RAJPUTS, literally sons of rajas or princes, is the name by which the clans of several tribes of India designate themselves, and who in ancient times became dominant in the N.W. of India, from which their branches extended southwards. They are in nunierous tribes and clans, and have been supposed to be partly of Aryan, partly of Scythian descent ; but the same religion governing the institutions of all the Rajput tribes, operates to counteract that dissimilarity in manners which would naturally be expected amidst so great a variety, from situation or climate. They have the same mythology, the same theogony, and the same festivals, though commemorated with peculiar distinct ions.
The Rajputs claim, however, to have sprung from the ancient Solar and Lunar dynaAies which ruled in India, and form themselves into the Suryavansa and the Indo or Chandravansa tribes; and there is also a race styled Agnienla, from having sprung from a sacred fire (iguis) which Agastya kindled on Mount Abu. The three Solar races aro the Gehlot, Ilahtor, and Kachwaha. The four Agnicula races are the Puss or Pra mara, with 35 saca ; the Parihara, with 12 subdivi sions; the Clialukya or Solanki, 16 ; and Chauhan, with 24 branches. Of the Pnunara. the Mori are best known, and of the Chauhan, the Ilara, who give their name to Ilarzioti, and have the two rajas of Kota and Bundi. The single Luear race, or that of the 1-adu or Jadu, descended throuFh Krishna, has eight branches, of shout .the.Jharkta with their raja of Cutch, and the Ithatu with thctr raja of Jeysiihnir, are best known.
The three Solar Dynastits are:— 1. Grahilot or Gehlot, with 24 sacs or hntnches, of which the Sesodia is the moat distinguished. The mna of Udaipur or Mewar is a Gndiilot.
2. Italitor, said to be descended from Banta Ly Kusa, his second son. It has 24 branches, and the raja of Jodhpur or Merwara belonp to thin tribe.
3. Kachwalia, also sprung front Kula. The raja of Jerpore is of this tribe. It haa 12 kotri or houses.
The Lunar Dynasty it sprung from the moon, Soma or Chandra, through Yadu or Jadu, and is called Yadu or Jadu. It has eight branches, of which the Jharija and Bhatti in Cutch and Jeysul mir are the most powerful.
Tbe Agnicula have ,1 tribes and 87 branches, viz. :— 1. Pramara, 35 branches. 3. Chalukya, 16 branches.
2. Parihara, 12 „ 4. Chauhan, 24 „
In the 36 royal tribes are others tbe origin of which is not known, such as— Chaura or Cha- Sarwaya or Sari. Sengar.
wara. Aspa. Sikharwal.
Tak or Takshak. Jetwa. Baia.
Jit or Jat of the Kamari. Dahia.
Panjab, Jumna, Dahl. Johya.
and Ganges. Gor. Mobil.
Hun. Doda. Nikumba.
Kathi. Garhwal. Raj pati.
Batta. Chandela. Dahirya.
Jhalamakwahana. Bundela. Dahima.
Gobi'. Birgujar.
The Rajputs in the south and west of Malwa and in Mewar are called Rangari, a name the derivation of which is obscure.
Almost all Hindus who have taken to soldiering, Mahrattas, aborigines, and Jats, claim a Rajput origiia, a recognition of the superior martial qual ities of the Rajput race.
Rajputs of the N.1V. bills are ethnologically a much purer and finer race than those on the plains, but eveia they assert that their ancestors came from Ayodhya or Oudh.
Agnicula Rajputs.—The four Agnicula or fire born tribes, the Chauhan, Solanki, Powar or Pramar, and the Parihara, are now mainly found in the tract from Ujjain to Rewa near Benares. The unnamed progenitors of these races seem to have been invaders who sided with the Brahmans in their warfares, partly with the old. Khetri, partly with increasing schismatics, and partly with Grmco-Bactrians, and whose warlike merit, as well as timely aid and subsequent conformity, got them enrolled as fire - born, in contradis tinction to the Solar and Lunar families, and Mount Abu is asserted to be the place of their miraculous birth or appearance. Vikramaditya, the champion of Brahmanism, according to common accounts was a Powar.
The Chahuntan or Chauhan has been the most valiant of the Agnicula, and not of them only, but of the whole Rajput race. Its branches (saca) have maintained all the vigour of the original stem ; and the Hara, the Kheechi, the Deora, the Sonigurra, and others of the twenty four, have their names immortalized in the songs of the Bards. The derivation of Chauhan is coeval with his fabulous birth from the four-handed warrior Chatur-bhuja, Chatur-baha, Vira. The Chauhan trace their descent from Prithi-raj. They are found all over the N.W. Provinces, also in Malwa and Rajasthan, in Central India, in Rajor, Pratapnir, Chakarnagar, and Manchana, of which last the raja of Mainpuri is the head, and is one of the highest of the Chauhan clan.