History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.53

v2.c28.s1.53

There is not the least doubt that these statements of the Purāṇas are valueless and historically considered they are interpolations in the Purāṇic texts promoted not indeed by malice but by bigotry and through enmity to the Buddhists. It will not be difficult to prove that earlier texts exist which show that the word Rajput is not a new word coined in about the 9th century A. D. but an old, a very old word and that it was usually used in a very honourable sense. Words sometimes do take up double meanings, one a good and the other a bad one, but it is well to remember that the bad sense is usually a later growth. Many examples may be given but the very word Brahmin will suffice. It originally indicated the highest Varṇa or caste to whom the duty of preserving the Brahma or Veda was entrusted. But later on, we find that the duty of supplying water and even of cooking fell to the lot of this caste and hence the word Brahmin now-a-days often means a cook or a waterman (A Hindi saying has it that a Brahmin meant Babarchi, Bhisti, Bhikhari). In this way the term Rajput is sometimes applied to the illegitimate progeny of Kshatriyas or kings born of mothers of lower castes. But that this is not its original or general meaning will appear from the following disquisition.