Rajput: Chauhan
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
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:Chauhan
The Chauhiin was the last of the Agnikula or fire-born clans. According to the legend : "Again Vasishtha seated on the lotus prepared incantations ; again he called the gods to aid ; and as he poured forth the libation a figure arose, lofty in stature, of elevated front, hair like jet, eyes rolling, breast expanded, fierce, terrific, clad in armour with quiver filled, a bow in one hand and a brand in the other, quadriform (Chaturanga), whence his name was given as Chauhan." This account makes the Chauhan the most important of the fire-born clans, and Colonel Tod says that he was the most valiant of the Agnikulas, and it may be asserted not of them only but of 1 J.A.S.B. vol. xlvi. (1877), p. 233.
the whole Rajput race ; and though the swords of the Rahtors would be ready to contest the point, impartial decision must assign to the Chauhan the van in the long career of arms.^ General Cunningham shows that even so late as the time of Prithwi Raj in the twelfth century the Chauhans had no claim to be sprung from fire, but were content to be considered descendants of a Brahman sage Bhrigu.^ Like the other Agnikula clans the Chauhans are now considered to have sprung from the Gurjara or White Hun invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries, but I do not know whether this is held to be definitely proved in their case.
Sambhar and Ajmer in Rajputana appear to have been the first home of the clan, and inscriptions record a long line of thirty-nine kings as reigning there from Anhul, the first created Chauhan. The last but one of them, Vigraha Raja or Bisal Deo, in the middle of the twelfth century extended the ancestral dominions considerably, and conquered Delhi from a chief of the Tomara clan. At this time the Chauhans, according to their own bards, held the line of the Nerbudda from Garha- Mandla to Maheshwar and also Aslrgarh, while their dominions extended north to Hissar and south to the Aravalli hills.^ The nephew of Bisal Deo was Prithwi Raj, the most famous Chauhan hero, who ruled at Sambhar, Ajmer and Delhi.
His first exploit was the abduction of the daughter of Jaichand, the Gaharwar Raja of Kanauj, in about A.D, 1175. The king of Kanauj had claimed the title of universal sovereign and determined to celebrate the Ashwa-Medha or horse-sacrifice, at which all the offices should be performed by vassal kings. Prithwi Raj alone declined to attend as a subordinate, and Jaichand therefore made a wooden image of him and set it up at the gate in the part of doorkeeper. But when his daughter after the tournament took the garland of flowers to bestow it on the chief whom she chose for her husband, she passed by all the assembled nobles and threw the garland on the neck of the wooden image.
At this moment Prithwi Raj dashed in with a few companions, and catching her up, escaped with ' A'djas/hriii, i. pp. 86, 87. ' Imperial Gazetteer, India, vol. ii. - Air/iaeolo,i^i(al Reports, ii. 255, p. 312. quoted in Mr. Crookc's art. Chaiilian.
her from her father's court.' Afterwards, in 1182, Prithvvi Raj defeated the Chandel Raja Parmal and captured Mahoba. In I 191 Prithwi Raj was the head of a confederacy of Hindu princes in combating the invasion of Muhammad Ghori. He repelled the Muhammadans at Tarain about two miles north of Delhi, but in the following year was completely defeated and killed at Thaneswar, and soon afterwards Delhi and Ajmer fell to the Muhammadans,
The Chauhan kingdom was broken up, but scattered parts of it remained, and about A.D. 1307 Aslrgarh in Nimar, which continued to be held by the Chauhans, was taken by Ala-ud-Dln Khilji and the whole garrison put to the sword except one boy. This boy, Raisi Chauhan, escaped to Rajputana, and according to the bardic chronicle his descendants formed the Hara branch of the Chauhans and conquered from the Minas the tract known as Haravati, from which they perhaps took their name.- This is now comprised in the Kotah and Bundi states, ruled by Hara chiefs. Another well-known offshoot from the Chauhans are the Khichi clan, who belong to the Sind-Sagar Doab ; and the Nikumbh and Bhadauria clans are also derived from them.
The Chauhans are numerous in the Punjab and United Provinces and rank as one of the highest Rajput clans. In the Central Provinces they are found principally in the Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad Districts, and also in Mandla. The Chauhan Rajputs of Mandla marry among themselves, with other Chauhans of Mandla, Seoni and Balaghat. They have exogamous sections with names apparently derived from villages like an ordinary caste. The remarriage of widows is forbidden, but those widows who desire to do so go and live with a man and are put out of caste. This, however, is said not to happen frequently.
A widow's hair is not shaved, but her glass bangles are
broken, she is dressed in white, made to sleep on the ground,
and can wear no ornaments. Owing to the renown of the
clan their name has been adopted by numerous classes of
inferior Rajputs and low Hindu castes who have no right to
it. Thus in the Punjab a large subcaste of Chamars call
themselves Chauhan, and in the Bilaspur District a low caste
^ Early History of India and Imperial Gazetteer, loc. cit.
2 Rajasthdn, ii. p. 419.
of village watchmen go by this name. These latter may be descendants of the illegitimate offspring of Chauhan Rajputs by low-caste women.
