_Rajput, Kshatriya, Chhatri, Thakur._--The Rajputs are the
representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior class, the second
of the four main castes or orders of classical Hinduism, and were
supposed to have been made originally from the arms of Brahma. The old
name of Kshatriya is still commonly used in the Hindi form Chhatri,
but the designation Rajput, or son of a king, has now superseded
it as the standard name of the caste. Thakur, or lord, is the common
Rajput title, and that by which they are generally addressed. The total
number of persons returned as Rajputs in the Province in 1911 was about
440,000. India has about nine million Rajputs in all, and they are most
numerous in the Punjab, the United Provinces, and Bihar and Orissa,
Rajputana returning under 700,000 and Central India about 800,000.
The bulk of the Rajputs in the Central Provinces are of very impure
blood. Several groups, such as the Panwars of the Wainganga Valley,
the Raghuvansis of Chhindwara and Nagpur, the Jadams of Hoshangabad and
the Daharias of Chhattisgarh, have developed into separate castes and
marry among themselves, though a true Rajput must not marry in his own
clan. Some of them have abandoned the sacred thread and now rank with
the good cultivating castes below Banias. Reference may be made to the
separate articles on these castes. Similarly the Surajvansi, Gaur or
Gorai, Chauhan, and Bagri clans marry among themselves in the Central
Provinces, and it is probable that detailed research would establish
the same of many clans or parts of clans bearing the name of Rajput in
all parts of India. If the definition of a proper Rajput were taken,
as it should be correctly, as one whose family intermarried with clans
of good standing, the caste would be reduced to comparatively small
dimensions. The name Dhakar, also shown as a Rajput clan, is applied
to a person of illegitimate birth, like Vidur. Over 100,000 persons,
or nearly a quarter of the total, did not return the name of any clan
in 1911, and these are all of mixed or illegitimate descent. They are
numerous in Nimar, and are there known as _chhoti-tur_ or low-class
Rajputs. The Bagri Rajputs of Seoni and the Surajvansis of Betal marry
among themselves, while the Bundelas of Saugor intermarry with two
other local groups, the Panwar and Dhundhele, all the three being of
impure blood. In Jubbulpore a small clan of persons known as Paik or
foot-soldier return themselves as Rajputs, but are no doubt a mixed
low-caste group. Again, some landholding sections of the primitive
tribes have assumed the names of Rajput clans. Thus the zamindars of
Bilaspur, who originally belonged to the Kawar tribe, call themselves
Tuar or Tomara Rajputs, and the landholding section of the Mundas
in Chota Nagpur say that they are of the Nagvansi clan. Other names
are returned which are not those of Rajput clans or their offshoots
at all. If these subdivisions, which cannot be considered as proper
Rajputs, and all those who have returned no clan be deducted, there
remain not more than 100,000 who might be admitted to be pure Rajputs
in Rajputana. But a close local scrutiny even of these would no doubt
result in the detection of many persons who have assumed and returned
the names of good clans without being entitled to them. And many
more would come away as being the descendants of remarried widows. A
Rajput of really pure family and descent is in fact a person of some
consideration in most parts of the Central Provinces.