Rajput

/rahj"pooht/, n.

a member of a Hindu people claiming descent from the ancient Kshatriya, or warrior caste, and noted for their military spirit.

[ < Hindi, equiv. to Skt raj king (see RAJ) + putra son]

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Any member of a caste of landowners located mainly in central and northern India.

The Rajputs are organized in patrilineal clans and number about 12 million. They regard themselves as descendants or members of the Kshattriya (warrior ruling) class, though in fact they vary greatly in status. After the fall of the Gupta dynasty, invaders and indigenous peoples in northwestern India were probably integrated, the leaders in both groups becoming Kshattriyas. The Rajputs became important politically in the 9th–10th centuries, and for centuries they prevented complete Muslim domination of Hindu India. They eventually accepted Mughal overlordship and, in 1818, British suzerainty.

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▪ Indian history

      (from Sanskrit rāja-putra: “son of a king”), any of about 12,000,000 landowners organized in patrilineal clans and located mainly in central and northern India, especially in former Rājputāna (“Land of the Rājputs”). The Rājputs regard themselves as descendants or members of the Kshattriya (warrior ruling) class, but they actually vary greatly in status, from princely lineages, such as the Guhilot and Kachwāhā, to simple cultivators. Most authorities agree that successful claims to Rājput status frequently were made by groups that attained secular power; probably central Asian invaders as well as patrician lines of indigenous tribal peoples were absorbed in this way. There are numbers of Muslim Rājputs in the northwest, and Rājputs generally have adopted the custom of purdah (seclusion of women). Their ethos includes an intense pride in ancestry and a mettlesome regard for personal honour. They seek hypergamous marriages (i.e., the bride marrying into a social group higher than her own).

      The Rājputs' origins seem to date from a great breakup of Indian society in northern and northwestern India under the impact of the Hephthalites (White Huns) and associated tribes from the mid-5th century 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 Kshattriyas, the second order of the Hindus, while their followers entered the fourth (Śūdra, or cultivating) order to form the basis of tribal castes, such as the Jāṭs, the Gūjars, and the Ahīrs. Some of the invaders' priests became Brahmans (the highest ranking caste). Some indigenous tribes also attained Rājput status, such as the Rathors of Rājasthān, the Chandelās and the Bundelās of central India. The Rājputs are divided between the Solar and Lunar races and those claiming to come from the great fire pit near Ajmer. Rājput habits of eating meat (except beef) and other traits suggest both foreign and Aboriginal origins.

      The Rājputs emerged into political importance in the 9th and 10th centuries. From c. 800 Rājput dynasties dominated northern India, and the many petty Rājput 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 Valley, the Rājputs maintained their independence in the fastnesses of Rājasthān and the forests of central India. Sultan ʿAlāʾ-ud-Dīn Khaljī of Delhi (reigned 1296–1316) took the two great Rājput forts of Chitor and Ranthambhor in east Rājasthān but could not hold them. The Rājput state of Mewār under Rānā Sāngā made a bid for supremacy but was defeated by the Mughal emperor Bābur at Khānua (1527). Bābur's grandson Akbar took the forts of Chitor and Ranthambhor (1568–69) and then made a settlement with all the Rājasthān princes except Mewār. 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 damaged by the emperor Aurangzeb's (reigned 1658–1707) intolerance, this arrangement continued until the Mughal Empire itself collapsed in the 18th century. The Rājputs then fell victims to the Marāthā chiefs until they accepted British suzerainty (1818) at the end of the last Marāthā war. After independence (1947) the Rājput states in Rājasthān were merged to form the state of Rājasthān within the Indian Union.

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