Rajput Society in early days

The Rajputs’ origins seem to date from a great breakup of Indian society in the northern and northwestern Indian subcontinent under the impact of the Hephthalites (White Huns) and associated tribes from the mid-5th century ce onward. Following the breakup of the Gupta empire (late 6th century), invading groups were probably integrated within the existing society, with the present pattern of northwestern Indian society being the result. Tribal leaders and nobles were accepted as Kshatriyas, the second order of the Hindus, while their followers entered the fourth (Sudra, or cultivating) order to form the basis of tribal castes, such as the Jats, the Gujars, and the Ahirs. Some of the invaders’ priests became Brahmans (the highest-ranking caste). Some indigenous tribes also attained Rajput status, such as the Rathors of Rajputana and the Chandelas, Paramaras, and Bundelas of central India. Rajput ancestry can be divided between Suryavanshi (“House of the Sun,” or Solar people), or those descended from Rama, the hero of the epic Ramayana; and Chandravanshi (“House of the Moon,” or Lunar people), or those descended from Krishna, the hero of the epic Mahabharata. A third group, Agnikula (“Family of the Fire God”), is the group from which the Rajputs derive their claim to be Kshatriyas. Rajput habits of eating meat (except beef) and other traits suggest both foreign and aboriginal origins.

The Rajputs emerged into political importance in the 9th and 10th centuries. From about 800, Rajput dynasties dominated northern India, and the many petty Rajput kingdoms there were among the main obstacles to the complete Muslim domination of Hindu India. After the Muslim conquest of the eastern Punjab and the Ganges (Ganga) River valley, the Rajputs maintained their independence in the fastnesses of Rajputana and the forests of central India. Sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Khaljī of Delhi (reigned 1296–1316) took the two great Rajput forts of Chitor and Ranthambhor in eastern Rajputana but could not hold them. The Rajput state of Mewar under Rana Sanga made a bid for supremacy but was defeated by the Mughal emperor Bābur at Khanua (1527). Bābur’s grandson Akbar retook the Chitor and Ranthambhor forts (1568–69) and then made a settlement with all the Rajputana princes except Mewar. Accepting Mughal overlordship, the princes were admitted to the court and the emperor’s privy council and were given governorships and commands of armies. Although that arrangement was damaged by the intolerance of the emperor Aurangzeb (reigned 1658–1707), it continued until the Mughal Empire itself collapsed in the 18th century. The Rajputs then fell victims to the chiefs of theMaratha confederacy until they accepted British suzerainty (1818) at the end of the last Maratha war. After India’s independence (1947), most of the Rajput states in Rajputana were merged to form the state of Rajasthan within the Indian union.