Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c12.22

v1.c12.22

The more recent views of the origin of the Rājputs may be briefly illustrated in connexion with some of the leading septs. Dr. Vincent A. Smith holds that the term Kshatriya was not an ethnical but an occupational designation. Rājaputra, ‘son of a Rāja,’ seems to have been a name applied to the cadets of ruling houses who, according to the ancient custom of tribal society, were in the habit of seeking their fortunes abroad, winning by some act of valour the hand of the princess whose land they visited, and with it the succession to the kingdom vested in her under the system of Mother Right. Sir James Frazer has described various forms of this mode of succession in the case of the Kings of Rome, Ashanti, Uganda, in certain Greek States, and other places.² Dr. Smith goes on to say: “The term Kshatriya was, I believe, always one of very vague meaning, simply denoting the Hindu ruling classes which did not claim Brahmanical descent. Occasionally a rājā might be a Brahman by caste, but the Brahman’s place at court was that of a minister rather than that of king.”³ This office in Rajputana, as we learn from numerous instances in The Annals, was often taken by members of the Bania or mercantile class, because the Brāhmans of the Desert, by their laxity of