Rawat Rajputs are a group of people who reside in
Ajmer, Ballabgarh, Faridabad, Palwal Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh and Pali
districts of Rajasthan.
The Rawat Gotra is also found
in Meenas and bhils in Rajasthan which is not to be confused with the Rawat
Rajputs as the Rawat Rajputs have distinct Rajput surnames as Chauhan, chouhan,
Panwar, Bhati etc.
The word Rajput is claimed to
be a corruption of Rajputra. Rawat Rajputs are believed to be descendants of
Chauhans.
Some historians believe
that Rawat Rajputs are direct descendants of Prithviraj III's brother Hariraj,
who escaped to hilly and dense forest areas after the fall of the Chauhan
empire in 1192.
The areas in Ajmer that these
Rajputs resided were hilly and forest areas. After 22 generations from Hariraj
Chauhan these Chauhan Rajputs had established a few separate sub-clans among
themselves such as Saidot, Ghodawat, Aapawat etc, with two major branches, one
represented by Rao Karansi and the other represented by Rawat Bhim singh.
Due to socio-political and
geo-political circumstances at this point of time, in a meeting it was decided
to allow marital alliances among these sub-clans of the Chauhan Rawat Rajputs
against the widely accepted norm of the rajputs of not marrying within the same
major clan or Kul, "Chauhan" in this case. The first marriage of this
kind was between the daughter of Rao Karan singh Chauhan (the establisher of
clan of the Rawats) and the son of Rawat Bhim singh. Gradually with more
frequent marital alliances within the subclans of the Rawats, a new race called
Rawat-Rajputs emerged. With time some subclans of the Rathore, Panwar, Bhati,
Gahlot, Sisodiya, also became part of the community of Rawat Rajputs. The
Rawats of Ajmer held 10 thikanas from Narwar to Diver, with the seat of Diver
to be in the Udaipur darbaar. The major thikanas were Narvar, Diver, Athungarh
(Kunwar Digvijay Singh Chauhan) and some minor Thikanas like Borwa, Sendra ,
kukra ( Pannaraj singh rathore ) , Ajithgarh etc. yes thats is true.
In the 13th generation of
Chauhan clan was born a king Named Vakpatiraj, ruler of Sambhar.He had three
sons named Singhraj, Vatsaraj and Laxman. After the kings death the kingdom was
divided among the three brothers and the smallest share was given to the
youngest prince Laxman. Being a valiant Rajput, he considered it to be against
his dignity and left Sambhar and became a minister in the court of Raja Samant
Singh Chawda, the ruler of nadole. After the death of Samant Singh, Rao Laxman
being a valiant warrior, managed to establish his own kingdom in Nadole and
gradually became the sole lord of Nadole. Rao Laxman had six sons Anhal Rao,
Anoop Rao, Aasal, Shobhitraj, Vigrahpalg, Ajeetsingh. Rao Anhal and Rao Anoop
in the year 998 A.D., set on a military expedition and defeated the Chandel
Gurjars ruling in Chaang and Cheta villages near the present Rajsamand district
and established their kingdom in the Merwara region. Later the two brothers
divided the kingdom and the area from present Narvar village to Togi village
was given to Rao Anhal. His descendents later came to be known as Cheeta Rawats
and the region from Togi to Diver village was given to Rao Anoop (his descendents
later came to be known as Barad Rawats).
Villages of Rawat Rajputs are also found in the Tehri Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal
district of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and some villages are also found in the
Shivpuri and Datia districts of Madhya Pradesh. Some if not all of the Rawat
Rajputs are believed to have migrated from the Indian plains during the Middle
Ages.
