Who the Rajputs were
- Suryavanshi (sun)
- Sisodias, Kachwahas
- Chandravanshi (moon)
- Bhatis, Jadons
- Agnivanshi (fire)
- Chauhans, Paramaras, Solankis, Pratiharas
- Royal clans
- Thirty-six, the chhattis kula
- Emerged
- About 6th to 12th century
What the bards say
Solar line: some clans descend from the sun, through Rama, the hero of the Ramayana. These are the Suryavanshi.
- Lunar line: others descend from the moon, through Krishna and the Yadavas. These are the Chandravanshi.
- Fire-born: the Agnivanshi are said to have been born from a sacred fire lit by sages on Mount Abu to create protectors of the world.
- Thirty-six clans: the bards spoke of the chhattis kula, though the lists never quite agree.
What historians say
Varied origins: the clans emerged across north and west India between about the sixth and twelfth centuries, from warrior and landholding groups, some local and some perhaps from Central Asia.
- Becoming kings: as they won land and power, they adopted the ideals of Hindu kingship, built temples, employed bards and genealogists, and linked their families to the epics.
- A shared identity: over time, being Rajput came to mean a code of honour, marriage between clans, and a claim to rule.
- Both stories matter: the legends explain how the Rajputs saw themselves; the history explains how they came to be.
Goddesses, bards and in-laws
Kuldevi: each clan had its own family goddess, its own bards and its own pride.
- Marriage: clans married outside their own lineage but within the Rajput fold, so the great houses were cousins, rivals and in-laws at once.
- Why it matters: that web of marriage and feud explains much of the history, from the alliances against Babur to the wars of the eighteenth century.
- The larger story: our short history of Rajasthan.
The great ruling houses
- Sisodias
- Mewar, Udaipur; Maharana
- Rathores
- Jodhpur 1459, Bikaner 1488
- Kachwahas
- Amer, Jaipur 1727
- Bhatis
- Jaisalmer 1156; Maharawal
- Hadas
- Bundi 1342, Kota 1631; Maharao
- Jhalas
- Jhalawar 1838
The Sisodias of Mewar
The Guhil line: traces its descent to the sun and counts Bappa Rawal, by tradition the eighth-century conqueror of Chittor, among its heroes.
The Sisodia branch: Rana Hammir recovered Chittor in the fourteenth century, and the Sisodias ruled Mewar from then until independence.
- Regents of Shiva: the kings saw themselves as regents of Eklingji, and their title was Maharana.
- Great names: Rana Kumbha, Rana Sanga and Maharana Pratap.
- Longest resistance: Mewar's pride in never giving a daughter to the emperors is still part of Udaipur's identity.
- Branches and home: related lines ruled Dungarpur, Banswara and Pratapgarh; the family still lives in the City Palace in Udaipur.
The Rathores of Marwar and Bikaner
From Kannauj: by their own tradition they came to the desert in the thirteenth century under Rao Siha.
Mandore, then Jodhpur: they took Mandore in the late fourteenth century and founded Jodhpur in 1459 under Rao Jodha.
- Bikaner and Kishangarh: Jodha's son Rao Bika founded Bikaner in 1488; another branch founded Kishangarh in the early seventeenth century.
- Generals and rebels: among the Mughals' finest generals, and their fiercest rebels after 1678.
- Goddesses: Nagnechiya Mata for the clan; the Bikaner house is devoted to Karni Mata of Deshnoke.
- Today: the Jodhpur family still lives in part of Umaid Bhawan.
The Kachwahas of Amer and Jaipur
Descent: they claim descent from Kusha, a son of Rama.
Taking Amer: their founder in Rajasthan, Dulha Rai, came from the country around Gwalior, and his descendants took Amer from its Meena chiefs.
- Uncertain dates: the old chronicles disagree by a century, so we do not pretend to know them.
- Mughal generals: from 1562, when Raja Bharmal allied with Akbar, the clan rose to great power; Raja Man Singh I and Sawai Jai Singh II are its most famous rulers.
- Jaipur: founded by Jai Singh in 1727.
- Branches and home: the Narukas founded Alwar and the Shekhawats Shekhawati; the family still lives in the City Palace in Jaipur.
The Bhatis of Jaisalmer
Lunar descent: through Krishna and the Yadavas.
From Lodurva: their earlier capital; in 1156 Rawal Jaisal moved to the ridge where he built Jaisalmer Fort.
- Caravan wealth: they grew rich taxing the caravans that crossed the Thar, and their rulers took the title Maharawal.
- Remote and alive: one of the most remote Rajput states, and its fort is still lived in today.
- Wider lands: Bhati clans also held lands in Bikaner, Marwar and beyond.
The Chauhans, and the Hadas of Bundi and Kota
Agnivanshi: the Chauhans ruled from Shakambhari near Sambhar Lake and from Ajmer.
Prithviraj III: fought Muhammad of Ghor at Tarain in 1191 and 1192.
- The Hadas: took Bundi in the fourteenth century, by the usual reckoning in 1342; Kota became a separate Hada state in 1631.
- Other branches: the Deoras ruled Sirohi, including Mount Abu; the Songaras held Jalore; the Khichis held the water fort of Gagron.
- Title: the rulers of Bundi and Kota took the title Maharao.
The Jhalas of Jhalawar
From Kathiawar: originally from Gujarat; several Jhala families became great nobles of Mewar.
- At Haldighati: by tradition a Jhala chief took up Maharana Pratap's royal emblems and drew the enemy's attack so Pratap could escape.
- Jhalawar: carved out of Kota in 1838 for the grandson of Zalim Singh Jhala, the powerful regent of Kota.
The Jadons of Karauli and other houses
The Jadons: a Chandravanshi clan claiming descent from Krishna's Yadavas, rulers of the small eastern state of Karauli.
- Karauli: famous for its red sandstone and the temple of Kaila Devi.
- Abu and the south-west: the Paramaras ruled Abu and Chandravati before the Deoras, and the Solankis of Gujarat held power in the south-west.
- Beyond Rajasthan: the Bundelas of Orchha built some of the most beautiful palaces in India.
Not every king was a Rajput
Never only Rajput: before the Kachwahas took Amer, Meena chiefs ruled the land, and the Meenas held the Bundi valley before the Hadas.
The Bhils: rulers in their own right in the southern hills before the Rajputs came.
Mewar's coat of arms: a Bhil archer stands beside a Rajput warrior, remembering that bond.
- At coronations: in some Rajput states, by tradition, a Bhil or Meena leader marked the new ruler's forehead with blood or sandal paste.
- The Jats of Bharatpur: in the eighteenth century Maharaja Suraj Mal made his state one of the strongest in north India.
- Lohagarh: his mud-walled iron fort famously withstood a long British siege in 1805.
- Dholpur: a Jat house ruled the far east of the region.
- The Kaimkhanis: a Muslim family of Chauhan descent, they held Jhunjhunu and Fatehpur in Shekhawati before the Shekhawats took them.
- Tonk: in 1817 the British recognised Amir Khan, a Pathan military leader, as Nawab of Tonk, the only Muslim princely state of Rajputana.
- The merchants: Jain and Marwari trading families financed wars, built temples and havelis, and often held more practical power than the princes they served.
- Their havelis: the great havelis of Shekhawati and Jaisalmer were built by merchants, not kings.
Maharana, Maharawal, Rao: decoding the titles
Maharana: the title of the rulers of Mewar at Udaipur. Rana was the older form.
Maharaja: the most common title, used at Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kishangarh and elsewhere.
Sawai: one and a quarter, a title given to Jai Singh II by the Mughal emperor to mean more than one ordinary man; Jaipur's rulers kept it.
- Udaipur
- Maharana
- Jaipur
- Sawai Maharaja
- Jaisalmer, Dungarpur, Banswara
- Maharawal
- Kota, Sirohi
- Maharao
- Bundi
- Maharao Raja
- A ruler's mother
- Rajmata
- Maharawal: the rulers of Jaisalmer, Dungarpur and Banswara.
- Maharao: the rulers of Kota and Sirohi. Bundi's ruler was the Maharao Raja.
- Rao, Rawal and Rawat: older or lesser royal titles, used by early rulers such as Rao Jodha and Rawal Jaisal, and by great nobles such as the Rawats of Deogarh.
- Thakur: the lord of a thikana, a landed estate, the backbone of the Rajput nobility.
- Kunwar or Kanwar: a prince, a son of a ruler or a thakur. Rajkumar is used too, and a princess is often called Baisa.
- Rani and Maharani: queen and great queen.
- Rajmata: the mother of a ruler, a title still used with great respect.
Thikanas, nobles and the country forts
Not ruled from the capital alone: the ruler granted land to his nobles, usually his own kinsmen, as thikanas or jagirs.
Each thakur: ruled his own villages from his own fort or rawla, and some became almost kings themselves.
Fixed seats: in Mewar, the court seats of the Sixteen and the Thirty-two were set by tradition.
- Thikana or jagir
- Land granted by the ruler
- Owed in return
- Loyalty, troops, attendance at court
- Rawla
- A smaller manor house
- Mewar's ranks
- The Sixteen and the Thirty-two
- Deogarh
- Chundawat Rawats, one of the Sixteen
- Why so many small forts: these estates explain them, and why so many are now hotels.
- Hosts at dinner: owners are often descendants of the original thakurs; at Rohet Garh, Deogarh Mahal, Rawla Narlai and Khimsar Fort you often meet the family.
- Read more: rawlas and thikanas, and what to expect when staying with a royal family.
- Fragile succession: a ruler without a son adopted an heir from a related branch.
- Disputes: contested successions caused wars and outside interference, from the Mughals to the Marathas and the British.
- New states: younger brothers and cousins rode off to win land, which is how Bikaner, Kishangarh, Alwar and Shekhawati came to be.
Honour, ritual and the darker customs
- 1829
- Sati banned in British India
- Following decades
- Princely states abolish sati
- 1987
- A reported case leads to a national law
- 1962
- Gayatri Devi elected to Parliament
The code of honour
The ideals: loyalty to lord and clan, courage in battle, protection of those who sought refuge, and keeping one's word.
- The bards: Charans and Bhats sang these ideals in heroic verse full of horses, swords and doomed last stands.
- Dussehra: was, and in some families still is, a day for worshipping weapons and horses.
- Princely pastimes: polo, hunting and horsemanship; Jaipur and Jodhpur remain great centres of polo today.
Saka and jauhar
Saka: the men of a besieged fort put on saffron robes and rode out to fight to the death.
- Jauhar: the women of the fort died by fire rather than face capture.
- Where: the chronicles record jauhar at Chittor, Ranthambore, Jaisalmer and elsewhere.
- How we tell it: remembered with reverence in Rajasthan, and our guides tell it carefully, as acts of desperation in war rather than glory.
Sati
What it was: the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre, practised in some Rajput and other families.
- Banned: in British India in 1829; the princely states abolished it over the following decades.
- 1987: after a widely reported case in Rajasthan, India passed a national law against sati and its glorification.
- Handprints: those of women who died this way can still be seen on some fort gates. We point them out, and we do not celebrate them.
Purdah, and the power behind the screens
Purdah: the seclusion of women in the zenana, the women's quarters, which is why palaces have so many screened windows.
Never only victims: queens ran estates and regencies, commissioned stepwells and temples, and wielded real power.
- Rani Nathavati: built Raniji ki Baori in Bundi.
- Meera Bai: a Rajput princess, became one of India's great poet-saints.
- Gayatri Devi: in the twentieth century the Maharani of Jaipur won a seat in Parliament.
Heroes, heroines and the stories told about them
- Pratap at Haldighati
- History
- Chetak's leap
- Ballad
- Panna Dai
- Tradition, may well be true
- Hadi Rani
- Legend
- Durgadas Rathore
- Solid history
- Karnavati's rakhi
- Details doubted
Maharana Pratap and Chetak
History: Pratap's resistance to Akbar and his battle at Haldighati in 1576.
- Ballad: that Chetak leapt a stream with him wounded on his back and then died.
- Pilgrimage: Chetak's memorial near Haldighati. Read Maharana Pratap and Haldighati.
Panna Dai, the nurse of Mewar
The story: when the infant Udai Singh II was threatened by a usurper at Chittor, his nurse Panna substituted her own son, who was killed in his place.
- The prince saved: she smuggled him to safety, and he later founded Udaipur.
- How we tell it: taught in every Mewari school, and it may well be true. We tell it as Mewar tells it.
Hadi Rani of Salumbar
- The legend: a young Hada princess, newly married to a Mewar noble, sent her own severed head to her husband on the battlefield so thoughts of her would not distract him.
- Its meaning: the Rajput ideal of duty taken to its terrible end, remembered as legend.
Durgadas Rathore
1678: when Aurangzeb tried to take Marwar after Maharaja Jaswant Singh's death, Durgadas smuggled the infant heir Ajit Singh to safety.
- Decades of war: he fought the empire on Ajit Singh's behalf.
- Solid history: Durgadas is Marwar's model of loyalty.
Karnavati and the rakhi
- The story: facing the siege of Chittor in 1535, Rani Karnavati of Mewar sent a rakhi, a sacred thread of sisterhood, to the emperor Humayun asking for help.
- The verdict: historians doubt the details, but the story is still told at Raksha Bandhan.
Courts that made art
In eighteenth-century Kishangarh, a prince who wrote poetry fell in love with a singer at his court, and his painter gave her eyes like lotus petals. The portrait, Bani Thani, became one of the most famous images in Indian art.
Rivalry in paint: each court kept its own workshop of painters, and each developed a recognisable style of miniature.
- Mewar
- Bold colour, crowded epic scenes
- Bundi and Kota
- Jungles, storms, hunts
- Kishangarh
- Bani Thani's dreamlike faces
- Marwar, Bikaner, Jaipur
- Shaped by the Mughal court
- Mewar: bold colour and crowded narrative scenes from the epics and court life.
- Bundi and Kota: lush jungles, stormy skies and hunting scenes; the walls of the Chitrashala in Bundi are covered in them.
- Kishangarh: this small Rathore state produced the elongated, dreamlike faces of the Bani Thani style under Raja Sawant Singh and his painter Nihal Chand.
- Marwar, Bikaner and Jaipur: each had its own manner, shaped by what their princes had seen at the Mughal court.
- Beyond painting: the same patronage built palaces, temples, stepwells and gardens, and supported poets and musicians.
- Crafts: it kept armourers, jewellers, textile printers, enamellers and stone carvers at work, and much of today's bazaar, from kundan to block print, began as court work.
- Where to see it: miniature painting, the Bundi murals, and our architecture guide for the buildings.
The royal families today
After independence: the rulers merged their states into India and kept palaces, titles and privy purses until those were abolished in 1971.
Reinvention: many turned palaces into hotels, museums and trusts.
Jaipur: the family lives in the City Palace and runs its museum.
- Jodhpur: the family lives in Umaid Bhawan, and its trust runs Mehrangarh, one of the finest museums in India.
- Mewar: the family lives in Udaipur's City Palace and runs its museums and hotels.
- Smaller houses: run their country forts as hotels and are often your hosts at dinner.
- Old forms of respect: people still call the head of a family Maharaj or Darbar, and the royal flag flies over the palace when he is in residence.
- Festivals: the families still lead them, from Gangaur in Jaipur and Udaipur to Dussehra in Kota.
- Public life: some have entered politics, and many are patrons of polo, crafts and conservation.
- Their stories: the Jaipur royal family, the Jodhpur royal family and the Mewar royal family.
- Meeting them: our royal families experience explains how we arrange meetings, private tours and dinners where these households welcome guests.
How to see the clans on the road
Coats of arms: look over a palace gate. Mewar's shows the sun, a Rajput warrior and a Bhil archer.
Flags: each royal house has its own, and Jaipur's has five colours, the panchranga.
- Turbans: Jodhpur's safa and Udaipur's pagri are tied differently, and our guides can tell a Rathore from a Sisodia at a glance. Read about the turbans of Rajasthan.
- Clan goddesses: Karni Mata at Deshnoke for the Bikaner Rathores, Eklingji for the Maharanas of Mewar, Shila Devi in Amber Fort for the Kachwahas.
- Cenotaphs: every ruling house has its royal chhatris, at Gaitore in Jaipur, Bada Bagh in Jaisalmer, Mandore in Jodhpur and Ahar in Udaipur.
- Ask your host: almost every thakur can recite his descent, and the stories are better than any guidebook.