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From '''The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India '''
 
By R. V. Russell
 
Of The Indian Civil Service
 
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
 
Assisted By  
Rai Bahadur Hira Lal,  
Extra Assistant Commissioner
 
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
 
''' NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh. '''

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors  might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful  place.

=Rajput: Kachhwaha, Cutchwaha=

A celebrated clan
of Rajputs included among the thirty-six royal races, to
which the Maharajas of the important states of. Amber or
Jaipur and Alwar belong. They are of the solar race and
claim descent from Kash, the second son of the great
king Rama of Ajodhia, the incarnation of Vishnu. Their
original seat, according to tradition, was Rohtas on the
Son river, and another of their famous progenitors was
Raja Nal, who migrated from Rohtas and founded Narwar.-^
The town of Damoh in the Central Provinces is supposed
to be named after Damyanti, Raja Nal's wife. According
to General Cunningham the name Kachhwaha is an
abbreviation of Kachhaha-ghata or tortoise -killer. 

The
earliest appearance of the Kachhwaha Rajputs in authentic
history is in the tenth century, when a chief of the clan
captured Gwalior from the Parihar-Gujar kings of Kanauj
and established himself there. His dynasty had an independent
existence till A.D. 1128, when it became tributary
^ Rajasthdti, ii. p. 319.
 

to the Chandel kings of Mahoba.^ The last prince of
Gwalior was Tejkaran, called Dulha Rai or the bridegroom
prince, and he received from his father-in-law the district
of Daora in the present Jaipur State, where he settled. In
1 1 50 one of his successors wrested Amber from the Minas
and made it his capital. The Amber State from the first
acknowledged the supremacy of the Mughal emperors, and
the chief of the period gave his daughter in marriage to
Akbar. 

This chiefs son, Bhagwan Das, is said to have
saved Akbar's life at the battle of Sarnal. Bhagwan Das
gave a daughter to Jahanglr, and his adopted son, Man
Singh, the next chief, was one of the most conspicuous of
the Mughal Generals, and at different periods was governor
of Kabul, Bengal, Bihar and the Deccan. The next chief
of note, Jai Singh I., appears in all the wars of Aur^ngzeb
in the Deccan. He was commander of 6000 horse, and
captured Sivaji, the celebrated founder of the Maratha power.


The present city of Jaipur was founded by a subsequent
chief, Jai Singh II., in 1728. During the Mutiny the
Maharaja of Jaipur placed all his military power at the
disposal of the Political Agent, and in every way assisted
the British Government. At the Durbar of 1877 his salute
was raised to 2 1 guns. Jaipur, one of the largest states
in Rajputana, has an area of nearly 16,000 square miles,
and a population of 2^ million persons. 

The Alwar State
was founded about 1776 by Pratap Singh, a descendant of
a prince of the Jaipur house, who had separated from it
three centuries before. It has an area of 3000 square
miles and a population of nearly a million." In Colonel
Tod's time the Kachhwaha chiefs in memory of their
descent from Rama, the incarnation of the sun, celebrated
with great solemnity the annual feast of the sun. On this
occasion a stately car called the chariot of the sun was
brought from Rama's temple, and the Maharaja ascending
into it perambulated his capital. The images of Rama and
Siva were carried with the army both in Alwar and Jaipur.
The banner of Amber was always called the PdncJiranga
* Early Ilislory of India, 3rd cdi- from the new /w/tv-w/Case/z'^er, articles
tion, p. 381. Jaipur and Alwar States.


2 The above information is taken
 
or five-coloured flag, and is frequently mentioned in the
traditions of the Rajput bards. But it does not seem to
be stated what the five colours were. Some of the finest
soldiers in the old Sepoy army were Kachhwaha Rajputs.
The Kachhwahas are fairly numerous in the United
Provinces and rank with the highest Rajput clans.^ In
the Central Provinces they are found principally in the
Saugor, Hoshangabad and Nimar Districts.