_Rajput, Rathor, Rathaur._--The Rathor of Jodhpur or Marwar is one
of the most famous clans of Rajputs, and that which is most widely
dominant at the present time, including as it does the Rajas of
Jodhpur, Bikaner, Ratlam, Kishengarh and Idar, as well as several
smaller states. The origin of the Rathor clan is uncertain. Colonel
Tod states that they claim to be of the solar race, but by the bards
of the race are denied this honour; and though descended from Kash, the
second son of Rama, are held to be the offspring of one of his progeny,
Kashyap, by the daughter of a Dait (Titan). The view was formerly
held that the dynasty which wrested Kanauj from the descendants of
Harsha Vardhana, and held it from A.D. 810 to 1090, until subverted
by the Gaharwars, were Rathors, but proof has now been obtained that
they were really Parihar-Gujars. Mr. Smith suggests that after the
destruction of Kanauj by the Muhammadans under Shihab-ud-Din Ghori
in A.D. 1193 the Gaharwar clan, whose kings had conquered it in 1090
and reigned there for a century, migrated to the deserts of Marwar
in Rajputana, where they settled and became known as Rathors. [559]
It has also been generally held that the Rashtrakuta dynasty of
Nasik and Malkhed in the Deccan which reigned from A.D. 753 to 973,
and built the Kailasa temples at Ellora were Rathors, but Mr. Smith
states that there is no evidence of any social connection between the
Rashtrakutas and Rathors. [560] At any rate Siahji, the grandson or
nephew of Jai Chand, the last king of Kanauj, who had been drowned
in the Ganges while attempting to escape, accomplished with about
200 followers--the wreck of his vassalage--the pilgrimage to Dwarka
in Gujarat. He then sought in the sands and deserts of Rajputana
a second line of defence against the advancing wave of Muhammadan
invasion, and planted the standard of the Rathors among the sandhills
of the Luni in 1212. This, however, was not the first settlement of
the Rathors in Rajputana, for an inscription, dated A.D. 997, among
the ruins of the ancient city of Hathundi or Hastikundi, near Bali
in Jodhpur State, tells of five Rathor Rajas who ruled there early
in the tenth century, and this fact shows that the name Rathor is
really much older than the date of the fall of Kanauj. [561]
In 1381 Siahji's tenth successor, Rao Chonda, took Mundore from
a Parihar chief, and made his possession secure by marrying the
latter's daughter. A subsequent chief, Rao Jodha, laid the foundation
of Jodhpur in 1459, and transferred thither the seat of government. The
site of Jodhpur was selected on a peak known as Joda-gir, or the hill
of strife, four miles distant from Mundore on a crest of the range
overlooking the expanse of the desert plains of Marwar. The position
for the new city was chosen at the bidding of a forest ascetic, and was
excellently adapted for defence, but had no good water-supply. [562]
Joda had fourteen sons, of whom the sixth, Bika, was the founder of the
Bikaner state. Raja Sur Singh (1595-1620) was one of Akbar's greatest
generals, and the emperor Jahangir buckled the sword on to his son
Gaj Singh with his own hands. Gaj Singh, the next Raja (1620-1635),
was appointed viceroy of the Deccan, as was his successor, Jaswant
Singh, under Aurangzeb. The Mughal Emperors, Colonel Tod remarks,
were indebted for half their conquests to the Lakh Tulwar Rahtoran,
the hundred thousand swords which the Rathors boasted that they
could muster. [563] On another occasion, when Jahangir successfully
appealed to the Rajputs for support against his rebel son Khusru,
he was so pleased with the zeal of the Rathor prince, Raja Gaj Singh,
that he not only took the latter's hand, but kissed it, [564] perhaps
an unprecedented honour. But the constant absence from his home on
service in distant parts of the empire was so distasteful to Raja Sur
Singh that, when dying in the Deccan, he ordered a pillar to be erected
on his grave containing his curse upon any of his race who should
cross the Nerbudda. The pomp of imperial greatness or the sunshine of
court favour was as nothing with the Rathor chiefs, Colonel Tod says,
when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own
cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the
Rathor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, which he turned
from in disgust to the recollection of the green pulse of Mundore,
or his favourite _rabi_ or maize porridge, the prime dish of the
Rathor. [565] The Rathor princes have been not less ready in placing
themselves and the forces of their States at the disposal of the
British Government, and the latest and perhaps most brilliant example
of their loyalty occurred during 1914, when the veteran Sir Partap
Singh of Idar insisted on proceeding to the front against Germany,
though over seventy years of age, and was accompanied by his nephew,
a boy of sixteen.
The Ratlam State was founded by Ratan Singh, a grandson of Raja
Udai Singh of Jodhpur, who was born about 1618, and obtained it
as a grant for good service against the Usbegs at Kandahar and the
Persians in Khorasan about 1651-52. Kishangarh was founded by Kishan
Singh, a son of the same Raja Udai Singh, who obtained a grant of
territory from Akbar about 1611. Idar State in Gujarat has, according
to its traditions, been held by Rathor princes from a very early
period. Jodhpur State is the largest in Rajputana, with an area of
35,000 square miles, and a population of two million. The Maharaja
is entitled to a salute of twenty-one guns. A great part of the
State is a sandy desert, and its older name of Marwar is, according
to Colonel Tod, a corruption of Marusthan, or the region of death. In
the Central Provinces the Rathor Rajputs number about 6000 persons, and
are found mainly in the Saugor, Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad
Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 persons enumerated
in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rathor Telis.