Yaduvanshi Rajput

Yaduvanshi is a term used for describing various Rajput clans. Prominent among them are Bhatis, Jadejas, Sammas and Chudasamas.^[1]

Several inscriptions links the Chudasamas to Yadavas of the legendary Lunar dynasty.^[2] According to these, Chudasamas were a branch of the Samma lineage that acquired the principality of Vanthali from the local ruler and subsequently occupied the already fortified city of Junagadh. Later inscriptions and the text Mandalika-Nripa-Charita link them to the Yadava family of the Hindu deity Krishna.^[3]

Samira Sheikh says that Chudasama were originally pastoralists. She adds that, the Jadejas , Chudasamas , Bhatis and Sammas originate from four brothers—Aspat, Gajpat, Narpat and Bhupat—who descended from Krishna. This mythologised genealogy claims that the brothers first together conquered Egypt. After the Islamic conquest, Aspat converted to Islam and founded the Samma dynasty; then Gajpat conquered Ghazni; Bhupat established Bhatner; and Narpat, after first founding Nagar-Samoi in Sindh, became ancestor of Chandracuda, the first Chudasama ruler.^[4][5] Similar claims with slightly different details have been recorded by past Indologists including Tod, Burgess, Desai and Rayjada. In addition, Tuhfat al Kiram, used by Elliot and Dowson in their History of India, records an Islamicised version of the myth.^[4]

References

1. Sheikh, Samira (1 May 2008). "Alliance, Genealogy and Political Power: The Cūdāsamās of Junagadh and the Sultans of Gujarat". The Medieval History Journal. 11 (1): 29–61. doi:10.1177/097194580701100102. ISSN 0971-9458.
2. Kapadia, Aparna (16 May 2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1-107-15331-8.
3. Kapadia, Aparna (16 May 2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-1-107-15331-8.
4. Kapadia, Aparna (16 May 2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-107-15331-8. in Sheikh, Samira (1 May 2008). "Alliance, Genealogy and Political Power: The Cūdāsamās of Junagadh and the Sultans of Gujarat". The Medieval History Journal. 11 (1): 29–61. doi:10.1177/097194580701100102. ISSN 0971-9458. S2CID 154992468.
5. Kothiyal, Tanuja (2016). Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-107-08031-7.