Rajput clans: Difference between revisions

There are three basic lineages (''vanshas'' or ''vamshas''). Each of these lineages is divided into several clans (kula) (total of 36 clans).<ref name="Asopa1990">{{cite book|author=Jai Narayan Asopa|title=A socio-political and economic study, northern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBwhAAAAMAAJ|access-date=26 May 2011|year=1990|publisher=Prateeksha Publications|page=89}}</ref> Historians agree that Rajputs do not actually descend from these lineages, and genealogies were fabricated by Brahmins in a process called [[Rajputization]]. In this process, an aspiring Shudra or tribal king would employ Brahmins who would fabricate a genealogy that would state the chief was of descent from an ancient Kshatriya lineage, and thus a Rajput. The Rajput now would surround himself with the paraphernalia of Brahmanism in order to obtain a higher status.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=47, I |year=1986 |pages=536–542 |publisher=[[Indian History Congress]] |title=Emergence of Kingship, Rajputization and a New Economic Arrangement in Mundaland |first=Sivaji |last=Koyal |jstor=44141600}}</ref><ref>{{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>