The Rajputs in Gujarat, or Gujarati Rajputs are members of the Rajput community living in the western Indian state of Gujarat. They ruled several dynasties and princely states during the British era. Some Rajput clans of Gujarat have origins from outside regions such as Rajasthan, while others are native to the region.[citation needed]

Society

In Gujarat, the highest ranking Rajputs were those who belonged to royal familes of important kingdoms, with rank declining as the territories they ruled became smaller and smaller kingdoms, fiefs, and land tenures. The lower in status, the more the Rajputs merged into Kolis and even Bhils.[1]

History, clans, and dynasties

Solanki dynasty

Solanki dynasty map.

The Chaulukyas, also known as the Solankis, ruled parts of what are now Gujarat and Rajasthan in north-western India, between the 10th and 12th centuries [2]

Jhala clan

Jhala is a Rajput clan fount in Jhalavad region of Gujarat which was ruled from 11th century by the Jhalas.[3]

Jadeja clan

The Jadejas are a Rajput clan of Gujarat who claim descent from Krishna.[4][need quotation to verify]

Vaghela dynasty & clan

The Vaghela dynasty were an offshoot vassal clan connected to the Chaulukya dynasty, ruling Gujarat in the 13th century CE. Their capital was Dholka. They were the last Hindu dynasty to rule Gujarat before the Muslim conquest of the region.[5][page needed]

Early members of the Vaghela family served the Chaulukyas in the 12th century CE, and claimed to be a branch of that dynasty. In the 13th century, during the reign of the weak Chaulukya king Bhima II, the Vaghela general Lavanaprasada and his son Viradhavala gained a large amount of power in the kingdom, although they continued to nominally acknowledge Chaulukya suzerainty. In the mid-1240s, Viradhavala's son Visaladeva usurped the throne, and his successors ruled Gujarat until Karna Vaghela was defeated by Nusrat Khan[6] of the Delhi Sultanate in 1304 CE, and lost Gujarat.

Chudasama dynasty

Uparkot fort rediscovered by Chudasama ruler Graharipu

The Chudasama dynasty ruled parts of the present-day Saurashtra region of Gujarat state in India between the 9th and 15th centuries. Their capital was based in Junagadh and Vamanasthali, and they were later classified among the Rajput clans.[7]

References

  1. ^ Shah, A. M. (1988). Shah, A. M.; Desai, I.P. (eds.). Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat. Hindustan Publishing Corporation. p. 12.
  2. ^ Hermann Kulke (2004). A History of India. Psychology Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-415-32919-4. When Gurjara Pratiharas power declined after the sacking of Kannauj by the Rashtrakutkas in the early tenth century many Rajput princes declared their independence and founded their own kingdoms, some of which grew to importance in the subsequent two centuries. The better known among these dynasties were the Chaulukyas or Solankis of Kathiawar and Gujarat, the Chahamanas (i.e. Chauhan) of eastern Rajasthan (Ajmer and Jodhpur), and the Tomaras who had founded Delhi (Dhillika) in 736 but had then been displaced by the Chauhans in the twelfth century.
  3. ^ Jhala, Angma; Jhala, Jayasinhji (24 April 2017). Genealogy, Archive, Image: Interpreting Dynastic History in Western India, c.1090-2016. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-053945-5.
  4. ^ Saxena, Anisha (2018). "Jakh, Jacks, or Yakṣa?: Multiple Identities and Histories of Jakh Gods in Kachchh". Asian Ethnology. 77 (1–2): 103. JSTOR 26604835.
  5. ^ Mitra, Sudipta (2005). Gir Forest and the Saga of the Asiatic Lion. Indus Publishing. ISBN 978-81-7387-183-2.
  6. ^ Kuzhippalli Skaria Mathew (1986). Portuguese and the Sultanate of Gujarat, 1500–1573. p. 98.
  7. ^ J Chaube (1975). History of Gujarat Kingdom, 1458–1537. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. p. 16. ISBN 9780883865736.
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