The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume IV of IV

R >> R.V. Russell >> The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume IV of IV

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Rajput, Nikumbh

_Rajput, Nikumbh_.--The Nikumbh is given as one of the thirty-six
royal races, but it is also the name of a branch of the Chauhans, and
it seems that, as suggested by Sherring, [549] it may be an offshoot
from the great Chauhan clan. The Nikumbh are said to have been given
the title of Sirnet by an emperor of Delhi, because they would not
bow their heads on entering his presence, and when he fixed a sword
at the door some of them allowed their necks to be cut through by the
sword rather than bend the head. The term Sirnet is supposed to mean
headless. A Chauhan column with an inscription of Raja Bisal Deo was
erected at Nigumbode, a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna, a few miles
below Delhi, and it seems a possible conjecture that the Nikumbhs may
have obtained their name from this place. [550] Mr. Crooke, however,
takes the Nikumbh to be a separate clan. The foundation of most of
the old forts and cities in Alwar and northern Jaipur is ascribed to
them, and two of their inscriptions of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries have been discovered in Khandesh. In northern India some
of them are now known as Raghuvansi. [551] They are chiefly found in
the Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts, and may be connected with the
Raghuvansi or Raghwi caste of these Provinces.

Rajput, Paik

_Rajput, Paik_.--This term means a foot-soldier, and is returned
from the northern Districts. It belongs to a class of men formerly
maintained as a militia by zamindars and landholders for the purpose
of collecting their revenue and maintaining order. They were probably
employed in much the same manner in the Central Provinces as in Bengal,
where Buchanan thus describes them: [552] "In order to protect the
money of landowners and convey it from place to place, and also, as
it is alleged, to enforce orders, two kinds of guards are kept. One
body called Burkandaz, commanded by Duffadars and Jemadars, seems
to be a more recent establishment The other called Paik, commanded
by Mirdhas and Sirdars, are the remains of the militia of the Bengal
kingdom. Both seem to have constituted the foot-soldiers whose number
makes such a formidable appearance in the Ain-i-Akbari. These unwieldy
establishments seem to have been formed when the Government collected
rent immediately from the farmer and cultivator, and when the same
persons managed not only the collections but the police and a great
part of the judicial department. This vast number of armed men, more
especially the latter, formed the infantry of the Mughal Government,
and were continued under the zamindars, who were anxious to have as
many armed men as possible to support them in their depredations. And
these establishments formed no charge, as they lived on lands which the
zamindar did not bring to account." The Paiks are thus a small caste
formed from military service like the Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa,
and are no doubt recruited from all sections of the population. They
have no claim to be considered as Rajputs.

Rajput, Parihar

_Rajput, Parihar_.--This clan was one of the four Agnikulas or
fire-born. Their founder was the first to issue from the fire-fountain,
but he had not a warrior's mien. The Brahmans placed him as guardian
of the gate, and hence his name, _Prithi-ha-dwara_ of which Parihar
is supposed to be a corruption [553]. Like the Chauhans and Solankis
the Parihar clan is held to have originated from the Gurjara or
Gujar invaders who came with the white Huns in the fifth and sixth
centuries, and they were one of the first of the Gujar Rajput clans to
emerge into prominence. They were dominant in Bundelkhand before the
Chandels, their last chieftain having been overthrown by a Chandel
prince in A.D. 831 [554]. A Parihar-Gujar chieftain, whose capital
was at Bhinmal in Rajputana, conquered the king of Kanauj, the ruler
of what remained of the dominions of the great Harsha Vardhana, and
established himself there about A.D. 816 [555]. Kanauj was then held by
Gujar-Parihar kings till about 1090, when it was seized by Chandradeva
of the Gaharwar Rajput clan. The Parihar rulers were thus subverted
by the Gaharwars and Chandels, both of whom are thought to be derived
from the Bhars or other aboriginal tribes, and these events appear
to have been in the nature of a rising of the aristocratic section
of the indigenous residents against the Gujar rulers, by whom they
had been conquered and perhaps taught the trade of arms. After this
period the Parihars are of little importance. They appear to have
retired to Rajputana, as Colonel Tod states that Mundore, five miles
north of Jodhpur, was their headquarters until it was taken by the
Rahtors. The walls of the ruined fortress of Mundore are built of
enormous square masses of stone without cement, and attest both its
antiquity and its former strength [556]. The Parihars are scattered
over Rajputana, and a colony of them on the Chambal was characterised
as the most notorious body of thieves in the annals of Thug history
[557]. Similarly in Etawah they are said to be a peculiarly lawless
and desperate community [558]. The Parihar Rajputs rank with the
leading clans and intermarry with them. In the Central Provinces they
are found principally in Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore.

Rajput, Rathor

_Rajput, Rathor, Rathaur._--The Rathor of Jodhpur or Marwar is one
of the most famous clans of Rajputs, and that which is most widely
dominant at the present time, including as it does the Rajas of
Jodhpur, Bikaner, Ratlam, Kishengarh and Idar, as well as several
smaller states. The origin of the Rathor clan is uncertain. Colonel
Tod states that they claim to be of the solar race, but by the bards
of the race are denied this honour; and though descended from Kash, the
second son of Rama, are held to be the offspring of one of his progeny,
Kashyap, by the daughter of a Dait (Titan). The view was formerly
held that the dynasty which wrested Kanauj from the descendants of
Harsha Vardhana, and held it from A.D. 810 to 1090, until subverted
by the Gaharwars, were Rathors, but proof has now been obtained that
they were really Parihar-Gujars. Mr. Smith suggests that after the
destruction of Kanauj by the Muhammadans under Shihab-ud-Din Ghori
in A.D. 1193 the Gaharwar clan, whose kings had conquered it in 1090
and reigned there for a century, migrated to the deserts of Marwar
in Rajputana, where they settled and became known as Rathors. [559]
It has also been generally held that the Rashtrakuta dynasty of
Nasik and Malkhed in the Deccan which reigned from A.D. 753 to 973,
and built the Kailasa temples at Ellora were Rathors, but Mr. Smith
states that there is no evidence of any social connection between the
Rashtrakutas and Rathors. [560] At any rate Siahji, the grandson or
nephew of Jai Chand, the last king of Kanauj, who had been drowned
in the Ganges while attempting to escape, accomplished with about
200 followers--the wreck of his vassalage--the pilgrimage to Dwarka
in Gujarat. He then sought in the sands and deserts of Rajputana
a second line of defence against the advancing wave of Muhammadan
invasion, and planted the standard of the Rathors among the sandhills
of the Luni in 1212. This, however, was not the first settlement of
the Rathors in Rajputana, for an inscription, dated A.D. 997, among
the ruins of the ancient city of Hathundi or Hastikundi, near Bali
in Jodhpur State, tells of five Rathor Rajas who ruled there early
in the tenth century, and this fact shows that the name Rathor is
really much older than the date of the fall of Kanauj. [561]

In 1381 Siahji's tenth successor, Rao Chonda, took Mundore from
a Parihar chief, and made his possession secure by marrying the
latter's daughter. A subsequent chief, Rao Jodha, laid the foundation
of Jodhpur in 1459, and transferred thither the seat of government. The
site of Jodhpur was selected on a peak known as Joda-gir, or the hill
of strife, four miles distant from Mundore on a crest of the range
overlooking the expanse of the desert plains of Marwar. The position
for the new city was chosen at the bidding of a forest ascetic, and was
excellently adapted for defence, but had no good water-supply. [562]
Joda had fourteen sons, of whom the sixth, Bika, was the founder of the
Bikaner state. Raja Sur Singh (1595-1620) was one of Akbar's greatest
generals, and the emperor Jahangir buckled the sword on to his son
Gaj Singh with his own hands. Gaj Singh, the next Raja (1620-1635),
was appointed viceroy of the Deccan, as was his successor, Jaswant
Singh, under Aurangzeb. The Mughal Emperors, Colonel Tod remarks,
were indebted for half their conquests to the Lakh Tulwar Rahtoran,
the hundred thousand swords which the Rathors boasted that they
could muster. [563] On another occasion, when Jahangir successfully
appealed to the Rajputs for support against his rebel son Khusru,
he was so pleased with the zeal of the Rathor prince, Raja Gaj Singh,
that he not only took the latter's hand, but kissed it, [564] perhaps
an unprecedented honour. But the constant absence from his home on
service in distant parts of the empire was so distasteful to Raja Sur
Singh that, when dying in the Deccan, he ordered a pillar to be erected
on his grave containing his curse upon any of his race who should
cross the Nerbudda. The pomp of imperial greatness or the sunshine of
court favour was as nothing with the Rathor chiefs, Colonel Tod says,
when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own
cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the
Rathor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned
from in disgust to the recollection of the green pulse of Mundore,
or his favourite _rabi_ or maize porridge, the prime dish of the
Rathor. [565] The Rathor princes have been not less ready in placing
themselves and the forces of their States at the disposal of the
British Government, and the latest and perhaps most brilliant example
of their loyalty occurred during 1914, when the veteran Sir Partap
Singh of Idar insisted on proceeding to the front against Germany,
though over seventy years of age, and was accompanied by his nephew,
a boy of sixteen.

The Ratlam State was founded by Ratan Singh, a grandson of Raja
Udai Singh of Jodhpur, who was born about 1618, and obtained it
as a grant for good service against the Usbegs at Kandahar and the
Persians in Khorasan about 1651-52. Kishangarh was founded by Kishan
Singh, a son of the same Raja Udai Singh, who obtained a grant of
territory from Akbar about 1611. Idar State in Gujarat has, according
to its traditions, been held by Rathor princes from a very early
period. Jodhpur State is the largest in Rajputana, with an area of
35,000 square miles, and a population of two million. The Maharaja
is entitled to a salute of twenty-one guns. A great part of the
State is a sandy desert, and its older name of Marwar is, according
to Colonel Tod, a corruption of Marusthan, or the region of death. In
the Central Provinces the Rathor Rajputs number about 6000 persons, and
are found mainly in the Saugor, Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad
Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 persons enumerated
in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rathor Telis.

Rajput, Sesodia

_Rajput, Sesodia, Gahlot, Aharia_.--The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally
admitted to be the premier Rajput clan. Their chief is described by
the bards as "The Suryavansi Rana, of royal race, Lord of Chitor,
the ornament of the thirty-six royal races." The Sesodias claim
descent from the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rama
of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewar
consisted of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have
founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurashtra or Kathiawar,
where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi
dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Siladitya, who was killed by
an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohaditya, ruled
in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west of Mewar. From him
the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar,
however, from a detailed examination of the inscriptions relating
to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of
the line were Nagar Brahmans from Vadnagar in Gujarat, the first
of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its
name of Gahlot [566] The family were also connected with the ruling
princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes,
and also the Nagar Brahmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who,
like the Gujars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the
fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar's account really agrees quite
closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, except
that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nagar Brahman of Valabhi,
and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied to the Huns, while the
bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia,
who migrated to Surat and established the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest
prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is
Sila, A.D. 646, and he was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may
therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bapa,
the founder of the Gahlot clan in Mewar, was, according to tradition,
sixth in descent from Gohaditya, and he had his capital at Nagda,
a few miles to the north of Udaipur city. [567] A tradition quoted by
Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bapa was the son of Grahadata. He succeeded
in propitiating the god Siva. One day the king of Chitor died and
left no heir to his throne. It was decided that whoever would be
garlanded by a certain elephant would be placed on the throne. Bapa
was present on the occasion, and the elephant put the garland round
his neck not only once, but thrice. Bapa was thus seated on the
throne. One day he was suffering from some eye-disease. A physician
mixed a certain medicine in alcoholic liquor and applied it to his
eyes, which were speedily cured. Bapa afterwards inquired what the
medicine was, and learnt the truth. He trembled like a reed and said,
"I am a Brahman, and you have given me medicine mixed in liquor. I
have lost my caste," So saying he drank molten lead (_sisa_), and
forthwith died, and hence arose the family name Sesodia. [568] This
story, current in Rajputana, supports Mr. Bhandarkar's view of the
Brahman origin of the clan. According to tradition Bapa went to Chitor,
then held by the Mori or Pramara Rajputs, to seek his fortune, and
was appointed to lead the Chitor forces against the Muhammadans on
their first invasion of India. [569] After defeating and expelling
them he ousted the Mori ruler and established himself at Chitor,
which has since been the capital of the Sesodias. The name Sesodia
is really derived from Sesoda, the residence of a subsequent chief
Rahup, who captured Mundore and was the first to bear the title of
Rana of Mewar. Similarly Aharia is another local name from Ahar, a
place in Mewar, which was given to the clan. They were also known as
Raghuvansi, or of the race of king Raghu, the ancestor of the divine
Rama. The Raghuvansis of the Central Provinces, an impure caste
of Rajput origin, are treated in a separate article, but it is not
known whether they were derived from the Sesodias. From the fourteenth
century the chronicles of the Sesodias contain many instances of Rajput
courage and devotion. Chitor was sacked three times before the capital
was removed to Udaipur, first by Ala-ul-Din Khilji in 1303, next by
Bahadur Shah, the Muhammadan king of Gujarat in 1534, and lastly by
Akbar in 1567. These events were known as Saka or massacres of the
clan. On each occasion the women of the garrison performed the Johar
or general immolation by fire, while the men sallied forth, clad in
their saffron-coloured robes and inspired by _bhang_, to die sword
in hand against the foe. At the first sack the goddess of the clan
appeared in a dream to the Rana and demanded the lives of twelve of
its chiefs as a condition of its preservation. His eleven sons were
in their turn crowned as chief, each ruling for three days, while on
the fourth he sallied out and fell in battle. [570] Lastly, the Rana
devoted himself in order that his favourite son Ajeysi might be spared
and might perpetuate the clan. At the second sack 32,000 were slain,
and at the third 30,000. Finally Aurangzeb destroyed the temples and
idols at Chitor, and only its ruins remain. Udaipur city was founded
in 1559. The Sesodias resisted the Muhammadans for long, and several
times defeated them. Udai Singh, the founder of Udaipur, abandoned
his capital and fled to the hills, whence he caused his own territory
to be laid waste, with the object of impeding the imperial forces. Of
this period it is recorded that the Ranas were from father to son in
outlawry against the emperor, and that sovereign had carried away the
doors of the gate of Chitor, and had set them up in Delhi. Fifty-two
rajas and chiefs had perished in the struggle, and the Rana in
his trouble lay at nights on a counterpane spread on the ground,
and neither slept in his bed nor shaved his hair; and if he perchance
broke his fast, had nothing better with which to satisfy it than beans
baked in an earthen pot. For this reason it is that certain practices
are to this day observed at Udaipur. A counterpane is spread below the
Rana's bed, and his head remains unshaven and baked beans are daily
laid upon his plate. [571] A custom of perhaps somewhat similar origin
is that in this clan man and wife take food together, and the wife does
not wait till her husband has finished. It is said that the Sesodia
Rajputs are the only caste in India among whom this rule prevails,
and it may have been due to the fact that they had to eat together
in haste when occasion offered during this period of guerilla warfare.

In 1614 Rana Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was
hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition that he
should never have to present himself in person but might send his two
sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, the heir-apparent
Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by
Jahangir and shortly afterwards the imperial troops were withdrawn
from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave
a daughter in marriage to any of the Musalman emperors, and for many
years ceased to intermarry with other Rajput families who had formed
such alliances. But Amar Singh II. (1698-1710) made a league with
the Maharajas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against
the Muhammadans; and it was one of the conditions of the compact
that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with
the Udaipur family which had been suspended since they had given
daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rana unfortunately
added a proviso that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed
to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by
another mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led
to the conquest of the country by the Marathas, at whose hands Mewar
suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by
the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between Jodhpur and Jaipur
for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumari at the time
when Rajputana was being devastated by the Marathas and Pindaris;
and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object
of contention, who, after the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled
before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught
of opium four times administered before the fatal result could be
produced. [572]

The Maharana of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen
guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles
and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three
minor states, Partabgarh, Dungarpur and Banswara, are held by members
of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered
nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found in the districts of
the Nerbudda Division.

Rajput, Solankhi

_Rajput, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya._--This clan was one of the
Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been
Gurjaras or Gujars. Their original name is said to have been Chaluka,
because they were formed in the palm (_chalu_) of the hand. They
were not much known in Rajputana, but were very prominent in the
Deccan. Here they were generally called Chalukya, though in northern
India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin
I. made himself master of the town of Vatapi, the modern Badami In the
Bijapur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most
powerful kingdom south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries,
when it was overthrown by the Rashtrakutas [573]. Pulakesin II. of
this Chalukya dynasty successfully resisted an inroad of the great
emperor Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj, who aspired to the conquest of the
whole of India. The Rashtrakuta kings governed for two centuries,
and in A.D. 973 Taila or Tailapa II., a scion of the old Chalukya
stock, restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory,
and founded the dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyan,
which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries
and a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190. In the tenth century apparently
another branch of the clan migrated from Rajputana into Gujarat and
established a new dynasty there, owing to which Gujarat, which had
formerly been known as Lata, obtained its present name [574]. The
principal king of this line was Sidh Raj Solankhi, who is well known
to tradition. From these Chalukya or Solankhi rulers the Baghel clan
arose, which afterwards migrated to Rewah. The Solankhis are found
in the United Provinces, and a small number are returned from the
Central Provinces, belonging mainly to Hoshangabad and Nimar.

Rajput, Somvansi

_Rajput, Somvansi, Chandravansi._--These two are returned as separate
septs, though both names mean 'Descendants of the moon.' Colonel Tod
considers Surajvansi and Somvansi, or the descendants of the sun and
moon as the first two of the thirty-six royal clans, from which all
the others were evolved. But he gives no account of them, nor does it
appear that they were regularly recognised clans in Rajputana. It is
probable that both Somvansi and Chandravansi, as well as Surajvansi and
perhaps Nagvansi (Descendants of the snake) have served as convenient
designations for Rajputs of illegitimate birth, or for landholding
sections of the cultivating castes and indigenous tribes when they
aspired to become Rajputs. Thus the Surajvansis, and Somvansis of
different parts of the country might be quite different sets of
people. There seems some reason for supposing that the Somvansis of
the United Provinces as described by Mr. Crooke are derived from the
Bhar tribe; [575] in the Central Provinces a number of Somvansis
and Chandravansis are returned from the Feudatory States, and are
probably landholders who originally belonged to one of the forest
tribes residing in them. I have heard the name Somvansi applied
to a boy who belonged to the Baghel clan of Rajputs, but he was of
inferior status on account of his mother being a remarried widow,
or something of the kind.

Rajput, Surajvansi

_Rajput, Surajvansi._--The Surajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is
recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod
gives no account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history
as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that the
Surajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarat in A.D. 224, but this
is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the late dates now
assigned for the origin of the important Rajput clans. Surajvansi
should properly be a generic term denoting any Rajput belonging to a
clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different
times have been adopted by Rajputs who were no longer recognised in
their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous
tribes who aspired to become Rajputs. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a
large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned
their own tribal name and call themselves Surajvansi Rajputs; [576]
and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central
Provinces the Surajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangabad, and here they
form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other
Rajput clans. Hence they would not be recognised as proper Rajputs,
and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste.

Rajput, Tomara

_Rajput, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar_.--This clan is an ancient one, supposed
by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yadavas or lunar race. The
name is said to come from _tomar_ a club. [577] The Tomara clan was
considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramaditya,
whose reign was the Hindu Golden Age, was held to have been sprung
from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as
that of Delhi having been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pal I., in
A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993-994,
and Anangapala, a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In
1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of
Chandragupta Vikramaditya is incised, from its original position,
probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group
of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the
great mosque. [578] This act apparently led to the tradition that
Vikramaditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical
antiquity being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The
Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle
of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisal Deo, the Chauhan
chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Raj, reigned at Delhi, but
was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently,
perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khilji, a Tomara dynasty established
itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425-1454),
had executed the celebrated rock-sculptures of Gwalior. [579] In 1518
Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced
to the status of an ordinary jagirdar. The Tomara clan is numerous in
the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank,
but in the United Provinces it is not so much esteemed. [580] No
ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the
Tomaras or Tunwars belong principally to the Hoshangabad District The
zamindars of Bilaspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of
the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara Rajputs on the strength
of the similarity of the name.