In 750 AD, the polity in India was at crossroads. Kanauj, a symbol of imperial power due to its association with Harsha and Yashovarman, was the bone of contention between three powers: the Rashtrakutas, the Pratiharas and the Palas. The military activities of these three were directed to­wards its conquest. The effort exhausted all three of them, leaving the field open to their feudatories, consequent to which small regional kingdoms were founded all over northern India.

It was at this point of time the Rajputs made their entry into Indian politics. Where and how they originated remains in doubt, although the Brahmans gave them royal lineage (hence, ‘rajaputras’) and accorded them the Kshatriya status. In the tradition of the puranas, they were provided with genealogies connecting them to the solar or lunar race and they came into prominence in the ninth and tenth centuries.

It may be pointed out that in the early Medieval period, the beneficiaries of land grants were little kings for all purposes, though vassals in name.

Beneficiaries, providing military aid to their overlords are referred to in a number of inscriptions of the period were called Rautas under the Chandellas and Gahadavalas and Rajaputras under the Chalukyas. The word Rauta was the vernacular form of the Sanskrit Rajaputra and the Chahamana and possibly the Chalukya holders of this title belonged to the royal families. However, the Rautas in Bundelkhand and Uttar Pradesh were Brahmans, kshatriyas and kayasthas and were not related to any ruling clan.

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Historians hold different views on the origins of the Rajputs. The view that they descended from the kshatriyas is accepted as also the one contending that some of the clans originated from the aborigines and from Hindus like Brahmans, vaishyas and even the shudras. There is also a body of opinion claiming that some of them were foreign immigrants assimi­lated into the Hindu fold over the centuries. Lastly, there were the Agnikulas, the Fire Family. They were:

(a) The Pratiharas or Pariharas, not the same as the main Pratiharas, but with whom they had connections;

(b) The Chahamanas (or Chauhans);

(c) The Chaulakyas (or Solankis), separate from the Deccan Chalukyas; and

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(d) The Paramaras (or Pawars).

Unlike previous rulers, who were accepted as members of higher castes (for being rulers), this was the first time the ruling clans insisted that they belong to the Kshatriya class.

The use of the term Rajput was unknown before the end of the tenth century. Considering that their origin is stated to be connected with the Guijaras (who appeared first in the records of the latter part of the sixth century ad), Cunningham was of the view that they descended from the Kushanas. Jack­son says that Khazars, a tribe living in South Armenia and Medea in the fourth century ad came along with the Hunas in the early years of the sixth century ad. These Khazars were known to the Indians as Guijaras. The Rathore stone inscription (ad 959) mentions Mathanadeva, a feudatory of Vijayapala, as a Guijara-Pratihara. Modem Gujarat derived its name after the Chaulakyas established sovereignty there. And considering that Chaulakyas are one of the Agnikula Rajputs, it is stated they are all offshoots of the Guijaras.

Such a view, though held by a number of scholars, is not universally accepted. Even if the Khazars were the forerunners of the Guijaras, there is no specific reason to conclude that they subse­quently became the Rajputs. As regards the Agnikula, it seems only the Paramaras claim the fire origin. The founders of the other three clans, Harichandra (Pratihara), Guhila (Gahila) and Vasudeva (Chahamana) were all Brahmans by caste and flour­ished about AD 580. Moreover, at that time it was not possible for anybody who was not a son of a brahmana through a brahmana wife to claim the rank of a brahmana. That is why Harichandra’s sons through a brahmana wife were known as brahman Pratiharas, while the sons of the Kshatriya were called Kshatriya Pratiharas. In view of all this, the Guijara origin of the Rajputs remains an undecided issue.

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According to Colonel Todd, the Rajputs were the offspring of the foreign invaders like Hunas, Sakas and Kushanas, who adopted Hinduism and established matrimonial alliances with the Indians.

Early Rajput activities were dominated by the four Agnikula clans and the kingdoms they founded arose from the older Pratiharakingdom. The Pariharas were based in southern Rajasthan; the Chahamanas emerged as a feudatory of the Pratiharas in eastern Rajasthan, south-east of Delhi and helped their masters in holding back the Arab advance. Later, they became independent, but branches of the main family remained as feudatories of the Pratiharas. The Solankis were in Kathiawar with branches in Malwa, Chedi, Patau and Broach; by the middle of the tenth century, they were at war with most of their neighbours. The Pawars began as feudatories of the Rashtrakutas in Malwa with their capital at Dhar near Indore and revolted against their overlords in the closing years of the tenth century. Other Rajput clans claiming descent from solar and lunar races settled as local kings in various parts of Central and Western India. Among them, the Chandelas were in the region of Khajuraho, gaining prominence there in the tenth century; the Guhilas in Mewar partici­pated in campaigns against the Arabs and the Tomaras ruled in Haryana near Delhi including Thanes war (the home of Harsha), also as a feudatory of the Pratiharas.