Editing Rajput (section)

=== History of Rajput Kingdoms===
{{See also|List of Rajput dynasties and states}}
[[File:Bikaner fort view 08.jpg|thumb|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 clan)|Rathore]] Rajput rulers (see ''[[Rajput architecture]]'').]]
[[File:A royal Rajput procession.jpg|thumb|A royal Rajput procession, depicted on a mural at the [[Mehrangarh Fort]] in Jodhpur<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/media/full/147427|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109235632/http://www.britannica.com/media/full/147427|title=Rajput procession, Encyclopædia Britannica|archive-date=9 November 2014}}</ref> (see ''[[Rajput painting]]'')]]

Scholars stage 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 [[Northern India]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Hermann Kulke]] & [[Dietmar Rothermund]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V73N8js5ZgAC|title=A History of India|date=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-32920-0|page=116|quote="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"|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Sailendra Nath Sen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC|title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization|date=1999|publisher=New Age International|isbn=978-81-224-1198-0|page=307|quote="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"|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Alain Danielou|author-link=Alain Danielou|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ|title=A Brief History of India|date=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-59477-794-3|page=Chapter 15|language=en|quote="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"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=21SgAAAAMAAJ|title=Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts and Historical Issues|date=2006|publisher=Anthem|isbn=978-1-84331-132-4|page=116|quote=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.|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Satish Chandra|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XAkVclcWWeUC|title=Historiography, Religion, and State in Medieval India|date=1996|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|page=115|quote="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|isbn=978-81-241-0035-6|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Sara R. Farris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf5AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140|title=Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion|date=2013-09-05|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25409-1|page=145|language=en|quote="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}}</ref><ref name="EV2012"/><ref name="Ludden2013">{{cite book|author=David Ludden|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBq9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=64–65|quote= 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...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Peter Robb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ-2VH1LO_EC|title=A History of India|date=2011-06-21|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-0-230-34549-2|language=en|pages=58–59|quote=From around 1000 ce, notable among these regional powers were various Rajput dynasties in the west and north}}</ref> These dynasties were the [[Gurjara-Pratiharas]],<ref>{{cite book|series=Studies In Indian History: Rajasthan Through The Ages|title=The Heritage Of Rajputs|volume=1|publisher=Sarup & Sons|year=2008|first1=R.K.|last1=Gupta|first2=S.R.|last2= Bakshi|publication-place=New Delhi|isbn=9788176258418|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHNoU2zcDnIC|chapter=Origin of Rajputs|quote=The Gurjara-Pratiharas were chronologically the earliest, and  historically the most important of the Rajput dynasties.|page=3}}</ref> Chahamanas (of [[Chahamanas of Shakambhari|Shakambhari]], [[Chahamanas of Naddula|Nadol]] and [[Chahamanas of Jalor|Jalor]]), the [[Tomara dynasty|Tomaras of Delhi]], the [[Chaulukya]]s, the [[Paramara dynasty|Paramara]]s, the [[Gahadavala]]s, [[Chandela]], [[Sisodias of Mewar|Sisodia]]s, [[Guhila dynasty|Guhila]]s etc. However, term "Rajput" has been used as an [[anachronism|anachronistic]] designation for leading martial lineages of 11th and 12th centuries that confronted the [[Ghaznavid]] and [[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.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=33}}<ref name="Peabody2003">{{cite book|last=Peabody|first=Norbert|title=Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YZvuz6EGgcC&pg=PA38|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-46548-9|pages=38–|quote=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-}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Peter|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC&pg=PA9|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54329-3|pages=9–|quote=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}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Behl|first=Aditya|editor=[[Wendy Doniger]]|title=Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PK7riKO6IN8C&pg=PA364|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514670-7|pages=364–|quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Bayly2001">{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|author-link=Susan Bayly|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA32|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|pages=32–35|quote= [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 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.}}</ref>
 
The Rajput ruled kingdoms repelled early invasions of Arab commanders after [[Muhammad ibn Qasim]] [[Umayyad conquest of Sindh|conquered Sindh]] and executed last Hindu king of the kingdom, [[Raja Dahir]]. [[Kingdom of Mewar|Rajput family of Mewar]] under [[Bappa Rawal]] and later under Khoman fought off invasions by Arab generals and restricted them only until the border of Rajasthan but failed to recapture Sindh.<ref>{{harvnb|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."</ref> By the first quarter of 11th century, Turkic conqueror [[Mahmud Ghaznavi]] launched several successful military expeditions in the territories of Rajputs, defeating them everytime and by 1025 A.D, he demolished and looted the famous [[Somnath Temple]] and its Rajput ruler Bhimdev Solanki fled his capital.{{sfn|Asoke Kumar Majumdar|1956|p=44-45}} Rajput rulers at Gwalior and Kalinjar were able to hold off assaults by Maḥmūd, although the two cities did pay him heavy tribute.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA224 |pages=19–24|title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part One |first=Satish |last=Chandra |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5}}</ref>  By last quarter of 12th century, [[Muhammad of Ghor]] expelled the [[Ghaznawids]] from their last bastion in [[Siege of Lahore (1186)|Lahore in 1186]], thereby securing the strategic route of [[Khyber Pass]]. After capturing the northwest frontier, he invaded Rajput domain. In 1191, [[Prithviraj Chauhan]] of [[Ajmer]] led a coalition of Rajput kings and [[First Battle of Tarain|defeated Ghori]] near [[Taraori]]. However, he returned a year later with an army of [[Turkish archery|mounted archers]] and crushed Rajput forces on the [[Second Battle of Tarain|same battlefield of Taraori]], Prithviraj fled the battlefield but was caught near Sirsa and was executed by Ghurids.<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Sugata Bose]] & [[Ayesha Jalal]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ihNtzxy5GEC&q=Rajput|title=Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy|date=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-30786-4|page=21|quote=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 the first Muslim sultanate|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Romila Thapar|author-link=Romila Thapar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBXLCQAAQBAJ |title=The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 |date=2015-06-01 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-93-5214-118-0|quote=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|language=en}}</ref> Following the battle, the Delhi Sultanate became prominent in the Delhi region.<ref name="Chandra 2004 224">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA224 |page=224 |title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part One |first=Satish |last=Chandra |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5}}</ref>
 
The Rajputs fought against Sultans of Delhi from Rajasthan and other adjoining areas. By first quarter of 14th century, [[Alauddin Khalji]] sacked key Rajput fortresses of [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1303)|Chittor (1303)]], [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Ranthambore|Ranthambor (1301)]] and other Rajput ruled kingdoms like [[Siege of Siwana|Siwana]] and [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Jalore|Jalore]]. However, Rajputs resurgence took place under [[Rana Hammir]] who defeated [[Tughlaq dynasty|Tughlaq army]] of [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]] in [[Battle of Singoli|Singoli in 1336 CE]] and recaptured Rajasthan from Delhi sultanate.<ref name="BVB_1960">{{cite book |title=The History and Culture of the Indian People: The Delhi Sultanate |edition=2nd |editor=R. C. Majumdar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKVFAQAAMAAJ |year=1960 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |page=70}}</ref> In the 15th century, the Muslim sultans of [[Malwa Sultanate|Malwa]] and [[Gujarat Sultanate|Gujarat]] put a joint effort to overcome the Mewar ruler [[Rana Kumbha]] but both the sultans were defeated.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF0FvjG3GWEC&pg=PA95 |page=95 |title=The Rajputs of Rajputana: A Glimpse of Medieval Rajasthan |first=M.S |last=Naravane |publisher=APH Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=978-81-7648-118-2}}</ref> Kumbha's grandson renowned [[Rana Sanga]] inherited a troubling kingdom after death of his brothers but through his capable rule turned traditional kingdom of Mewar into one of the greatest power in northern India during the early 16th century.<ref>{{Cite book|author=V.S Bhatnagar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plFuAAAAMAAJ|title=Life and Times of Sawai Jai Singh, 1688-1743|date=1974|publisher=Impex India|language=en|page=6|quote=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.}}</ref> Sanga defeated Sultans of [[Gujarat Sultanate|Gujarat]], [[Malwa Sultanate|Malwa]] and [[Lodhi dynasty|Delhi]] several times in various battles and expanded his kingdom. Sanga led a grand alliance of Rajput rulers and defeated the Mughal forces of [[Babur]] in [[Battle of Bayana|early combat]] but was defeated at [[Battle of Khanwa|Khanwa]] through Mughal's use of Gunpowder which was unknown in Northern India at the time. His fierce rival Babur in his autobiography acknowledged him as the greatest Hindu king of that time along with [[Krishnadevaraya]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Giles Tillotson|author-link=Giles Tillotson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApDrAAAAMAAJ |title=Mughal India |date=1991 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-011854-4 |pages=4|language=en|quote=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}}</ref><ref name="Chandra 2004 224"/><ref name="Maharana">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRBDAAAAYAAJ |page=1 |title=Maharana Sāngā, the Hindupat: The Last Great Leader of the Rajput Race |first=Har Bilas |last=Sarda |publisher=Kumar Bros. |year=1970}}</ref> After a few years [[Maldev Rathore]] of [[Marwar]] rose in power controlling almost whole portion of western and eastern  [[Rajasthan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chandra|first=Satish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC|title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II|date=2005|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|isbn=978-81-241-1066-9|pages=79–80|language=en|quote=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.}}</ref>
 
From 1200 CE, many Rajput groups moved eastwards towards the [[Indo-Gangetic plains|Eastern Gangetic plains]] forming their own chieftaincies.<ref name="Bayly1988">{{cite book |author=C. A. Bayly |title=Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xfo3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA18 |date=19 May 1988 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-31054-3 |pages=18–19}}</ref> These minor Rajput kingdoms were dotted all over the Gangetic plains in modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.{{sfn|Barbara N. Ramusack|2004|p=14,15}} During this process, petty clashes occurred with the local population and in some cases, alliances were formed.<ref name="Bayly1988" /> Among these Rajput chieftaincies were the [[Bhojpuri region|Bhojpur]] zamindars<ref name="Chatterjee1996">{{cite book |author=Kumkum Chatterjee |title=Merchants, Politics, and Society in Early Modern India: Bihar, 1733–1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUeqQ2buQ80C&pg=PA35 |year=1996 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=90-04-10303-1 |pages=35–36}}</ref> and the [[Taluqdar|taluks]] of [[Awadh]].{{sfn|Richard Gabriel Fox|1971|p=68,69}}

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.<ref name="Prakash2003">{{cite book|author=Gyan Prakash |title=Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQFvks7lahoC&pg=PA64 |date=30 October 2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52658-6 |pages=64–66}}</ref> Some have linked this eastwards expansion with the onset of [[Ghurid dynasty|Ghurid invasion]] in the West.<ref name="Prakash2003" />
 
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.<ref>{{cite book |title=India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism |editor1-first=Waltraud |editor1-last=Ernst |editor2-first=Biswamoy |editor2-last=Pati |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-134-11988-2 |first=Amar |last=Farooqui |chapter=The Subjugation of the Sindia State |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eKbW3ukh9oC&pg=PA57 |page=57}}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Pradeep Barua|2005|p=25}}