Editing Rajput (section)

==Subdivisions==
{{Main|Rajput clans}}
The term "Rajput" denotes a cluster of castes,<ref>{{cite book |author=Lawrence A. Babb |title=The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India |url=https://archive.org/details/divinehierarchy00lawr |url-access=registration |year=1975 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-08387-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/divinehierarchy00lawr/page/15 15] |quote=The term Rajput denotes a cluster of castes that are accorded Kshatriya status in the varna system.}}</ref> clans, and lineages.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lawrence A Babb |title=Alchemies of Violence: Myths of Identity and the Life of Trade in Western India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74tUY0le33UC&pg=PA17 |year=2004 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-0-7619-3223-9 |page=17 |quote=...the region's erstwhile ruling aristocracy, a cluster of clans and lineages bearing the label 'Rajput'.}}</ref> It is a vaguely-defined term, and there is no universal consensus on which clans make up the Rajput community.{{sfn|Ayan Shome|2014|p=196}} 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,{{sfn|Catherine B. Asher|Cynthia Talbot|2006|p=99 (Para 3)|ps=: "...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."}} such as the [[Bundela]]s.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120 (Para 4)|ps=: "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."}} The Rajputs claim to be [[Kshatriya]]s or descendants of Kshatriyas, but their actual status varies greatly, ranging from princely lineages to common cultivators.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rajput |title=Rajput |website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=11 December 2023 }}</ref>

There are several major subdivisions of Rajputs, known as ''vansh'' or ''vamsha'', the step below the super-division [[jāti]]{{sfn|Shail Mayaram|2013|p=269}} These ''vansh'' delineate claimed descent from various sources, and the Rajput are generally considered to be divided into three primary vansh:<ref name="Lunheim1993">{{cite book |author=Rolf Lunheim |title=Desert people: caste and community—a Rajasthani village |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuRtAAAAMAAJ |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=1993 |publisher=University of Trondheim & Norsk Hydro AS|isbn=9788290896121 }}</ref> [[Suryavansha|Suryavanshi]] denotes descent from the solar deity [[Surya]], [[Chandravanshi]] ([[Somavanshi]]) from the lunar deity [[Chandra]], and [[Agnivanshi]] from the fire deity [[Agni]]. The Agnivanshi clans include [[Parmar (Rajput clan)|Parmar]], Chaulukya ([[Solanki (clan)|Solanki]]), [[Parihar (clan)|Parihar]] and Chauhan.<ref name="Unnithan-Kumar1997">{{cite book |author=Maya Unnithan-Kumar |title=Identity, Gender, and Poverty: New Perspectives on Caste and Tribe in Rajasthan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9ktWLud0oIC&pg=PA135 |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=1997 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-57181-918-5 |page=135}}</ref>

Lesser-noted ''vansh'' include Udayvanshi, Rajvanshi,.<ref name="Jha1997">{{cite book |author=Makhan Jha |title=Anthropology of Ancient Hindu Kingdoms: A Study in Civilizational Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0i94Z5C8HMC&pg=PA33 |access-date=24 August 2013 |date=1 January 1997 |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. |isbn=978-81-7533-034-4 |pages=33–}}</ref> The histories of the various ''vansh''s were later recorded in documents known as ''vamshāavalīis''; André Wink counts these among the "status-legitimizing texts".<ref name="Wink2002">{{cite book |author=André Wink |title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA282 |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=2002 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-0-391-04173-8 |pages=282–}}</ref>

Beneath the ''vansh'' division are smaller and smaller subdivisions: ''kul'', ''shakh'' ("branch"), ''khamp'' or ''khanp'' ("twig"), and ''nak'' ("twig tip").{{sfn|Shail Mayaram|2013|p=269}} Marriages within a ''kul'' are generally disallowed (with some flexibility for kul-mates of different ''gotra'' lineages). The ''kul'' serves as the primary identity for many of the Rajput clans, and each ''kul'' is protected by a family goddess, the ''[[kuldevi]]''. Lindsey Harlan notes that in some cases, ''shakh''s have become powerful enough to be functionally ''kul''s in their own right.{{sfn|Lindsey Harlan|1992|p=31}}