View source for Rajput

{{short description|Social community of South Asia}}
{{other uses|Rajput (disambiguation) }}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Duplicated citations|reason=[[User:Polygnotus/DuplicateReferences|DuplicateReferences]] detected:<br>
* https://brill.com/display/book/9789004483002/B9789004483002_s009.xml?rskey=O3hW42&result=1 (refs: 10, 80)
* http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490157/Rajput (refs: 17, 154)
|date=June 2025}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{infobox caste
| caste_name             = '''Rajput'''
| caste_name_in_local    = 
| image                  = 
| image_size             =
| caption                =
| varna                  =
| jati                   =
| classification         = 
| gotra                  =
| veda                   =
| kula_daivat            =
| kula_devi              =
| devak                  =
| religions              = Majority: [[Hinduism]] [[file:Om symbol.svg|20x20px]] <br/> Minority: [[Islam]] [[file:Allah-green.svg|20x20px]] <br/> •  [[Sikhism]] [[file:Khanda.svg|20x20px]] <ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Stephen Philip |title=The idea of Pakistan |date=2006 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0815715030 |pages=35–36 |edition=Rev. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42XRDAAAQBAJ&q=pakistan+RAJPUT+tribe+conversion&pg=PP1 |access-date=18 July 2017}}</ref>
| languages              = [[Hindi]]-[[Urdu]], [[Haryanvi]], [[Bundeli language|Bundeli]], [[Bagheli language|Bagheli]], [[Chhattisgarhi language|Chhattisgarhi]], [[Marwari language|Marwari]], [[Mewari language|Mewari]], [[Shekhawati language|Shekhawati]], [[Dhundari language|Dhundari]], [[Malwi language|Malwi]], [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcvjAAAAMAAJ&q=bhojpuri+language+rajput |title=Folk-lore, Volume 21 |access-date=9 April 2017 |pages=79 |year=1980}}</ref> [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]], [[Braj Bhasha]], [[Magahi language|Magahi]], [[Maithili language|Maithili]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZDXAAAAMAAJ&q=Maithila |title=Samaskaras in Indian Tradition and Culture |access-date=4 March 2017 |pages=195 |isbn=9788175411401 |last1=Roy |first1=Ramashray |date=1 January 2003|publisher=Shipra Publications }}</ref> [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Western Pahari language|Western Pahari]], [[Dogri language|Dogri]], [[Kumaoni language|Kumaoni]], [[Garhwali language|Garhwali]]
| country                = • {{flag|India}} • {{flag|Pakistan}} • {{flag|Nepal}}
| state                  = 
| populated_states       =[[Rajasthan]] • [[Gujarat]] • [[Madhya Pradesh]] • [[Haryana]] • [[Punjab, India|Indian Punjab]] • [[Punjab, Pakistan|Pakistani Punjab]] • [[Himachal Pradesh]] • [[Uttarakhand]] • [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]] • [[Azad Kashmir]] • [[Uttar Pradesh]] • [[Bihar]] • [[Maharashtra]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78rfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA217 |page=217 |title=Rise of the Plebeians?: The Changing Face of the Indian Legislative Assemblies (Exploring the Political in South Asia) |editor1=Christophe Jaffrelot |editor2=Sanjay Kumar |author=Rajendra Vora |publisher=Routledge India |year=2009 |isbn=9781136516627 |quote=[In Maharashtra]The Lingayats, the Gujjars and the Rajputs are three other important castes which belong to the intermediate category. The lingayats who hail from north Karnataka are found primarily in south Maharashtra and Marthwada while Gujjars and Rajputs who migrated centuries ago from north India have settled in north Maharashtra districts.}}</ref> • [[Sindh]] 
| region                 = •[[North India|Northern India]] <br/>
•[[Western India]]
| ethnicity              = 
| population             = 
| family_names           = 
| endogamous             =
| notable_members        = 
| related                =
| historical_grouping    =
| disputed_grouping      =
| status                 = [[Forward caste]]<br>(except in [[Karnataka]])
}}

'''Rājpūt''' ({{ipa|hi|ɾaːd͡ʒpuːt̪|ipa}}, from [[Sanskrit]] ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called '''Thākur''' ({{ipa|hi|ʈʰaːkʊɾ|ipa}}),<ref>
*{{Cite book|title=Communities, Segments, Synonyms, Surnames and Titles|author=[[Kumar Suresh Singh]]|publisher=Anthropological Survey of India|page=1706|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfAMAQAAMAAJ&dq=Rajput+thakur+synonymous&pg=PA1706|year=1996|isbn=978-0-19-563357-3 }}
*{{Cite book|title=Theft of an Idol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q55rb_-NnugC&q=Rajput+is+used+interchangeably+with+Rajput+&pg=PA151|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=151|isbn=9780691026503|author=Paul R. Brass|year=1997|quote=Thakur is used interchangeably with Rajput to refer to persons from this cluster of upper castes. Thakur is really the common title used for persons of this caste grouping , as Pandit is for the Brahman castes.}}</ref> is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the northern part of the [[Indian subcontinent]]. The term ''Rajput'' covers various [[patrilineal]] clans historically associated with [[warrior]]hood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.

Over time, the Rajputs emerged as a social class comprising people from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds. From the 12th to 16th centuries, the membership of this class became largely hereditary, although new claims to Rajput status continued to be made in later centuries. Several [[List of Rajput dynasties and states|Rajput-ruled kingdoms]] played a significant role in many regions of central and [[North India|northern India]] from the seventh century onwards.

The Rajput population and the former Rajput states are found in northern, western, central and eastern India, as well as southern and eastern Pakistan. These areas include [[Rajasthan]], [[Delhi]], [[Haryana]], [[Gujarat]], [[Punjab, India|Eastern Punjab]], [[Punjab, Pakistan|Western Punjab]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[West Bengal]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], [[Jammu region|Jammu]], [[Uttarakhand]], [[Bihar]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Sindh]] and [[Azad Kashmir]].

In terms of religious affiliation, in 1988 it was estimated that out of a total Rajput population of roughly 38 million in the Indian subcontinent, the majority, 30 million (79%) were Hindus, nearly 8 million (19.9%) were followers of [[Islam]] (mostly concentrated in [[Pakistan]]) while slightly less than 200,000 (0.5%) were [[Sikhs]].<ref>Sukhbir Singh, "[https://apgin.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Vol-10_1988.pdf Distributional Pattern of the Major Agricultural Communities (Ahirs, Gujars, Jats and Rajputs) in Their Traditional Abode of the North-Western Indian Subcontinent]", ''Population Geography'', Vol. 10, Nos. 1 and 2, June–December 1988, pp. 1–17, table 2 on p. 6. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240815183749/https://apgin.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Vol-10_1988.pdf Archived] 23 June 2025.</ref>

==Etymology and early references==
===''Rājaputra''===
The word ''Rājaputra'' ({{Langx|sa|राजपुत्र}}; literally "son of a king") finds mention in some ancient [[Hindu]] scriptures like the ''[[Rigveda]]'', ''[[Ramayana]]'' and ''[[Mahabharata]]''.{{sfn|Rima Hooja|2006|p=181}} According to Sabita Singh, the word first appears in a sense other than its literal meaning in the 7th century [[Bakhshali manuscript]] from [[North-West Frontier Province|NWFP]] in reference to a mercenary soldier, while in the 8th century [[Chachnama]] of [[Sindh]], it is used for elite horsemen.<ref name=sab>{{cite book|title=The Politics of Marriage in India Gender and Alliance in Rajasthan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bSmDwAAQBAJ&dq=Chachnama+rajput&pg=PT22
|isbn=9780199098286|author=Sabita Singh| date=27 May 2019 |page=2|publisher=Oxford University Press |quote=Deeply set in the minds of historians of all hues is the association of medieval Rajasthan with the Rajputs. This is so deeply set indeed that one tends to forget that the earliest reference to the ''Rajputra'', in  a sense other than that of a prince, comes not from the records of Rajasthan, but occurs in the Bakhshali manuscript (seventh century) from North West Frontier Province, in the sense of mercenary soldier and as Irfan Habib points out in the ''Chachnama'' (eighth century) of Sind, in the sense of an elite horsemen.}}</ref> A late 11th century inscription from [[Mount Abu]] talks of "all the ''rājaputras'' of the illustrious ''Rājaputra'' clan".{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=83|loc="a Mt. Abu inscription of the late eleventh century speaks of ‘all the ''rājaputras'' of the illustrious ''Rājaputra'' clan.}} In [[Kalhana]]'s ''[[Rajatarangini|Rājatarangiṇī]]'' (12th century), the ''rājaputras'' appear as mercenary soldiers claiming high status on account of birth.<ref>
*{{cite book|editor=J.S. Grewal |year=2005 |title=The State and Society in Medieval India  |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=148 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKkBJyKdoZ8C&q=The%20State%20and%20Society%20in%20Medieval%20India |isbn=0195667204|quote=Somadeva's Kathāsaritsāgara, composed in Kashmir between 1063 and 1081, shows the rājaputras as mercenary soldiers of some status. There is much evidence to the same effect in Kalhana's Rājatarangini (1149-50), the great history of Kashmir. In an early reference, relating to an incident of the eighth century, the rājaputra could be both a prince and a notable warrior. But early in the eleventh century, the sense of warrior is clear. The rājaputras lead the Kashmiri army sent to assist Shahi Trilochanapāla against Mahmud of Ghazni. A rājaputra is said to be one who has his pay and carries arms, and must therefore be loyal to his master...The rājaputras began to form a loose federation of castes well before the twelfth century in a manner characteristic of the Indian social system. Kalhana regards them as immigrants into Kashmir, one of them coming from as far as Champa (eastern Bihar). And yet they had begun to claim a very high position on account of their birth. Kalhana refers to 'those Rājaputras, Anantapāla and the rest, who claim descent from the thirty-six families, and who in their pride would not concede a higher position to the sun himself'.}}
*{{cite journal|last=Wink|first=Andre |year=2002 |title=The Mahārājas of India |publisher=Brill.com |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004483002/B9789004483002_s009.xml?rskey=O3hW42&result=1 |journal=Al-Hind, Volume 1 Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries |pages=219–358 |doi=10.1163/9789004483002_009 |isbn=978-90-04-48300-2 |quote=Page 232 — The earliest extant and most important of these chronicles is the ''Rājatarangiṇī'' or 'Stream of Kings', compiled by Kalhana in about 1150 A.D.<br> Page 239 — Royal troops are then regularly seen engaging in expeditions against various ''dāmara'' chiefs. The mainstay of these royal troops were evidently the 'Rājaputras' and other mercenaries from outside of Kashmir, whose 'bravery' Kalhana contrasts with the conspicuous 'cowardice' of the ''dāmara'' and the rest of the Kashmirian population.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> An inscription from [[Chittor]] (1301) mentions three generations of ''rājaputras''.{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=83|loc="A Chitor inscription of AD 1301 mentions three generations of ''rājaputras'',..}}

B.D Chattopadhyay says that according to the references to ''rajputras'' in medieval and early medieval sources, they represent a mixed caste that constituted a large section of "petty chiefs holding estates".{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=62|ps=:If the early medieval and medieval references to rajputras in general are taken into account, they represent a mixed caste and constituted a fairly large sections of petty chiefs holding estates.}}
Thus, the ''Rajputra'' covers all levels from the actual son of a king to the lowest level landholder.{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=83|ps=:It is understandable then that among the ruling elites, rajputra covered a wide range, from the actual son of a king to the lowest ranking landholder.}} The term is used for a prince under the [[Chahamana]]s but for the lowest ranking "fief" holder under the [[Chalukya]]s.<ref>{{cite book|quote=Irfan Habib says: ''Rajaputras'', for example is used for a prince under Cahamanas, but for the lowest ranking "fief" holder under the Chalukyas. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oh7ICQAAQBAJ&dq=rajaputra+irfan+habib&pg=PT106 |title=Warfare in Pre-British India - 1500BCE to 1740CE |year=2015 |author=Kaushik Roy |isbn=978-1317586913 |publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> According to some scholars, the term ''rajputra'' was reserved for the immediate relatives of a king; scholars like BD Chattopadhyay believe that it was used for a larger group of high-ranking men.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=119}}

===''Thakur''===

According to B.D Chattopadhyay, from 700 CE, north India's political and military landscape was dominated by large [[Kshatriya]] landowners called ''thakurs'', some of whom were descended from pastoral tribes and central Asian invaders; they later came to be known as Rajputs.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Routledge History of Global War and Society |editor=Matthew S. Muehlbauer, David J. Ulbrich |year=2018 |isbn=978-1317533184| publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1EBNDwAAQBAJ&dq=from+700+CE,+North+India%27s+political+and+military+landscape+was+dominated+by+large+Kshatriya+landowners&pg=RA1-PA1931|page=1931 |quote=The rise of the Rajputs constituted a landmark in Indian military history. Imperial historians identified the Rajputs as one of the Aryan martial races. More recently, Brajadulal Chattopadhyay (1994) has offered a social perspective about their rise to power. He writes that from 700 BCE, large Kshatriya landowners known as ''thakurs'' dominated the political and military landscape of north India. Eventually known as Rajputs, some had descended from the pastoral tribes and central Asian invaders who had merged with the settled society of north India.}}</ref> [[Andre Wink]] notes that the military nobility of Sindh ruler [[Raja Dahir|Dahir]] to which the [[Chachnama]] (8th century) and [[Al-Baladhuri]] (9th century) refer as ''thakurs'' can be seen as Rajputs in the original sense of the word.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&dq=Chachnama+rajput&pg=PA155|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval and the expansion of Islam|page=155|year=2002|publisher=Brill|isbn=0391041738 }}</ref>

===''Rajput''===

The term ''rajput'' is derived from the Sanskrit word ''rājaputra''.<ref>
*{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490157/Rajput |title=Rajput |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 November 2024}}
*{{cite web|website=encyclopaedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/people/rajputs#:~:text=%22Rajput%22%20identifies%20numerous%20ksatriya%20or,states%20into%20the%20Rajputana%20Province.|title=Rajputs|access-date=3 November 2024}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVd9xS4yo04C&dq=Rajput+derived+from+rajaputra&pg=PA77 |page=77 |author=Vipul Singh |publisher=Macmillan |quote=These so called 'warrior castes' were in effect nothing but military ruling clans which coalecsed into a single caste, that of the Rajputs, the term being derived from the Sanskrit word ''Rajaputra''. |year=2008|title=Interpreting Medieval India: Early medieval, Delhi Sultanate, and regions (circa 750-1550)|isbn=978-0230637610}}
*{{Cite book|quote=The term Rajput was derived from the word ''rajaputra''.|author=Kaushik Roy|page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xx7ICQAAQBAJ&dq=Rajput+derived+from+rajaputra&pg=PA75 |title=Warfare in Pre-British India – 1500BCE to 1740CE |year=2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1317586920}}</ref> 
Its literal meaning is "son of a king".<ref name=kolff/> However, the meaning cannot be applied literally to the community because most of the Rajputs were common agricultural laborers although some were members of the ruling clans.<ref>{{cite book | last=Eraly | first=Abraham | title=The First Spring: The Golden Age of India | publisher=Penguin Books Limited | date=2011-07-16 | isbn=978-81-8475-569-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5JnBfFVb2XIC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PT152| page= 152|quote=The term Rajputs means 'sons of rajas', but this appellation is not to be taken literally. Though a good number of the Rajputs belonged to one or the other of the numerous ruling clans that constituted the Rajput polity, the vast majority of the Rajputs were common peasants eking out a bare subsistence from their arid land.}}</ref><ref>https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/peasant</ref>

The term finds mention in [[Vidyapati]]'s ''[[Kīrtilatā]]'' (1380) among castes inhabiting the [[Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh|Jaunpur]] city.<ref>
*{{cite journal|title=Society in the Kirtilata of Vidyapati|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=67 |pages=288, 291|author=Kamal Deo|date=2006 |publisher=Indian History Congress|jstor=44147948 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44147948|quote=Page 288— Vidyapati comments on the social composition of Jaunpur town also."In the city, people of different caste and class of Hindu religion were living. In the city, mostly they were Brahmin, Kayasth, Rajput and Businessmen."<br>Page 291— बहुल बाहम्ण बहुल काअत्थ , राजपुत्त कुल बहुल , बहुल जाति मिलि बसइ चप्परि ।}}
*{{cite book|title=Perspectives on Indian Society and History: A Critique|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwxuAAAAMAAJ&q=Vidyapati+uses+the+local+term+rajput|page=114|author=Hetukar Jha| date=2002 |publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2002|isbn=8173044228|quote=Included in this list is the Rajputra, though ''VR'' mentions it separately, which again is a term that appears in contemporary Sanskrit literature. However, Vidyapati uses the local term Rajput.}}</ref>

According to modern scholars, the word "rajput" meant 'horse soldier', 'trooper', 'headman of a village' or 'subordinate chief' before the 15th century.<ref name=kolff>{{cite book|quote=Inevitably , a certain group identity grew up amongst these families : it was summed up in the name of Rajput . This word literally means 'son of a king'. At first used to denote various individuals who achieved such statuses as ' horse - soldier', 'trooper' or 'headman of a village' , and then pretended to the family of some king, it became a generic name for this military and landed class as a whole. |url=https://archive.org/details/naukarrajputsepo0000kolf/page/71/mode/1up?q=Pretended |author=Dirk H. A. Kolff |title=Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market of Hindustan, 1450-1850 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0521381320 |page=71}}</ref>{{sfn|Hastings|2002|p=54|ps=:The Indian historian K. R. Qanungo has pointed out that in " the middle ages ' Rajput ' ordinarily meant a trooper in the service of a chief or a free-lance captain(1960,98); and Dirk Kolff(1990), following both Quango and D.C.Sircar has surely settled the matter with his argument that many Rajput clans came out of pastoralist bands which achieved some degree of landed status in the first half of the second millennium, forming "largely open status groups of clans, lineages, or even families and individuals who achieved statuses as 'horse soldier', 'trooper' or 'headman of village', and pretended to be connected with the family of some king, it became a generic name for this military and landed class(p 71-72) }}<ref name="Peabody2003"/><ref name="Mukta1994"/><ref name=stish/> Individuals or groups with whom the word "rajput" was associated are generally considered ''varna–samkara'' ("mixed caste origin") and inferior to Kshatriya.{{sfn|Norman Ziegler|1976|p=141|ps=:...individuals or groups with which the word was associated were generally considered to owe their origin to miscegenation or varna-samkara ("the mixing of castes") and were thus inferior in rank to Ksatriyas. [...] What I perceive from the above data is a rather widespread change in the subjective perception and the attribution of rank to groups and individuals who emerged in Rajasthan and North India as local chiefs and rulers in the period after the muslim invasions(extending roughly from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries). These groups were no longer considered kshatriyas and though they filled roles previously held by kshatriyas and were attributed similar functions of sustaining society and upholding the moral order, they were either groups whose original integrity were seen to have been altered or who had emerged from the lower ranks of the caste system. This change is supported by material from the Rajput chronicles themselves.}}<ref name="Mukta1994">{{cite book |author=Parita Mukta |title=Upholding the Common Life: The Community of Mirabai |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlVuAAAAMAAJ |year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-563115-9 |page=51 |quote=The term 'Rajput' before the fifteenth century meant 'horse soldier', 'trooper', 'headman of a village' or 'subordinate chief'. Moreover, individuals with whom the word was associated were generally considered to be products of varna–samkara of mixed caste origin, and thus inferior in rank to Kshatriyas (Ziegler, 1976, 242--3.)}}</ref><ref name=stish>{{harvnb|Satish Chandra|1982|p=92}}: "D.C Sarkar has noted that in the period before the Muslim invasions, the word Rajput had, apart from Rajputra, had, various meanings, including horse-soldier, trooper, headman of village, subordinate chief., etc. In addition, he notes that individuals or groups with whom the word was associated with are generally considered to be varnasanakara, of mixed caste origin, and thus inferior in rank to Kshatriyas."</ref>

B.D Metcalf and T.R Metcalf write that under the [[Mughals]], the term had become the mark of legitimate kshatriya rule.<ref>{{Cite book|quote=The challenges to Aurangzeb did not come from groups that had been suppressed under Muslim rule and now sought to regain their Autonomy. Marathas, Sikhs, Jats and even Rajputs represented social groups with old names but new cohesion and status. These were not age-old India 'castes'.[...]There was in practice, far more importance given to occupational identities and individual mobility than most commentators have recognized. A major stimulus to the use of the Sanskrit categories appears to have been the claims of aspiring dynasts in the Mughal period who as parvenu Kshatriyas, in turn identified peasants and soldiery as ranked groups, giving new meanings to old titles that had only loose regional or occupational meaning.[...]Under the Mughals, the term ''Rajput'' had become the symbol of legitimate kshatriya rule,...|page=24,25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGCBNTDv7acC&dq=Rajput+legitimate+kshatriya&pg=PA24 |title=A Concise History of India |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002 |author=Barbara D. Metcalf, Thomas R. Metcalf|isbn=978-0-521-63974-3 }}</ref>

==Origin and Varna==
The origin of the Rajputs has been a much-debated topic among historians. Historian [[Satish Chandra (historian)|Satish Chandra]] states: "Modern historians are more or less agreed that the Rajputs consisted of miscellaneous groups including [[Shudra]] and tribals. Some were [[Brahmin|Brahmans]] who took to warfare, and some were from Tribes- indigenous or foreign".<ref name="Chandra2008"/> Thus, the Rajput community formation was a result of political factors that influenced caste mobility, called [[Sanskritization]] by some scholars and [[Rajputization]] by others.<ref name="Chandra2008">{{cite book |author=Satish Chandra |author-link=Satish Chandra (historian) |title=Social Change and Development in Medieval Indian History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XYMAQAAMAAJ |year=2008 |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |quote=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 of foreign.|pages=43–44|isbn=9788124113868 }}</ref>{{sfn|Reena Dube|Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar|2012|p=59}} Modern scholars agree that nearly all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.<ref name="EV2012">{{harvnb|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."</ref><ref name="Lorenzen1995">{{cite book |editor=David N. Lorenzen |editor-link=David N. Lorenzen |author=Daniel Gold |title=Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpSxJg_ehnIC&pg=PA122 |date=1 January 1995 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-2025-6 |pages=122 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Kling1993">{{cite book |author=Doris Marion Kling |title=The Emergence of Jaipur State: Rajput Response to Mughal Rule, 1562–1743 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGBuAAAAMAAJ |year=1993 |page=30 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |quote=Rajput: Pastoral, mobile warrior groups who achieved landed status in the medieval period claimed to be Kshatriyas and called themselves Rajputs.}}</ref><ref name="Wink1991">{{cite book |author=André Wink|author-link=Andre Wink|title=Al-Hind the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest : 11Th-13th Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=75FlxDhZWpwC&pg=PA171 |year=1991 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|BRILL]] |isbn=90-04-10236-1 |pages=171 |quote=...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...}}</ref><ref name="Eaton87">{{harvnb|Richard Eaton|2019|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aIF6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PP87]|p=87|ps=In Gujarat, as in Rajasthan, genealogy proved essential for making such claims. To this end, local bards composed ballads or chronicles that presented their patrons as idea warriors who protected Brahmins, cows and vassals, as opposed to the livestock herding chieftains that they actually were, or had once been. As people, who created and preserved the genealogies, local bards therefore played critical roles in brokering for their clients socio-cultural transitions to a claimed Rajput status. A similar thing was happening in the Thar desert region, where from the fourteenth century onwards mobile pastoral groups gradually evolved into landed, sedentary and agrarian clans. Once again, it was bards and poets, patronized by little kings, who transformed a clan's ancestors from celebrated cattle-herders or cattle-rustlers to celebrated protectors of cattle-herding communities. The difference was subtle but critical, since such revised narratives retained an echo of a pastoral nomadic past while repositioning a clan's dynastic founder from pastoralist to non-pastoralist. The term 'Rajput', in short, had become a prestigious title available for adoption by upwardly mobile clan in the process of becoming sedentary. By one mechanism or another, a process of 'Rajputization' occurred in new states that emerged from the turmoil following Timur's invasion in 1398, especially in Gujarat, Malwa and Rajasthan.}}</ref>

[[Alf Hiltebeitel]] discusses three theories by Raj era and early writers for Rajput origin and gives the reasons as to why these theories are dismissed by modern research. [[British India|British colonial-era]] writers characterised Rajputs as descendants of the foreign invaders such as the [[Scythians]] or the [[Huna people|Hunas]], and believed that the [[Agnikula]] myth was invented to conceal their foreign origin.{{sfn|Alf Hiltebeitel|1999|pp=439–440}} According to this theory, the Rajputs originated when these invaders were assimilated into the [[Kshatriya]] category during the 6th or 7th century, following the collapse of the [[Gupta Empire]].{{sfn|Bhrigupati Singh|2015|p=38}}{{sfn|Pradeep Barua|2005|p=24}} While many of these colonial writers propagated this foreign-origin theory in order to legitimise the colonial rule, the theory was also supported by some Indian scholars, such as [[D. R. Bhandarkar]].{{sfn|Alf Hiltebeitel|1999|pp=439–440}} The second theory was promulgated by [[Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya|C.V. Vaidya]] who believed in the [[Indo-Aryan migrations#"Aryan invasion"|Aryan invasion theory]] and that the entire 9th-10th century Indian populace was composed of only one race - the Aryans who had not yet mixed with the Shudras or [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidians]]. [[Nationalism|Nationalist]] historians Vaidya and R.B. Singh write that the Rajputs had originated from the [[Vedic Aryan]] Kshatriyas of the epics - [[Ramayana]] and [[Mahabharata]]. Vaidya bases this theory on certain attributes - such as bravery and "physical strength" of [[Draupadi]] and [[Kausalya]] and the bravery of the Rajputs. However, Hiltebeitel says that such "affinities do not point to an unbroken continuity between an ancient epic period" in the Vedic period (3500 BCE - 3000 BCE according to Vaidya) and the "great Rajput tradition" that started in sixteenth-century Rajasthan instead "raise the question of similarities between the epics' allusions to Vedic Vratya warbands and earlier medieval low status Rajput clans". Hiltebeitel concludes that such attempts to trace Rajputs from epic and Vedic sources are "unconvincing"{{sfn|Alf Hiltebeitel|1999|pp=440–441}} and cites [[Nancy MacLean]] and B.D. Chattopadhyaya to label Vaidya's historiography on Rajputs as "often hopeless".{{sfn|Alf Hiltebeitel|1999|pp=3}} A third group of historians, which includes Jai Narayan Asopa, theorised that the Rajputs were [[Brahmin]]s who became rulers. However, such "one track arguments" and "contrived evidence" such as shape of the head, cultural stereotypes, etc. are dismissed by Hiltebeitel who refers to such claims and Asopa's epic references as "far-fetched" or "unintelligible".{{sfn|Alf Hiltebeitel|1999|pp=441–442}}

Recent research suggests that the Rajputs came from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds{{sfn|Catherine B. Asher|Cynthia Talbot|2006|p=99}} and various [[Varna (Hinduism)|varnas]].<ref name="Banerjee-Dube-Mayaram-Shail2010"/><ref name="Banerjee-Dube2010"/><ref name=kolff>{{cite book|quote=Inevitably , a certain group identity grew up amongst these families : it was summed up in the name of Rajput . This word literally means 'son of a king'. At first used to denote various individuals who achieved such statuses as ' horse - soldier', 'trooper' or 'headman of a village' , and then pretended to the family of some king, it became a generic name for this military and landed class as a whole. |url=https://archive.org/details/naukarrajputsepo0000kolf/page/71/mode/1up?q=Pretended |author=Dirk H. A. Kolff |title=Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market of Hindustan, 1450-1850 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0521381320 |page=71}}</ref>{{sfn|Hastings|2002|p=54|ps=:The Indian historian K. R. Qanungo has pointed out that in " the middle ages ' Rajput ' ordinarily meant a trooper in the service of a chief or a free-lance captain(1960,98); and Dirk Kolff(1990), following both Quango and D.C.Sircar has surely settled the matter with his argument that many Rajput clans came out of pastoralist bands which achieved some degree of landed status in the first half of the second millennium, forming "largely open status groups of clans, lineages, or even families and individuals who achieved statuses as 'horse soldier', 'trooper' or 'headman of village', and pretended to be connected with the family of some king, it became a generic name for this military and landed class(p 71-72) }}<ref name="Peabody2003"/><ref name="Mukta1994"/> According to Norman Ziegler, the groups and individuals that rose to power in North India after Muslim invasions were no longer considered Kshatriyas although they performed similar functions; the fact that they had emerged from the lower rungs of the caste system are documented in the Rajput chronicles themselves.{{sfn|Norman Ziegler|1976|p=141|ps=:...individuals or groups with which the word was associated were generally considered to owe their origin to miscegenation or varna-samkara ("the mixing of castes") and were thus inferior in rank to Ksatriyas. [...] What I perceive from the above data is a rather widespread change in the subjective perception and the attribution of rank to groups and individuals who emerged in Rajasthan and North India as local chiefs and rulers in the period after the muslim invasions(extending roughly from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries). These groups were no longer considered kshatriyas and though they filled roles previously held by kshatriyas and were attributed similar functions of sustaining society and upholding the moral order, they were either groups whose original integrity were seen to have been altered or who had emerged from the lower ranks of the caste system. This change is supported by material from the Rajput chronicles themselves.}}

[[André Wink]] states that some Rajputs may be Jats by origin.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA154|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval and the expansion of Islam|page=154,155|year=2002|publisher=Brill|isbn=0391041738 }}</ref> Tanuja Kothiyal states: "In the colonial ethnographic accounts rather than referring to Rajputs as having emerged from other communities, [[Bhils]], [[Mer (community)|Mers]], [[Meena|Minas]], [[Gujars]], [[Jats]], [[Raikas]], all lay a claim to a Rajput past from where they claim to have 'fallen'. Historical processes, however, suggest just the opposite".<ref name="Kothiyal2016_265"/> She points to the fact that "both Rajputs and Jats appear to originate from the mobile cattle rearing and [[Cattle theft in India|rustling]] groups", hence it is understandable that they refer to each other in their chronicles, although they try to remain distinct. However, since Rajputs dominated the region, they were portrayed as "warriors" as opposed to Jats who were portrayed as "farmers", thus wiping out "Jat kingship" from the historiography.<ref>{{cite book | last=Kothiyal | first=Tanuja | title=Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-107-08031-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA257 | page=257|quote=  Given the fact that both Rajputs and Jats appear to originate from the mobile cattle rearing and rustling groups, it is not surprising that these groups find references in each other's narratives, while attempting to establish a separate identity at the same time. The dominance of Rajput perspective in the historiography of the region, not only obliterated references to Jat kingship or Jat resistance to Rajput kingship, but also increasingly poised Jats as sturdy, hardworking but simple minded peasant community, as opposed to the martial rajputs.}}</ref>  [[Christopher Bayly]] writes that the ruling dynasties among the Rajputs, Jats and [[Maratha (caste)|Maratha]], that arose when the Islamic cultural influence diminished, mostly originated from peasant of nomadic castes, but they performed rituals such as [[Śrāddha]] by employing high status Brahmins. These communities hoped that such rituals would enable them to make a Kshatriya claim.<ref name="Jwhaley2012">{{cite book | editor =Joachim Whaley|author= C.A.Bayly | title=Mirrors of Mortality (Routledge Revivals): Social Studies in the History of Death | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-136-81060-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JIksZtWqrd0C&pg=PA164 | access-date=2025-03-14 | page=164|quote= It was among the rulers of these new predominantly, Hindu states - the Mahrattas in the west, the Jats near Delhi and the Bhumihar and Rajput rulers of the ganjetic plane itself - that the holy and funerary rites found their most energetic patrons. These ruling dynasties were often themselves drawn from nomadic or peasant communities of relatively low caste status. An essential aspect of the consolidation of their power was a claim to legitimacy which entailed regular association with the cult centers of orthodox Hinduism. By acquiring priests of sufficiently high status to perform ceremonies such as shraddha, these princes could hope to their claims to kshatriya(warrior) which was the pride of the old Hindu ruling houses.}}</ref><ref name="c156">{{cite book | last=Bayly | first=C.A. | title=Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India | publisher=Oxford University Press | series=Oxford India paperbacks | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-19-564457-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTNuAAAAMAAJ | page=144}}</ref>

According to scholars, in medieval times "the political units of India were probably ruled most often by men of very low birth" and this "may be equally applicable for many clans of 'Rajputs' in northern India". [[Burton Stein]] explains that this process of allowing rulers, frequently of low social origin, a "clean" rank via social mobility in the [[Varna (Hinduism)|Hindu Varna system]] serves as one of the explanations of the longevity of the unique Indian civilisation.<ref name="Studies1969">{{cite book |author=Association for Asian Studies |title=Social Mobility in the Caste System in India: An Inter Disciplinary Symposium |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQVuAAAAMAAJ |year=1969 |publisher=Mouton |editor=James Silverberg |page=79|isbn=9783112026250 }}</ref><ref name="Lorenzen2004">{{cite book |editor=[[David N. Lorenzen]]|title=Religious Movements in South Asia, 600–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0cAoAAAAYAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |author=[[Burton Stein]]|isbn=978-0-19-566448-5 |page=82 |quote=When the rank of persons was in theory rigorously ascribed according to the purity of the birth-group, the political units of India were probably ruled most often by men of very low birth. This generalization applies to south indian warriors and may be equally applicable for many clans of Rajputs in northern India. The capacity of both ancient and medieval Indian society to ascribe to its actual rulers, frequently men of low social origins, a "clean" or "Kshatriya" rank may afford one of the explanations for the durability and longevity of the unique civilization of India.}}</ref>{{sfn|Reena Dube|Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar|2012|p=257}}

Historian Janet Tiwary Kamphorst mentions the medieval tales on [[Pabuji]] depicting Rajput, [[Charan]], [[Bhil]] and [[Rabari]] warriors fighting side by side as well as other medieval and contemporary texts show claims made by [[Nomads of India|Nomadic tribes]] of the Thar desert to a higher rank in the society. Thus, she says that it is said that "formerly all Rajputs were once [[Maldhari]] (cattle-keepers) or vice-versa, it is asserted that all nomadic peoples have Rajput ''ansa'' (essence) in their veins".<ref>{{cite book|title=Epic Adventures: Heroic Narrative in the Oral Performance|chapter=Deification of South Asian epic Heroes-Methological Implications|editor1=Hendrik Maier|editor2=Jan Jansen|author=Janet Tiwary Kamphorst|date=2004 |page=95|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=9783825867584 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJEyHSUy8GMC&pg=PA95}}</ref>

Gradually, the term Rajput came to denote a [[social class]], which was formed when the various tribal and [[Nomads of India|nomadic groups]] became landed aristocrats, and transformed into the ruling class.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=8}} These groups assumed the title "Rajput" as part of their claim to higher social positions and ranks.{{sfn|Richard Gabriel Fox|1971|p=16}} The early medieval literature suggests that this newly formed Rajput class comprised people from multiple [[Indian caste system|castes]].{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=60}} Thus, the Rajput identity is not the result of a shared ancestry. Rather, it emerged when different social groups of medieval India sought to legitimise their newly acquired political power by claiming Kshatriya status. These groups started identifying as Rajput at different times, in different ways. Thus, modern scholars summarise that Rajputs were a "group of open status" since the eighth century, mostly illiterate warriors who claimed to be reincarnates of ancient Indian Kshatriyas – a claim that had no historical basis. Moreover, this unfounded Kshatriya status claim showed a sharp contrast to the classical varna of Kshatriyas as depicted in Hindu literature in which Kshatriyas are depicted as an educated and urbanite clan.<ref name="AndreWink2002">{{cite book |author=André Wink|author-link=Andre Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA282 |year=2002 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=0-391-04173-8 |pages=282 |quote=In short, a process of development occurred which after several centuries culminated in the formation of new groups with the identity of 'Rajputs'. The predecessors of the Rajputs, from about the eighth century, rose to politico-military prominence as an open status group or estate of largely illiterate warriors who wished to consider themselves as the reincarnates of the ancient Indian Kshatriyas. The claim of Kshatriyas was, of course, historically completely unfounded. The Rajputs as well as other autochthonous Indian gentry groups who claimed Kshatriya status by way of putative Rajput descent, differed widely from the classical varna of Kshatriyas which, as depicted in literature, was made of aristocratic, urbanite and educated clans...}}</ref>{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=59}}{{sfn|Norman Ziegler|1976|p=150|ps=: Rajputs were, with some exceptions, almost totally illiterate as a caste group}}<ref name="Bendix1998">{{cite book |author=Reinhard Bendix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_j_2nOUIpcC&pg=PA180 |title=Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-17453-4 |pages=180– |quote=Eventually the position of the old Kshatriya nobility was undermined not only by the Brahmin priests but also by the rise of a warrior caste in northwest India. Most of the Rajputs were illiterate mercenaries in the service of a king.}}</ref><ref name="Farris2013">{{cite book |author=Sara R. Farris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf5AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |title=Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion |date=9 September 2013 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-25409-1 |pages=140– |quote=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 merceneries, 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.}}</ref> Historian [[Thomas R. Metcalf]] mentions the opinion of Indian scholar [[K. M. Panikkar]] who also considers the famous Rajput dynasties of medieval India to have come from non-Kshatriya castes.<ref name="Metcalf1990">{{cite book|author=Thomas R. Metcalf|title=Modern India: An Interpretive Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BSNuAAAAMAAJ|year=1990|page=90|publisher=Sterling Publishers|isbn=9788120709003|quote=Since then every known royal family has come from a non - Kshatriya caste, including the famous Rajput dynasties of medieval India . Panikkar also points out that “ the Shudras seem to have produced an unusually large number of royal families even in more recent times"}}</ref>

Historian Kapur writes that "divergent social groups got incorporated in the new socio-political fold of rajputras including Shudras. That’s why the [[Brihaddharma Purana]] regarded rajputras as a mixed caste and ''Shudra-kamalakara'' equates the Rajputs with ugra, a mixed caste born of the union of a Kshatriya man and a Shudra woman"<ref>{{cite web|publisher = Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi|title = Unit-14 Social structure and gender relations: c. 700-1200 CE(BHIC-132 History of India from c. 300 to 1206)| date=2020 |page=224|quote=Divergent social groups got incorporated in the new socio-political fold of rajputras including Shudras. That’s why the Brihaddharmapurana regarded rajputras as a mixed caste and Shudra-kamalakara equates the Rajputs with ugra, a mixed caste born of the union of a Kshatriya man and a Shudra woman|url=http://egyankosh.ac.in//handle/123456789/61929 |author=Prem Kumar, Nandini Sinha Kapur}}</ref> In ''Sudrakamalakara'' (17th century), the Sanskrit term ''rajapūta'' has been compared with ''ugra'' - "a mixed caste born out of the union of a Kshatriya man and a Shudra woman. This makes rajapūta a "sankarajāti" (mixed group) ie equivalent to shudras.<ref>{{cite book| title=Traditions in Motion |chapter=Excavating Identity through Tradition : Who was Shivaji? |editor=Supriya Varma, Satish Saberwal |author=Ananya Vajpeyi |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA | publication-place=New Delhi | date=2005 | isbn=0-19-566915-0 | pages=257, 258|quote=According to the ''Sudrakamalakara'', an authoritative Sanskrit text on the dharma of sudras written by Gagabhatta's own uncle, Kamalakarabhatta, in the early part of the seventeenth century, the progeny of a ksatriya man and a sudra woman would be an ''ugra'', otherwise known as ''rajapūta''. In Kamalakara' s classification, being a ''sankarajati'', or mixed group, ugras, or rajapūtas are  ''sudrasamāna'' as good as (or as bad as!) sūdras.}}</ref> [[Ananya Vajpeyi]] argues that ''rajapūta'' has a different meaning from ''Rājpūt'' in realpolitik. With an unhistorical meaning, even if the dharmashastras attempt to fix the place of a jati like 'rajapūta' close to shudra, the socio-historical type 'Rājpūt' always gravitates to the Kshatriya varna, which makes the lexical similarity between the two words semantically misleading.<ref>{{cite book| title=Traditions in Motion | chapter=Excavating Identity through Tradition : Who was Shivaji? |editor=Supriya Varma, Satish Saberwal |author=Ananya Vajpeyi |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA | publication-place=New Delhi | date=2005 | isbn=0-19-566915-0 | page=258|quote=Now Gāgābhatta, master of dharmasastra, was himself, like his famous uncle, the author of an entire text on the rights and restrictions of the sūdras...So when he cleared Shivaji as a Rājpūt and therefore a true ksatriya, he too must have agreed to take the term ''Rājpūt'' for its contemporary meaning in realpolitik, and not for its normative and unhistorical meaning in dharmasastra texts, even the ones he himself had written! Gaga clearly understood a Rājpūt and a rajapūta - one a type of socio-historical subject, the other a category in Sanskrit legal discourse, which may or may not have corresponded to any such type- were two different things in the world...The dharmasastra text may try to fix the place of a jāti like 'rajapūta' somewhere low down on the varna scale, close to the sudra, the socio-historical type 'Rājpūt' always gravitates to the ksatriya varna, making the lexical similarity between the two terms semantically utterly misleading. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8EoAAAAYAAJ&q=Lexical}}</ref>

In past, the Rajputs made fanatical attempts to assert their Kshatriya status which differentiate them from other communities.<ref>{{harvnb|Pradeep Barua|2005|p=831}} "What made the Rajputs stand out from the rest of Indian society was not their foreign origins but their fanatical attempts to assert their Kshatriya status"</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global Medieval Life and Culture |page=831 |quote=The Rajputs considered them to be members of the ancient Kshatriya varna and were known for their fanatical attempts to assert their Kshatriya status. This assertion distinguished the Rajputs from other similar castes who migrated from outside India. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IbfOEAAAQBAJ&dq=this+distinguished+rajputs+from+greenwood&pg=PA831 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |author=Joyce E. Salisbury, Nancy Sullivan}}</ref> [[Dipankar Gupta]] says that the reason that originally low castes, such as Rajput, who had a shudra status in the early medieval era, have been enabled to claim Kshatriya status in modern times is due to political power.<ref name="Gupta2000">{{cite book | last=Gupta | first=Dipankar | title=Interrogating Caste: Understanding Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society | publisher=Penguin Books India | date=2000 | isbn=978-0-14-029706-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIuZ5WdSzl0C&pg=PA124 | page=124|quote=Each caste would like its own hierarchy to be realized but to do so it must have power at its bidding. This is what has allowed castes that were once low to claim undisputed kshatriya status today. The transformation of Rajputs , Gujars and Jats from their early medieval Shudra positions to upper caste Kshatriya status is clearly a case in point.  Today if Jats or Rajputs were reminded of their shudra past it would hardly carry with it a ring of credibility.}}</ref> He also says that Rajputs, Jats, Marathas - all claim Kshatriya status but do not accept each other's claim. There is no agreement on who is a true kshatriya caste.<ref>{{cite book | author = Dipankar Gupta| title=CheckPoint sociology | date=2023-05-16 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=num2EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT60 | page=60| publisher=Taylor & Francis | isbn=978-1-000-90548-9 |quote=As almost everybody aspires to be a warrior, king and conqueror, it is hardly surprising that there is no consensus in India’s four caste model (or chaturvarna) on who is a true Kshatriya. From earthy Jats and Marathas, to princelings and their hangers on, such as the Rajputs and Thakurs, a wide range of castes call themselves ‘Kshatriyas’, but without a shred of mutual admiration.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Social Change in Modern India | author = Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrJB-MsbWvoC&pg=PA9 |quote='while there seems to be some agreement in each area in India as to who are Brahmins and who Untouchables, such consensus is absent with regard to Kshatriyas and Vaishyas}}</ref>

[[Stewart N. Gordon|Stewart Gordon]] writes that during the era of the Mughal empire, [[Hypergamy|hypergamous marriage]] "marrying up", combined with service in the state army was another way a tribal family could "become" Rajput. This process required a change in dress, diet, worship, and other traditions, ending [[widow remarriage]], for example. Such a marriage between someone from a tribal family, and a member of an acknowledged - but possibly poor - Rajput family, would ultimately enable the non-Rajput family to transform themselves to Rajput. This marriage pattern supports the fact that Rajput was an "open caste category", available to those who served the Mughals.{{sfn|Stewart Gordon|2007|p=16|ps =: 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...}} [[Badri Narayan (writer)|Badri Narayan]] has written in his paper on mobility of the [[Dalit]] castes, that some [[Pasi (caste)|Pasi]]s that married their daughters to Rajput men, were able to become part of the Rajput community themselves.<ref>{{cite book | editor=D Gupta | author=Badri Narayan| title=Caste in Question: Identity Or Hierarchy? | publisher=SAGE Publications | series=Contributions to Indian Sociology series | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-7619-3324-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgpEIb4tNjgC&pg=PA2046 | access-date=2025-04-04 | page=210}}</ref>

Rajput formation continued in the colonial era. Even in the 19th century, 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.  This process of origin of the Rajput community resulted in hypergamy as well as [[female infanticide]] that was common in Hindu Rajput clans. Scholars refer to this as "[[Rajputisation]]", which, like [[Sanskritisation]], was a mode for upward mobility, but it differed from Sanskritisation in other attributes, like the method of worship, lifestyle, diet, social interaction, rules for women, and marriage, etc. 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 the former chief of their tribe who had already transformed himself into a Rajput via Rajputisation and thus become Rajputs themselves.<ref name="Kantowsky1986">{{cite book |author=Detlef Kantowsky |title=Recent Research on Max Weber's Studies of Hinduism: Papers Submitted to a Conference Held in New Delhi, 1.-3.3. 1984 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1cRAQAAIAAJ |year=1986 |publisher=Weltforum Verlag |isbn=978-3-8039-0333-4 |page=104}}</ref><ref name="Kulke1993">{{cite book |author=Hermann Kulke|author-link=Hermann Kulke|title=Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAYFAQAAIAAJ |year=1993 |publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors |page=251|isbn=9788173040375 }}</ref>{{sfn|Reena Dube|Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar|2012|p=59-62|pages=59, 62, 63, 257 |ps=(59)In our view Rajputization refers neither to a caste nor a race, instead it signifies a highly mobile social process of claiming military-political power and the right tocultivable land as well as the right to rule. Rajputization is unparalleled in traditional Indian society for its inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation and self-invention. The fabrication of a Rajput genealogy in the process of climbing from [[Vassal|feudatory]] to king does not constitute an isolated historical event in the early medieval period. In nineteenth-century India, the village landlord, the Brahmin priest, the tribal chieftain, the local Raja who has recently converted from Islam, the newly wealthy lower caste Sudra, the professional soldier or the member of a community with traditions of military labor, any of these men could Rajputize themselves and their families by adopting the lifestyle traditionally recognized as Rajput. These aspirants deployed Brahmins to compose a genealogy that would retrospectively endow the aspirant’s lineage with ritual purity. These social processes get repeated continually and mirrored by communities all over north India that Rajputize themselves to make a bid for political power. '''With surprising rapidity the newly Rajputized family or clan can gain, over a generation or two, social acceptance of their claim to Rajput status'''(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.}}<ref name="Banerjee-Dube-Mayaram-Shail2010">{{cite book|editor=Ishita Banerjee-Dube|author=Mayaram, Shail|title=Caste in History|chapter=The Sudra Right to Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6n7OQwAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-806678-1|page=110|quote=In their recent work on female infanticide, Bhatnagar, Dube and Bube(2005) distinguish between Rajputization and Sanksritization. Using M.N.Srinivas' and Milton Singer's approach to social mobility as idioms they identify Rajputization 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. Rajputization 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.}}</ref><ref name="Banerjee-Dube2010"/>

== Emergence as a community ==
[[File:Oomuts of Nursinghur, Rajpoot tribe, Central India (NYPL b13409080-1125623).jpg|thumb|Rajputs of Central India]]

There are historical indications of the group calling  themselves Rajputs settling in [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]] by the 6th century.<ref name=barb>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz1-mtazYqEC&q=By+the+sixth+century+AD|title=The Indian Princes and their States, The New Cambridge History of India|author=Barbara N. Ramusack|author-link=Barbara N. Ramusack|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|page=14|quote="By the sixth century AD, there are historical indications of the group calling themselves Rajput settle in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Over the course of ten centuries they came to control land and people|isbn=9781139449083}}</ref> However, scholarly opinions differ on when the term Rajput acquired hereditary connotations and came to denote a clan-based community.
 
An opinion asserts that the terms like ''rajputra'' and ''rāuta'' began to be more commonly used from 12th century onwards to denote a large number of people and a Rājaputra/Rajput caste established itself well before the thirteenth century. The reference to the clan structure of Rajputs in contemporary historical works like ''[[Rajatarangini]]'' by [[Kalhana]] along with other epigraphic evidences indicates their existence as a community by 12th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2005|title=NANDINI SINHA KAPUR: State Formation in Rajasthan: Mewar during the Seventh-Fifteenth Centuries. 308pp. Delhi: Manohar, 2002|journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |url=https://www.academia.edu/14797579 |pages=134–135|quote=The appearance of rajputras as mercenary soldiers is proved as early as 7th century CE from the reference in Bakshali manuscript found in the North-West Frontier Province and subsequently from the Chachnama in Sindh in 8th century CE. In all bardic traditions of this period the Rajputs are depicted as horsemen. It may not be again ignored that the Pratiharas, one of the clansmen of the Rajputs of early medieval period felt pride to bear the title of hayapati, “the lord of horses”. The term rajput is derived from Sanskrit root rajputra (son of the king). Prakrit forms of the term rajputra are variously known as rawat, rauta, raul and rawal. A transformation in connotation of the term is noticeable from 7th century CE onwards as it began to be used in literary texts in the sense of a landowner rather than “son of the king”. In the Harshacharita of Banabhatta (7th century CE) the term has been used in the sense of a noble or landowning chief. In Kadambari also it is used for persons of noble descent who were appointed by the king as local rulers. In the capacity of local rulers they might have naturally governed a large portion of land under them and, thus, played an active role in political and administrative system of the state. The term began to be more commonly used from 12th century onwards. In Rajatarangini the term rajputra is used in the sense of a landowner, acclaiming birth from 36 clans of the Rajputs. The reference of 36 clans and their clan structure clearly denotes their existence by 12th century CE. The 12th century Aparajitprachha of Bhatta Bhuvanadeva, which describes the composition of a typical feudal order, refers to rajaputras as constituting a fairly large section of kings holding estates, each one of them constituting one or more villages|last1=Ali|first1=Daud}}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Upinder Singh|author-link=Upinder Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvauDwAAQBAJ&dq=The+use+of+the+term+Rajaputra+for+specific+clans+of+Rajput+or+as+a+collective+term+for+various+clans+emerged+by+the+12th+century&pg=PA567|year=2008 |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |publisher=[[Pearson PLC|Pearson]]|pages=566|quote=The use of the term Rajaputra for specific clans of Rajput or as a collective term for various clans emerged by the 12th century|isbn=978-81-317-1120-0}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|chapter=The Agrarian Classes|editor=Irfan Habib|editor-link=Irfan Habib|author=[[Irfan Habib]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8kO4J3mXUAC |title=Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500 |date=2011 |publisher=Pearson Education India|page=66|quote=Rāuta in these inscriptions are clearly ranked beneath the ranakas, and they are obviously more numerous. In the Mahoba Fort inscription (actually from Kasrak near Badaun), in an entry of 1234, the rautas are spoken off as a jati or caste. Rāuta is actually the Prakrit form of Rajaputra (modern Hindi Rajput); and a Rajaputra caste had established itself well before the thirteenth century......Military prowess converted itself into land control, and we say by the thirteenth century the rajaputras or rāutas had acquired the position of local land magnates|isbn=978-81-317-2791-1|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Rima Hooja|2006|page=181–182}}: "The Rajputs of Rajasthan are not over-concerned either over the date or period when the term ‘Rajput’ entered common usage. However, epigraphical and literary evidence would indicate that it was probably sometime during the c.twelfth-thirteenth centuries AD period that the usage of terms like Rajputra, Kshatriya, Rautt and similar words denoting connections with kingship, and Rajput became established as more or less synonymous words....In Kalhana’s Rajtarangini (VII.390) the word rajaputra is used in the sense of a landowner, but if it is read with VII, vv. 1617 and 1618 of the same book it would be clear that they acclaimed their birth from the 36 clans of the Rajputs. That would lead us to believe that by the beginning of the 12th century AD these clans had already come into existence”</ref><ref name=tts>{{cite book|editor=J.S. Grewal |year=2005 |title=The State and Society in Medieval India  |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= |pages=148, 149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKkBJyKdoZ8C&q=The%20State%20and%20Society%20in%20Medieval%20India |isbn=0195667204|quote=Page 148: The rājaputras began to form a loose federation of castes well before the twelfth century in a manner characteristic of the Indian social system.<br>Page 149: But with the emergence of the Rajputs as a caste (which to judge from Kalhana's reference to the rajaputras’ descent from thirty-six families must have reached a fairly advanced stage of formation by the eleventh century), the rulers, ranakas, and thakkuras could also belong to the same caste as the cavalry soldier.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Wink|first=Andre |year=2002 |title=The Mahārājas of India|publisher=Brill.com|page=293|url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004483002/B9789004483002_s009.xml?rskey=O3hW42&result=1 |access-date= |isbn= 978-90-04-48300-2|issn= |oclc=|journal=Al-Hind, Volume 1 Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries|doi=10.1163/9789004483002_009 |quote=By the twelfth century the term ''Rājaputra'' or 'king's son' had approximately acquired the connotations of the 'Rajput' caste ...|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

While ''Rajatarangini'' puts the number of Rajput clans at 36, the ''[[Varna Ratnakara]]'' (1324) features a list of 72 Rajput clans including ''Chouhāna'', ''Pamāra'', ''Chandella'', ''Kachchvāha'', ''Guhilot'', ''Gāndhavariyā'', ''Baisvara'', ''Bhaṭi'' etc.<ref>
*{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.108178/page/n159 | title=Mithila In The Age Of Vidyapati | publisher=Chaukhambha Orientalia | access-date=14 January 2019 | author=Radhakrishna Choudhary | pages= 131–132|year=1976}}
*{{Cite book|title=Sources of The History of India |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.scoerat.13343sourcesofthehistoryofindiavoll4/page/122/mode/1up|page=84|publisher=Institute of Historic Studies|year=1988|author=S.P. Sen|quote=The ''VR'' is encyclopaedic in character. The noises and sounds of the city through playing of all kinds of musical instruments, singing of ballads and songs, the shouts of the people, and all kinds of seemly and unseemly acts which would come to one’s own sight in a city with its motley crowd are mentioned. Here we get an account of delicacies in medieval Mithila. We get not only a list of seventy-two Rajput clans but also of eighty-four siddhas and further mention of countries like Khorasan and Gandhara.}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8C1AAAAIAAJ&q=Varna+ratnakara+rajput |title=Bihar, Past & Present |publisher=Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute |page=166 |author=PN Ojha|year=1987}}</ref>

Historian Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, based on his analysis of inscriptions (primarily from Rajasthan), believed that by the 12th century, the term ''rajaputra'' was associated with fortified settlements, kin-based landholding, and other features that later became indicative of the Rajput status.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=119}} According to him, the title acquired "an element of heredity" from c. 1300.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120}}{{sfn|Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|1994|p=83|loc="A Chitor inscription of AD 1301 mentions three generations of ''rājaputras'', perhaps suggesting that by the close of the thirteenth century the term rijaputra conveyed not merely a political status, but an element of heredity as well.}} A study of 11th–14th century inscriptions from western and central India, by Michael B. Bednar, concludes that the designations such as ''rajaputra'', ''[[thakur (title)|thakkura]]'' and ''rauta'' were not necessarily hereditary during this period.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120}}

Rajputs were involved in nomadic pastoralism, animal husbandry and cattle trade until much later than popularly believed. The 17th century chronicles of [[Muhnot Nainsi]] i.e. ''[[Nainsi ri Khyat|Munhata Nainsi ri Khyat]]'' and ''Marwar ra Paraganan ri Vigat'' discuss disputes between Rajputs pertaining to cattle raids. In addition, Folk deities of the Rajputs – Pabuji, Mallinath, Gogaji and Ramdeo were considered protectors of cattle herding communities. They also imply struggle among Rajputs for domination over cattle and pasturelands.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=266|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA266]|ps=Unlike the popular perception, even Rajputs remained engaged with nomadic pastorialism, animal husbandry and cattle trade till much later than it is assumed. Munhata Nainsini in his seventeenth century chronicles, Munhata Nainsi ri Khyat and Marwar ra Paraganan ri Vigat refers to a number of disputes between Rajputs that involved cattle raids. Also, a close reading of the lore regarding Rajput folk deities like Pabuji, Mallinath, Gogaji and Ramdeo, who are viewed as protectors of cattle herding communities actually indicates the intense struggle for control over cattle and pasturelands that Rajputs were engaged in. Rajputs extended patronage to Brahmins and Bardic communities like Bhats and Charans who composed detailed genealogies linking Rajput clans to older kshatriya lineages as well as celestial sources, which not only legitimised their claims to aristocracy but also distanced them from their tribal pastoral origins.}} The emergence of Rajput community was the result of a gradual change from mobile pastoral and tribal groups into landed sedentary ones. This necessitated control over mobile resources for agrarian expansion which in turn necessitated kinship structures, martial and marital alliances.<ref name="Kothiyal2016_265">{{harvnb|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=265|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265]|ps=...from gradual transformation of mobile patoral and tribal groups into landed sedentary ones. The process of settlement involved both control over mobile resources through raids, battles and trade as well as channelizing of these resources into agrarian expansion. Kinship structures as well as marital and martial alliances were instrumental in this transformation.[...]In the colonial ethnographic accounts rather than referring to Rajputs as having emerged from other communities, Bhils, Mers, Minas, Gujars, Jats, Raikas, all lay a claim to a Rajput past from where they claim to have 'fallen'. Historical processes, however, suggest just the opposite.}}</ref><ref name="Eaton87"/><ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Kolff|first=Dirk H. A.|author-link=Dirk H. A. Kolff|title=Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market of Hindustan, 1450-1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrdiVPsFRYIC&pg=PA58|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52305-9|page=58|quote=What at first sight might seem to be a change of religion, is often a device to register either recruitment or professional success whether military or otherwise. Very often the Rajput to Afghan change — and, one may add, the peasant to Rajput change — was a similar kind of affair, indicating the pervading impact of soldiering traditions on North Indian social history. The military labour market, in other words, was a major generator of socio-religious identities.}}</ref>

B.D Chattopadhyaya opines that during its formative stages, the Rajput class was quite assimilative and absorbed people from a wide range of lineages.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=8}} However, by the late 16th century, it had become genealogically rigid, based on the ideas of blood purity, Dirk Kolff writes.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|pp=8–9}} The membership of the Rajput class was now largely inherited rather than acquired through military achievements.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120}} A major factor behind this development was the consolidation of the [[Mughal Empire]], whose rulers had great interest in genealogy. As the various Rajput chiefs became Mughal feudatories, they no longer engaged in major conflicts with each other. This decreased the possibility of achieving prestige through military action, and made hereditary prestige more important.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=121}}

According to David Ludden, the word "Rajput" acquired its present-day meaning in the 16th century.{{sfn|David Ludden|1999|p=4}} According to Kolff, during 16th and 17th centuries, the Rajput rulers and their bards (''[[charan]]s'') sought to legitimise the Rajput socio-political status on the basis of descent and kinship.{{sfn|Barbara N. Ramusack|2004|p=13}} They fabricated genealogies linking the Rajput families to the ancient dynasties, and associated them with myths of origins that established their Kshatriya status.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120}}{{sfn|André Wink|1990|p=282}}<ref name="Banerjee-Dube2010">{{cite book|author=Ishita Banerjee-Dube|title=Caste in History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6n7OQwAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-806678-1|page=xxiii|quote=Rajputization discussed processes through which 'equalitarian, primitive, clan based tribal organization' 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 Rajputization' when the tribes tried to 're-associate' with their formal tribal chiefs who had also transformed themselves into Hindu rajas and Rajput Kshatriyas.}}</ref> This led to the emergence of what Indologist Dirk Kolff calls the "Rajput Great Tradition", which accepted only hereditary claims to the Rajput identity, and fostered a notion of eliteness and exclusivity.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|pp=121–122}} The legendary epic poem ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]'', which depicts warriors from several different Rajput clans as associates of [[Prithviraj Chauhan]], fostered a sense of unity among these clans.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=121-125}} The text thus contributed to the consolidation of the Rajput identity by offering these clans a shared history.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=119}}

By 1765, Awadh had become ally of the British East India Company and the increase in demand for revenue led to a continuous tussle in between the Nawab of Awadh and Rajput leadership bringing political instability in the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Metcalf |first1=Barbara D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mjIfqyY7jlsC&q=barbara+d+metcalf+rajputs+of+awadh |title=A Concise History of Modern India |last2=Metcalf |first2=Thomas R. |date=2012-09-24 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02649-0 |pages=73 |language=en}}</ref>

In one 18th century example given by Pinch, Rajputs of Awadh countered the upward mobility of some of the peasant castes, who by virtue of their economic prosperity sought higher status by wearing ''[[Janeu]]'', a sacred thread or claimed ''[[Kshatriya]]'' status. The records indicates that during the tenure of [[Asaf-ud-Daula]] in Awadh, when a section of Awadhiya Kurmi were about to be bestowed with the title of ''Raja'', the Rajput constituency of Asaf's court caused stiff opposition to the move despite the fact that the Rajputs themselves were newcomers to the court and were peasant-soldiers a few year before. Rajputs of Awadh along with Brahmins also formed the major groups who gained during Asaf's regime.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-ceGYsnYC|title=Peasants and Monks in British India |author=William R. Pinch| publisher=University of California Press|year=1996| isbn=0520916301|pages=85–86|access-date=22 January 2021|quote= Ironically, the Rajput constituency of Awadh itself composed a “group of newcomers to the court, who had been peasant soldiers only a few years before. They were called, half sarcastically, the ‘Tilangi Rajas’ [or] ‘trooper rajas’—the people described by the shocked Muhammad Faiz Baksh as the new Nawab’s courtiers: ‘Naked rustics, whose fathers and brothers were with their own hands guiding the plow . . . , rode about as Asaf ud-daula’s orderlies. In other words, the Rajputs of Awadh, who along with brahmans constituted the main beneficiaries of what historian Richard Barnett characterizes as “Asaf’s permissive program of social mobility,” were not willing to let that mobility reach beyond certain arbitrary sociocultural boundaries.}}</ref>

Despite these developments, migrant soldiers made new claims to the Rajput status until as late as the 19th century.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|pp=8–9}} In the 19th century, the colonial administrators of India re-imagined the Rajputs as similar to the Anglo-Saxon [[knight]]s. They compiled the Rajput genealogies in the process of settling land disputes, surveying castes and tribes, and writing history. These genealogies became the basis of distinguishing between the "genuine" and the "spurious" Rajput clans.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=11}}

==History==
=== History of Rajput Kingdoms===
{{See also|List of Rajput dynasties and states}}
[[File:Bikaner fort view 08.jpg|thumb|During their centuries-long rule, the Rajputs constructed several palaces. Shown here is the [[Junagarh Fort]] in [[Bikaner]], Rajasthan, which was built by the [[Rathore (Rajput clan)|Rathore]] Rajput rulers (see ''[[Rajput architecture]]'').]]
[[File:A royal Rajput procession.jpg|thumb|A royal Rajput procession, depicted on a mural at the [[Mehrangarh Fort]] in Jodhpur<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/media/full/147427|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109235632/http://www.britannica.com/media/full/147427|title=Rajput procession, Encyclopædia Britannica|archive-date=9 November 2014}}</ref> (see ''[[Rajput painting]]'')]]

Scholars stage emergence of Rajput clans as early as seventh century AD. when they start to make themselves lords of various localities and dominate region in current day [[Northern India]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Hermann Kulke]] & [[Dietmar Rothermund]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V73N8js5ZgAC|title=A History of India|date=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-32920-0|page=116|quote="When Harsha shifted the centre of north Indian history to Kanauj in midst of Ganga-Yamuna Doab the tribes living to the west of this new centre also became more important for further courses of Indian history They were first and foremost the Rajputs who now emerged into the limelight of Indian history"|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Sailendra Nath Sen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC|title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization|date=1999|publisher=New Age International|isbn=978-81-224-1198-0|page=307|quote="The anarchy and confusion which followed Harsha's death is the transitional period of history. This period was marked by the rise of the Rajput clans who begun to play a conspicuous part in the history of northern and western India from the eight century AD. onwards"|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Alain Danielou|author-link=Alain Danielou|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ|title=A Brief History of India|date=2003|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-59477-794-3|page=Chapter 15|language=en|quote="The role of the Rajputs in the history of northern and eastern India is considerable, as they dominated the scene between the death of Harsha and establishment of Muslim empire"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=21SgAAAAMAAJ|title=Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts and Historical Issues|date=2006|publisher=Anthem|isbn=978-1-84331-132-4|page=116|quote=The period between the seventh and the twelfth century witnessed gradual rise of a number of new royal-lineages in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which came to constitute a social-political category known as 'Rajput'. Some of the major lineages were the Pratiharas of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and adjacent areas, the Guhilas and Chahamanas of Rajasthan, the Caulukyas or Solankis of Gujarat and Rajasthan and the Paramaras of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Satish Chandra|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XAkVclcWWeUC|title=Historiography, Religion, and State in Medieval India|date=1996|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|page=115|quote="In north India, the dominant features of the period between 7th and 12th centuries have been identified as the growing weakness of state; the growth of the power of local landed elites and their decentralising authority by acquiring greater administrative, economic and political roles; the decline of towns, the setback to trades, especially long distance trade and the alientation of land to the brahmans in larger proportions then ever before. The period is also noted for the rise of the Rajputs|isbn=978-81-241-0035-6|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Sara R. Farris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nf5AAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140|title=Max Weber's Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion|date=2013-09-05|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25409-1|page=145|language=en|quote="In about the eighth century B.C. 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}}</ref><ref name="EV2012"/><ref name="Ludden2013">{{cite book|author=David Ludden|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBq9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=64–65|quote= By contrast in Rajasthan a single warrior group evolved called Rajput (from Rajaputra-sons of kings): they rarely engaged in farming, even to supervise farm labour as farming was literally beneath them, farming was for their peasant subjects. In the ninth century separate clans of Rajputs Cahamanas (Chauhans), Paramaras (Pawars), Guhilas (Sisodias) and Caulukyas were splitting off from sprawling Gurjara Pratihara clans...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Peter Robb|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ-2VH1LO_EC|title=A History of India|date=2011-06-21|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-0-230-34549-2|language=en|pages=58–59|quote=From around 1000 ce, notable among these regional powers were various Rajput dynasties in the west and north}}</ref> These dynasties were the [[Gurjara-Pratiharas]],<ref>{{cite book|series=Studies In Indian History: Rajasthan Through The Ages|title=The Heritage Of Rajputs|volume=1|publisher=Sarup & Sons|year=2008|first1=R.K.|last1=Gupta|first2=S.R.|last2= Bakshi|publication-place=New Delhi|isbn=9788176258418|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHNoU2zcDnIC|chapter=Origin of Rajputs|quote=The Gurjara-Pratiharas were chronologically the earliest, and  historically the most important of the Rajput dynasties.|page=3}}</ref> Chahamanas (of [[Chahamanas of Shakambhari|Shakambhari]], [[Chahamanas of Naddula|Nadol]] and [[Chahamanas of Jalor|Jalor]]), the [[Tomara dynasty|Tomaras of Delhi]], the [[Chaulukya]]s, the [[Paramara dynasty|Paramara]]s, the [[Gahadavala]]s, [[Chandela]], [[Sisodias of Mewar|Sisodia]]s, [[Guhila dynasty|Guhila]]s etc. However, term "Rajput" has been used as an [[anachronism|anachronistic]] designation for leading martial lineages of 11th and 12th centuries that confronted the [[Ghaznavid]] and [[Ghurid]] invaders, although the Rajput identity for a lineage did not exist at this time, these lineages were classified as aristocratic Rajput clans in the later times.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=33}}<ref name="Peabody2003">{{cite book|last=Peabody|first=Norbert|title=Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YZvuz6EGgcC&pg=PA38|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-46548-9|pages=38–|quote=As Dirk Kolff has argued, it was privileged, if not initially inspired, only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Mughal perceptions of Rajputs which, in a pre-form of orientalism, took patrilineal descent as the basis for Rajput social Organization and consequently as the basis for their political inclusion into the empire. Prior to the Mughals, the term ‘Rajput’ was equally an open-ended, generic name applied to any ‘“horse soldier”, “trooper”, or “headman of a village”’ regardless of parentage, who achieved his status through his personal ability to establish a wide network of supporters through his bhaibandh (lit. ‘ie or bond of brothers’; that is, close collateral relations by male blood) or by means of naukari (military service to a more powerful overlord) and sagai (alliance through marriage). Thus the language of kinship remained nonetheless strong in this alternative construction of Rajput identity but collateral and affinal bonds were stressed rather than those of descent. During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Peter|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC&pg=PA9|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54329-3|pages=9–|quote=Confronting the Ghurid ruler now were a number of major Hindu powers, for which the designation 'Rajput' (not encountered in the Muslim sources before the sixteenth century) is a well-established anachronism. Chief among them was the Chahamana (Chawhan) kingdom of Shakambhari (Sambhar), which dominated present-day Rajasthan from its capital at Ajmer}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Behl|first=Aditya|editor=[[Wendy Doniger]]|title=Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PK7riKO6IN8C&pg=PA364|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514670-7|pages=364–|quote=The term ''Rajput'' is a retrospective invention, as most of the martial literature of resistance to Turkish conquest dates only from the mid-fifteenth century onward. As Dirk Kolff has noted in his ''Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 ''(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), the invention of “Rajput” identity can be dated to the sixteenth-century narratives of nostalgia for lost honor and territory.}}</ref><ref name="Bayly2001">{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|author-link=Susan Bayly|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA32|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|pages=32–35|quote= [32]In the arid hill country what is now Rajasthan, located southwest to the Mughal original strongholds in gangetic plain, powerful lords had been calling themselves as Rajputs, a title derived from the Sanskrit (rajaputra, king's son), as far back as thirteenth century and possibly very much earlier[33]In both the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, Mughal armies fought bloody battles in this strategic frontier region, and through a mixture of force and coalition, its kingdoms were loosely absorbed into loosely textured Mughal political order. At this time, these armed elites had strong memories of the earlier clan chiefs who had made their mark in turbulent times by adopting known marks of lordship and exalted desent.[34]Yet the varna archetype of the Kshatriya-like man of prowess did become a key reference point for rulers and their subjects under the Mughals and their immediate successors. The chiefs and warriors whom the Mughals came to honor as Rajput lords in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may not even have been descendants of Rajasthan’s earlier pre-Mughal elites. What mattered instead was that for both[] these titles and the markers of refined faith and social life which accompanied them, spoke in recognizable terms of exalted blood and ancestry.}}</ref>
 
The Rajput ruled kingdoms repelled early invasions of Arab commanders after [[Muhammad ibn Qasim]] [[Umayyad conquest of Sindh|conquered Sindh]] and executed last Hindu king of the kingdom, [[Raja Dahir]]. [[Kingdom of Mewar|Rajput family of Mewar]] under [[Bappa Rawal]] and later under Khoman fought off invasions by Arab generals and restricted them only until the border of Rajasthan but failed to recapture Sindh.<ref>{{harvnb|André Wink|1990|p=208}} "The Rajputs repelled Arabs from "Stravani and Valla", probably the area North of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, and the invasion of Malwa but were ultimately defeated by Bappa Rawal and Nagabhata I in 725 AD near Ujjain. Arab rule was restricted to the west of Thar desert."</ref> By the first quarter of 11th century, Turkic conqueror [[Mahmud Ghaznavi]] launched several successful military expeditions in the territories of Rajputs, defeating them everytime and by 1025 A.D, he demolished and looted the famous [[Somnath Temple]] and its Rajput ruler Bhimdev Solanki fled his capital.{{sfn|Asoke Kumar Majumdar|1956|p=44-45}} Rajput rulers at Gwalior and Kalinjar were able to hold off assaults by Maḥmūd, although the two cities did pay him heavy tribute.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA224 |pages=19–24|title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part One |first=Satish |last=Chandra |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5}}</ref>  By last quarter of 12th century, [[Muhammad of Ghor]] expelled the [[Ghaznawids]] from their last bastion in [[Siege of Lahore (1186)|Lahore in 1186]], thereby securing the strategic route of [[Khyber Pass]]. After capturing the northwest frontier, he invaded Rajput domain. In 1191, [[Prithviraj Chauhan]] of [[Ajmer]] led a coalition of Rajput kings and [[First Battle of Tarain|defeated Ghori]] near [[Taraori]]. However, he returned a year later with an army of [[Turkish archery|mounted archers]] and crushed Rajput forces on the [[Second Battle of Tarain|same battlefield of Taraori]], Prithviraj fled the battlefield but was caught near Sirsa and was executed by Ghurids.<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Sugata Bose]] & [[Ayesha Jalal]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ihNtzxy5GEC&q=Rajput|title=Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy|date=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-30786-4|page=21|quote=It was a similar combination of political and economic imperatives which led Muhmmad Ghuri, a Turk, to invade India a century and half later in 1192. His defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan, a Rajput chieftain, in the strategic battle of Tarain in northern India paved the way for the establishment of the first Muslim sultanate|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Romila Thapar|author-link=Romila Thapar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBXLCQAAQBAJ |title=The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 |date=2015-06-01 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-93-5214-118-0|quote=An attack was launched on the Rajput kingdoms controlling the watershed and the western Ganges plain, now beginning to be viewed as the frontier. The Rajputs gathered together as best as they could not forgetting internal rivalries and jealousies. Prithviraja defeated Muhmmad Ghori at First battle of Tarain north of Delhi, in 1191, a second battle was fought at the same place, Prithviraj was defeated and kingdom of Delhi fell to Muhmmad, who pressed on and concentrated on capturing capital of Rajput kingdoms with the assistance of his General, Qutub-ud-din Aibak|language=en}}</ref> Following the battle, the Delhi Sultanate became prominent in the Delhi region.<ref name="Chandra 2004 224">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA224 |page=224 |title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206–1526) – Part One |first=Satish |last=Chandra |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5}}</ref>
 
The Rajputs fought against Sultans of Delhi from Rajasthan and other adjoining areas. By first quarter of 14th century, [[Alauddin Khalji]] sacked key Rajput fortresses of [[Siege of Chittorgarh (1303)|Chittor (1303)]], [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Ranthambore|Ranthambor (1301)]] and other Rajput ruled kingdoms like [[Siege of Siwana|Siwana]] and [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Jalore|Jalore]]. However, Rajputs resurgence took place under [[Rana Hammir]] who defeated [[Tughlaq dynasty|Tughlaq army]] of [[Muhammad bin Tughluq]] in [[Battle of Singoli|Singoli in 1336 CE]] and recaptured Rajasthan from Delhi sultanate.<ref name="BVB_1960">{{cite book |title=The History and Culture of the Indian People: The Delhi Sultanate |edition=2nd |editor=R. C. Majumdar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKVFAQAAMAAJ |year=1960 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |page=70}}</ref> In the 15th century, the Muslim sultans of [[Malwa Sultanate|Malwa]] and [[Gujarat Sultanate|Gujarat]] put a joint effort to overcome the Mewar ruler [[Rana Kumbha]] but both the sultans were defeated.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF0FvjG3GWEC&pg=PA95 |page=95 |title=The Rajputs of Rajputana: A Glimpse of Medieval Rajasthan |first=M.S |last=Naravane |publisher=APH Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=978-81-7648-118-2}}</ref> Kumbha's grandson renowned [[Rana Sanga]] inherited a troubling kingdom after death of his brothers but through his capable rule turned traditional kingdom of Mewar into one of the greatest power in northern India during the early 16th century.<ref>{{Cite book|author=V.S Bhatnagar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plFuAAAAMAAJ|title=Life and Times of Sawai Jai Singh, 1688-1743|date=1974|publisher=Impex India|language=en|page=6|quote=From 1326, Mewar's grand recovery commenced under Lakha, and later under Kumbha and Sanga, till it became one of the greatest powers in northern India during the first quarter of the sixteenth century.}}</ref> Sanga defeated Sultans of [[Gujarat Sultanate|Gujarat]], [[Malwa Sultanate|Malwa]] and [[Lodhi dynasty|Delhi]] several times in various battles and expanded his kingdom. Sanga led a grand alliance of Rajput rulers and defeated the Mughal forces of [[Babur]] in [[Battle of Bayana|early combat]] but was defeated at [[Battle of Khanwa|Khanwa]] through Mughal's use of Gunpowder which was unknown in Northern India at the time. His fierce rival Babur in his autobiography acknowledged him as the greatest Hindu king of that time along with [[Krishnadevaraya]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Giles Tillotson|author-link=Giles Tillotson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApDrAAAAMAAJ |title=Mughal India |date=1991 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-011854-4 |pages=4|language=en|quote=He was immediately challenged by assembled Rajput forces under Rana Sanga of Chittor who was reckoned by Babur as one of the two greatest Hindu rulers}}</ref><ref name="Chandra 2004 224"/><ref name="Maharana">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRBDAAAAYAAJ |page=1 |title=Maharana Sāngā, the Hindupat: The Last Great Leader of the Rajput Race |first=Har Bilas |last=Sarda |publisher=Kumar Bros. |year=1970}}</ref> After a few years [[Maldev Rathore]] of [[Marwar]] rose in power controlling almost whole portion of western and eastern  [[Rajasthan]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chandra|first=Satish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC|title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II|date=2005|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|isbn=978-81-241-1066-9|pages=79–80|language=en|quote=The conquest of Malwa and Chanderi was a prelude to the conquest of Marwar where Maldeo had ascended the gaddi in 1531. He had steadily augmented his power till it comprised almost the whole of western and eastern  Rajasthan including Sambhal and Narnaul in Shekhawati. His armies were also said to have been seen near Hindaun and Bayana on the outskirts of Agra.}}</ref>
 
From 1200 CE, many Rajput groups moved eastwards towards the [[Indo-Gangetic plains|Eastern Gangetic plains]] forming their own chieftaincies.<ref name="Bayly1988">{{cite book |author=C. A. Bayly |title=Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xfo3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA18 |date=19 May 1988 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-31054-3 |pages=18–19}}</ref> These minor Rajput kingdoms were dotted all over the Gangetic plains in modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.{{sfn|Barbara N. Ramusack|2004|p=14,15}} During this process, petty clashes occurred with the local population and in some cases, alliances were formed.<ref name="Bayly1988" /> Among these Rajput chieftaincies were the [[Bhojpuri region|Bhojpur]] zamindars<ref name="Chatterjee1996">{{cite book |author=Kumkum Chatterjee |title=Merchants, Politics, and Society in Early Modern India: Bihar, 1733–1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUeqQ2buQ80C&pg=PA35 |year=1996 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=90-04-10303-1 |pages=35–36}}</ref> and the [[Taluqdar|taluks]] of [[Awadh]].{{sfn|Richard Gabriel Fox|1971|p=68,69}}

The immigration of Rajput clan chiefs into these parts of the Gangetic plains also contributed the agricultural appropriation of previously forested areas, especially in South Bihar.<ref name="Prakash2003">{{cite book|author=Gyan Prakash |title=Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQFvks7lahoC&pg=PA64 |date=30 October 2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52658-6 |pages=64–66}}</ref> Some have linked this eastwards expansion with the onset of [[Ghurid dynasty|Ghurid invasion]] in the West.<ref name="Prakash2003" />
 
From as early as the 16th century, [[Purbiya]] Rajput soldiers from the eastern regions of [[Bihar]] and [[Awadh]], were recruited as mercenaries for Rajputs in the west, particularly in the [[Malwa]] region.<ref>{{cite book |title=India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism |editor1-first=Waltraud |editor1-last=Ernst |editor2-first=Biswamoy |editor2-last=Pati |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-134-11988-2 |first=Amar |last=Farooqui |chapter=The Subjugation of the Sindia State |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eKbW3ukh9oC&pg=PA57 |page=57}}</ref>

The [[Rajput kingdoms]] were disparate: loyalty to a clan was more important than allegiance to the wider Rajput social grouping, meaning that one clan would fight another. This and the internecine jostling for position that took place when a clan leader (raja) died meant that Rajput politics were fluid and prevented the formation of a coherent Rajput empire.{{sfn|Pradeep Barua|2005|p=25}}

=== Mughal period ===
Rajputs played an important role in the [[Mughals|Mughal]] history.  From Akbar's rule, Rajput leaders were integrated into the Mughal ruling elite through court appointments and matrimonial alliances.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsMVDAAAQBAJ&dq=Mughal+Rajput+marriage+became+common&pg=PA475 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions |page=475 |publisher=OUP |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-976764-9 |editor=Mark Juergensmeyer|quote=From the time of Akbar, local Rajput Hindu rulers were absorbed into the Mughal ruling class through court promotion and marriage.}}</ref> Mughal emperors like [[Jahangir]] and [[Shah Jahan]] were born from Rajput mothers. Due to the presence of princes born to Rajput mothers in the Mughal harem as well as Rajput officers serving in the Mughal army, the Rajput values got diffused into the Mughal imperial system.<ref>{{cite book|title=India in the Persianate Age 1000- 1765 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aIF6DwAAQBAJ&dq=akbar+born+in+rajput&pg=PP179 |page=257 |author=Richard M. Eaton |publisher=University of California Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0520325128 |quote=The diffusion of Rajput institutions in Mughal culture is partly explained by the incorporation of Rajput women in the Mughal harem and Rajput youths in Mughal households, which had begun in the early decades of Akbar’s reign. Children born of Rajput women in the imperial harem were treated as full members of the Mughal dynasty and eligible for inheriting the throne. This meant that, although Jahangir’s paternal grandfather was Humayun, his maternal grandfather was Raja Bharmal, leader of the Kachwaha Rajput lineage... Jahangir himself, then, was biologically half Rajput... His son Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, was born of one of these Rajputs – Jagat Gosain Begum, the daughter of Udai Singh of Jodhpur. Shah Jahan was therefore three-quarters Rajput by blood. Since Rajput mothers imparted their inherited culture to their offspring, the Mughal harem became a site for the diffusion of Rajput values at the heart of the imperial system. The Mughal connection with Rajputs, then, was more than political. It was biological and cultural, as Rajput institutions, introduced at the upper end of the Mughal order, percolated downwards, gradually diffusing among the officer corps. In addition, many officers and troopers in Mughal service were themselves Rajputs, which also served to lend a Rajput ethos to imperial armies.}}</ref>

====Babur's period====
The defeat of a Rajput coalition by [[Babur]] in the [[Battle of Khanwa]] is considered a turning point in the history of North India.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Andre |last=Wink|author-link=Andre Wink|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zhu9DwAAQBAJ|title=Akbar|date=2012|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-78074-209-0|page=27|quote="The victory of Mughals at khanua can be seen as a landmark event in Mughal conquest of North India as the battle turned out to be more historic and eventful than one fought near Panipat. It made Babur undisputed master of North India while smashing Rajput powers. After the victory at khanua, the centre of Mughal power became Agra instead of Kabul and continue to remain till downfall of the Empire after Aalamgir's death.|language=en}}</ref>

====Humayun's period====
Rajput ruler Rana Prasad of [[Amarkot]] gave refuge to Humayun and his pregnant wife when they were fleeing from India, and, it was in his fortress that young [[Akbar]] was born.<ref>{{cite journal|quote=While fleeing from Hindustan, Humayun and his wife Hamida Begum, who was pregnant at the time, were given refuge by the Hindu ruler, Rana Prasad in Amarkot, Rajputana (present day Umarkot, Sindh province, Pakistan). Akbar was born inside the Amarkot fort on 15 October 1542. |year=2022 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |title=Birth Images of Ghazan and Timur: Vessels of Memory for the Mughals |author=Dipanwita Donde |journal=The Twelfth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 12) |page=135|doi=10.5117/9789048557820/ICAS.2022.015 |isbn=978-90-485-5782-0 |doi-access=free }}</ref> After returning to India, Humayun tried to make good relations with zamindars, both Hindu as well as Muslim. His attempts to foster positive connections with the Rajputs are viewed as a strategy aimed at engaging the local ruling classes of the country.<ref>{{cite book|quote=After returning to India, Humayun embarked upon a policy of conciliating and winning over the zamindars — a term used in official documents to include the autonomous rajas, both Hindu and Muslim...The attempt to establish special relations with the Rajputs was, thus, part of a broader policy towards the zamindars or the indigenous ruling sections in the country. |author=Satish Chandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC&dq=Satish+chandra+special+relations+with+rajputs+humayun&pg=PA111 |page=111 |year=2005 |title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part - II |publisher=Har-Anand Publications}}</ref>

==== Akbar's period ====
{{See also|Political marriages in India}}
[[File:Maharana Pratap cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Rana Pratap]], the Rana of [[Kingdom of Mewar|Mewar]], was popularly known for his role in battles against the Mughal Empire ]]
[[File:Raja Man Singh the Great , Of Amer.jpg|thumb|[[Man Singh I]], an important Rajput official of [[Akbar]]. ]]
After the mid-16th century, many Rajput rulers formed close relationships with the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal emperors]] and served them in different capacities.<ref>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=John F.|author-link=John F. Richards|title=The Mughal Empire |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-25119-8 |pages=22–24}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bhadani |first=B. L. |title=The Profile of Akbar in Contemporary Literature |journal=Social Scientist |date=1992 |volume=20 |issue=9/10 |pages=48–53 |doi=10.2307/3517716 |jstor=3517716| issn = 0970-0293 }}</ref> It was due to the support of the Rajputs that Akbar was able to lay the foundations of the Mughal empire in India.<ref name="Chaurasia" /> Some Rajput nobles gave away their daughters in marriage to Mughal emperors and princes for political motives.{{sfn|Dirk H. A. Kolff|2002|p=132}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=PA656 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History |publisher=Oxford University Press |first=Bonnie G. |last=Smith |year=2008 |page=656 |isbn=978-0-19-514890-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA23 |title=The Mughal Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |first=John F. |last=Richards |year=1995 |page=23 |isbn=978-0-521-56603-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8NJ41GiXvsC&pg=PA174 |title=Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World |publisher=Cambridge University Press |first=Ruby |last=Lal |year=2005 |page=174 |isbn=978-0-521-85022-3}}</ref> For example, [[Akbar]] accomplished 40 marriages for himself, his sons and grandsons, out of which 17 were Rajput-Mughal alliances.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I5upAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT176 |title=Interrogating International Relations: India's Strategic Practice and the Return of History War and International Politics in South Asia |publisher=Routledge |first=Jayashree |last=Vivekanandan |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-136-70385-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-first1=Anthony |editor-last1=Reid |editor-first2=David O. |editor-last2=Morgan |year=2010 |title=The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3, The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries |page=213 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=9781316184363 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANiaBAAAQBAJ&dq=rajput+cambridge&pg=PT437}}</ref> Akbar's successors as Mughal emperors, his son [[Jahangir]] and grandson [[Shah Jahan]] had Rajput mothers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Waldemar |title=The peacock throne : the drama of Mogul India |date=1972 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-0225-4 |pages=12, 34 |edition=1. Indian ed., repr.}}</ref> Although Rajput rulers provided the brides to the Mughals, neither Akbar nor his successors provided brides to the Rajput rulers. For example, Akbar got this sisters and daughters married to [[Timurid Empire|Timurids]] and prominent Muslims from central and west Asia. Historian [[Michael H. Fisher|Michael Fisher]] states that the bards and poets patronized by the Rajput rulers who served Akbar raised Akbar to a "semi-divine" status and gives an example of Akbar being projected as a "divine master" in the "Hindu cosmic order". The writer also finds correlation between the increasing numbers of Hindu Rajput wives in Akbar's household and Hindu Rajputs as well as non-Rajput Hindus in his administration to the religious and political policy followed by him towards non-Muslims which included ending the prohibition on the construction of new temples of non -Muslim faiths like Hindu, Jain etc. In 1564 AD, Akbar had also stopped collection of ''[[jaziya]]'' from non-Muslims, a tax considered as discriminatory by several non-Muslims which also consisted of his Hindu Rajput officials.<ref name="Fisher2015">{{cite book | author = Michael Fisher | date = 1 October 2015 | title = A Short History of the Mughal Empire | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | pages = 88–90 | isbn = 978-0-85772-976-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ldOLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88}}</ref>
The ruling [[Sisodia Dynasty|Sisodia]] Rajput family of [[Mewar]] made it a point of honour not to engage in matrimonial relationships with Mughals and thus claimed to stand apart from those Rajput clans who did so.{{sfn|Barbara N. Ramusack|2004|pp=18–19}} [[Rana Pratap]] is renowned as a "Rajput icon" for firmly fighting with Akbar's forces for the cause of Mewar's freedom.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfn1DwAAQBAJ&dq=Rajput+icon+pratap&pg=PT138|title=Caste, State and Society: Degrees of Democracy in North India|author=Jagmal Singh|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2020|isbn=9781000196061}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Goddesses' Henchmen- Gender in Indian Hero Worship|publisher=Oxford University Press|author=Lindsey Harlan|year=2003|isbn=9780195348347|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmbRCwAAQBAJ&dq=rana+pratap+rajput+hero&pg=PA46|page=46}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bQwEAAAQBAJ&dq=rana+pratap+rajput+hero&pg=PA337|page=337|title=The Temple Road Towards a Great India|author=Marta Kudelska, Dorota Kamińska-Jones, Agnieszka Sylwia Staszczyk, Agata Świerzowska|isbn=9788323399865|publisher=Jagiellonian University Press|year=2019}}</ref> Once Mewar had submitted and alliance of Rajputs reached a measure of stability, matrimonial between leading Rajput states and Mughals became rare.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chandra |first1=Satish|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)|title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part-II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Rm9MC4DDrcC&q=satish+chandra+rajput+mughal+marriage&pg=PA124 |date=2007 |publisher=Har Anand Publications |page=124|isbn=9788124110669}}</ref>

==== Shah Jahan's period ====

Under Shah Jahan, the Bundela Rajputs were embroiled in internal strife and imperial intervention. [[Jhujhar Singh]], son of the Bundela leader [[Vir Singh Deo]], rebelled in 1627-28 and again in 1635. Shah Jahan skilfully exploited the divisions within the Bundela clan by deploying loyal Bundela chiefs such as Bhagwan Das, Bharat Shah, and Pahar Singh to suppress the rebellion. Although the first uprising concluded with a pardon, the second prompted a response led by Aurangzeb with support from Bundela nobles like Debi Singh, who was rewarded with the title of Raja of Orchha. However, Champat Rai Bundela, a staunch supporter of Jhujhar Singh’s surviving son, Prithviraj, opposed Debi Singh's appointment. The resulting unrest undermined Debi Singh’s authority, leading to his removal in 1637. Shah Jahan then placed Orchha under direct Mughal administration before appointing Pahar Singh, descendant of Vir Singh Deo, as ruler in 1642, a move which helped diminish Champat Rai’s local support. Throughout Shah Jahan’s reign, the Mughal court repeatedly capitalised on Bundela feuds to assert control over Bundelkhand, the Bundela Rajputs' ancestral land.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmad |first=Amir |title=The Bundela Revolts During the Mughal Period: A Dynastic Affair |date=2005 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44145860 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=66 |pages=438–445 |jstor=44145860 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref>

==== Aurangzeb's period ====
{{See also|Rajput War (1679–1707)}}
Aurangzeb had banned all Hindus from carrying weapons and riding horses but exempted the Rajputs.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Aurangzeb and The Decline of the Mughals|author=Sayan Lodh |journal=AltraLANG Journal|year=2019|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Aurangzeb+and+The+Decline+of+the+Mughals+Sayan+lodh&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1723713142121&u=%23p%3DHCScHg5r2qwJ|publisher=Presidency University, Kolkata|pages=134|quote=In 1679, Aurangzeb revived the jizya or poll tax on non-Muslims. He also dismissed many non- Muslim clerks. All Hindus except the Rajput, were forbidden to carry weapons.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=A Note on Conception of Aurangzeb Alamgir Religious Policy|author=Aqib Yousuf Rather |journal=Journal of Psychology and Political Science |year=2022|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=A+Note+on+Conception+of+Aurangzeb+Alamgir++Religious+Policy&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1723713611986&u=%23p%3Dg5td9ORhlMoJ|publisher=JIPIRS|pages=34|quote=Aurangzeb issued orders barring all Hindus, with the exception of Rajputs, from riding elephants, horses, or palanquins.}}</ref>
Akbar's diplomatic policy regarding the Rajputs was later damaged by the intolerant rules introduced by his great-grandson [[Aurangzeb]]. A prominent example of these rules included the re-imposition of [[Jaziya]], which had been abolished by Akbar.<ref name="Chaurasia" /> However, despite imposition of Jaziya Aurangzeb's army had a high proportion of Rajput officers in the upper ranks of the imperial army and they were all exempted from paying Jaziya.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bayly |first1=Susan |title=Caste, society and politics in India from the eighteenth century to the modern age |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press |location=Cambridge [u.a.] |isbn=9780521798426 |page=35 |edition=1. Indian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&q=rajput+caste&pg=PR6}}</ref>  The Rajputs then revolted against the Mughal empire. Aurangzeb's conflicts with them, which commenced in the early 1680s, henceforth became a contributing factor towards the downfall of the Mughal empire.<ref name=EB>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490157/Rajput |title=Rajput |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 November 2010}}</ref><ref name="Chaurasia">{{cite book |last=Chaurasia |first=Radhey Shyam |title=History of Medieval India: From 1000 A.D. to 1707 A.D |date=2002 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-269-0123-4 |pages=272–273}}</ref>

====Under Maratha influence====
Historian Lynn Zastoupil states that the Mughal Emperors had manipulated the appointment of the successor of the Rajput rulers earlier. However, in the early 18th century, when the Mughal power declined, Rajput states enjoyed a brief period of independence. But soon the [[Maratha empire]] started collecting tribute from and harassing some Rajput states.<ref>{{cite book | date = July 1994 | title = John Stuart Mill and India | author =Lynn Zastoupil|publisher = Stanford University Press | pages = 120–121 | isbn = 978-0-8047-6617-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=42f1jD7L_wcC&pg=PA121|quote=Maratha incursions into Rajasthan grew steadily in the second half of the century, however, and soon the Rajput states were subject to the tribute, and sometimes plunder, of competing Maratha polities.}}</ref> The internal governance and political structures of the various Rajput kingdoms were weakened as a result of Maratha interference in dynastic succession disputes.<ref>{{harvnb|Rima Hooja|2006|p=658}} "Maratha interference in dynastic succession disputes would lead to the weakening of the internal governance and political structures of the several affected kingdoms..."</ref> Some Rajput states, in 1800s, appealed to the British [[East India Company]] for assistance against the Marathas but their requests for assistance were denied at the time.<ref name="Zastoupil1994">{{cite book | date = July 1994 | title = John Stuart Mill and India | author =Lynn Zastoupil|publisher = Stanford University Press | pages = 120–121 | isbn = 978-0-8047-6617-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=42f1jD7L_wcC&pg=PA121}}</ref><ref name="Sreenivasan2017">{{cite book | author = Ramya Sreenivasan | date = 1 May 2017 | title = The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen: Heroic Pasts in India, c. 1500-1900 | publisher = University of Washington Press | pages = 126– | isbn = 978-0-295-99785-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QXQkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA126}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chaurasia |first1=R.S. |title=History of the Marathas. |date=2004 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist. |location=New Delhi, India |isbn=81-269-0394-5 |pages=23,178,185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D_v3Y7hns8QC&q=+rajput+tribute&pg=PR3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=[[Jadunath Sarkar]]| year=1994|title= A History of Jaipur 1503–1938|chapter=The British alliance|pages=315–330|publisher=Orient Longman|isbn=81-250-0333-9}}</ref>

===British colonial period===
[[File:Charles Shepherd and Arthur Robertson01.jpg|thumb|Chauhan Rajputs, Delhi (1868)]]
In the late eighteenth century, despite the request from two Rajput rulers for British support, the British East India company initially refused to support the Rajput states in Rajputana region as they had the policy of non-interference and considered the Rajput states to be weak. In the early nineteenth century, British administrator [[Warren Hastings]] realised how alliance with the Rajputs had benefited the Mughals and believed that a similar alliance may give the East India company political advantage in India. In his journal, in January 1815, he noted that Rajput states - [[Jaipur]], [[Jodhpur]] and [[Udaipur]] had been "devastated" by the [[Scindia]], [[Holkars]], [[Pindari]], [[Amir Khan (Nawab of Tonk)|Ameer Khan]] and Muhammad Shah Khan and that the Rajput rulers made multiple petitions to him requesting British protection. Moreover, the Rajput rulers had argued that "British had replaced the Mughal Empire as the supreme power of India and therefore had the responsibility to protect weaker states from aggressive ones". [[Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe|Charles Metcalfe]] agreed with this reasoning. One by one, many Rajput states in Rajputana came under British protection and became their allies - [[Kota State|Kota]], [[Udaipur]], [[Bundi]], [[Kishangarh]], [[Bikaner]], [[Jaipur]], [[Pratapgarh, Rajasthan|Pratapgarh]], [[Banswara]], [[Dungarpur]], [[Jaisalmer]] by 1817-18 and [[Sirohi]]  by 1823. The British promised to protect the Rajput states from their adversaries and not interfere in internal affairs in exchange for tribute. However, [[David Ochterlony]], who was in charge of the Rajput states broke the promise to not interfere as in his view interferences would save the states from "ruin". In 1820, the British removed him from his position and replaced him with Charles Metcalfe. For several decades, "non-interference" in internal affairs remained the official policy. However, according to the historian Lynn Zastoupil, the "British never found it possible or desirable to completely withdraw from interference in Rajput affairs".<ref name="Sen2010">{{cite book | author = Sailendra Nath Sen | date = 2010 | title = An Advanced History of Modern India | publisher = Macmillan | pages = 73– | isbn = 978-0-230-32885-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bXWiACEwPR8C&pg=PA73}}</ref><ref name="Zastoupil1994"/>

The medieval bardic chronicles (''[[kavya]]'' and ''[[masnavi (poetic form)|masnavi]]'') glorified the Rajput past, presenting warriorhood and honour as Rajput ideals. This later became the basis of the British reconstruction of the Rajput history and the nationalist interpretations of Rajputs' struggles with the Muslim invaders.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|pp=9–10}} [[James Tod]], a British colonial official, was impressed by the military qualities of the Rajputs but is today considered to have been unusually enamoured of them.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tod |first=James |publisher=Higginbotham & Co |year=1873 |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsantiquitie02jame |quote=What nation on earth could have maintained the semblance of civilization, the spirit or the customs of their forefathers, during so many centuries of overwhelming depression, but one of such singular character as the Rajpoot. |title=Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han |page=[https://archive.org/details/annalsantiquitie02jame/page/217 217]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Freitag |first1=Jason |title=Serving empire, serving nation: James Tod and the Rajputs of Rajasthan |date=2009 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-17594-5 |pages=3–5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kiewCQAAQBAJ&dq=Jason+Freitag+tod&pg=PR3 |access-date=2 May 2022}}</ref>
Although the group venerate him to this day, he is viewed by many historians since the late nineteenth century as being a not particularly reliable commentator.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nKJiBUFrmfoC&pg=PA31 |title=Cultural contours of India: Dr. Satya Prakash felicitation volume |last=Srivastava |first=Vijai Shankar |publisher=Abhinav Publications |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-391-02358-1 |editor1-last=Prakash |editor1-first=Satya |page=120 |chapter=The story of archaeological, historical and antiquarian researches in Rajasthan before independence |access-date=9 July 2011 |editor2-last=Śrivastava |editor2-first=Vijai Shankar}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |year=1981 |title=Forest and Cave: Temples at Candrabhāgā and Kansuāñ |journal=Archives of Asian Art |volume=34 |pages=56–73 |jstor=20111117}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Jason Freitag, his only significant biographer, has said that Tod is "manifestly biased".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib93BhAu43gC |title=Serving empire, serving nation: James Tod and the Rajputs of Rajasthan |last=Freitag |first=Jason |publisher=BRILL |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17594-5 |pages=3–5}}</ref>

As per the historian [[Thomas R. Metcalf]], Rajput Taluqdars in [[Awadh|Oudh]] provided a large numbers of leaders to the revolt of 1857 in that region. [[Kunwar Singh]], a Rajput Zamindar  was an important leader in Bihar region in the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Metcalf |first=Thomas R. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ByTWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA299 |title=Aftermath of Revolt: India 1857-1970 |date=2015-12-08 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-7664-8 |pages=299 |language=en}}</ref>

Historian Robert Stern  points out that in [[Rajputana]], although there were some revolts in the soldiers commanded by British officers the "Rajpur durbar muskeeters and feudal cavalrymen" did not participate in the 1857 revolt at all.<ref name="Stern1988">{{cite book | author = Robert W. Stern | date = 1988 | title = The Cat and the Lion: Jaipur State in the British Raj | publisher = BRILL | pages = 108 | isbn = 978-90-04-08283-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NK1MhWq-9VkC&pg=PA108}}</ref> But Crispin Bates is of the opinion that Rajput officers had soft corner for the rebels of 1857 fleeing Delhi who were entering into interior areas of then Rajasthan region. He gives examples of rebels who easily found safe havens in villages of Chittor without arrests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bates |first=Crispin  |title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume VI: Perception, Narration and Reinvention: The Pedagogy and Historiography of the Indian Uprising |date=2014-10-16 |publisher=SAGE Publishing India |isbn=978-93-5150-457-3 |language=en|quote=This suggests that those who fled Delhi had taken asylum in the villages of Chittor, implying that Rajput officers had sympathy with the rebels, otherwise they could have been arrested at the entry point into Rajasthan. However, they travelled safely through Rajasthan, up to Chittor.}}</ref>

The Rajput practices of [[Female infanticide in India|female infanticide]] and ''[[Sati (practice)|sati]]'' (widow immolation) were other matters of concern to the British. It was believed that the Rajputs were the primary adherents to these practices, which the British Raj considered savage and which provided the initial impetus for British [[Ethnography|ethnographic]] studies of the subcontinent that eventually manifested itself as a much wider exercise in [[social engineering (political science)|social engineering]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Concept of Race in South Asia |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Delhi |year=1995 |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Robb |first=Crispin |last=Bates |chapter=Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry |isbn=978-0-19-563767-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwNkQgAACAAJ |page=227 |access-date=30 November 2011}}</ref>

During the British rule their love for pork, i.e. wild boar, was also well known and the British identified them as a group based on this.<ref>{{cite book |title=Shifting Ground: People, Animals, and Mobility in India's Environmental History |editor1=Mahesh Rangarajan, K |editor2=Sivaramakrishnan |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIM8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT85 |quote=The British defined Rajputs as a group in part by their affinity for wild pork. |page=85 |isbn=9780199089376 |date=6 November 2014}}</ref>{{Clarify|reason = Why would muslim Rajputs eat Pork? Is it not forbidden in Islam?|date=November 2024}}

The Rajputs were classified as one of the farming and landowning communities by the British in the 1931 census.<ref name="Singh_2935">{{cite book | last=Singh | first=K. S. | title=India's Communities | volume=6|publisher=Anthropological Survey of India | date=1998 | isbn=978-0-19-563354-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHQMAQAAMAAJ|page=2935|quote= In the 1931 census, the Rajput were grouped under landowning and cultivating classes. Their total population in India was about 10,743,091.}}</ref>

Some unrelated communities tried to change their status to Rajput during the Colonial era. [[William L. Rowe|William Rowe]], discusses an example of a Shudra caste - the Noniyas (caste of salt makers)- from [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Bihar]]. A large section of this caste that had "become" "Chauhan Rajputs" over three generations in the [[British 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 wearing of [[Upanayana|Sacred thread]]. Rowe states that at a historic meeting of the caste in 1936, every child in this Noniya section "knew" about their "Rajput heritage".{{sfn|Lloyd Rudolph|1967|p=127}} Similarly, Donald Attwood and Baviskar give and example of a caste of shepherds who were formerly Shudras changed their status to Rajput in the Raj era and started wearing the Sacred thread. They are now known as [[Sagar Rajput]]s. The scholars consider this example as a case among thousands.<ref name="BaviskarAttwood2013">{{cite book|author1=B. S. Baviskar|author2=D. W. Attwood|title=Inside-Outside: Two Views of Social Change in Rural India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVQtBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA389|date=30 October 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1865-7|pages=389–|quote= 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}}</ref><ref name="Frykenberg1984">{{cite book|author=Robert Eric Frykenberg|title=Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOLSAAAAMAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Manohar|page=197|quote=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.}}</ref>

===Post Independence===
====India====
On [[Partition of India|India's independence]] in 1947, the princely states, including those of the Rajput, were given three options: join either India or Pakistan, or remain independent. Rajput rulers of the 22 princely states of [[Rajputana]] acceded to newly independent India, amalgamated into the new state of Rajasthan in 1949–1950.<ref name="Markovits2002">{{cite book |date=2002 |orig-year=First published 1994 as ''Histoire de l'Inde Moderne'' |editor-first=Claude |editor-last=Markovits |title=A History of Modern India, 1480–1950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C&pg=PA406 |edition=2nd |location=London |publisher=Anthem Press |page=406 |isbn=978-1-84331-004-4 |quote=The twenty-two princely states that were amalgamated in 1949 to form a political entity called Rajasthan...}}</ref> Initially the maharajas were granted funding from the [[privy purse in India|Privy purse]] in exchange for their acquiescence, but a series of land reforms over the following decades weakened their power, and their privy purse was cut off during [[Indira Gandhi]]'s administration under the 1971 [[List of amendments of the Constitution of India|Constitution 26th Amendment Act]]. The estates, treasures, and practices of the old Rajput rulers now form a key part of Rajasthan's tourist trade and cultural memory.<ref name="Larson2001">{{cite book |author=Gerald James Larson |title=Religion and Personal Law in Secular India: A Call to Judgment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGV3noHZ1QMC&pg=PA206 |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21480-5 |pages=206–}}</ref>

The Rajput [[Dogra dynasty|Dogra ruler]] of [[Kashmir and Jammu (princely state)|Kashmir and Jammu]] [[Instrument of Accession|acceded to India]] in 1947,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167993/Dogra-dynasty |title=Dogra dynasty |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> while retaining his title until the monarchy was abolished in 1971 by the 26th amendment to the Constitution of India.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend26.htm |title=The Constitution (26 Amendment) Act, 1971 |publisher=Government of India |work=indiacode.nic.in |year=1971 |access-date=30 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111206041333/http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend26.htm |archive-date=6 December 2011}}</ref>

Before the zamindari abolition,  the Rajputs in [[Awadh|Oudh]] formed the major Taluqdars and had controlled over 50 percent of the land in the most districts of the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brass |first=Paul R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KulsjpUIxeUC |title=Factional Politics in an Indian State: The Congress Party in Uttar Pradesh |date=1966 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=16–17 |language=en |quote=The agricultural castes must be further subdivided into the traditional landowning castes, the cultivating castes, and the castes which provide field laborers. Among the traditional landowning castes, the Thakurs and Rajputs are by far the most important. Before zamindari abolition, Rajputs and Thakurs owned the largest share of the land in most of the districts in Uttar Pradesh; in Oudh, Rajputs were the most prominent talukdars and owned more than 50 percent of the land in most districts. Rajputs and Thakurs are associated with traditional Kshatriya class, the ruling class in the classical Hindu order.}}</ref> Historian Thomas R. Metcalf explains that in the province of Uttar Pradesh, majority of the Taluqdars with moderate to large estates were composed of Rajput caste. He also mentions that Rajputs were only next to Brahmins in the ritual hierarchy and also gave the secular elite of the state. According to him, the community controlled most of the best agricultural land in the region and this also helped the Rajput Taluqdars who were usually the head of the local Rajput clan to gather support over non-Rajput rival in the electoral politics of the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Metcalf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBuAAAAMAAJ |title=Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the Heyday of Empire |last2=Metcalf |first2=Thomas R. |last3=Metcalf |first3=Professor of History and Sarah Kailath Professor of India Studies Thomas R. |last4=Kailath |first4=Sarah |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-566709-7 |pages=84 |language=en |quote=The bulk of the taluqdars, including almost all the Hindu holders of moderate to large estates, are of the Rajput caste. A ritually high caste, second only to the Brahmins, Rajputs have traditionally provided the secular elite of the province. Not only as large Landlords, but as petty zamindars and substantial peasant cultivators, Rajputs control most of the productive agricultural land and have long dominated the village ''panchayats'' and other local government institutions. The mere existence of such a large group of influential caste fellows scattered throughout the countryside gives the taluqdar a substantial advantage over a non-Rajput rival in gathering electoral support. But the taluqdar is usually more than just a Rajput; he is also the head of the local Rajput lineage or clan.}}</ref>

=====Affirmative Action=====
The Rajputs, in most of the states, are considered a [[Forward Caste|General caste]] (forward caste) in India's system of [[Reservation in India|positive discrimination]]. This means that they have no access to reservations. But they are classified as an [[Other Backward Class]] by the [[National Commission for Backward Classes]] in the state of [[Karnataka]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/User_Panel/GazetteResolution.aspx?Value=mPICjsL1aLsThxqt53NPf0ggPwu7BzPqgy3u3lupJmQLsT8%2fMjBlhiG%2fb0Het9uX |title=Central List of OBCs – State : Karnataka |website= }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/Writereaddata/note27635288560842543245.pdf |title=12015/2/2007-BCC dt. 18/08/2010 |website= }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Reservational Justice to Other Backward Classes (Obcs): Theoretical and Practical Issues |author=A.Prasad |publisher=Deep and Deep Publications |year=1997 |page=69 |quote=(continued list of OBC classes) 7.Rajput 120.Karnataka Rajput}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJxY9IWzGewC |title=Villages, Women, and the Success of Dairy Cooperatives in India: Making Place for Rural Development |first=Pratyusha |last=Basu |publisher=Cambria Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-60497-625-0 |page=96}}</ref> Some Rajputs in various states, as with other agricultural castes, demand reservations in Government jobs.<ref>
{{cite news |title=Rajput youths rally for reservations  |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/Rajput-youths-rally-for-reservations/articleshow/48908796.cms |access-date=4 June 2016 |work=The Times of India}}
</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Mudgal |first1=Vipul |title=The Absurdity of Jat Reservation |url=http://thewire.in/2016/02/22/the-absurdity-of-jat-reservation-22396/ |access-date=4 June 2016 |work=The Wire |date=22 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160530212402/http://thewire.in/2016/02/22/the-absurdity-of-jat-reservation-22396/ |archive-date=30 May 2016}}
</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rajputs demanding reservation threaten to disrupt chintan shivir |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rajputs-demanding-reservation-threaten-to-disrupt-chintan-shivir/article4313115.ece |access-date=4 June 2016 |work=The Hindu |date=16 January 2013 |language=en-IN}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=After Jats, Rajputs of western UP want reservation in govt posts |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/noida/now-rajputs-of-western-uttar-pradesh-want-reservation-in-government-jobs/story-FBbtkNPRFjULRaHA30BHdN.html |access-date=4 June 2016 |work=Hindustan Times |date=28 April 2016}}</ref> In 2016, Sikh Rajputs were added under Backward Classes in [[Punjab]]<ref>{{cite web | author=The Tribune India | title=Rajput body condemns govt for putting Sikh Rajputs in 'backward classes' | website=Tribuneindia News Service | date=2016-12-20 | url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/jalandhar/rajput-body-condemns-govt-for-putting-sikh-rajputs-in-backward-classes-334515}}</ref> but after protest by the community, the government announced that they will be again put under General Category.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-15 |title=Rajputs to be accorded back general status, as per demand, says Punjab CM Channi |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/rajputs-to-be-accorded-back-general-status-as-per-demand-says-punjab-cmchanni-101636994782914.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref>

====Pakistan====
In [[West Punjab]], the Muslim Rajputs, Jats and Arains are the three dominant agricultural castes, out of which, Rajputs are considered to be at the top of social hierarchy.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5jTh7DA598C&dq=Rajput+different+from+other+castes&pg=PA118 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1975 |author=Richard F. Nyrop |title=Area Handbook for Pakistan|quote=The agricultural tribes are usually castes with a common mythic ancestor whose traditional occupation is agriculture. The three most important Muslim castes are the Jats, Rajputs and Arains. In terms of social precedence, the Rajputs come first.|page=118}}</ref> In [[Azad Kashmir]], they are distributed across the territory and have higher presence in politics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethnic Knowledge and Perspectives of Medicinal Plants |page=198 |publisher=Apple Academic Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-000-81185-8 |editor=Francisco Martín Huerta-Martínez |quote=Rajputs are distributed all over AJK  with higher involvement in political activities form the basis of AJKs politics. Respected group alone has half million population in AJK.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKAIEQAAQBAJ&dq=Rajputs+are+distributed+all+over+AJK+with+higher+involvement+in+political+activities+form+the+basis+of+AJKs+politics&pg=PA198}}</ref> They are among the largest components of Pakistan's army.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5jTh7DA598C&dq=Rajput+different+from+other+castes&pg=PA118 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1975 |author=Richard F. Nyrop |title=Area Handbook for Pakistan|quote=The Muslim Rajputs are believed to stem from local aristocrats who converted to Islam during the Mughal period and who held positions of honor in the army and administration. Under the British, they contributed large number of excellent soldiers to the Indian army, and they continue to be the largest element in the army of Pakistan. |page=118,119}}</ref>

==Demographics==

=== India ===
In 1931, Rajputs comprised 3.7% of British India's population.<ref>{{cite book | last=Jaffrelot | first=C. | title=India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India | publisher=Hurst | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-85065-398-1 | page= 2|chapter=Introduction|quote=In 1931 - Brahmins  represented 6.4% of the population, the Rajputs, the principal caste of warriors,  3.7%}}</ref> Currently, the region-wise estimates of Rajputs' share in population are, in descending order: 35% for [[Uttarakhand]],<ref>{{cite journal |author=Anjali Semwal |date=31 January 2023 |title=Influence of Caste, Education and Family on Women's Participation in Village Panchayats of Uttarakhand with special reference to Ukhimath and Raipur block |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=uttarakhand+rajputs+35+per+cent&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&t=1725729583254&u=%23p%3DOHbJy0Ad0LsJ |journal=International Journal of Social Sciences and Management 10 (1), 5-9, 2023 |page=5 |quote=According to Uttarakhand Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Rajputs constitute 35 percent of the total population and Brahmins 25 percent, together they constitute over 60 percent.}}</ref> 28% for [[Himachal Pradesh]],<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ramesh K. Chauhan |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Himachal+Pradesh%3A+Well-established+Domination+of+Majoritarian+Upper+Castes&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1725987035235&u=%23p%3D-lIZyBNqw-UJ |title=Himachal Pradesh Well-established Domination of Majoritarian Upper Castes |author2=TR Sharma |author3=SN Ghosh |date=2012 |publisher=Taylor and Francis group |page= |quote=The Rajputs and Brahmins are the two politically dominant upper castes in the state. The Rajputs being higher in their numerical strength (28 per cent), followed by Brahmins (20 per cent), principally represent and influence the electoral politics in the state.}}</ref> 9% in [[Madhya Pradesh]],<ref>[[Christophe Jaffrelot]], "[https://www.india-seminar.com/2008/591/591_christophe_jaffrelot.htm The uneven plebeianisation of Madhya Pradesh politics]", ''Seminar'', Nov. 2008, pp. 28-33, [https://web.archive.org/web/20250111103418/https://www.india-seminar.com/2008/591/591_christophe_jaffrelot.htm archived] on 5 February 2025: "Madhya Pradesh (...) where the proportion of Rajputs is higher than in Rajasthan with about 9%."</ref> 7-8% for [[Uttar Pradesh]],<ref>{{Cite book |author=Anil Maheshwari |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqJhEAAAQBAJ&dq=Rajputs+7+percent+uttar+pradesh&pg=PT73 |title=Uttar Pradesh Elections 2022: More than a State At Stake (UP Elections) |publisher=Om Books International |year=2022 |isbn=978-93-91258-48-1 |quote=Brahmins constitute between 10 to 11 percent of UP's population while Rajputs are at 7 to 8 percent.}}</ref> 6% for [[Rajasthan]],<ref>{{cite news |year=2016 |editor=Jacqueline Behrend, Laurence Whitehead |title=Illiberal Practices: Territorial Variance Within Large Federal Democracies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKcQDAAAQBAJ&dq=Rajput+population+rajasthan+6+percent&pg=PA66 |publisher=JHU Press |page=66 |isbn=978-1-4214-1958-9}}</ref> 5% for [[Gujarat]],<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsDOrvROzPEC&dq=Banias+or+Vanias+%283+per+cent%29%28trading+caste%29+and+rajputs+%285+per+cent%29+form+about+12+per+cent+of&pg=PA408 |title=Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance: Field Studies from Rural India polls |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |year=2009 |isbn=978-81-7829-860-3 |editor=B S Baviskar, George Mathew |page=408}}</ref> 3.45% for [[Bihar]],<ref>{{cite news |date=2 October 2023 |title=PoliticsBihar's Much-Awaited Caste Census Puts OBC-EBC Groups at Politically Dominant 63% |url=https://m.thewire.in/article/politics/bihar-caste-census-released-at-63-obc-ebc-groups-set-to-take-pole-position-in-state-politics |website=The Wire}}</ref> and 3.4% for [[Haryana]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Dr Sandeep Yadav, Dr Ashutosh Birla |date=30 October 2024 |title=Caste, Community, and Victory: Decoding the BJP's Historic Third Win in Haryana's 2024 Elections |url=https://knowledgeableresearch.com/index.php/1/article/view/267 |journal=Knowledgeable Research Vol.03, No.3, October 2024 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=15–20 |quote=The state {{sic|comprises |hide=y|of}} around 27 percent Jats, 21 percent SC, 8 percent Punjabis, 7.5 percent Brahmins, 7 percent Muslims, 5 percent Yadavs and 5 percent Vaish, 4 percent Jat Sikhs, 3.4 percent Rajputs and 3.4 percent Gujjars, 3 percent Sainis of the total electorates.}}</ref>

In 2008, it was estimated that, in terms of absolute numbers, Rajputs in India numbered 40 million, the breakdown by state being, in descending order: just under 10 million in Uttar Pradesh, 5 million in Madhya Pradesh, 4 million in both Rajasthan and Bihar, 2 million in both Uttarakhand and Gujarat, over 1 million in both Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and just under 1 million in both [[Maharashtra|Maharasthra]] and [[Delhi]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Tyagi |first=Vidya Prakash |title=Martial races of undivided India |date=2009 |publisher=Kalpaz |isbn=978-81-7835-775-1 |location=Delhi |page=144}}</ref>

=== Pakistan ===
{{See also|Muslim Rajputs}}
In Pakistan the census is done on a linguistic basis, so it's harder to come across the population of Rajputs, who are mostly [[Muslim Rajputs|Muslim]], at a national level, but at a local level the [[Government of Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab government]] has provided the following numbers: Rajputs constitute 32% of the [[Kasur District]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=District Profile |url=https://kasur.punjab.gov.pk/our_history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250107122444/https://kasur.punjab.gov.pk/our_history |archive-date=7 January 2025 |website=District Kasur - [[Government of Punjab, Pakistan|Government of Punjab]] |quote=The Rajputs are numerically the strongest tribe and also the most important. About 32% population of the district is Rajput.}}</ref> 20% of the [[Gujranwala District]],<ref>''[https://gazetteers.punjab.gov.pk/uploads/flipbooks/gujranwala/2020/mobile/index.html Gazetteer of Gujranwala District 2020]'', compiled and published under the supervision of the deputy commissioner Gujranwala, [[Government of Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab Government]], p. 34</ref> and 5% of the [[Lahore District]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=District Profile |url=https://lahore.punjab.gov.pk/district_profile |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231127195943/https://lahore.punjab.gov.pk/district_profile |archive-date=27 November 2023 |website=District Lahore - [[Government of Punjab, Pakistan|Government of Punjab]]}}</ref>

Many others Rajputs live in other places of the [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab province]] as well in [[Sindh]] (including [[Karachi]]) and [[Azad Kashmir]], in Azad Kashmir being slightly less 10% than the total population with 500,000.<ref name="hrw.org">{{cite web |title="With Friends Like These...": Human Rights Violations in Azad Kashmir: II. Background |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/pakistan0906/3.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308175448/https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/pakistan0906/3.htm |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |access-date=June 14, 2019 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref> Hindu Rajputs of [[Sodha]] clan are concentrated in [[Umerkot District|Umerkot]] and [[Tharparkar District|Tharparkar]] districts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sodha Rajputs & Their Losing Battle With Indo-Pak Tensions |website=Vibes of India |date=15 May 2022 |url=https://www.vibesofindia.com/sodha-rajputs-their-losing-battle-with-indo-pak-tensions/ |author=Beena Sarwar}}</ref>

In 2008, it was estimated that the Rajput population in Pakistan stood at 15 million, with around 9 million in Punjab, nearly 5 million in Sindh, followed by 643,000 in Azad Kashmir, 223,000 in [[Islamabad]], 174,000 in [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] and 37,000 in [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]].<ref name=":1" />

=== Nepal ===
Rajputs form 0.16% of [[Nepal]]'s population or around 50,000 individuals based on 2021 census <ref>{{Cite web |title=National Population and Housing Census 2021 National Report on Caste/ethnicity, Language & Religion |url=https://censusnepal.cbs.gov.np/results/files/result-folder/Caste%20Ethnicity_report_NPHC_2021.pdf}}</ref>

==Subdivisions==
{{Main|Rajput clans}}
The term "Rajput" denotes a cluster of castes,<ref>{{cite book |author=Lawrence A. Babb |title=The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India |url=https://archive.org/details/divinehierarchy00lawr |url-access=registration |year=1975 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-08387-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/divinehierarchy00lawr/page/15 15] |quote=The term Rajput denotes a cluster of castes that are accorded Kshatriya status in the varna system.}}</ref> clans, and lineages.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lawrence A Babb |title=Alchemies of Violence: Myths of Identity and the Life of Trade in Western India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74tUY0le33UC&pg=PA17 |year=2004 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-0-7619-3223-9 |page=17 |quote=...the region's erstwhile ruling aristocracy, a cluster of clans and lineages bearing the label 'Rajput'.}}</ref> It is a vaguely-defined term, and there is no universal consensus on which clans make up the Rajput community.{{sfn|Ayan Shome|2014|p=196}} In medieval Rajasthan (the historical [[Rajputana]]) and its neighbouring areas, the word Rajput came to be restricted to certain specific clans, based on patrilineal descent and intermarriages. On the other hand, the Rajput communities living in the region to the east of Rajasthan had a fluid and inclusive nature. The Rajputs of Rajasthan eventually refused to acknowledge the Rajput identity claimed by their eastern counterparts,{{sfn|Catherine B. Asher|Cynthia Talbot|2006|p=99 (Para 3)|ps=: "...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."}} such as the [[Bundela]]s.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=120 (Para 4)|ps=: "Kolff's provocative thesis certainly applies to more peripheral groups like the Bundelas of Central India, whose claims to be Rajput were ignored by the Rajput clans of Mughal-era Rajasthan, and to other such lower-status martial communities."}} The Rajputs claim to be [[Kshatriya]]s or descendants of Kshatriyas, but their actual status varies greatly, ranging from princely lineages to common cultivators.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rajput |title=Rajput |website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=11 December 2023 }}</ref>

There are several major subdivisions of Rajputs, known as ''vansh'' or ''vamsha'', the step below the super-division [[jāti]]{{sfn|Shail Mayaram|2013|p=269}} These ''vansh'' delineate claimed descent from various sources, and the Rajput are generally considered to be divided into three primary vansh:<ref name="Lunheim1993">{{cite book |author=Rolf Lunheim |title=Desert people: caste and community—a Rajasthani village |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuRtAAAAMAAJ |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=1993 |publisher=University of Trondheim & Norsk Hydro AS|isbn=9788290896121 }}</ref> [[Suryavansha|Suryavanshi]] denotes descent from the solar deity [[Surya]], [[Chandravanshi]] ([[Somavanshi]]) from the lunar deity [[Chandra]], and [[Agnivanshi]] from the fire deity [[Agni]]. The Agnivanshi clans include [[Parmar (Rajput clan)|Parmar]], Chaulukya ([[Solanki (clan)|Solanki]]), [[Parihar (clan)|Parihar]] and Chauhan.<ref name="Unnithan-Kumar1997">{{cite book |author=Maya Unnithan-Kumar |title=Identity, Gender, and Poverty: New Perspectives on Caste and Tribe in Rajasthan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9ktWLud0oIC&pg=PA135 |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=1997 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-57181-918-5 |page=135}}</ref>

Lesser-noted ''vansh'' include Udayvanshi, Rajvanshi,.<ref name="Jha1997">{{cite book |author=Makhan Jha |title=Anthropology of Ancient Hindu Kingdoms: A Study in Civilizational Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0i94Z5C8HMC&pg=PA33 |access-date=24 August 2013 |date=1 January 1997 |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. |isbn=978-81-7533-034-4 |pages=33–}}</ref> The histories of the various ''vansh''s were later recorded in documents known as ''vamshāavalīis''; André Wink counts these among the "status-legitimizing texts".<ref name="Wink2002">{{cite book |author=André Wink |title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA282 |access-date=24 August 2013 |year=2002 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-0-391-04173-8 |pages=282–}}</ref>

Beneath the ''vansh'' division are smaller and smaller subdivisions: ''kul'', ''shakh'' ("branch"), ''khamp'' or ''khanp'' ("twig"), and ''nak'' ("twig tip").{{sfn|Shail Mayaram|2013|p=269}} Marriages within a ''kul'' are generally disallowed (with some flexibility for kul-mates of different ''gotra'' lineages). The ''kul'' serves as the primary identity for many of the Rajput clans, and each ''kul'' is protected by a family goddess, the ''[[kuldevi]]''. Lindsey Harlan notes that in some cases, ''shakh''s have become powerful enough to be functionally ''kul''s in their own right.{{sfn|Lindsey Harlan|1992|p=31}}

==Culture and ethos==

The [[Bengal army]] of the [[East India Company]] recruited heavily from upper castes such as Brahmins and Rajputs of north-central India particularly from the region of Awadh and Bihar. However, after the revolt of 1857 by the Bengal sepoys, the British Indian army shifted recruitment to the Punjab.<ref name="Streets2004">{{cite book |author=Heather Streets |title=Martial Races: The Military, Race and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1857–1914 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BscnZT_1po8C |year=2004 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6962-8 |page=26}}</ref>

===Martial race===
The Rajputs were designated as a [[Martial Race]] in the period of the British Raj. This was a designation created by administrators that classified each ethnic group as either "martial" or "non-martial": a "martial race" was typically considered brave and well built for fighting,<ref name=rand>{{Cite journal |last=Rand |first=Gavin |title=Martial Races and Imperial Subjects: Violence and Governance in Colonial India 1857–1914 |journal=European Review of History |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |date=March 2006 |url= |doi=10.1080/13507480600586726|s2cid=144987021 }}</ref> whilst the remainder were those whom the British believed to be unfit for battle because of their sedentary lifestyles.<ref name="Street">{{cite book |title=Martial Races: The military, race and masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1857–1914 |last=Streets |first=Heather |year=2004 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location= |isbn=978-0-7190-6962-8 |page=241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BscnZT_1po8C |access-date=20 October 2010}}</ref> However, the martial races were also considered politically subservient, intellectually inferior, lacking the initiative or leadership qualities to command large military formations. The British had a policy of recruiting the martial Indians from those who has less access to education as they were easier to control.<ref name="Khalidi2003">{{cite book|author=Omar Khalidi|title=Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India: Army, Police, and Paramilitary Forces During Communal Riots|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-NtAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Three Essays Collective|quote= Apart from their physique, the martial races were regarded as politically subservient or docile to authority|page=5|isbn=9788188789092}}</ref><ref name="Levine2003">{{cite book|author=Philippa Levine|title=Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=It1lPzFCG9EC|year=2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-94447-2|pages=284–285|quote=The Saturday review had made much the same argument a few years earlier in relation to the armies raised by Indian rulers in princely states. They lacked competent leadership and were uneven in quality. Commander in chief Roberts, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the martial race theory, though poorly of the native troops as a body. Many regarded such troops as childish and simple. The British, claims, David Omissi, believe martial Indians to be stupid. Certainly, the policy of recruiting among those without access to much education gave the British more semblance of control over their recruits.}}</ref> According to modern historian Jeffrey Greenhunt on military history, "The Martial Race theory had an elegant symmetry. Indians who were intelligent and educated were defined as cowards, while those defined as brave were uneducated and backward". According to Amiya Samanta, the martial race was chosen from people of mercenary spirit (a soldier who fights for any group or country that will pay him/her), as these groups lacked nationalism as a trait.<ref name="Samanta2000">{{cite book|author=Amiya K. Samanta|title=Gorkhaland Movement: A Study in Ethnic Separatism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4GqdfG0EU8C&pg=PA26|year=2000|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=978-81-7648-166-3|pages=26–|quote=Dr . Jeffrey Greenhunt has observed that “ The Martial Race Theory had an elegant symmetry. Indians who were intelligent and educated were defined as cowards, while those defined as brave were uneducated and backward. Besides their mercenary spirit was primarily due to their lack of nationalism.}}</ref>

===Deities===
[[File:Shri Karni Mata Deshnoke-2.png|thumb|[[Karni Mata]], Hindu Goddess primarily worshipped by Rajputs]]
One of the most revered deities of Rajputs is [[Karni Mata]], whom many Rajput clans worship as family goddess and link their community's existence or survival in dire times.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schaflechner |first=Jürgen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khBADwAAQBAJ&dq=%22karni%22+%22rajputs%22&pg=PA66 |title=Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-085052-4 |language=en |quote=Among the crowds are many Rajputs who link their community's existence, or survival, to the help of Karni Mata.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kothiyal |first=Tanuja |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&dq=%22karni%22+%22rajputs%22&pg=PA224 |title=Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert |date=2016-03-14 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-08031-7 |language=en |quote=Several Charani goddesses like Avad, Karni, Nagnechi, Sangviyaan, Barbadi, among others are revered by Rajputs as patron deities.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=General |first=India Office of the Registrar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeoeAQAAMAAJ&q=%22karni%22+%22rajputs%22 |title=Census of India, 1961 |date=1966 |publisher=Manager of Publications |language=en |quote=The principal followers of the deity are Charans, who are also the priests and belong to the community to which Karni Mata belonged, and Rajputs who worship her as their family deity .}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Prabhākara |first=Manohara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KXcSAAAAMAAJ&q=%22karni%22+%22rajputs%22 |title=A Critical Study of Rajasthani Literature, with Exclusive Reference to the Contribution of Cāraṇas |date=1976 |publisher=Panchsheel Prakashan |language=en |quote=Karni : Presiding Deity of Rajputs and Cāraņas}}</ref> [[Shiva|Lord Shiva]] (who is very popular all across India)  and [[Durga|Goddess Durga]] are popular deities worshipped by the Hindu Rajputs. Lord Shiva's image is found in the shrines in the homes of many of the Rajput families. In Sikh Rajputs, [[Baba Ram Rai|Guru Ram Rai]] is quite popular. The fierce form of Goddess Durga, called ''Sherawali Mata'' or "she who rides a lion" is popular among Rajput women.<ref>{{cite book|title=Perceptions of Climate Change from North India: An Ethnographic Account|author= Aase J. Kvanneid|publisher=Routledge|year=2021|page=79-}}</ref>

The folk deities of the Rajput are [[Pabuji]], Mallinath, [[Gogaji]] and Ramdeo.{{sfn|Tanuja Kothiyal|2016|p=266|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA266]|ps=Unlike the popular perception, even Rajputs remained engaged with nomadic pastorialism, animal husbandry and cattle trade till much later than it is assumed. Munhata Nainsini in his seventeenth century chronicles, Munhata Nainsi ri Khyat and Marwar ra Paraganan ri Vigat refers to a number of disputes between Rajputs that involved cattle raids. Also, a close reading of the lore regarding Rajput folk deities like Pabuji, Mallinath, Gogaji and Ramdeo, who are viewed as protectors of cattle herding communities actually indicates the intense struggle for control over cattle and pasturelands that Rajputs were engaged in. Rajputs extended patronage to Brahmins and Bardic communities like Bhats and Charans who composed detailed genealogies linking Rajput clans to older kshatriya lineages as well as celestial sources, which not only legitimised their claims to aristocracy but also distanced them from their tribal pastoral origins.}}

===Rajput lifestyle===
[[File:Rajput (Jodhpur) (8411728143).jpg|thumb|An old Rajput man poses with a [[hookah]] in the Maharaja palace of [[Jodhpur]].]]
The Rajputs of Bihar were inventors of the martial art form ''Pari Khanda'', which includes heavy use of swords and shields. This exercise was later included in the folk dances of Bihar and [[Jharkhand]] like that of [[Chhau dance]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.india.com/travel/articles/7-interesting-martial-art-forms-in-india-3617897/ |title=7 Interesting Martial Art Forms in India |first=Charu |last=Chowdhary |website=India.com |access-date=26 August 2020}}</ref> On special occasions, a primary chief would break up a meeting of his vassal chiefs with ''khanda nariyal'', the distribution of daggers and coconuts. Another affirmation of the Rajput's reverence for his sword was the ''Karga Shapna'' ("adoration of the sword") ritual, performed during the annual [[Navaratri]] festival, after which a Rajput is considered "free to indulge his passion for rapine and revenge".<ref>{{cite book |first=Sakuntala |last=Narasimhan |url=https://archive.org/details/satiwidowburning00saku |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/satiwidowburning00saku/page/122 122] |title=Sati: Widow Burning in India |publisher=Doubleday |year=1992 |edition=Reprinted |isbn=978-0-385-42317-5}}</ref>
The Rajput of Rajasthan also offer a sacrifice of water buffalo or goat to their family goddess ([[Kuldevta]]) during [[Navaratri]].<ref name="Goat sacrifice to Shilamata">{{cite book |last1=Hiltebeitel |first1=Alf |author-link1=Alf Hiltebeitel |last2=Erndl |first2=Kathleen M. |date=2000 |title=Is the Goddess a Feminist?: The Politics of South Asian Goddesses |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQJzTr4c-g4C&pg=PA77 |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press |location=Sheffield, England |page=77 |isbn=978-0-8147-3619-7}}</ref> The ritual requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage for young Rajput men.{{sfn|Lindsey Harlan|1992|p=88}}

The general [[greeting]] used by the Rajputs in social gatherings and occasions, '<nowiki/>''Jai Mataji''<nowiki/>' or its regional variants, stands for '''Victory to the Mother Goddess''<nowiki/>'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cūṇḍāvata |first=Lakshmī Kumārī |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlluAAAAMAAJ |title=From Purdah to the People: Memoirs of Padma Shri Rani Laxmi Kumari Chundawat |date=2000 |publisher=Rawat Publications |isbn=978-81-7033-606-8 |pages=42 |quote=People said 'Jai Karni Mata ki', 'Jai Mataji ki', 'Jai Charbhuja ki', 'Jai Gordhan Nath ki', and so on. Different deities were invoked in different places and by different castes. For example, a Jat would never say 'Jai Mata Ki', only a Rajput or a Charan would say that.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=R. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1B_AAAAMAAJ |title=If Rain Doesn't Come: An Anthropological Study of Drought and Human Ecology in Western Rajasthan |publisher=Manohar |year=1997 |isbn=978-81-7304-184-6 |pages=61 |quote=In fact the greeting used by Bhati Rajputs is 'Jai - sri' or 'Jai - sri - Kishan' ( victory to Lord Krishna ) as opposed to the general Rajput greeting 'Jai - mata - jiri' (victory of the Mother Goddess).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Simoons |first=Frederick J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGZTQunH00C |title=Eat Not this Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present |date=1994 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-14254-4 |pages=330 |quote=Despite the widespread unacceptability of alcoholic beverages as offerings to high gods in India (Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, 1977a : 365-66), when Rajputs 'open a bottle of whiskey, they often tip a little on the ground in an offering to the mother goddess before they drink. They say "Jai Mata-ji" as they do this-"Long live the Mother (Goddess)"'.}}</ref> This phrase also operated as a military solgan or [[Battle cry|war cry]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Somerville |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqe-DwAAQBAJ |title=Our War: Real stories of Commonwealth soldiers during World War II |date=2020-04-16 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-4746-1775-8 |quote=The Muslims shout their battle-cry; the Rajputs cry, 'Jai Mata! Victory to the Mother!' and the Jats shout the war cry of Hanuman the monkey-god. The Japanese, too - they were shouting 'Banzai!' and wielding their samurai swords ... a medieval sight.}}</ref> often painted on the shields and banners of the [[jagir]]dars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sandhu |first=Gurcharn Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xi3cAAAAMAAJ |title=A Military History of Medieval India |date=2003 |publisher=Vision Books |isbn=978-81-7094-525-3 |pages=428 |quote=Banners and Devices - Rajputs had slogans like 'Jai Mataji', 'Rann banka Rathor' and so on painted on their shields. Jagirdars carried their own flags; this served the same purpose as in ancient and ease of deployment for battle. The ruler's banners and flags were carried on elephants, camels and on horseback. India-identification}}</ref>

====Hospitability====
[[Harald Tambs-Lyche]] states that like other martial races of South Asia, Rajputs have a reputation for being hospitable i.e. they welcome and are friendly to guests.<ref name="Tambs-Lyche1997">{{cite book|author=Harald Tambs-Lyche|title=Power, Profit, and Poetry: Traditional Society in Kathiawar, Western India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ntuAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|page=101|publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors|isbn=978-81-7304-176-1|quote= Such hospitality is central to Rajputs, as it is to other martial castes of South Asia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hospitable|title=Hospitable |publisher=Cambridge University Press|work=Cambridge Dictionary}}</ref>

====Miscellaneous====

By the late 19th century, there was a shift of focus among Rajputs from politics to a concern with kinship.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kasturi |first=Malavika |title=Embattled Identities Rajput Lineages |page=2 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-565787-6}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Lindsey Harlan|1992|p=27}}

===Sati===
There have been several cases of ''[[Sati (practice)|Sati]]'' (burning a widow alive) in Rajasthan from 1943 to 1987. According to an Indian scholar, there are 28 cases since 1947. Although the widows were from several different communities, Rajput widows accounted for 19 cases in Rajasthan. The most famous of these cases is of a Rajput woman named [[Roop Kanwar]]. 40,000 Rajputs gathered on the street of Jaipur in October 1987 for supporting her Sati. A pamphlet circulated on that day attacked independent and westernised women who opposed a woman's duty of worshipping her husband as demonstrated by the practice of Sati. This incident again affirmed the low status of women in the Rajput community and the leaders of this pro-sati movement gained in political terms.<ref name="ColucciLester2012">{{cite book|author1=Erminia Colucci|author2=David Lester|author2-link=David Lester (psychologist)|title=Suicide and Culture: Understanding the Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z09fAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|year=2012|publisher=Hogrefe Publishing|isbn=978-1-61676-436-4|pages=219–}}</ref><ref name="Mathur2004">{{cite book|author=Kanchan Mathur|title=Countering Gender Violence: Initiatives Towards Collective Action in Rajasthan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOE7aptFmdIC&pg=PT44|date=16 November 2004|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-3244-4|pages=44–}}</ref>

===Female infanticide===
[[Female infanticide in India|Female infanticide]] was practised by Rajputs of low ritual status seeking upward mobility as well as Rajputs of high ritual status. However, there were instances where it was not practised and instances where the mother tried to save the infant girl's life. According to the officials in the early Raj era, in [[Etawah]] ([[Uttar Pradesh]]), the [[Gahlot]], Bamungors and [[Bais (clan)|Bais]] would kill their daughters if they were rich but profit from getting them married if they were poor.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann">{{cite book|author1=Harald Fischer-Tiné|author2=Michael Mann|title=Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CWzuCykUKV4C&pg=PA124|year=2004|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-092-1|pages=124–140}}</ref>

The methods used of killing the female baby were [[drowning]], [[strangulation]], poisoning, "[[asphyxiation|Asphyxia]] by drawing the [[umbilical cord]] over the baby's face to prevent respiration". Other ways were to leave the infant to die without food and if she survived the first few hours after birth, she was given poison.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/> A common way to poison the infant during [[breastfeeding]] was by applying a preparation of poisonous plants like [[Datura]], [[Calotropis gigantea#Poisoning|madar]], or [[Papaver somniferum|poppy]] to the mother's breast.<ref name="Kaur1968">{{cite book|author=Manmohan Kaur|title=Role of Women in the Freedom Movement, 1857-1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wk4qAAAAYAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Sterling Publishers|page=9|quote=( iii ) Amongst the Rajputs it was a common practice that a mother's breast was smeared with the preparation of 'dhatura ' or Mudar plant or the poppy. The infant drank the milk along with the poison.}}</ref>

Social activists in the early nineteenth century tried to stop these practices by quoting [[Dharmaśāstra|Hindu Shastras]]:
{{blockquote|"to kill one woman is equal to one hundred brahmins, to kill one child is equal to one hundred women, while to kill one hundred children is an offence too heinous for comparison".<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>}}

Infanticide has unintended consequences. The Rajput clans of lower ritual status married their daughters to Rajput men of higher ritual status who had lost females due to infanticide. Thus, the Rajputs of lower ritual status had to remain unmarried or resorted to other practices like marrying widows, levirate marriages (marrying brother's widow) as well as marrying low-caste women such as [[Jats]] and [[Gujars]] or nomads. This resulted in widening the gap between Rajputs of low ritual status and Rajputs of high ritual status.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>

In the late 19th century, to curb the practice, the act VIII of 1870 was introduced. A magistrate suggested:
{{blockquote|"Let every Rajput be thoroughly convinced that he will go to jail for ten years for every infant girl he murders, with as much certainty as he would feel about being hanged if he were to kill her when grown up, and the crime will be stamped out very effectually; but so long as the Government show any hesitation in dealing rigorously with criminals, so long will the Rajpoot think he has chance of impunity and will go on killing girls like before."<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>}}

However, the practical application of the law faced hurdles. It was difficult to prove culpability as in some cases the Rajput men were employed at a distance although the infants could be killed at their connivance. In most cases, Rajput men were imprisoned only for a short time. Between 1888 and 1889, the proportion of girl children rose to 40%. However, the act was abolished in 1912 as punishments were unable to stop infanticide. A historian concludes that "the act, which only scraped the surface of the problem had been unable to civilize or bring about a social change in a cultural world devaluing girl children". In addition to Rajputs, it was observed that Jats and Ahirs also practised infanticide.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>

===Brideprice or Bridewealth weddings===
"Bridewealth" is discussed in north Indian Rajputs of 19th century India by the historian Malavika Kasturi. She states that Rajputs belonging to social groups where their women worked in the fields received Bridewealth from the groom's family. She adds that evidence shows that the assumption made by officials of the time that female infanticide among clans was a result of poverty and inability to pay dowry is incorrect.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>

Rajput women could be incorporated into [[Mughal Harem]] and this defined the [[Mughals]] as overlords over the Rajput clans. The Sisodia clan of Mewar was an exception as they refused to send their women to the Mughal Harem which resulted in siege and mass suicide at Chittor.{{sfn|Richard Eaton|2019|p=139|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aIF6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PP139]|ps=:Only the Sisodia clan of Mewar in southern Rajasthan proudly claiming pre-eminence among the Rajput clans, refused to send its women to the Mughal Harem, resulting in the siege and mass suicide at Chittor.}}

Historically, members from the Rajput ruling clans of Rajasthan have also practised polygamy and also took many women they enslaved as concubines from the battles which they won. During numerous armed conflicts in India, women were taken captives, enslaved and even sold, for example, the capture and selling of Marwar's women by Jaipur's forces in the battle between [[Jaipur state]] and [[Jodhpur State|Jodhpur state]] in 1807. The enslaved women were referred to by different terms according to the conditions imposed on them, for example, a "domestic slave" was called ''davri''; a dancer was called a ''patar''; a "senior female slave–retainer in the women's quarters" was called ''badaran or vadaran''; a concubine was called ''khavasin''; and a woman who was "permitted to wear the veil" like Rajput queens was called a ''pardayat''.<ref name="IUP"/>

The term ''chakar'' was used for a person serving their "superior" and ''chakras'' contained complete families from specific "occupational groups" like [[Brahmin]] women, cooks, nurses, tailors, washer–women. For children born from the "illegitimate union" of Rajputs and their "inferiors", the terms like ''goli'' and ''darogi'' were used for females and ''gola'' and ''daroga'' were used for males. The "courtly chronicles" say that women who were perceived to be of "higher social rank" were assigned to the "harems of their conquerors with or without marriage". The chronicles from the Rajput courts have recorded that women from Rajput community had also faced such treatment by the Rajputs from the winning side of a battle. There are also a number of records between the late 16th to mid–19th century of the Rajputs immolating the queens, servants, and slaves of a king upon his death. [[Ramya Sreenivasan]] also gives and example of a [[Jain]] concubine who went from being a servant to a superior concubine called ''Paswan''<ref name="IUP"/>

According to Priyanka Khanna, with [[Marwar]]'s royal Rajput households, the women who underwent concubinage also included women from the [[Gurjar|Gujar]], [[Ahir]], [[Jat]], [[Mali caste|Mali]], [[Kayastha]], and [[Darzi|Darji]] communities of that region. These castes of Marwar claimed Rajput descent based on the "census data of Marwar, 1861".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khanna|first=Priyanka|title=Embodying Royal Concubinage: Some Aspects of Concubinage in Royal Rajput Household of Marwar, (Western Rajasthan) C. 16|date=2011|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146726|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=72|pages=337–345|jstor=44146726|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> However research by modern scholars on the forms of "slavery and servitude" imposed by ruling clans of Rajasthan's Rajputs between the 16th and early–19th centuries on the captured women faces hurdles because of the "sparse information", "uneven record–keeping", and "biased nature of historical records".<ref name="IUP">{{cite book |title=Slavery and South Asian History |year=2006 |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |place=Bloomington, Indiana |editor1-first=Indrani |editor1-last=Chatterjee |editor2-first=Richard M. |editor2-last=Eaton |chapter=Drudges, Dancing Girls, Concubines: Female Slaves in Rajput Polity, 1500–1850 |pages=136–161 |first=Ramya |last=Sreenivasan |author-link=Ramya Sreenivasan |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nsh8NHDQHlcC&pg=PA136 |isbn=978-0253116710 |oclc=191950586}}</ref> 
[[Ravana Rajput]] community of today was one such slave community.<ref name="DDGaur">{{cite book |author=D. D. Gaur |title=Constitutional Development of Eastern Rajputana States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVAFAAAAMAAJ |year=1978 |publisher=Usha |oclc=641457000 |page=49 |quote=These slave communities were known by various names, such as Darogas, Chakars, Hazuris, Ravana- Rajputs, Chelas, Golas and Khawas. }}</ref>{{sfn|Lindsey Harlan|1992|p=145,167}}

The male children of such unions were identified by their father's names and in some cases as 'dhaibhai'(foster-brothers) and incorporated into the household. Examples are given where they helped their step-brothers in war campaigns.<ref name="IUP"/> The female children of concubines and slaves married Rajput men in exchange for money or they ended up becoming dancing girls. The scarcity of available brides due to female infanticide led to the kidnapping of low caste women who were sold for marriage to the higher clan Rajputs. Since these "sales" were genuinely for the purpose of marriage, they were considered legal. The lower clans also faced scarcity of brides in which case they married women such as those from Gujar and Jat communities. [[Nomads of India|Semi nomadic communities]] also married their daughters to Rajput bridegrooms for money in some cases.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann2004">{{cite book|editor1=Harald Fischer-Tiné|editor2=Michael Mann|author=Malavika Kasturi|title=Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMh8CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128|date=March 2004|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-363-2|pages=128–|quote=If not, these children became dancing girls or were sold off to other Rajputs as wives.[...]Female infanticide had unintended consequences. [...]The scarcity of girls in many clans of higher status led to the kidnapping of women of lower castes, who were sold to high ranking clans for matrimonial purposes.[...]In some cases women from semi-nomadic communities were married to Rajput bridegrooms of this level in exchange for bride wealth}}</ref>

Of note, the mistreatment or enslavement of women was not unique to Rajputs. Datta notes Bachanan's observation in 18th century northern-India that, other than the Rajputs,  Khatris and Kayasthas also "openly kept women slaves of any pure tribe". The offsprings of these women formed one matrimonial group. Similarly, affluent Muslim families in Bihar kept both male and female slaves – called ''Nufurs'' and ''Laundis'' respectively.<ref>{{cite book|title=Survey of India's Social Life and Economic Condition in the Eighteenth Century, 1707-1813|year=1978|author=Kalikinkar Datta|publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal|page=68|quote=Buchanan writes that in northern India, the Rajputs, Khatris and Kayasthas openly kept  women slaves of any pure tribe,  and the children through such women were classed in one matrimonial group . Rich Muslim families in Bihar maintained large number of male slaves called Nufurs and female slaves called Laundis . A distinct class of slaves known as Molazadahs were also maintained by them.}}</ref>

These Rajput groups (khasa) of [[Uttarakhand]] today were formally classified Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput status during the rule of Chand Rajas (that ended in 1790).<ref>{{cite book|title=Social Stratification in Rural Kumaon|author=R.D. Sanwal|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195605314|year=1976|pages=43–44}}</ref> Similarly, the Rajputs of [[Garhwal division|Gharwal]] were originally of low ritual status and did not wear the sacred thread until the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|author=Berreman Gerald D|year=1963 |title=Hindus of the Himalayas |publisher=University of California Press(Berkeley)|page=130}}</ref>

===Arts===
{{Main|Rajput painting}}
[[File:Nihâl Chand 001 cropped.jpg|thumb|220px|An 18th-century Rajput painting by the artist [[Nihâl Chand]]]]
The term [[Rajput painting]] refers to works of art created at the Rajput-ruled courts of Rajasthan, [[Central India Agency|Central India]], and the [[Punjab States Agency#Historical princely states of the Punjab Hills|Punjab Hills]]. The term is also used to describe the style of these paintings, distinct from the [[Mughal painting]] style.{{sfn|Karine Schomer|1994|p=338}}

According to [[Ananda Coomaraswamy]], Rajput painting symbolised the divide between Muslims and Hindus during Mughal rule. The styles of Mughal and Rajput painting are oppositional in character. He characterised Rajput painting as "popular, universal and mystic".<ref>{{cite book |author=Saleema Waraich |chapter=Competing and complementary visions of the court of the Great Mogor |title=Seeing Across Cultures in the Early Modern World |editor1=Dana Leibsohn |editor2=Jeanette Favrot Peterson |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRVcjdiuAesC&pg=PA88 |date=2012 |publisher=Ashgate |page=88 |isbn=9781409411895}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[Hindi cinema]] (Bollywood) has produced several films based on Rajput history and legendary Rajput heroes, highlighting their valor, honor, and cultural legacy.
*[[Rajput (film)]]
*[[Meera (1979 film)]]
*[[Padmaavat]]
*[[Samrat Prithviraj]]

==Notable people==
{{Main|List of Rajputs}}

==See also==
{{columns-list|
* [[Rajputana]]
* [[List of Rajput dynasties and states]]
* [[Rajputana Rifles]]
* [[Rajput Regiment]]
* [[Rajput clans]]
* [[List of Rajputs]]
* [[Muslim Rajputs]]
* [[Rajput architecture]]
|colwidth=30em}}

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===

{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|author=Alf Hiltebeitel|author-link=Alf Hiltebeitel|title=Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMFdosx0PokC&pg=PR1|year=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-34055-5}}
* {{cite book|author=André Wink|author-link=Andre Wink|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCVyhH5VDjAC&pg=PA279|title=Al- Hind: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest|volume=1|publisher=BRILL|year=1990|page=269|isbn=9789004095090}}
* {{cite book |author=Asoke Kumar Majumdar |title=Chaulukyas of Gujarat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffAdAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |year=1956 |oclc=4413150 }}
* {{cite book|author=Ayan Shome|title=Dialogue & Daggers: Notion of Authority and Legitimacy in the Early Delhi Sultanate (1192 C.E. – 1316 C.E.)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Q2qCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA196|year=2014|publisher=Vij Books|isbn=978-93-84318-46-8}}
* {{cite book|author=Barbara N. Ramusack|author-link=Barbara Ramusack|title=The Indian Princes and their States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz1-mtazYqEC&pg=PA13|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=9781139449083}}
* {{cite book|author=Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya|title=The Making of Early Medieval India|chapter=Origin of the Rajputs: The Political, Economic and Social Processes in Early Medieval Rajasthan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AmVuAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1994|isbn=9780195634150}}
* {{cite book|author=Bhrigupati Singh|title=Poverty and the Quest for Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FhnRBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|year=2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-19468-4}}
* {{cite book|author1=Catherine B. Asher|author2=Cynthia Talbot|title=India Before Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvaGuaJIJgoC&pg=PA99|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-80904-7}}
* {{cite book|author=Cynthia Talbot|title=The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3DjCgAAQBAJ|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|isbn=9781107118560}}
* {{cite book|author=David Ludden|title=An Agrarian History of South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHi62S7vZlsC&pg=PA4|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-36424-9|page=4}}
* {{cite book|author=Dirk H. A. Kolff|author-link=Dirk H. A. Kolff|title=Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrdiVPsFRYIC|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52305-9}}
* {{cite book|author=Irfan Habib|author-link=Irfan Habib|title=Essays in Indian History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUcu6uD5bU4C&pg=PA90|year=2002|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-061-7|page=90}}
* {{cite book|author=Karine Schomer|title=Idea of Rajasthan: Constructions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eFJuAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=South Asia Publications|isbn=978-0-945921-25-7}}
* {{cite book|author=Lindsey Harlan|date=1992|title=Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HLrPYOe38gC&pg=PA88|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, California|isbn=978-0-520-07339-5}}
* {{cite book|author=Pradeep Barua|title=The State at War in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIIQhuAOGaIC&pg=PA33|year=2005|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-1344-9}}
* {{cite book|author=Peter Jackson|author-link=Peter Jackson (historian)|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC&pg=PA221|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54329-3}}
* {{cite book|author=Richard Gabriel Fox|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHEcBTmxlOEC&pg=PA16|title=Kin, Clan, Raja, and Rule: Statehinterland Relations in Preindustrial India|publisher=University of California Press|year=1971|isbn=9780520018075}}
* {{Cite book|author=Rima Hooja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqd1RAAACAAJ |title=A History of Rajasthan|date=2006 |publisher=Rupa & Company|isbn=978-81-291-1501-0|language=en}}
* {{cite book|author=Satish Chandra|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)|title=Medieval India: Society, the Jagirdari Crisis, and the Village|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRM1AAAAIAAJ|year=1982|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780333903964}}
* {{cite book|author=Shail Mayaram|title=Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TyUtKfcjzG4C&pg=PA269|year=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-52951-8}}
* {{cite book|author=Tanuja Kothiyal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8|title=Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2016|isbn=9781107080317}}
* {{cite book|author=Stewart Gordon|author-link=Stewart N. Gordon|title=The Marathas 1600-1818|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA16|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-03316-9}}
* {{cite journal|title=History in Africa|volume=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPIEAQAAIAAJ|year=1976|publisher=African Studies Association|editor=David Henige|editor-link=David Henige|author=Norman Ziegler|journal=History in Africa}}
* {{cite book|author=Eugenia Vanina|author-link=Eugenia Vanina|title=Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yriGbWNAF5EC|year=2012|publisher=Primus Books|isbn=978-93-80607-19-1}}
* {{cite book|author1=Reena Dube|author2=Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar|title=Female Infanticide in India: A Feminist Cultural History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FK6_l2_TCfgC|year=2012|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8385-5}}
* {{cite book|author=Lloyd Rudolph|title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7guY1ut-0lwC&pg=PA127|year=1967|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-73137-7}}
* {{cite book|author=Richard Eaton|author-link=Richard M. Eaton|title=India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aIF6DwAAQBAJ|year=2019|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-196655-7}}
* {{cite book | author = Lindsey Harlan | year= 2018 | title = Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives | publisher = Univ of California Press | isbn = 978-0-520-30175-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=97jADwAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite book|title=Traditions in motion:Religion and Society in History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8EoAAAAYAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|editor1=Supriya Varma|editor2=Satish Saberwal|author=Ananya Vajpeyi| isbn=978-0-19-566915-2 }}
*{{citation | last = Vajracharya | first = Dhanavajra | title = Notes on the Changunarayan Inscription | journal = Regmi Research Series | volume = 7 | issue = 12 | pages = 232–240 | date = December 1, 1975 | url = http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/regmi/pdf/Regmi_07.pdf }}
*{{cite book|last=Hastings | first=James |title=Poets, Sants, and Warriors: The Dadu Panth, Religious Change and Identity Formation in Jaipur State Circa 1562–1860 CE |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=nReHAAAAMAAJ|publisher=University of Wisconsin--Madison|year=2002}}
{{refend}}

{{Rajput Groups of India}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Rajputs| ]]
[[Category:Indian castes]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in India]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Sindh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Bihar]]
[[Category:Social groups of Haryana]]
[[Category:Social groups of Punjab, Pakistan]]
[[Category:Social groups of Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Social groups of Himachal Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Jammu and Kashmir]]
[[Category:Social groups of Jharkhand]]
[[Category:Social groups of Punjab, India]]
[[Category:Social groups of Uttarakhand]]
[[Category:Social groups of Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Gujarat]]
[[Category:Hindu communities]]