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Aryan Tribes, and on the 'Rājput'

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Aryan Tribes, and on the 'Rājput' 295 ART. X.—Notes on the Origin of the 'Lunar' and 'Solar7 Aryan Tribes, and on the ' Rajput' Clans. By B. If. BADEN-POWELL, C.I.E., M.E.A.S. BY way of explanation, I may be permitted to say that having been for some time engaged on an inquiry into the history of the various kinds of Indian landlord tenure,1 not as a matter of theory, but on the basis of local facts, it became necessary to consider the origin and distribution of the tribes or clans to which the landlord classes most commonly belong. A number of notes were thus accumulated ; and I thought it might be useful to put them together, much more in the hope of receiving correction, and of thus gaining information, than with the design of imparting it. It at once appears, as regards Northern India, that of the superior proprietor class when ' Hindu,' or at least originally Hindu, a large proportion belongs to the tribes known as 'Rajput.' Some of the higher families, however, now resent being so designated, and call themselves 'Kshatriya.'2 The latter name,- again, is usually understood to have reference to the military and ruling caste of ancient times, 1 Which I hope eventually to publish in continuation of my study of the Indian village communities and their tenures. 2 Or in the spoken form Chatri. This, in fact, is the equivalent of 'Kshatriya,' and not the word Khatri, which is also in use but indicates quite another caste. The latter has no real connection with the old military order, though sometimes attempts are made to assert such a connection. The objection to be called ' Rajput' is quite modern, the reason being that ' Rajput' now applies to a large group of caste-men who have become agricultural, and have even taken to cultivating with their own hands (saving only the touch of the plough—not that!). The higher families therefore desire some distinguishing name, and naturally assert that of the twice-born caste of old. Yet when the name Rajput was first used, it certainly was in a laudatory sense, meaning the royal or ruling race. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Queen Mary, University of London, on 08 Jan 2018 at 19:38:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00026502 296 DISTRIBUTION OF ARYAN TRIBES. and to have been comprised in two great groups known as ' Solar' and ' Lunar' respectively. It was almost inevitable to inquire whether anything could be ascertained about the (probable) real birthplace and connection of the so-called ' Rajput' races. So much is clear, that the names of the various clans and septs are not names which occur in any early literature ; and they can but rarely be connected, even by any tradition that will stand the slightest analysis, with the Kshatriya races of the Mahabharata and Puranas. The term 'Rajput' seems rather to have been invented expressly to meet the case of conquering or ruling clans and houses whose origin did not, in general, enable them to be linked with the established ' Solar' or ' Lunar' genealogies. I am informed that the term ' raja-putra' often occurs in Sanskrit literature in the sense of ' prince' or ' king's son,' but is not used as the designation of a caste or tribe before the eleventh century. The question, however, deserves further investigation. The term certainly is much connected with the idea of the " thirty-six royal houses," and the latter seems to have originated with the mediaeval bards. Some of the largest Rajput clans are professedly not connected with the Solar and Lunar races. When such a connection is asserted, it is rarely due to any other cause than to the natural desire of bards and genealogists to find an ' orthodox' origin for their princes whose clan had become famous in the land and whose dignity was acknowledged. In most cases, customs, history, and birthplace are all against such an origin. But here I refer to a connection with the earlier races of the most familiar centre—the Ganges Valley and the old states of Indraprastha, Kasi, and Magadha, or the 'Solar' kingdom of Ayodhya. For there is a more tangible connection, in some cases, with the Aryan stock, in the fact, that some Rajputs are derived from, or mixed up with, the great YADAVA tribe or group of tribes. Now since uniform tradition represents Yadu (the ancestor) as a brother of Puru, the progenitor of the ' Lunar' tribes Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Queen Mary, University of London, on 08 Jan 2018 at 19:38:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00026502 DISTRIBUTION OP ARYAN TRIBES. 297 (their common father being Yayati), it follows that the Yadavas are, in a sense, ' Lunar.' But it is noteworthy that with Yayati (or perhaps with his father, Nahusa) all know- ledge of ancestry ceases, and the earlier names in the table are of mythical persons—the moon, the earth, the planet Mercury (Budha), etc. I shall therefore take the liberty of confining the term 'Lunar' to the Ganges Valley group—• the reputed descendants of Puru, and better known as the Kuru-Pancala families. To make ' Lunar' apply to both, would be to render undistinguishable two totally distinct groups. For, assuming the entry of the Aryan confederate tribes at the north-west corner of India, all literature and tradition point to a wide and early separation between the Yadava tribes who took the Indus Valley line, and the other tribes who went eastward—crossing the Panjab and gradually occupying the whole of the Ganges plain as far as the sea. These two groups I shall distinguish as the 'Western' and 'Eastern' (or Ganges Valley) Aryans. Once separated, they always remained apart; distinct in dialect and racial character, and, for a long time, in religion. They were separated in the north by the intervening Panjab plains, and in the south by the line of the Narbada and the Vindhyan Hills. The two groups were only brought in contact in after times (1) by the curious formation and movement (vid the Chambal Valley) of the Surasena branch, of whom came Krishna,1 who entered into an alliance with the Pandava; and (2) by the vague contact of the Haihaya king Sahasra - arjuna with the (Brahman) Bhrgu tribe (Parasurama), and, some generations later, of the Talajangha branch of the same with a king of Ikshwaku descent. Owing to the peculiarity of the Sun-worshipping or Solar tribes, there is a thread of connection in that line, which, however, does not necessarily attach to the (Brahmanic) Solar group of Oudh. I take the opportunity of noting that I keep the ' Solar' history entirely distinct, putting what has to be said about it in a separate section. 1 I permit myself to use the familiar form, for simplicity of printing, instead of the more accurate Kpsna. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Queen Mary, University of London, on 08 Jan 2018 at 19:38:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00026502 298 DISTRIBUTION OF ARYAN TRIBES. Notwithstanding that the Rajputs are largely foreign and post-Aryan, it is impossible to deal with their history without considering the general facts about the ' Lunar ' and ' Solar ' genealogies. In doing this, literary and traditional statements have been taken as they stand, and for what they are worth ; their continuity, and even probability, are sometimes attested by coins and inscriptions. It is, of course, open to anyone to attribute them all to fancy, or to explain them allegorically. On the other hand, among a people so retentive of genealogical reminiscences—as far as human or natural progenitors are concerned—it seems to me unlikely that the lists of kings and their forefathers are wholly imaginary. It is quite possible that a genealogy may be genuine up to a certain point, and that where further knowledge failed recourse was had to mythical or supernatural ancestors; the whole is not thereby rendered suspicious.1 Moreover, different genealogies may contain variations, whether by change or addition ; but these very variations tend to show that there is a real basis. "Whether this is so or not, it is worth while seeing what it is that literary references, traditions, and ' gotracharya' really do assert or imply. It is not beyond the memory of living persons that the generally received opinion regarding the ' Hindu' races represented the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans as forming the chief, if not the only, important element in the population of all ranks throughout India.2 The Aryans, so it was believed, in the course of their general advance into India, met with some barbarous, snub-nosed, black tribes of little importance; these they put to flight, driving them to refuge, either in the outer Himalayan ranges in the north, or to the Vindhyan Hills of the centre, or to places still further south. Aryans then filled the land, as far as it was adapted for immediate occupation. They it was who 1 Moreover, where some mythic story is introduced, impossible to connect with real persons, it is very likely to be an allegorical way of representing some real occurrence, which could not be explained. 2 Excluding, that is, the originally Moslem tribes and those non-Aryans who are conventionally called ' aboriginal.' Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core.
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