_Rajput, Surajvansi._--The Surajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is
recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod
gives no account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history
as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that the
Surajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarat in A.D. 224, but this
is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the late dates now
assigned for the origin of the important Rajput clans. Surajvansi
should properly be a generic term denoting any Rajput belonging to a
clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different
times have been adopted by Rajputs who were no longer recognised in
their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous
tribes who aspired to become Rajputs. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a
large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned
their own tribal name and call themselves Surajvansi Rajputs; [576]
and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central
Provinces the Surajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangabad, and here they
form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other
Rajput clans. Hence they would not be recognised as proper Rajputs,
and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste.