burning a widow alive) in Rajasthan from 1943 to 1987. According to an Indian scholar, there are 28 cases since 1947. Although the widows were from several different communities, Rajput widows accounted for 19 cases in Rajasthan. The most famous of these cases is of a Rajput woman named Roop Kanwar. 40,000 Rajputs gathered on the street of Jaipur in October 1987 for supporting her Sati. A pamphlet circulated on that day attacked independent and westernised women who opposed a woman's duty of worshipping her husband as demonstrated by the practice of Sati. This incident again affirmed the low status of women in the Rajput community and the leaders of this pro-sati movement gained in political terms.[148][149]

Affirmative Action

The Rajputs, in most of the states, are considered a

General caste (forward caste) in India's system of positive discrimination. This means that they have no access to reservations. But they are classified as an Other Backward Class by the National Commission for Backward Classes in the state of Karnataka.[150][151][152][153] Some Rajputs in various states, as with other agricultural castes, demand reservations in Government jobs.[154][155][156][157] In 2016, Sikh Rajputs were added under Backward Classes in Punjab[158] but after protest by the community, the government announced that they will be again put under General Category.[159]

Rajput politics

Rajput politics refers to the role played by the Rajput community in the electoral politics of India.

better source needed
]

Subdivisions

Main article: Rajput clans

The term "Rajput" denotes a cluster of castes,[165] clans, and lineages.[166] It is a vaguely-defined term, and there is no universal consensus on which clans make up the Rajput community.[167] In medieval Rajasthan (the historical Rajputana) and its neighbouring areas, the word Rajput came to be restricted to certain specific clans, based on patrilineal descent and intermarriages. On the other hand, the Rajput communities living in the region to the east of Rajasthan had a fluid and inclusive nature. The Rajputs of Rajasthan eventually refused to acknowledge the Rajput identity claimed by their eastern counterparts,[168] such as the Bundelas.[169] The Rajputs claim to be Kshatriyas or descendants of Kshatriyas, but their actual status varies greatly, ranging from princely lineages to common cultivators.[170]

There are several major subdivisions of Rajputs, known as vansh or vamsha, the step below the super-division

Parmar, Chaulukya (Solanki), Parihar and Chauhan.[173]

Lesser-noted vansh include Udayvanshi, Rajvanshi,

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".[175]

Beneath the vansh division are smaller and smaller subdivisions: kul, shakh ("branch"), khamp or khanp ("twig"), and nak ("twig tip").

kuldevi. Lindsey Harlan notes that in some cases, shakhs have become powerful enough to be functionally kuls in their own right.[176]

Culture and ethos

The

Bengal army of the East India Company recruited heavily from upper castes such as Brahmins and Rajputs of north-central India particularly from the region of Awadh and Bihar. However, after the revolt of 1857 by the Bengal sepoys, the British Indian army shifted recruitment to the Punjab.[177]

Martial race

The Rajputs were designated as a

Martial Race in the period of the British Raj. This was a designation created by administrators that classified each ethnic group as either "martial" or "non-martial": a "martial race" was typically considered brave and well built for fighting,[178] whilst the remainder were those whom the British believed to be unfit for battle because of their sedentary lifestyles.[179] However, the martial races were also considered politically subservient, intellectually inferior, lacking the initiative or leadership qualities to command large military formations. The British had a policy of recruiting the martial Indians from those who has less access to education as they were easier to control.[180][181] According to modern historian Jeffrey Greenhunt on military history, "The Martial Race theory had an elegant symmetry. Indians who were intelligent and educated were defined as cowards, while those defined as brave were uneducated and backward". According to Amiya Samanta, the martial race was chosen from people of mercenary spirit (a soldier who fights for any group or country that will pay him/her), as these groups lacked nationalism as a trait.[182]

Deities

Karni Mata, Hindu Goddess primarily worshipped by Rajputs

One of the most revered deities of Rajputs is

Guru Ram Rai is quite popular. The fierce form of Goddess Durga, called Sherawali Mata or "she who rides a lion" is popular among Rajput women.[187]

Rajput lifestyle

An old Rajput man poses with a hookah in the Maharaja palace of Jodhpur.

The Rajputs of Bihar were inventors of the martial art form Pari Khanda, which includes heavy use of swords and shields. This exercise was later included in the folk dances of Bihar and Jharkhand like that of Chhau dance.[188] On special occasions, a primary chief would break up a meeting of his vassal chiefs with khanda nariyal, the distribution of daggers and coconuts. Another affirmation of the Rajput's reverence for his sword was the Karga Shapna ("adoration of the sword") ritual, performed during the annual Navaratri festival, after which a Rajput is considered "free to indulge his passion for rapine and revenge".[189] The Rajput of Rajasthan also offer a sacrifice of water buffalo or goat to their family goddess (

Kuldevta) during Navaratri.[190] The ritual requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage for young Rajput men.[191]

The general greeting used by the Rajputs in social gatherings and occasions, 'Jai Mataji' or its regional variants, stands for 'Victory to the Mother Goddess'.[192][193][194] This phrase also operated as a military solgan or war cry,[195] often painted on the shields and banners of the jagirdars.[196]

Hospitability

Harald Tambs-Lyche states that like other martial races of South Asia, Rajputs have a reputation for being Hospitable i.e. they welcome and are friendly to guests.[197][198]

Miscellaneous

By the late 19th century, there was a shift of focus among Rajputs from politics to a concern with kinship.[199] Many Rajputs of Rajasthan are nostalgic about their past and keenly conscious of their genealogy, emphasising a Rajput ethos that is martial in spirit, with a fierce pride in lineage and tradition.[200]

Female infanticide

Bais would kill their daughters if they were rich but profit from getting them married if they were poor.[201]

The methods used of killing the female baby were

Asphyxia by drawing the umbilical cord over the baby's face to prevent respiration". Other ways were to leave the infant to die without food and if she survived the first few hours after birth, she was given poison.[201] A common way to poison the infant during breastfeeding was by applying a preparation of poisonous plants like Datura, Madar or Poppy to the mother's breast.[202]

Social activists in the early nineteenth century tried to stop these practices by quoting Hindu Shastras:

"to kill one woman is equal to one hundred brahmins, to kill one child is equal to one hundred women, while to kill one hundred children is an offence too heinous for comparison".[201]

Infanticide has unintended consequences. The Rajput clans of lower ritual status married their daughters to Rajput men of higher ritual status who had lost females due to infanticide. Thus, the Rajputs of lower ritual status had to remain unmarried or resorted to other practices like marrying widows, levirate marriages (marrying brother's widow) as well as marrying low-caste women such as

Gujars or nomads. This resulted in widening the gap between Rajputs of low ritual status and Rajputs of high ritual status.[201]

In the late 19th century, to curb the practice, the act VIII of 1870 was introduced. A magistrate suggested:

"Let every Rajput be thoroughly convinced that he will go to jail for ten years for every infant girl he murders, with as much certainty as he would feel about being hanged if he were to kill her when grown up, and the crime will be stamped out very effectually; but so long as the Government show any hesitation in dealing rigorously with criminals, so long will the Rajpoot think he has chance of impunity and will go on killing girls like before."[201]

However, the practical application of the law faced hurdles. It was difficult to prove culpability as in some cases the Rajput men were employed at a distance although the infants could be killed at their connivance. In most cases, Rajput men were imprisoned only for a short time. Between 1888 and 1889, the proportion of girl children rose to 40%. However, the act was abolished in 1912 as punishments were unable to stop infanticide. A historian concludes that "the act, which only scraped the surface of the problem had been unable to civilize or bring about a social change in a cultural world devaluing girl children". In addition to Rajputs, it was observed that Jats and Ahirs also practised infanticide.[201]

Brideprice or Bridewealth weddings

"Bridewealth" is discussed in north Indian Rajputs of 19th century India by the historian Malavika Kasturi. She states that Rajputs belonging to social groups where their women worked in the fields received Bridewealth from the groom's family. She adds that evidence shows that the assumption made by officials of the time that female infanticide among clans was a result of poverty and inability to pay dowry is incorrect.[201]

Rajput women could be incorporated into

Mughals as overlords over the Rajput clans. The Sisodia clan of Mewar was an exception as they refused to send their women to the Mughal Harem which resulted in siege and mass suicide at Chittor.[203]

Historically, members from the Rajput ruling clans of Rajasthan have also practised polygamy and also took many women they enslaved as concubines from the battles which they won. During numerous armed conflicts in India, women were taken captives, enslaved and even sold, for example, the capture and selling of Marwar's women by Jaipur's forces in the battle between

Jodhpur state in 1807. The enslaved women were referred to by different terms according to the conditions imposed on them, for example, a "domestic slave" was called davri; a dancer was called a patar; a "senior female slave–retainer in the women's quarters" was called badaran or vadaran; a concubine was called khavasin; and a woman who was "permitted to wear the veil" like Rajput queens was called a pardayat.[204]

The term chakar was used for a person serving their "superior" and chakras contained complete families from specific "occupational groups" like

Jain concubine who went from being a servant to a superior concubine called Paswan[204]

According to Priyanka Khanna, with

Jat, Mali, Kayastha, and Darji communities of that region. These castes of Marwar claimed Rajput descent based on the "census data of Marwar, 1861".[205] However, the research by modern scholars on the forms of "slavery and servitude" imposed by ruling clans of Rajasthan's Rajputs between the 16th and early–19th centuries on the captured women faces hurdles because of the "sparse information", "uneven record–keeping", and "biased nature of historical records".[204]
Ravana Rajput community of today was one such slave community[206][207]

The male children of such unions were identified by their father's names and in some cases as 'dhaibhai'(foster-brothers) and incorporated into the household. Examples are given where they helped their step-brothers in war campaigns.[204] The female children of concubines and slaves married Rajput men in exchange for money or they ended up becoming dancing girls. The scarcity of available brides due to female infanticide led to the kidnapping of low caste women who were sold for marriage to the higher clan Rajputs. Since these "sales" were genuinely for the purpose of marriage, they were considered legal. The lower clans also faced scarcity of brides in which case they married women such as those from Gujar and Jat communities. Semi nomadic communities also married their daughters to Rajput bridegrooms for money in some cases.[208]

Of note, the mistreatment or enslavement of women was not unique to Rajputs. Datta notes Bachanan's observation in 18th century northern-India that, other than the Rajputs, Khatris and Kayasthas also "openly kept women slaves of any pure tribe". The offsprings of these women formed one matrimonial group. Similarly, affluent Muslim families in Bihar kept both male and female slaves – called Nufurs and Laundis respectively.[209]

These Rajput groups(khasa) of Uttarakhand today were formally classified Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput status during the rule of Chand Rajas (that ended in 1790).[210] Similarly, the Rajputs of Gharwal were originally of low ritual status and did not wear the sacred thread until the 20th century.[211]

Arts

Main article: Rajput painting
An 18th-century Rajput painting by the artist Nihâl Chand

The term Rajput painting refers to works of art created at the Rajput-ruled courts of Rajasthan, Central India, and the Punjab Hills. The term is also used to describe the style of these paintings, distinct from the Mughal painting style.[212]

According to Ananda Coomaraswamy, Rajput painting symbolised the divide between Muslims and Hindus during Mughal rule. The styles of Mughal and Rajput painting are oppositional in character. He characterised Rajput painting as "popular, universal and mystic".[213]

Notable people

Main article: List of Rajputs

See also

References

Citations

  1. ISBN 978-0815715030
    . Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  2. ISBN 9781610390231
    . Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Folk-lore, Volume 21". 1980. p. 79. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  4. ISBN 9788175411401
    . Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  5. ISBN 9781136516627
    . [In Maharashtra]The Lingayats, the Gujjars and the Rajputs are three other important castes which belong to the intermediate category. The lingayats who hail from north Karnataka are found primarily in south Maharashtra and Marthwada while Gujjars and Rajputs who migrated centuries ago from north India have settled in north Maharashtra districts.
  6. ^
  7. ^ Rima Hooja 2006, p. 181.
  8. ISBN 9780199098286
    .
  9. ISBN 0391041738
    .
  10. ^ Rima Hooja 2006, p. 181–182:"In Kalhana’s Rajtarangini (VII.390) the word rajaputra is used in the sense of a landowner, but if it is read with VII, vv.1617 and 1618 of the same book it would be clear that they acclaimed their birth from the 36 clans of the Rajputs.”
  11. ISBN 9788124113868
    . M.N.Srinivas who had used the word "Sanskritization" to denote this process, now accepts accepts that he put too much emphasis originally on the movement of groups towards the varna status of Brahmans. Both Srinivas and B.Stein now emphasize not merely the process of Sanskritization, but other factors, such as the position of the dominant peasant and land-owning classes, political power and production system in the process of caste mobility of groups. Srinivas further surmises that the varna model became more popular during British rule. Thus, growing caste rigidity was an indirect effect of British rule. The rise of Rajputs is a classic model of varna mobility in the earlier period. There is a good deal of discussion regarding the origin of Rajputs - whether they were Kshatriyas of they were drawn from other categories in the population including indigenous tribes. Modern historians are more or less agreed that the Rajputs consisted of miscellaneous groups including Shudra and tribals. Some were Brahmans who took to warfare, and some were from Tribes- indigenous of foreign.
  12. ^ Reena Dube & Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar 2012, p. 59.
  13. ^ a b 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."
  14. ISBN 978-0-7914-2025-6
    . 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.
  15. ^ Doris Marion Kling (1993). The Emergence of Jaipur State: Rajput Response to Mughal Rule, 1562–1743. University of Pennsylvania. p. 30. Rajput: Pastoral, mobile warrior groups who achieved landed status in the medieval period claimed to be Kshatriyas and called themselves Rajputs.
  16. ISBN 90-04-10236-1
    . ...and it is very probable that the other fire-born Rajput clans like the Caulukyas, Paramaras, Cahamanas, as well as the Tomaras and others who in the eighth and ninth centuries were subordinate to the Gurjara-Pratiharas, were of similar pastoral origin, that is, that they originally belonged to the mobile, nomadic groups...
  17. ^ a b 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.
  18. ^ a b Alf Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 439–440.
  19. ^ Bhrigupati Singh 2015, p. 38.
  20. ^ Pradeep Barua 2005, p. 24.
  21. ^ Alf Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 440–441.
  22. ^ Alf Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 3.
  23. ^ Alf Hiltebeitel 1999, pp. 441–442.
  24. ^ Catherine B. Asher & Cynthia Talbot 2006, p. 99.
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-806678-1
    . In their recent work on female infanticide, Bhatnagar, Dube and Bube(2005) distinguish between Rajputization and Sanksritization. Using M.N.Srinivas' and Milton Singer's approach to social mobility as idioms they identify Rajputization as one of the most dynamic modes of upward mobility. As an idiom of political power it 'signifies a highly mobile social process of claiming military-political power and the right to cultivate land as well as the right to rule. Rajputization is unparalleled in traditional Indian society for its inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation and self-invention. This was a claim that was used by persons of all castes all over north India ranging from peasants and lower-caste Sudras to warriors and tribal chiefs and even the local raja who had recently converted to Islam.
  26. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-806678-1
    . Rajputization discussed processes through which 'equalitarian, primitive, clan based tribal organization' adjusted itself to the centralized hierarchic, territorial oriented political developments in the course of state formation. This led a 'narrow lineage of single families' to disassociate itself from the main body of their tribe and claim Rajput origin. They not only adopted symbols and practices supposedly representative of the true Kshatriya, but also constructed genealogies that linked them to the primordial and legendary solar and lunar dynasties of kings. Further, it was pointed out that the caste of genealogists and mythographers variously known as Carans, Bhats, Vahivanca Barots, etc., prevalent in Gujarat, Rajasthan and other parts of north India actively provided their patron rulers with genealogies that linked local clans of these chiefs with regional clans and with the Kshatriyas of the Puranas and Mahabharata. Once a ruling group succeeded in establishing its claim to Rajput status, there followed a 'secondary Rajputization' when the tribes tried to 're-associate' with their formal tribal chiefs who had also transformed themselves into Hindu rajas and Rajput Kshatriyas.
  27. ^ a b Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, p. 265, [2]...from gradual transformation of mobile patoral and tribal groups into landed sedentary ones. The process of settlement involved both control over mobile resources through raids, battles and trade as well as channelizing of these resources into agrarian expansion. Kinship structures as well as marital and martial alliances were instrumental in this transformation.[...]In the colonial ethnographic accounts rather than referring to Rajputs as having emerged from other communities, Bhils, Mers, Minas, Gujars, Jats, Raikas, all lay a claim to a Rajput past from where they claim to have 'fallen'. Historical processes, however, suggest just the opposite.
  28. ^ Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 1994, pp. 79–80.
  29. ISBN 978-0-19-563115-9
    . The term 'Rajput' before the fifteenth century meant 'horse soldier', 'trooper', 'headman of a village' or 'subordinate chief'. Moreover, individuals with whom the word was associated were generally considered to be products of varna–samkara of mixed caste origin, and thus inferior in rank to Kshatriyas.
  30. ^ Satish Chandra 1982, p. 92.
  31. ^ Norman Ziegler 1976, p. 141:...individuals or groups with which the word was associated were generally considered to owe their origin to miscegenation or varna-samkara ("the mixing of castes") and were thus inferior in rank to Ksatriyas. [...] What I perceive from the above data is a rather widespread change in the subjective perception and the attribution of rank to groups and individuals who emerged in Rajasthan and North India as local chiefs and rulers in the period after the muslim invasions(extending roughly from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries). These groups were no longer considered kshatriyas and though they filled roles previously held by kshatriyas and were attributed similar functions of sustaining society and upholding the moral order, they were either groups whose original integrity were seen to have been altered or who had emerged from the lower ranks of the caste system. This change is supported by material from the Rajput chronicles themselves.
  32. ^ Peabody 2003.
  33. ^ Hastings 2002, p. 54:The Indian historian K. R. Qanungo has pointed out that in " the middle ages ' Rajput ' ordinarily meant a trooper in the service of a chief or a free-lance captain(1960,98); and Dirk Kolff(1990), following both Quango and D.C.Sircar has surely settled the matter with his argument that many Rajput clans came out of pastoralist bands which achieved some degree of landed status in the first half of the second millennium, forming "largely open status groups of clans, lineages, or even families and individuals who achieved statuses as 'horse soldier', 'trooper' or 'headman of village', and pretended to be connected with the family of some king, it became a generic name for this military and landed class(p 71-72)
  34. ISBN 9783112026250
    .
  35. ISBN 978-0-19-566448-5
    . When the rank of persons was in theory rigorously ascribed according to the purity of the birth-group, the political units of India were probably ruled most often by men of very low birth. This generalization applies to south indian warriors and may be equally applicable for many clans of Rajputs in northern India. The capacity of both ancient and medieval Indian society to ascribe to its actual rulers, frequently men of low social origins, a "clean" or "Kshatriya" rank may afford one of the explanations for the durability and longevity of the unique civilization of India.
  36. ^ Reena Dube & Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar 2012, p. 257.
  37. ISBN 9783825867584
    .
  38. ^ a b Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, p. 8.
  39. ^ Richard Gabriel Fox 1971, p. 16.
  40. ^ Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 1994, p. 60.
  41. ISBN 0-391-04173-8
    . In short, a process of development occurred which after several centuries culminated in the formation of new groups with the identity of 'Rajputs'. The predecessors of the Rajputs, from about the eighth century, rose to politico-military prominence as an open status group or estate of largely illiterate warriors who wished to consider themselves as the reincarnates of the ancient Indian Kshatriyas. The claim of Kshatriyas was, of course, historically completely unfounded. The Rajputs as well as other autochthonous Indian gentry groups who claimed Kshatriya status by way of putative Rajput descent, differed widely from the classical varna of Kshatriyas which, as depicted in literature, was made of aristocratic, urbanite and educated clans...
  42. ^ Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya 1994, p. 59.
  43. ^ Norman Ziegler 1976, p. 150: Rajputs were, with some exceptions, almost totally illiterate as a caste group
  44. ISBN 978-0-415-17453-4
    . Eventually the position of the old Kshatriya nobility was undermined not only by the Brahmin priests but also by the rise of a warrior caste in northwest India. Most of the Rajputs were illiterate mercenaries in the service of a king.
  45. ISBN 978-90-04-25409-1
    . Weber however explained this downgrading of their status by the fact that they represented a threat to the cultural and intellectual monopoly of the Brahmans, as they[Kshatriyas] were also extremely cultured and educated in the art of administration. In about the eight century the Rajput thus began to perform the functions that had formerly belonged to the Kshatriya, assuming their social and economic position and substituting them as the new warrior class. Ancient illiterate merceneries, the Rajput did not represent a threat to the Brahmininc monopoly and were more inclined to accept the Brahmans' superiority, thus contributing to the so called Hindu restoration.
  46. ISBN 9788120709003
    . Since then every known royal family has come from a non - Kshatriya caste, including the famous Rajput dynasties of medieval India . Panikkar also points out that " the Shudras seem to have produced an unusually large number of royal families even in more recent times"
  47. ^ Stewart Gordon 2007, p. 16: Eventually, kinship and marriage restrictions defined this Rajput group as different from other elements in the society of Rajasthan. The hypergamous marriage pattern typical of Rajputs tacitly acknowledged that it was a somewhat open caste category; by successful service in a state army and translating this service into grants and power at the local level, a family might become Rajput. The process required changes in dress, eating patterns, the patronage of local shrines closer to the "great tradition", and an end to widow remarriage. A hypergamous marriage with an acknowledged (but possibly impoverished) Rajput family would follow and with continued success in service the family would indeed become Rajput. All this is well documented in relations between Rajputs and tribals...
  48. ISBN 978-3-8039-0333-4
    .
  49. ISBN 9788173040375
    .
  50. ^ Reena Dube & Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar 2012, p. 59-62(59)In our view Rajputization refers neither to a caste nor a race, instead it signifies a highly mobile social process of claiming military-political power and the right tocultivable land as well as the right to rule. Rajputization is unparalleled in traditional Indian society for its inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation and self-invention. The fabrication of a Rajput genealogy in the process of climbing from feudatory to king does not constitute an isolated historical event in the early medieval period. In nineteenth-century India, the village landlord, the Brahmin priest, the tribal chieftain, the local Raja who has recently converted from Islam, the newly wealthy lower caste Sudra, the professional soldier or the member of a community with traditions of military labor, any of these men could Rajputize themselves and their families by adopting the lifestyle traditionally recognized as Rajput. These aspirants deployed Brahmins to compose a genealogy that would retrospectively endow the aspirant’s lineage with ritual purity. These social processes get repeated continually and mirrored by communities all over north India that Rajputize themselves to make a bid for political power. With surprising rapidity the newly Rajputized family or clan can gain, over a generation or two, social acceptance of their claim to Rajput status(62, 63) We have culled from the sociological literature, particularly from Srivinas's analysis of Sanskritization, the key differences between the two modes of upward mobility, Sanskritization and Rajputization. Despite the excellent fieldwork on Rajputization by Sinha (1962) and Kulke (1976), there is no clear theoretical definition of the key features of Rajputization, and its differences and similarities to Sanskritization. We argue that theorizing is as important as fieldwork, principally because of the colonial misreading of the term Rajput and its relation to Rajput history and to Rajputization. As a corrective we demarcate the distinction between Sanskritization and Rajputization in terms of attributional criteria - which denotes a code of living, dietary prohibition, modes of worship-and social interactional criteria, which signify the rules of marriage, rules pertaining to women, and modes of power. The attributional criteria for Sanskritization are vegetarianism, prohibition against beef eating, teetotalism, and wearing the sacred thread; the attributional criteria for Rajputized men consists of meat-eating, imbibing alcohol and opium, and the wearing of the sword; the attributional criteria for Rajputized women are seclusion through purdah or the veil and elaborate rules for women's mobility within the village. The religious code for Sanskritization is a belief in the doctrine of karma, dharma, rebirth and moksha and the Sradda ceremony for male ancestors. Conversely, the religious code for Rajputization consists of the worship of Mahadeo and Sakto and the Patronage of Brahmins through personal family priests (historically the Rajputized rulers gave land grants to Brahmins) and the priestly supervision of rites of passage. The social interactional criteria for Sanskritization is claiming the right to all priestly intellectual and cultural vocations, patronage from the dominant political power, and prohibition against widow remarriage. The interactional criteria for Rajputization consists of claiming the right to all military and political occupations, the right to govern, the right to aggrandize lands through wars, sanctioned aggressive behavior, the adoption of the code for violence, compiling clan genealogies and the right to coercively police the interactions between castes.
  51. ^ a b c Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 119.
  52. ISBN 9781139449083
    . "By the sixth century AD, there are historical indications of the group calling themselves Rajput settle in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Over the course of ten centuries they came to control land and people
  53. ^ Ali, Daud (2005). "NANDINI SINHA KAPUR: State Formation in Rajasthan: Mewar during the Seventh-Fifteenth Centuries. 308pp. Delhi: Manohar, 2002". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient: 134–135. The appearance of rajputras as mercenary soldiers is proved as early as 7th century CE from the reference in Bakshali manuscript found in the North-West Frontier Province and subsequently from the Chachnama in Sindh in 8th century CE. In all bardic traditions of this period the Rajputs are depicted as horsemen. It may not be again ignored that the Pratiharas, one of the clansmen of the Rajputs of early medieval period felt pride to bear the title of hayapati, "the lord of horses". The term rajput is derived from Sanskrit root rajputra (son of the king). Prakrit forms of the term rajputra are variously known as rawat, rauta, raul and rawal. A transformation in connotation of the term is noticeable from 7th century CE onwards as it began to be used in literary texts in the sense of a landowner rather than "son of the king". In the Harshacharita of Banabhatta (7th century CE) the term has been used in the sense of a noble or landowning chief. In Kadambari also it is used for persons of noble descent who were appointed by the king as local rulers. In the capacity of local rulers they might have naturally governed a large portion of land under them and, thus, played an active role in political and administrative system of the state. The term began to be more commonly used from 12th century onwards. In Rajatarangini the term rajputra is used in the sense of a landowner, acclaiming birth from 36 clans of the Rajputs. The reference of 36 clans and their clan structure clearly denotes their existence by 12th century CE. The 12th century Aparajitprachha of Bhatta Bhuvanadeva, which describes the composition of a typical feudal order, refers to rajaputras as constituting a fairly large section of kings holding estates, each one of them constituting one or more villages
  54. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0
    , The use of the term Rajaputra for specific clans of Rajput or as a collective term for various clans emerged by the 12th century
  55. ISBN 978-81-317-2791-1
    . Rautas in these inscriptions are clearly ranked beneath the ranakas, and they are obviously more numerous. In the Mahoba Fort inscription (actually from Kasrak near Badaun), in an entry of 1234, the rautas are spoken off as a jati or caste. Rautas is actually the Prakrit form of Rajaputra (modern Hindi Rajput); and a Rajaputra caste had established itself well before the thirteenth century......Military prowess converted itself into land control, and we say by the thirteenth century the rajaputras or rautas had acquired the position of local land magnates
  56. ^ Rima Hooja 2006, p. 181–182: "The Rajputs of Rajasthan are not over-concerned either over the date or period when the term ‘Rajput’ entered common usage. However, epigraphical and literary evidence would indicate that it was probably sometime during the c.twelfth-thirteenth centuries AD period that the usage of terms like Rajputra, Kshatriya, Rautt and similar words denoting connections with kingship, and Rajput became established as more or less synonymous words....In Kalhana’s Rajtarangini (VII.390) the word rajaputra is used in the sense of a landowner, but if it is read with VII, vv. 1617 and 1618 of the same book it would be clear that they acclaimed their birth from the 36 clans of the Rajputs. That would lead us to believe that by the beginning of the 12th century AD these clans had already come into existence”
  57. ^ a b c d Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 120.
  58. ^ Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, p. 266, [3]Unlike the popular perception, even Rajputs remained engaged with nomadic pastorialism, animal husbandry and cattle trade till much later than it is assumed. Munhata Nainsini in his seventeenth century chronicles, Munhata Nainsi ri Khyat and Marwar ra Paraganan ri Vigat refers to a number of disputes between Rajputs that involved cattle raids. Also, a close reading of the lore regarding Rajput folk deities like Pabuji, Mallinath, Gogaji and Ramdeo, who are viewed as protectors of cattle herding communities actually indicates the intense struggle for control over cattle and pasturelands that Rajputs were engaged in. Rajputs extended patronage to Brahmins and Bardic communities like Bhats and Charans who composed detailed genealogies linking Rajput clans to older kshatriya lineages as well as celestial sources, which not only legitimised their claims to aristocracy but also distanced them from their tribal pastoral origins.
  59. ISBN 978-0-521-52305-9
    . What at first sight might seem to be a change of religion, is often a device to register either recruitment or professional success whether military or otherwise. Very often the Rajput to Afghan change — and, one may add, the peasant to Rajput change — was a similar kind of affair, indicating the pervading impact of soldiering traditions on North Indian social history. The military labour market, in other words, was a major generator of socio-religious identities.
  60. ^ a b Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, pp. 8–9.
  61. ^ Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 121.
  62. ^ David Ludden 1999, p. 4.
  63. ^ Barbara N. Ramusack 2004, p. 13.
  64. ^ André Wink 1990, p. 282.
  65. ^ Cynthia Talbot 2015, pp. 121–122.
  66. ^ Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 121-125.
  67. ^ Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, p. 11.
  68. ^ "Rajput procession, Encyclopædia Britannica". Archived from the original on 9 November 2014.
  69. ^ Pradeep Barua 2005, p. 25.
  70. ^ Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 33.
  71. ISBN 978-0-521-46548-9
    . As Dirk Kolff has argued, it was privileged, if not initially inspired, only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Mughal perceptions of Rajputs which, in a pre-form of orientalism, took patrilineal descent as the basis for Rajput social Organization and consequently as the basis for their political inclusion into the empire. Prior to the Mughals, the term 'Rajput' was equally an open-ended, generic name applied to any '"horse soldier", "trooper", or "headman of a village"' regardless of parentage, who achieved his status through his personal ability to establish a wide network of supporters through his bhaibandh (lit. 'ie or bond of brothers'; that is, close collateral relations by male blood) or by means of naukari (military service to a more powerful overlord) and sagai (alliance through marriage). Thus the language of kinship remained nonetheless strong in this alternative construction of Rajput identity but collateral and affinal bonds were stressed rather than those of descent. During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
  72. ISBN 978-0-521-54329-3
    . Confronting the Ghurid ruler now were a number of major Hindu powers, for which the designation 'Rajput' (not encountered in the Muslim sources before the sixteenth century) is a well-established anachronism. Chief among them was the Chahamana (Chawhan) kingdom of Shakambhari (Sambhar), which dominated present-day Rajasthan from its capital at Ajmer
  73. ISBN 978-0-19-514670-7
    . The term Rajput is a retrospective invention, as most of the martial literature of resistance to Turkish conquest dates only from the mid-fifteenth century onward. As Dirk Kolff has noted in his Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), the invention of "Rajput" identity can be dated to the sixteenth-century narratives of nostalgia for lost honor and territory.
  74. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6
    . [32]In the arid hill country what is now Rajasthan, located southwest to the Mughal original strongholds in gangetic plain, powerful lords had been calling themselves as Rajputs, a title derived from the Sanskrit (rajaputra, king's son), as far back as thirteenth century AD and possibly very much earlier[33]In both the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, Mughal armies fought bloody battles in this strategic frontier region, and through a mixture of force and coalition, its kingdoms were loosely absorbed into loosely textured Mughal political order. At this time, these armed elites had strong memories of the earlier clan chiefs who had made their mark in turbulent times by adopting known marks of lordship and exalted desent.[34]Yet the varna archetype of the Kshatriya-like man of prowess did become a key reference point for rulers and their subjects under the Mughals and their immediate successors. The chiefs and warriors whom the Mughals came to honor as Rajput lords in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may not even have been descendants of Rajasthan's earlier pre-Mughal elites. What mattered instead was that for both[] these titles and the markers of refined faith and social life which accompanied them, spoke in recognizable terms of exalted blood and ancestry.
  75. ISBN 978-0-415-32920-0
    . When Harsha shifted the centre of north Indian history to Kanauj in midst of Ganga-Yamuna Doab the tribes living to the west of this new centre also became more important for further courses of Indian history They were first and foremost the Rajputs who now emerged into the limelight of Indian history
  76. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0
    . The anarchy and confusion which followed Harsha's death is the transitional period of history. This period was marked by the rise of the Rajput clans who begun to play a conspicuous part in the history of northern and western India from the eight century AD. onwards
  77. ISBN 978-1-59477-794-3
    . The role of the Rajputs in the history of northern and eastern India is considerable, as they dominated the scene between the death of Harsha and establishment of Muslim empire
  78. ISBN 978-1-84331-132-4
    . The period between the seventh and the twelfth century witnessed gradual rise of a number of new royal-lineages in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which came to constitute a social-political category known as 'Rajput'. Some of the major lineages were the Pratiharas of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and adjacent areas, the Guhilas and Chahamanas of Rajasthan, the Caulukyas or Solankis of Gujarat and Rajasthan and the Paramaras of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
  79. ISBN 978-81-241-0035-6
    . "In north India, the dominant features of the period between 7th and 12th centuries have been identified as the growing weakness of state; the growth of the power of local landed elites and their decentralising authority by acquiring greater administrative, economic and political roles; the decline of towns, the setback to trades, especially long distance trade and the alientation of land to the brahmans in larger proportions then ever before. The period is also noted for the rise of the Rajputs
  80. ISBN 978-90-04-25409-1
    . "In about the eighth century B.C. the Rajput thus began to perform the functions that had formerly belonged to the Kshatriya, assuming their social and economic position and substituting them as the new warrior class
  81. ISBN 978-1-78074-108-6
    . By contrast in Rajasthan a single warrior group evolved called Rajput (from Rajaputra-sons of kings): they rarely engaged in farming, even to supervise farm labour as farming was literally beneath them, farming was for their peasant subjects. In the ninth century separate clans of Rajputs Cahamanas (Chauhans), Paramaras (Pawars), Guhilas (Sisodias) and Caulukyas were splitting off from sprawling Gurjara Pratihara clans...
  82. ISBN 978-0-230-34549-2
    . From around 1000 ce, notable among these regional powers were various Rajput dynasties in the west and north
  83. ^ André Wink 1990, p. 208 "The Rajputs repelled Arabs from "Stravani and Valla", probably the area North of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, and the invasion of Malwa but were ultimately defeated by Bappa Rawal and Nagabhata I in 725 AD near Ujjain. Arab rule was restricted to the west of Thar desert."
  84. ^ Asoke Kumar Majumdar 1956, p. 44-45.
  85. ISBN 978-81-241-1064-5
    .
  86. ISBN 978-0-415-30786-4
    . 'It was a similar combination of political and economic imperatives which led Muhmmad Ghuri, a Turk, to invade India a century and half later in 1192. His defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan, a Rajput chieftain, in the strategic battle of Tarain in northern India paved the way for the establishment of first Muslim sultante'
  87. ISBN 978-93-5214-118-0
    . An attack was launched on the Rajput kingdoms controlling the watershed and the western Ganges plain, now beginning to be viewed as the frontier. The Rajputs gathered together as best as they could not forgetting internal rivalries and jealousies. Prithviraja defeated Muhmmad Ghori at First battle of Tarain north of Delhi, in 1191, a second battle was fought at the same place, Prithviraj was defeated and kingdom of Delhi fell to Muhmmad, who pressed on and concentrated on capturing capital of Rajput kingdoms with the assistance of his General, Qutub-ud-din Aibak
  88. ^
    ISBN 978-81-241-1064-5
    .
  89. ^ R. C. Majumdar, ed. (1960). The History and Culture of the Indian People: The Delhi Sultante (2nd ed.). Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 70.
  90. ISBN 978-81-7648-118-2
    .
  91. ^ V.S Bhatnagar (1974). Life and Times of Sawai Jai Singh, 1688-1743. Impex India. p. 6. From 1326, Mewar's grand recovery commenced under Lakha, and later under Kumbha and Sanga, till it became one of the greatest powers in northern India during the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
  92. ISBN 978-0-14-011854-4
    . He was immediately challenged by assembled Rajput forces under Rana Sanga of Chittor who was reckoned by Babur as one of the two greatest Hindu rulers
  93. ^ Sarda, Har Bilas (1970). Maharana Sāngā, the Hindupat: The Last Great Leader of the Rajput Race. Kumar Bros. p. 1.
  94. ISBN 978-81-241-1066-9
    . The conquest of Malwa and Chanderi was a prelude to the conquest of Marwar where Maldeo had ascended the gaddi in 1531. He had steadily augmented his power till it comprised almost the whole of western and eastern Rajasthan including Sambhal and Narnaul in Shekhawati. His armies were also said to have been seen near Hindaun and Bayana on the outskirts of Agra.
  95. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-31054-3
    .
  96. ^ Barbara N. Ramusack 2004, p. 14,15.
  97. ISBN 90-04-10303-1
    .
  98. ^ Richard Gabriel Fox 1971, p. 68,69.
  99. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-52658-6
    .
  100. ISBN 978-1-134-11988-2
    .
  101. ISBN 978-0-521-25119-8
    .
  102. JSTOR 3517716
    .
  103. ^
    ISBN 978-81-269-0123-4
    .
  104. ^ Dirk H. A. Kolff 2002, p. 132.
  105. ISBN 978-0-19-514890-9
    .
  106. ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2
    .
  107. ISBN 978-0-521-85022-3
    .
  108. ISBN 978-1-136-70385-0
    .
  109. ISBN 9781316184363
    .
  110. ISBN 978-81-208-0225-4
    .
  111. ISBN 978-0-85772-976-7
    .
  112. ^ Barbara N. Ramusack 2004, pp. 18–19.
  113. ISBN 9781000196061
    .
  114. ISBN 9780195348347
    .
  115. ISBN 9788323399865.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  116. ISBN 9788124110669
    .
  117. JSTOR 44145860
    .
  118. ISBN 9780521798426
    .
  119. ^ "Rajput". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  120. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8047-6617-3
    .
  121. ISBN 978-0-295-99785-8
    .
  122. ISBN 81-269-0394-5
    .
  123. ISBN 81-250-0333-9
    .
  124. ISBN 978-1-107-02649-0
    .
  125. ISBN 0520916301
    . Retrieved 22 January 2021. Ironically, the Rajput constituency of Awadh itself composed a "group of newcomers to the court, who had been peasant soldiers only a few years before. They were called, half sarcastically, the 'Tilangi Rajas' [or] 'trooper rajas'—the people described by the shocked Muhammad Faiz Baksh as the new Nawab's courtiers: 'Naked rustics, whose fathers and brothers were with their own hands guiding the plow . . . , rode about as Asaf ud-daula's orderlies. In other words, the Rajputs of Awadh, who along with brahmans constituted the main beneficiaries of what historian Richard Barnett characterizes as "Asaf's permissive program of social mobility," were not willing to let that mobility reach beyond certain arbitrary sociocultural boundaries.
  126. ISBN 978-0-230-32885-3
    .
  127. ^ Tanuja Kothiyal 2016, pp. 9–10.
  128. ^ Tod, James (1873). Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han. Higginbotham & Co. p. 217. What nation on earth could have maintained the semblance of civilization, the spirit or the customs of their forefathers, during so many centuries of overwhelming depression, but one of such singular character as the Rajpoot.
  129. ISBN 978-90-04-17594-5
    . Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  130. ISBN 978-0-391-02358-1
    . Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  131. JSTOR 20111117
    .(subscription required)
  132. ISBN 978-90-04-17594-5
    .
  133. ISBN 978-1-4008-7664-8
    .
  134. ISBN 978-90-04-08283-0
    .
  135. ISBN 978-93-5150-457-3
    . This suggests that those who fled Delhi had taken asylum in the villages of Chittor, implying that Rajput officers had sympathy with the rebels, otherwise they could have been arrested at the entry point into Rajasthan. However, they travelled safely through Rajasthan, up to Chittor.
  136. ISBN 978-81-206-0204-5
    .
  137. ISBN 978-0-19-563767-0
    . Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  138. ISBN 9780199089376
    . The British defined Rajputs as a group in part by their affinity for wild pork.
  139. ^ Lloyd Rudolph 1967, p. 127.
  140. ISBN 978-81-321-1865-7
    . As one example among thousands, a small caste living partly in the Nira Valley was formerly known as Shegar Dhangar and more recently as Sagar Rajput
  141. ^ Robert Eric Frykenberg (1984). Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia. Manohar. p. 197. Another example of castes' successful efforts to raise their sacred status to twice-born are the Sagar Rajputs of Poona district. Previously they were considered to be Dhangars—shepherds by occupation and Shudras by traditional varna. However, when their economic strength increased and they began to acquire land, they found a genealogist to trace their ancestry back to a leading officer in Shivaji's army, changed their names from Dhangars to Sagar Rajputs, and donned the sacred thread.
  142. ISBN 978-1-84331-004-4
    . The twenty-two princely states that were amalgamated in 1949 to form a political entity called Rajasthan...
  143. ISBN 978-0-253-21480-5
    . Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  144. ^ "Dogra dynasty". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  145. ^ "The Constitution (26 Amendment) Act, 1971", indiacode.nic.in, Government of India, 1971, archived from the original on 6 December 2011, retrieved 30 October 2014
  146. ^ Brass, Paul R. (1966). Factional Politics in an Indian State: The Congress Party in Uttar Pradesh. University of California Press. pp. 16–17. The agricultural castes must be further subdivided into the traditional landowning castes, the cultivating castes, and the castes which provide field laborers. Among the traditional landowning castes, the Thakurs and Rajputs are by far the most important. Before zamindari abolition, Rajputs and Thakurs owned the largest share of the land in most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh; in Oudh, Rajputs were the most prominent talukdars and owned more than 50 percent of the land in most districts. Rajputs and Thakurs are associated with traditional Kshatriya class, the ruling class in the classical Hindu order.
  147. ISBN 978-0-19-566709-7
    . The bulk of the taluqdars, including almost all the Hindu holders of moderate to large estates, are of the Rajput caste. A ritually high caste, second only to the Brahmins, Rajputs have traditionally provided the secular elite of the province. Not only as large Landlords, but as petty zamindars and substantial peasant cultivators, Rajputs control most of the productive agricultural land and have long dominated the village panchayats and other local government institutions. The mere existence of such a large group of influential caste fellows scattered throughout the countryside gives the taluqdar a substantial advantage over a non-Rajput rival in gathering electoral support. But the taluqdar is usually more than just a Rajput; he is also the head of the local Rajput lineage or clan.
  148. ISBN 978-1-61676-436-4
    .
  149. ISBN 978-0-7619-3244-4
    .
  150. ^ "Central List of OBCs – State : Karnataka".
  151. ^ "12015/2/2007-BCC dt. 18/08/2010" (PDF).
  152. ^ A.Prasad (1997). Reservational Justice to Other Backward Classes (Obcs): Theoretical and Practical Issues. Deep and Deep Publications. p. 69. (continued list of OBC classes) 7.Rajput 120.Karnataka Rajput
  153. ISBN 978-1-60497-625-0
    .
  154. ^ "Rajput youths rally for reservations". The Times of India. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  155. ^ Mudgal, Vipul (22 February 2016). "The Absurdity of Jat Reservation". The Wire. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  156. ^ "Rajputs demanding reservation threaten to disrupt chintan shivir". The Hindu. 16 January 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  157. ^ "After Jats, Rajputs of western UP want reservation in govt posts". Hindustan Times. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  158. ^ The Tribune India (20 December 2016). "Rajput body condemns govt for putting Sikh Rajputs in 'backward classes'". Tribuneindia News Service.
  159. ^ "Rajputs to be accorded back general status, as per demand, says Punjab CM Channi". Hindustan Times. 15 November 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  160. ^ "Caste politics in North, West and South India before Mandal : The low caste movements between sanskritisation and ethnicisation" (PDF). Kellogg.nd.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  161. ^ Dipankar Gupta (20 March 2014). "The caste bogey in election analysis". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  162. ^ "Changing Electoral Politics in Delhi". Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  163. ^ "Elections in India: The vote-bank theory has run its course". Asiancorrespondent.com. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  164. ^ "Rajasthan polls: It's caste politics all the way". The Times of India. 13 October 2013.
  165. ISBN 978-0-231-08387-4
    . The term Rajput denotes a cluster of castes that are accorded Kshatriya status in the varna system.
  166. ISBN 978-0-7619-3223-9
    . ...the region's erstwhile ruling aristocracy, a cluster of clans and lineages bearing the label 'Rajput'.
  167. ^ Ayan Shome 2014, p. 196.
  168. ^ Catherine B. Asher & Cynthia Talbot 2006, p. 99 (Para 3): "...Rajput did not originally indicate a hereditary status but rather an occupational one: that is, it was used in reference to men from diverse ethnic and geographical backgrounds, who fought on horseback. In Rajasthan and its vicinity, the word Rajput came to have a more restricted and aristocratic meaning, as exclusive networks of warriors related by patrilineal descent and intermarriage became dominant in the fifteenth century. The Rajputs of Rajasthan eventually refused to acknowledge the Rajput identity of the warriors who lived farther to the east and retained the fluid and inclusive nature of their communities far longer than did the warriors of Rajasthan."
  169. ^ Cynthia Talbot 2015, p. 120 (Para 4): "Kolff's provocative thesis certainly applies to more peripheral groups like the Bundelas of Central India, whose claims to be Rajput were ignored by the Rajput clans of Mughal-era Rajasthan, and to other such lower-status martial communities."
  170. ^ "Rajput". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 December 2023.
  171. ^ a b Shail Mayaram 2013, p. 269.
  172. ISBN 9788290896121
    . Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  173. ISBN 978-1-57181-918-5
    . Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  174. ISBN 978-81-7533-034-4
    . Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  175. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8
    . Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  176. ^ Lindsey Harlan 1992, p. 31.
  177. ISBN 978-0-7190-6962-8
    .
  178. S2CID 144987021
    .
  179. ISBN 978-0-7190-6962-8
    . Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  180. ISBN 9788188789092
    . Apart from their physique, the martial races were regarded as politically subservient or docile to authority
  181. ISBN 978-0-415-94447-2
    . The Saturday review had made much the same argument a few years earlier in relation to the armies raised by Indian rulers in princely states. They lacked competent leadership and were uneven in quality. Commander in chief Roberts, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the martial race theory, though poorly of the native troops as a body. Many regarded such troops as childish and simple. The British, claims, David Omissi, believe martial Indians to be stupid. Certainly, the policy of recruiting among those without access to much education gave the British more semblance of control over their recruits.
  182. ISBN 978-81-7648-166-3
    . Dr . Jeffrey Greenhunt has observed that " The Martial Race Theory had an elegant symmetry. Indians who were intelligent and educated were defined as cowards, while those defined as brave were uneducated and backward. Besides their mercenary spirit was primarily due to their lack of nationalism.
  183. ISBN 978-0-19-085052-4
    . Among the crowds are many Rajputs who link their community's existence, or survival, to the help of Karni Mata.
  184. ISBN 978-1-107-08031-7
    . Several Charani goddesses like Avad, Karni, Nagnechi, Sangviyaan, Barbadi, among others are revered by Rajputs as patron deities.
  185. ^ General, India Office of the Registrar (1966). Census of India, 1961. Manager of Publications. The principal followers of the deity are Charans, who are also the priests and belong to the community to which Karni Mata belonged, and Rajputs who worship her as their family deity .
  186. ^ Prabhākara, Manohara (1976). A Critical Study of Rajasthani Literature, with Exclusive Reference to the Contribution of Cāraṇas. Panchsheel Prakashan. Karni : Presiding Deity of Rajputs and Cāraņas
  187. ^ Aase J. Kvanneid (2021). Perceptions of Climate Change from North India: An Ethnographic Account. Routledge. p. 79-.
  188. ^ Chowdhary, Charu. "7 Interesting Martial Art Forms in India". India.com. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  189. ISBN 978-0-385-42317-5
    .
  190. ISBN 978-0-8147-3619-7
    .
  191. ^ Lindsey Harlan 1992, p. 88.
  192. ISBN 978-81-7033-606-8
    . People said 'Jai Karni Mata ki', 'Jai Mataji ki', 'Jai Charbhuja ki', 'Jai Gordhan Nath ki', and so on. Different deities were invoked in different places and by different castes. For example, a Jat would never say 'Jai Mata Ki', only a Rajput or a Charan would say that.
  193. ISBN 978-81-7304-184-6
    . In fact the greeting used by Bhati Rajputs is 'Jai - sri' or 'Jai - sri - Kishan' ( victory to Lord Krishna ) as opposed to the general Rajput greeting 'Jai - mata - jiri' (victory of the Mother Goddess).
  194. ISBN 978-0-299-14254-4
    . Despite the widespread unacceptability of alcoholic beverages as offerings to high gods in India (Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, 1977a : 365-66), when Rajputs 'open a bottle of whiskey, they often tip a little on the ground in an offering to the mother goddess before they drink. They say "Jai Mata-ji" as they do this-"Long live the Mother (Goddess)"'.
  195. ISBN 978-1-4746-1775-8
    . The Muslims shout their battle-cry; the Rajputs cry, 'Jai Mata! Victory to the Mother!' and the Jats shout the war cry of Hanuman the monkey-god. The Japanese, too - they were shouting 'Banzai!' and wielding their samurai swords ... a medieval sight.
  196. ISBN 978-81-7094-525-3
    . Banners and Devices - Rajputs had slogans like 'Jai Mataji', 'Rann banka Rathor' and so on painted on their shields. Jagirdars carried their own flags; this served the same purpose as in ancient and ease of deployment for battle. The ruler's banners and flags were carried on elephants, camels and on horseback. India-identification
  197. ISBN 978-81-7304-176-1
    . Such hospitality is central to Rajputs, as it is to other martial castes of South Asia
  198. ^ "Hospitable". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press.
  199. ISBN 978-0-19-565787-6
    .
  200. ^ Lindsey Harlan 1992, p. 27.
  201. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84331-092-1
    .
  202. ^ Manmohan Kaur (1968). Role of Women in the Freedom Movement, 1857-1947. Sterling Publishers. p. 9. ( iii ) Amongst the Rajputs it was a common practice that a mother's breast was smeared with the preparation of 'dhatura ' or Mudar plant or the poppy. The infant drank the milk along with the poison.
  203. ^ Richard Eaton 2019, p. 139, [4]:Only the Sisodia clan of Mewar in southern Rajasthan proudly claiming pre-eminence among the Rajput clans, refused to send its women to the Mughal Harem, resulting in the siege and mass suicide at Chittor.
  204. ^
    OCLC 191950586
    .
  205. JSTOR 44146726
    .
  206. OCLC 641457000
    . These slave communities were known by various names, such as Darogas, Chakars, Hazuris, Ravana- Rajputs, Chelas, Golas and Khawas.
  207. ^ Lindsey Harlan 1992, p. 145,167.
  208. ISBN 978-1-84331-363-2
    . If not, these children became dancing girls or were sold off to other Rajputs as wives.[...]Female infanticide had unintended consequences. [...]The scarcity of girls in many clans of higher status led to the kidnapping of women of lower castes, who were sold to high ranking clans for matrimonial purposes.[...]In some cases women from semi-nomadic communities were married to Rajput bridegrooms of this level in exchange for bride wealth
  209. ^ Kalikinkar Datta (1978). Survey of India's Social Life and Economic Condition in the Eighteenth Century, 1707-1813. Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 68. Buchanan writes that in northern India, the Rajputs, Khatris and Kayasthas openly kept women slaves of any pure tribe, and the children through such women were classed in one matrimonial group . Rich Muslim families in Bihar maintained large number of male slaves called Nufurs and female slaves called Laundis . A distinct class of slaves known as Molazadahs were also maintained by them.
  210. ISBN 0195605314
    .
  211. ^ Berreman Gerald D (1963). Hindus of the Himalayas. University of California Press(Berkeley). p. 130.
  212. ^ Karine Schomer 1994, p. 338.
  213. ISBN 9781409411895
    .

Bibliography

External links

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