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chashokverma
January 14th, 2003, 10:43 PM
The modern historians have by and large accepted the common ancestry of the Jats and the Rajputs to Indo Scithian race. The deference prevails regarding the reasons behind the division of these two. Few prevailing reasoning are:-

The revival of Brahmanism and the creation of Rajputs from the Jats

1. During Buddhist era there were no Rajputs and Jats. The most of the kings were from the Indo Scythians race and were mostly known by their Gotras. It was a common practice to start a new gotra under new name while assuming the kingship. The inter gotra marriages were basically between the warrior classes and were governed more by the political need to develop bonds than on the racial or caste lines. The royals marry into the royal families. The Buddhist era was not relished by the Brahmans and they with the help of few kings made revival. The same is known as Rajput period in the history books. The most interesting fact is that then prevailing kings never used the word Rajput. Rather they were known by their gotras like Rathore, Chouhans, Solankis, Parmars, Chandels, Tomars, Jadons etc but yet the period has been called Rajput period. Whereas the period was actually the period of Brahamanical revival. The word Rajput was not known then.
2. How was the revival achieved? The religion and the politics go side by side. The many of the then ruling families due to the convincing power of Shankracharya and other Brahmans adopted to their faith and accepted them as their gurus. If the Brahmans got their hand over political power by doing so, the ruler of that time got the status of Chchatriyas and the status of pure to enjoy sovereignty on behalf of God to rule his subjects. A virtual certificate from the God to rule the subject was a very attractive offer given by the Brahmans in turn of their acceptance as political advisors, Gurus and teachers. This was the time when the division took place. Their was the warrior class whish was following the political order of republic as given by the last emperor of this country; Harsh Vardhan and their was the class which was lured into the concept of Monarchy. The people belonging to the later class won over the political powers from the people of the previous class. The Brahmans created a new class of Agni Vanshis chchatriyas. Some of the gotras like Jadon declared as asuras earlier were again taken into the Brahmans folds and under their influence adopted a new way of life that included new religious customs (the widow marriage banned), deferent dresses (the Jattas replaced by the short hairs and gold Mukut to signify monarchy). Many of these newborn Chchatriyas now form part of Rajput; a word created during British period. The left out warrior class after Harsh Vardhan which was following the customs of theirs fathers and who did not follow the Brahmans, with the weakening of their political powers were relegated to the profession of farming and soldiering were called as Jats by the invading Arabs in Sindh due to their peculiar habit of keeping long Hairs; Jatta.
3. Some of the new born Chchatriyas who again married into the warriors class of Jats, as was usual before the revival of Brahmanism as there was no division, were not considered chchatriyas by the Brahmans and the other chchatriyas. These people again merged with the Jats. But with the change some of them also brought in the names of their Chchatriya gotras like Sikarwars, Chouhans, Solankis, Rana, Panwar etc in Jats. Some of them took new names like Sinsinwars, Nohwars, Joon, ahlawats etc in Jats. This is where many of the gotras are common among Jats and Rajputs.
4. The word Rajput was used by British in general terms to denote the royal families and their clans of Rajasthan and that included the Jat states of Bharatpur and Dholpur. Now this word is even used by the people from other part of the country and has become a caste. The fact is that the so called Rajputs from the other states are called GOLA by the real Rajputs of Rajasthan.



Sword versus Farming

1. As per the other theory the people who followed the path of sword became chchatriyas and later on Rajputs and those who did not followed the path of soldiering became the farmers and Jats.
2. Many of the Rajputs who took farming at later stages were relegated to Jats.
3. Though in very simple and general terms it may appear to explain the division among Rajputs and Jats but there are many serious flaws in this theory. The most prominent one is that the forefathers of Jats may have lost political power during the revival of Brahmanism but they never left soldiering as their profession. In fact in 108 Vassals of Prathvi Raj Chouhan many of them were Jats. One of them and very famous was Puran from Mathura. So if they had not left soldiering as their profession then why they were not considered chchatriyas by the Brahmans?
4. This theory also fails to explain the deference between Jat and Rajput customs and how did they emerge?
5. The history of Bikaner state and the Sindh clearly give out the Jats holding their independent status than the Brahman Chchatriyas.
6. The theory also fails to explain the spread of Jats into Central Asia, Afganistan, Balochistan, Sindh and western Punjab. This spread clearly shows that the Jats are much older than the advent of Rajputs.


Jats the illegitimate sons of Rajputs

1. Yet another and very insulting theory as propagated by Rajputs is that the Jats are the illegitimate sons of Rajputs. I am writing this as the Jats should be aware of the designs of the Rajputs. The theory is an attempt by the Rajputs to explain the commonality of gotras among Jats and Rajputs.
2. The theory is based on total ignorance of facts and is more based on the ongoing Jat- Rajput rivalry in Rajasthan. These people does not know that the Jats were existing even before the Rajputs were created. The first mention of word Jat comes into being in the history of Sindh as recorded by the Arabs in 7/8 centaury. The Arabs and other Muslim invaders have written much about the Jats. The spread of Jats to Central Asian republic is unknown to these ignorant people.


As is seen from the above the fact is that the a new class of chchatriyas were created by the Brahmans among the Jats and later on these newly born chchatriyas took a deferent identity of Rajputs. It is also clear that those newly born chachtriyas who married with the Jats as per the practice during their forefather’s time were absorbed into Jat folds as they were outcaste by the new born chchatriyas class. This is where Jats of all kind of gotras claiming descendence from Sun dynaty; Sikarwars, Moon Dynasty: Sinsinwars, Agni Vanshis; solankis and others of total Jat origin like Punias.