Rathore

The Mehrangarh fort, Jodhpur

The Rathore or Rathor or Rathod (Hindi: राठौड, Urdu: راٹھور) are a community of India and Pakistan. Rathors in India are a Rajput clan that hail from the Marwar region of western Rajasthan and also inhabit the state of Gujarat. In Pakistan, they are considered a tribe that are settled in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of that country. In India, their native languages are Hindi and its dialects (such as Rajasthani, Marwari and other languages of Rajasthan) as well as Gujarati and Kutchi in Gujarat. In Pakistan, the Rathores speak the Punjabi, Seraiki and Sindhi languages.

Dynasties belonging to this clan ruled a number of kingdoms and princely states in Rajasthan and neighbouring states before India's independence in 1947. The largest and oldest among these was Jodhpur in Marwar; the Maharaja of Jodhpur is regarded as the head of the extended Rathore clan of Hindu Rajputs.

Early history

Based on "khyats" (traditional accounts) written in seventeenth century, it is surmised that the Rathores were originally feudatories of the Ujjaini-based Gurjara-Pratihara Rajput dynasty , and may perhaps have been domiciled in the vicinity of Kannauj in the heyday of that dynasty. Pratihara-ruled Kannauj was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1019 CE, which ushered in a chaotic period for that area. A family known to us as the "Gahadvala" dynasty gained control of Kannauj and ruled for nearly a century; their best-known dynast was Raja Jaichand, their last king. The Gahadvalas were displaced from Kannauj by the invasion, in 1194 CE, of Muhammad of Ghor. It is said that Sheoji, a surviving grandson of Jaichand, made his way into the western desert with a group of faithful followers, finally settling in the town of Pali in Marwar, which was ruled by another branch of the Pratiharas. Sheoji is regarded as the patriarch of the entire Rathore clan and all Rathores trace their patrilineage back to him.

The tradition finds supports from a number of inscriptions found in the vicinity of Kannauj that mention several generations of a Rashtrakuta dynasty ruling there for two centuries. A very similar account is also mentioned in the "Rashtrayudha Kavya" of Rudrakavi, finished in 1595, who was the court poet in the court of the Rathore king, Narayana of Mayurgiri.

Marwar and beyond

The Rathores gradually spread across Marwar, forming a brotherhood of landowners and village chieftains, loosely bound to each other by ties of clan and caste. An epoch in the history both of Marwar and of the Rathores was marked by Rao Jodha, a warrior who founded a kingdom that grew to encompass all of Marwar. He also founded the city of Jodhpur in 1459, and moved his capital thither from Mandore. One of his sons, Rao Bika, established the town of Bikaner in 1488, in the Jangladesh region lying to the north of Marwar; that town was to become the seat of a second major Rathore kingdom.

The various cadet branches of the Rathore clan gradually spread to encompass all of Marwar and later sallied abroad to found states in Central India and Gujarat. At the time of India's independence in 1947, the princely states ruled by various branches of the Rathore clan included:
*Jodhpur (Marwar): Covering the present-day districts of Jodhpur, Pali, Nagaur, Barmer, and Jalor.
*Bikaner (Jangladesh): Covering the present-day districts of Bikaner, Churu, Ganganagar and Hanumangarh;
*Kishangarh in present-day Rajasthan, founded in 1611 by Raja Kishan Singh, son of Udai Singh of Marwar.
*Idar in present-day Gujarat, founded in 1728 or 1729.
*Ratlam in present-day Ratlam District of Madhya Pradesh, founded 1651.
*Sitamau in present-day Mandsaur District of Madhya Pradesh, founded 1701 by Raja Kesho Das, of the Ratlam house.
*Sailana in present-day Ratlam District of Madhya Pradesh, founded in 1730 by Raja Jai Singh, of the Ratlam house.

Rathore Genealogy

RAO SHIVA (Sheoji)