Rajputisation

Modern historians agree that Rajputs consisted of a mix of various different social groups and different varnas. Rajputisation (or Rajputization) explains the process by which such diverse communities coalesced into the Rajput community.[1][2][3][4]

Formation
A Hill porter from Dehradun, belonging to Rajput caste.

According to modern scholars, almost all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.[5][6][7][8] Rajputisation is the study of formation of the community over the centuries.

Sivaji Koyal suggests that Rajputisation boosted Brahmanism[9]: 538  and defines it as follows,

It is the means whereby a tribal chief establishes the pretensions to being a kshatriya, and surrounds himself with the paraphernalia of Brahmanism for the purpose of securing prestige.[9]: 537 

Sociologists like Sarah Farris and Reinhard Bendix state that the original Kshatriyas in the northwest who existed until Mauryan times in tiny kingdoms were an extremely cultured, educated and intellectual group who were a challenge to monopoly of the Brahmins. According to Max Weber, ancient texts show they were not subordinate to the Brahmins in religious matters. These old Kshatriyas were undermined not only by the Brahmin priests of the time but were replaced by the rise of the new community of illiterate mercenaries in the north-west - the Rajputs. Since the Rajputs were generally illiterate unlike the Kshatriyas, their rise did not present a challenge to monopoly of the Brahmins.[10][11]

Anyone from the "village landlord" to the "newly wealthy lower caste Shudra" could employ Brahmins to retrospectively fabricate a genealogy and within a couple of generations they would gain acceptance as Hindu Rajputs. This process would get mirrored by communities in north India. Scholars refer to this as "Rajputisation" and consider it similar to Sanskritisation. This process of generation of the Rajput community resulted in hypergamy as well as female infanticide that was common in Hindu Rajput clans.[1][2][4][12] German historian Hermann Kulke has coined the term "Secondary Rajputisation" for describing the process of members of a tribe trying to re-associate themselves with their former tribal chiefs who had already transformed themselves into Rajputs via Rajputisation and thus claim to be Rajputs themselves.[13][14]

Stewart N. Gordon states that during the era of the Mughal empire, "Hypergamous marriage" with the combination of service in the state army was another way a tribal family could convert to Rajput. This process required a change in tradition, dressing, ending widow remarriage, etc. Such marriage of a tribal family with an acknowledged but possibly poor Rajput family would ultimately enable the non-Rajput family to become Rajput. This marriage pattern also supports the fact that Rajput was an "open caste category" available to those who served in the state army and could translate this service into grants and power at the local level.[15]

Scholars also give some examples of entire communities of Shudra origin "becoming" Rajput even as late as the 20th century. William Rowe, in his "The new Chauhans : A caste mobility movement in North India", discusses an example of a large section of a Shudra caste - the Noniyas - from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that had "become" Chauhan Rajputs over three generations in the Raj era. The more wealthy or advanced Noniyas started by forming the Sri Rajput Pacharni Sabha (Rajput Advancement Society) in 1898 and emulating the Rajput lifestyle. They also started the wearing of sacred thread. Rowe states that at a historic meeting of the caste in 1936, every child this Noniya section knew about their Rajput heritage.[16]

A caste of shepherds who were formerly Shudras successfully changed their status to Rajput in the Raj era and started wearing the sacred thread. They are now known as Sagar Rajputs.[17][18] (not to be confused with Sagar Rajputs of Bundelkhand which was a subclan of Bundela Rajputs and are considered to be the highest among all central India Rajputs).[19]

The terminology "Rajput" as of now doesn't represent a hereditary status but it is a term commonly applied to all those people who fought on the horseback and were associated with paid military service. The Rajputs claim to be Kshatriyas or descendants of Kshatriyas, but their actual status varies greatly, ranging from princely lineages to common cultivators[20] The Rajputs of Rajasthan are known to hold distinctive identity as opposed to other regions. This identity is usually described as "proud Rajput of Rājputāna".[21] The Rajputs of Rajasthan have often refused to acknowledge the warriors from regions outside of the Rajputana region as Rajputs. These western Rajputs restricted their social contact with the people of variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who claimed Rajput status by following intermarriages between themselves and preserving their "purity of blood". Hence many Rajputs of Rajasthan are nostalgic about their past and keenly conscious of their genealogy, emphasising a Rajput ethos that is martial in spirit, with a fierce pride in lineage and tradition.[22] However, by the 17th century, the Ujjainiya Rajput clan of Bihar was recognised as Parmar Rajputs by the Rajputs of Rajasthan and were allowed a place in the Rajasthani bardic khyat.[23]

Dirk H. A. Kolff describes soldiers of Silhadi and Medini Rai with the terminology "Rajput" or "Pseudo Rajput" migrated from Bihar, Awadh and Varanasi.[24] These Rajputs or the eastern Rajputs often accompanied the Rajputs of Rajasthan in their battles with the hordes of their supporters. They led the band of warriors called Purbiyas in order to assist their western counterparts.[25]

Steps in Rajputisation process

In general, the process of Rajputisation was done not just by a tribal chief but by "castes all over north India ranging from peasants and lower-caste Sudras", as well as warriors and even the "local raja who had recently converted to Islam".[2][1]

Sivaji Koyal has explained the Rajputisation of a tribal chief by dividing it in 7 successional steps.

Rajputisation used to begin with an invitation by a "budding tribal Raja" to the Brahmins in order to seek their assistance in the establishment of a court for him, for which the Brahmins would receive "land and gifts". Later, the Brahmins would "somehow" discover that the tribal head is a Rajput and "his lineage was traced back to some important kshatriya dynasty of the past". After his proclamation as a Rajput, he would distance himself from the members of his tribe as they were supposedly of different bloodlines. Following that, he would raise his stature by hiring Brahmins as priests who used to appeal for the construction of temples in the honor of their gods.

In the next step, after amassing political and economic power, the Raja would establish "marriage alliances" with other Rajputs to infuse "Rajput blood into his family". This was followed by the springing up of sub–chiefs who used to follow suit of the "behavioral pattern of their king–master". The final step involved the inter–marriage between the nobles and the "lesser sons and daughters" of the Raja.[9]: 538 

Sivaji Koyal is of the opinion that by the process of Rajputisation, the Huns were the first to receive proclamation as kshatriyas in India who were later on followed by Rajputana's Scythians, Gurjaras, and Maitrakas.[9]: 537  Rajputisation of ruling group of a tribe who had formerly disassociated with the tribe and become Rajput was followed by a process called "Secondary Rajputisation" where the former members of the tribe would try to re-associate with their former chief and this claim to be Rajputs themselves. Rajputisation is said to have no parallel in traditional Indian society for "inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation".[2][1][4]

Differences between Sanskritisation and Rajputisation
Differences between Sanskritisation and Rajputisation[4][2][1]
CriteriaSanskritisationRajputisation
End result on successBecome Upper caste (twice-born)Become Rajput
Religious codeBelief in Karma, Dharma, rebirth, mokshaWorship of Shiva and Shakti
Priestly supervision of rites of passage
Diet
Prohibition of beef and Teetotalism 		Meat eating
Imbibing alcohol and opium
Dressing code-Wearing of sword for men
Wearing of purdah (or veil) for women
Social interactionClaiming cultural vocation
Patronisation from dominant political power
Prohibition of widow remarriage		Right to all political occupations
Aggrandize lands
Adoption of code of violence
Compilation of clan genealogies

Attempted Rajputisation of Adivasi people
A man from the Gond community.

Bhangya Bhukya notes that during the final years of the British Raj, while education introduced Westernisation in the hilly areas of central India, the regions also parallelly underwent the Hinduisation and Rajputisation processes. The Gond people and their chiefs started doing the "caste–Hindu practices" and frequently claimed the "Rajput, and thus kshatriya status". The British empire used to support these claims as they viewed the adivasi society to be less civilized than the caste society and believed that adivasi peoples' association with the castes would make the adivasis "more civilized and sober" and "easier for the colonial state to control". Bhukya also points out that central India's "Raj Gond families" had already adopted the religious and social traditions of the Rajputs before the British Raj in India, and there were "matrimonial relations" between a number of Gond and Rajput Rajas. However, the British empire's policies of offering "zamindari rights, village headships and patelships" fueled the process.[26]

According to Patit Paban Mishra, "the 'kshatriyaisation' of tribal rulers and their surroundings, resulted in the Hinduisation of tribal areas".[27]

Rajputization of Uttarakhand groups

Researchers give examples of the Rajputs of both division of present-day Uttarakhand–Garhwal and Kumaon and show how they were formally Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput at different times. These Rajput groups (khasa) of Kumaon, Uttarakhand today were formally classified Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput status during the rule of Chand Rajas (that ended in 1790).[28] Similarly, the Rajputs of Gharwal were originally of low ritual status and did not wear the sacred thread until the 20th century.[29]

Attempted Rajputisation of Darogas

The Darogas formed a community and started calling themselves Ravana Rajputs in order to Rajputize. They are a group who are believed to be the progeny of Rajput kings with their concubines and were most often called as Daroga. Lindsey Harlan gives an example of how children born from Rajput men and Gujjar women would not become Rajputs and would become Darogas.[30][31]

Attempted Rajputisation of Jats

The Sikh adoption of the Rajput surnames Singh and Kanwar/Kaur was an attempt by the Sikhs to Rajputise their identity, this form of Rajputisation was more specifically done for the Jat Sikhs who were considered to be of low origin amongst the Sikhs.[32] The Phulkian Jats, who originally gained power by helping the Mughal Emperor Babur enter India, continued to Rajputise their identity till the 20th century by remotely claiming descent from the Bhati Rajputs of Jaisalmer. Similarly the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur also tried to Rajputise their origin. Bharatpur reportedly lost its Rajput status when their ancestor Balchand was unable to have children with his Rajput wife and had sons with a Jat woman.[33] The British-era ethnographer Denzil Ibbetson wrote that the terms like “Rajput” or "Jat" in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan, was used as a title rather than as a “ethnological fact". The tribes after rising to royal rank could become Rajput.[34]

Attempted Rajputisation of Yadavs

Many groups adopted the Yadav surname for upliftment, these groups were mainly cowherders and were low in the caste order but were considered higher than the untouchables. In 1931 several communities like Ahir, Goala, Gopa, etc. started calling themselves Yadavs and made extremely doubtful claims about having Rajput origin and thus tried to Rajputise.[35][36] There were a number of times when the Ahirs from the Ahirwal region had cultural traditions similar to the Rajputs such as the martial tradition, and were mixed with being of the Rajput identity. The Mughals acknowledged and distincted the Ahir clans which claimed to be Rajput by blood. The Yaduvanshi term was to describe the Kshatriyas who claimed descent from Krishna, and received a Rajput identity as Krishna was seen as the "cowherder-Rajput god".[37] By the 19th century, the Rewari Ahir clans began to make marital relations with Rajput dynasties such as Bikaner, and the marriages legitimized their being of "aristocratic" and "Rajput".[38]

Attempted Rajputisation of Kolis

Records of Koli people exist from at least the 15th century, when rulers in the present-day Gujarat region called their chieftains marauding robbers, dacoits, and pirates. Over a period of several centuries, some of them were able to establish petty chiefdoms throughout the region, mostly comprising just a single village.[39] Although not Rajputs, this relatively small elite subset of the Kolis claimed the status of the higher-ranked Rajput community, adopting their clan names, lineages, customs and intermixing with less significant Rajput families through the practice of hypergamous marriage,[40][41] which was commonly used to enhance or secure social status.[42][43] There were significant differences in status throughout the Koli community, however, and little cohesion either geographically or in terms of communal norms, such as the establishment of endogamous marriage groups.[44] The Kolis also employed Barots to fabricate a genealogy which would state the Kolis were of partial Rajput origin.[43]

Rajputisation of Jadejas

According to the sociologist Lyla Mehta, the Jadeja were Hindu descendants of a Muslim tribe that had migrated from Sindh to Kutch.[45] They originated from pastoral communities and laid a claim on the Rajput identity after marriages with Sodha Rajput women.[46] Gujarat's Jadeja Rajputs were called "half-Muslim" and they employed Muslim African Siddi slaves for cooking.[47]

See also

References
  1. Ishita Banerjee-Dube (2010). Caste in History. Oxford University Press. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-19-806678-1. Rajputisation discussed processes through which 'equalitarian, primitive, clan based tribal organisation' adjusted itself to the centralized hierarchic, territorial oriented political developments in the course of state formation. This led a 'narrow lineage of single families' to disassociate itself from the main body of their tribe and claim Rajput origin. They not only adopted symbols and practices supposedly representative of the true Kshatriya, but also constructed genealogies that linked them to the primordial and legendary solar and lunar dynasties of kings. Further, it was pointed out that the caste of genealogists and mythographers variously known as Carans, Bhats, Vahivanca Barots, etc., prevalent in Gujarat, Rajasthan and other parts of north India actively provided their patron rulers with genealogies that linked local clans of these chiefs with regional clans and with the Kshatriyas of the Puranas and Mahabharata. Once a ruling group succeeded in establishing its claim to Rajput status, there followed a 'secondary Rajputisation' when the tribes tried to 're-associate' with their formal tribal chiefs who had also transformed themselves into Hindu rajas and Rajput Kshatriyas.
  2. Mayaram, Shail (2010). "The Sudra Right to Rule". In Ishita Banerjee-Dube (ed.). Caste in History. Oxford University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-19-806678-1. In their recent work on female infanticide, Bhatnagar, Dube and Bube (2005) distinguish between Rajputisation and Sanksritisation. Using M. N. Srinivas' and Milton Singer's approach to social mobility as idioms they identify Rajputisation as one of the most dynamic modes of upward mobility. As an idiom of political power it 'signifies a highly mobile social process of claiming military-political power and the right to cultivate land as well as the right to rule. Rajputisation is unparalleled in traditional Indian society for its inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation and self-invention. This was a claim that was used by persons of all castes all over north India ranging from peasants and lower-caste Sudras to warriors and tribal chiefs and even the local raja who had recently converted to Islam.
  3. Satish Chandra (2008). Social Change and Development in Medieval Indian History. Har-Anand Publications. pp. 43–44. ISBN 9788124113868. M.N.Srinivas who had used the word "Sanskritization" to denote this process, now accepts accepts that he put too much emphasis originally on the movement of groups towards the varna status of Brahmans. Both Srinivas and B.Stein now emphasize not merely the process of Sanskritization, but other factors, such as the position of the dominant peasant and land-owning classes, political power and production system in the process of caste mobility of groups. Srinivas further surmises that the varna model became more popular during British rule. Thus, growing caste rigidity was an indirect effect of British rule. The rise of Rajputs is a classic model of varna mobility in the earlier period. There is a good deal of discussion regarding the origin of Rajputs - whether they were Kshatriyas of they were drawn from other categories in the population including indigenous tribes. Modern historians are more or less agreed that the Rajputs consisted of miscellaneous groups including Shudra and tribals. Some were Brahmans who took to warfare, and some were from Tribes- indigenous or foreign.
  4. Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar; Reena Dube (1 February 2012). Female Infanticide in India: A Feminist Cultural History. State University of New York (SUNY) Press. pp. 59, 62, 63, 257. ISBN 978-0-7914-8385-5. (62, 63) We have culled from the sociological literature, particularly from Srivinas's analysis of Sanskritization, the key differences between the two modes of upward mobility, Sanskritization and Rajputization. Despite the excellent fieldwork on Rajputization by Sinha (1962) and Kulke (1976), there is no clear theoretical definition of the key features of Rajputization, and its differences and similarities to Sanskritization. We argue that theorizing is as important as fieldwork, principally because of the colonial misreading of the term Rajput and its relation to Rajput history and to Rajputization. As a corrective we demarcate the distinction between Sanskritization and Rajputization in terms of attributional criteria - which denotes a code of living, dietary prohibition, modes of worship-and social interactional criteria, which signify the rules of marriage, rules pertaining to women, and modes of power. The attributional criteria for Sanskritization are vegetarianism, prohibition against beef eating, teetotalism, and wearing the sacred thread; the attributional criteria for Rajputized men consists of meat-eating, imbibing alcohol and opium, and the wearing of the sword; the attributional criteria for Rajputized women are seclusion through purdah or the veil and elaborate rules for women's mobility within the village. The religious code for Sanskritization is a belief in the doctrine of karma, dharma, rebirth and moksha and the Sradda ceremony for male ancestors. Conversely, the religious code for Rajputization consists of the worship of Mahadeo and Sakto and the Patronage of Brahmins through personal family priests (historically the Rajputized rulers gave land grants to Brahmins) and the priestly supervision of rites of passage. The social interactional criteria for Sanskritization is claiming the right to all priestly intellectual and cultural vocations, patronage from the dominant political power, and prohibition against widow remarriage. The interactional criteria for Rajputization consists of claiming the right to all military and political occupations, the right to govern, the right to aggrandize lands through wars, sanctioned aggressive behavior, the adoption of the code for violence, compiling clan genealogies and the right to coercively police the interactions between castes.
  5. Eugenia Vanina 2012, p. 140:Regarding the initial stages of this history and the origin of the Rajput feudal elite, modern research shows that its claims to direct blood links with epic heroes and ancient kshatriyas in general has no historic substantiation. No adequate number of the successors of these epically acclaimed warriors could have been available by the period of seventh–eights centuries AD when the first references to the Rajput clans and their chieftains were made. [...] Almost all Rajput clans originated from the semi-nomadic pastoralists of the Indian north and north-west.
  6. Daniel Gold (1 January 1995). David N. Lorenzen (ed.). Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. State University of New York Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7914-2025-6. Paid employment in military service as Dirk H. A. Kolff has recently demonstrated, was an important means of livelihood for the peasants of certain areas of late medieval north India... In earlier centuries, says Kolff, "Rajput" was a more ascriptive term, referring to all kinds of Hindus who lived the life of the adventuring warrior, of whom most were of peasant origins.
  7. Doris Marion Kling (1993). The Emergence of Jaipur State: Rajput Response to Mughal Rule, 1562–1743. University of Pennsylvania. p. 30. Rajput: Pastoral, mobile warrior groups who achieved landed status in the medieval period claimed to be Kshatriyas and called themselves Rajputs.
  8. André Wink (1991). Al-Hind the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest : 11Th-13th Centuries. BRILL. p. 171. ISBN 90-04-10236-1. ...and it is very probable that the other fire-born Rajput clans like the Caulukyas, Paramaras, Cahamanas, as well as the Tomaras and others who in the eighth and ninth centuries were subordinate to the Gurjara-Pratiharas, were of similar pastoral origin, that is, that they originally belonged to the mobile, nomadic groups...
  9. Koyal, Sivaji (1986). "Emergence of Kingship, Rajputisation and a New Economic Arrangement in Mundaland". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Indian History Congress. 47, I: 536–542. JSTOR 44141600.
  10. Reinhard Bendix (1998). Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. Psychology Press. pp. 180–. ISBN 978-0-415-17453-4. Weber however explained this downgrading of their status by the fact that they represented a threat to the cultural and intellectual monopoly of the Brahmans, as they[Kshatriyas] were also extremely cultured and educated in the art of administration. In about the eight century 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. Ancient illiterate mercenaries, the Rajput did not represent a threat to the Brahminic monopoly and were more inclined to accept the Brahmans' superiority, thus contributing to the so called Hindu restoration.
  11. Sara R. Farris (9 September 2013). Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion. BRILL. pp. 140–. ISBN 978-90-04-25409-1. Weber however explained this downgrading of their status by the fact that they represented a threat to the cultural and intellectual monopoly of the Brahmans, as they[Kshatriyas] were also extremely cultured and educated in the art of administration. In about the eight century 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. Ancient illiterate mercenaries, the Rajput did not represent a threat to the Brahmininc monopoly and were more inclined to accept the Brahmans' superiority, thus contributing to the so called Hindu restoration.
  12. Hermann Kulke (1995). The State in India, 1000–1700. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563127-2.
  13. Detlef Kantowsky (1986). Recent Research on Max Weber's Studies of Hinduism: Papers Submitted to a Conference Held in New Delhi, 1.-3.3. 1984. Weltforum Verlag. p. 104. ISBN 978-3-8039-0333-4.
  14. Hermann Kulke (1993). Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia. Manohar Publishers & Distributors. p. 251. ISBN 9788173040375.
  15. Stewart Gordon 2007, p. 16: Eventually, kinship and marriage restrictions defined this Rajput group as different from other elements in the society of Rajasthan. The hypergamous marriage pattern typical of Rajputs tacitly acknowledged that it was a somewhat open caste category; by successful service in a state army and translating this service into grants and power at the local level, a family might become Rajput. The process required changes in dress, eating patterns, the patronage of local shrines closer to the "great tradition", and an end to widow remarriage. A hypergamous marriage with an acknowledged (but possibly impoverished) Rajput family would follow and with continued success in service the family would indeed become Rajput. All this is well documented in relations between Rajputs and tribals...
  16. Lloyd Rudolph 1967, p. 127.
  17. B. S. Baviskar; D. W. Attwood (30 October 2013). Inside-Outside: Two Views of Social Change in Rural India. SAGE Publications. pp. 389–. ISBN 978-81-321-1865-7. As one example among thousands, a small caste living partly in the Nira Valley was formerly known as Shegar Dhangar and more recently as Sagar Rajput
  18. Robert Eric Frykenberg (1984). Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia. Manohar. p. 197. Another example of castes' successful efforts to raise their sacred status to twice-born are the Sagar Rajputs of Poona district. Previously they were considered to be Dhangars—shepherds by occupation and Shudras by traditional varna. However, when their economic strength increased and they began to acquire land, they found a genealogist to trace their ancestry back to a leading officer in Shivaji's army, changed their names from Dhangars to Sagar Rajputs, and donned the sacred thread.
  19. Bates, Crispin (4 March 2013). Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality. SAGE Publishing India. ISBN 978-81-321-1589-2.
  20. "Rajput". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  21. Serving Empire, Serving Nation by Glenn J. Ames, The University of Toledo, Pg 31
  22. Catherine B. Asher & Cynthia Talbot 2006, p. 99 (Para 3): "...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."
  23. Muzaffar Alam; Sanjay Subrahmanyam (1998). The Mug̲h̲al State, 1526-1750. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-19-563905-6.
  24. Dirk H. A. Kolff (2002). Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-521-52305-9.
  25. Sarkar, Jadunath (1960). Military History of India. Orient Longmans(Original from the University of Virginia). pp. 56–61. ISBN 9780861251551. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  26. Bhukya, Bhangya (January 2013). Chatterji, Joya; Peabody, Norbert (eds.). "The Subordination of the Sovereigns: Colonialism and the Gond Rajas in Central India, 1818–1948". Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. 47 (1): 309. doi:10.1017/S0026749X12000728. JSTOR 23359786. S2CID 145095937.
  27. Mishra, Patit Paban (1997). "Critique of Indianisation Theory". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Indian History Congress. 58: 805. JSTOR 44144025.
  28. R.D. Sanwal (1976). Social Stratification in Rural Kumaon. Oxford University Press. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0195605314.
  29. Berreman Gerald D (1963). Hindus of the Himalayas. University of California Press (Berkeley). p. 130.
  30. Lindsey Harlan (1992). Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives. University of California Press. pp. 145, 167. ISBN 978-0-520-07339-5.
  31. D. D. Gaur (1978). Constitutional Development of Eastern Rajputana States. Usha. p. 49. OCLC 641457000. These slave communities were known by various names, such as Darogas, Chakars, Hazuris, Ravana- Rajputs, Chelas, Golas and Khawas.
  32. Doris R. Jakobsh (2005). Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning and Identity. Oxford University Press. p. 299. ISBN 9780195679199. Appropriation of highly specific Rajput distinctions such as 'Kanwar/Kaur' and 'Singh' can most likely be attributed to active attempts by specific segments of the Sikh population during the mid-to-late Guru period to Rajputize their identity. This process of 'Rajputisation' becomes intelligible particularly in light of the elevation of the lowly Jat to a hegemonic position within the social hierarchy of the Sikh Panth
  33. Barbara N. Ramusack (2007). The Indian Princes and their States. Oxford University Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9780521039895. The Phulkian clan traced their ancestry remotely to Jaisal, the Jadon Bhatti Rajput founder of Jaisalmer State........In return for supporting the Mughal Emperor Babur during the battle of Panipat in 1526, Bariam, a Phulkian Jat, acquired Chaudhriyat........The hindu Jat rulers of Bharatpur and Dholpur claimed Rajput origins. Balchand having no children by a Rajput wife, produced sons with a Jat woman.
  34. Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 139-140. ISBN 9780521798426.
  35. Luce, Edward (2008). In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-4000-7977-3. Quote: "The Yadavs are one of India's largest 'Other Backward Classes,' a government term that covers most of India's Sudra castes. Yadavs are the traditional cowherd caste of North India and are relatively low down on the traditional pecking order, but not as low as the untouchable Mahars or Chamars."
  36. Hutton, John Henry (1969). Caste in India: its nature, function and origins. Oxford University Press. p. 113. Quote: "In a not dissimilar way the various cow-keeping castes of northern India were combining in 1931 to use the common term of Yadava for their various castes, Ahir, Goala, Gopa, etc., and to claim a Rajput origin of extremely doubtful authenticity."
  37. Michelutti, Lucia (29 November 2020). The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-08400-9.
  38. Michelutti, Lucia (29 November 2020). The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-08400-9.
  39. Shah, A. M.; Shroff, R. G. (1958). "The Vahīvancā Bāroṭs of Gujarat: A Caste of Genealogists and Mythographers". The Journal of American Folklore. American Folklore Society. 71 (281): 265. doi:10.2307/538561. JSTOR 538561 – via JSTOR.
  40. Shah 2012, p. 169
  41. Jaffrelot 2003, pp. 180–182.
  42. Fuller 1975, pp. 293–295.
  43. Shah, A. M.; Shroff, R. G. (1958). "The Vahīvancā Bāroṭs of Gujarat: A Caste of Genealogists and Mythographers". The Journal of American Folklore. 71 (281): 266–267. doi:10.2307/538561. JSTOR 538561 – via JSTOR.
  44. Shah 2012, p. 170
  45. Lyla Mehta (2005). The Politics and Poetics of Water: The Naturalisation of Scarcity in Western India. Orient Blackswan. pp. 113–. ISBN 978-81-250-2869-7. As stated in Chapter 3, the Jadeja Rajputs were the former rulers of Kutch and the Hindu descendants of a Muslim tribe that migrated to Kutch from Sind.
  46. Farhana Ibrahim (29 November 2020). Settlers, Saints and Sovereigns: An Ethnography of State Formation in Western India. Taylor & Francis. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-1-00-008397-2. The Jadejas entered the rank of Rajput society slowly from pastoralist pasts, as was frequently the norm in this region. Steady intermarriage between Jadeja men and Sodha Rajput women in Sindh enabled the former to lay claim to a Rajput identity.
  47. Shail Mayaram (6 May 2011). Kamala Visweswaran (ed.). Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-4051-0062-5. Helena Basu points out that the Jadeja Rajputs of Gujarat who were described as 'half Muslim' employed African Sidi(Muslim) slaves as cooks

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