History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.7

v2.c28.7

But the greatest phenomenon of this period was the rising into political prominence of new kingly families—families which subsist as kingly families down to this day. It may in fact be said that modern political Hindu India as it is to-day also commences from this period. This phenomenon is marked by Indian historians and Sir V. Smith among them properly observes that the Rajputs about this time enter upon the stage of Indian history. The former kingly families are gone. The Guptas and the Vardhanas who were probably Vaiśyas were the leading kingly families of India during the Aryo-Buddhistic period and there were foreign kingly families also such as the Yavanas, the Śakas and the Hūṇas. These gradually disappeared in the first sub-period of Mediæval Hindu India. There were some Kshatriya families then also who are described as Kshatriyas even by Hiuen-Tsang, but these did not call themselves Rajputs and the Maitrakas of Valabhī or the Varmas of Kanauj in the north and the Chālukyas of Badāmi and the Pallavas of Kāñchī in the south are styled Kshatriyas but not Rajputs. These too disappeared about this time and new Kshatriya families arose all over India at this time which delighted to call themselves Rajputs, not a new name, however. And the wonder is that these Rajput kingly families subsist, though with diminished importance, as kingly families to this day. Indeed there are no other kingly families at this date in the whole world which can trace their pedigree back in a continuous line to the 9th century A. D. For this reason alone if not for anything else, the Rajputs of India deserve a prominence peculiarly their own.