| Rajput clan: Rathod (राठौड़) | |
| Vansh | Suryavanshi[1] |
| Descended from: | Kannauj (Gahadvala) |
| Branches: | Udawat, Champawat, Kumpawat, Jodha, Bika, Mallinath- Kotra, Jaimalot, Mertia, Rupawat, Sindhal/Sindhav, karnot, Balawat,Raipalot |
| Ruled in | Kannauj, Marwar, Jangladesh, Malwa |
| Princely states: | Marwar (1226-1949) Bikaner (1488-1949) Kishangarh (1611-1949) Idar (1728–1949) Ratlam (1651–1949) Sitamau (1701–1949) Sailana(1730–1949) Kotra(1350-1755) Alirajpur(1701–1949) Manda Poonch(1596–1798) Amritpur (1857–present) |
The Rathore (or Rathor or Rathur or Rathod or Rathour) (Hindi: राठौड़, IAST:Rāṭhauḍ or Rāṭhaur) is a Suryavanshi Rajput clan.[2] Their Kuldevi is Nagnechiya Mata and "Karani Mata". Rathore originally descended from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. Rathores are historically considered the 'samurais of India'. Members of this caste are well known for their unflinching readiness for martyrdom and bravery in war. They have shown the highest level of bravery among all of the Rajput Clans. Being a Rathore is a great matter of pride and people look up to a Rathore with great respect and as a leader of them. Veer Durgadas Rathore was one of the most famous Rathores in history.
Often referred to as Rannbanka or Rannbankura, the Rathores respect bravery and truth more than life. Much of the respect and admiration they receive is because of their unflinching readiness to sacrifice their own life in order to honor these values. Innumerable poems and couplets have been written and sung by the local bards in praise of the Rathores and their bravery. One of them thus goes-
Garud khagan, Lanka Gaddan, Meru pahada modd;
Udadhi saran, Chandan Vana jyun rajkula Rathore
(As there is the might GARUDA amongst birds, Lanka amongst the most formidable forts and Sumeru mountain amongst all mountains..
As an Ocean in front of small ponds, a Sandlewood forest amongst forests thus are Rathores amongst all ruling class.)
Their war cry is "Jay Mataji" ("Hail the mother goddess"), which is also a phrase used by male members of the Rajput community to greet each other.
For the story of the martial clan, the Rathores, who ruled Marwar from Jodhpur till the Merger of the Princely States with the Dominion of India in 1949, one must travel further back in time to the year 1194. It was in that year, thousands of miles away in eastern India that the Muslim invader, Shahabuddin Mohammed Ghori, defeated the mighty Jaichand of Kanauj. It was Jaichand's great-grandson, Sheoji, who rode out to Marwar in 1226, eager for fresh battlefields and glory all his own. And it is Sheoji's descendants who proudly bear the name, Rathore.
In 1226 the principal cities of Marwar were Mandore, today a fifteen minute drive from Jodhpur and Pali, an hour's drive south; and it was the latter, a rich commercial centre, that Sheoji first conquered. Over the decades the Rathores expanded steadily but it was only in 1395, in the reign of their twelfth ruler, Rao Chunda, that they acquired - not conquered - Mandore.
Mandore is Marwar's most historic city. Today in ruins, it was the capital of many a great dynasty. Legend has it that Ravana, the Demon King of Lanka who defied Lord Rama himself, married a princess of Mandore, his favourite queen Mandodri. In 1292 the Parihar Rajputs lost Mandore to the Khilji Sultans of Delhi and after that the city remained with the Sultans of Delhi till 1395. In that year their Governor in Mandore, Aibak Khan, demanded fodder as well as the tax on grain, and this eventually proved to be his undoing. The Parihars, tired of this autocratic man, hatched a plan, which, in ingenuity matched the famous Trojan Horse, and in bravery far surpassed it. Five hundred Parihars smuggled themselves into the fortified city in a hundred cart-loads of grass. These carts were checked randomly and prodded with spears. Some men were pierced but they uttered not a sound and, in fact, even managed to wipe the blood off the spears as they were withdrawn. Then the Parihars fell upon the Muslims. Within an hour Mandore was once again in their hands but the victors realised that defending her was going to be an entirely different problem. It was then that someone suggested a marital alliance be arranged with the young Chunda. Thus did Mandore, the capital of Marwar, come to the Rathores in a dowry.
As the unchallenged rulers of Mandore, Sheoji's descendants were firmly established as the most powerful clan in the region. And it was left to Chunda's grandson, Rao Jodha, to secure a place for the Rathores in the annals of India by building one of her most spectacular forts and founding one of her most charming cities. The foundation of this fort was laid on 12 May 1459 by Jodha himself on rocky Bhakurcheeria, only six miles away from Mandore. Perhaps with Cheeria Nathji's curse ringing in his ears, Jodha had a young man buried alive in it to ensure the new site proved propitious. This man was Rajiya Bambi who was promised that his family and descendants would be looked after by the Rathores. It is a promise that has been honoured and Rajiya's descendants, who still live in Raj Bagh, Rajiya's Garden; the estate bequeathed to their ancestor by Jodha, continue to enjoy a special relationship with the Maharaja
Rao Jodha's citadel, on which he spent all of nine hundred thousand rupees, was very different from what his descendant, the present Maharaja of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh II, inherited four hundred and ninety three years later in 1952. It was much smaller and of the seven gates at present only one was built by Jodha himself. As the Rathores grew more powerful, Mehrangarh, at once a reflection of their glory and the basis of their strength, expanded. Almost every ruler left his mark and herein lies the fort's unique beauty, for it is today a magnificent blend of different reigns and ages, styles and influences, compulsions and dreams. Its towering battlements, a hundred and twenty feet high, and stone walls, in places six metres thick, testify to the might of Maldev (1532–1562) in whose reign the Rathores reached the zenith of their power. The palaces, extravagant edifices of peace and prosperity, whisper a thousand secrets; stories of machiavellian intrigues, dazzling riches and royal pleasures under the Mughal umbrella (1583–1739). The main gates, Fateh Pol and Jai Pol, sing of great victories, against the Mughals in 1707 and the Jaipur forces a hundred years later; while the ramparts, fiercely brandishing Maharaja Abhaya Singh's cannons (1724–1749), proudly proclaim these victories to the world.
Mehrangarh he built for his clansmen; for his subjects Jodha founded a city at the eastern base of Bhakurcheeria. A city he named simply, Jodhpur, Jodha's City. Though very much a part of his grand design, Jodhpur was not a planned city in the modern sense. The city's foundation is celebrated on 12 May as well, because Mehrangarh was really the seed from which she evolved and her growth was organic and closely related to the fortunes of her rulers. In 1459 there were no water bodies of consequence near Bhakurcheeria, and with the fort under construction the settlement was largely undefended. The water problem was successfully tackled by Jodha's queen Rani Jasmade who constructed a tank at the base of Mehrangarh, today called Rani Sar, The Queen's Lake. A year later another of Jodha's six wives built a baori or step-well in the city. However, it was only after the ragged lines of Bhakurcheeria assumed a definite shape of fortification that people gradually began to migrate to Jodhpur, the new seat of power and potential prosperity in the Thar.
Like other medieval cities of consequence, Jodhpur was originally a walled city too, and Jodha's walled Jodhpur had four Pols or gates, three of which still stand, though not in very good condition. In the north was the Bhagi Pol of which not a stone remains. In the south the Singh Pol, The Lion Gate, and in the south-east, the Bhomiaji Ki Ghati Ki Pol. The gateway to the east, the one most travelled by, was the Phoolelao Pol which is still in a fairly good state. Jodha's capital was small indeed, for these gates stand almost in the shadow of Bhakurcheeria. Today, from the newest parts of this ever expanding city, Mehrangarh is but a ghostly silhouette.
In tribute to the stability and prosperity of her founder's reign (1438–1488), Jodhpur outgrew her original walls within fifty years of his death. And in 1543 when Sher Shah, the Afghan who usurped the Mughal throne of Delhi for a few years, announced his intentions of invading Marwar, the then Rathore ruler, Rao Maldev, was compelled to complete the city's fortifications. His walls, which once again embraced Jodhpur, were twenty four thousand feet long, nine feet thick and forty feet high. He built six gates; Chand Pol, which faced west in honour of the Lunar God's ascent, was the first in that direction. The other five gates were named after the major Rathore forts they faced; Siwanchi Pol (Siwana) in the south, Jalori Pol (Jalore) in the south-east, Sojati Pol (Sojat) in the east, Mertia Pol (Merta) also in the east and Nagauri Pol (Nagaur) in the north-east. The gates and walls were simple and functional in design, the walls punctuated with platforms and towers for keeping watch and shooting.
Maldev's walls, formidable as Sher Shah found them, were not able to contain Jodhpur for long and except for Chand Pol and Mertia Pol, the other gates were shifted outwards again in the reigns of the brothers, Maharajas Abhaya Singh and Bakhta Singh (1724–1752). Today these gates stand repaired and painted, but unused because the walled section has merged with the new to make Jodhpur Rajasthan's second largest city. The walls themselves have vanished. Stone by stone they have been stripped to find their way into homes and shops and slums.
The old capital of Mandore was not entirely abandoned. Indeed, right up to 1873 Mandore is where the rulers of Marwar returned to their final rest. The Royal Cenotaphs, built in sandstone on the cremation sites, are impressive and elaborately carved, their unexpected grandeur lifting, momentarily, the tragic air of the public gardens and ruins around them. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of modern civilization, as is the old city of Mandore, it is interesting to read here that sometimes as many as eighty ladies committed Sati; immolating themselves on their husband's funeral pyre. These included not only the queens but concubines and even maids and musicians. In 1895 the royal cremation site moved to a hill within half a mile of Mehrangarh, when Maharaja Sardar Singh (1895–1911) had his father, Maharaja Jaswant Singh II cremated there, fulfilling the latter's last wishes. The Jaswant Thada Memorial is a splendid shrine in shining white marble and is visible from the fort, and indeed from most parts of the city.
Mandore also has a unique, much visited and revered Hall of Heroes which, really a temple, houses larger than life statues of gods and folk heroes, including one of Lord Rama from whom the Rathores claim descent; and of Pabuji Rathore who died in the defence of a herd of cows in the fourteenth century.
With the birth of Mehrangarh and Jodhpur, the Rathores entered their Golden Age. Their conquests were prolific and the farsighted Jodha settled his brothers and sons in the new lands as the Thakurs or feudal lords. They were quickly absorbed into the social fabric of the country and all of Marwar was now ruled by the Rathore. In 1488 when Jodha died, Rathoree Raj, the Rule of the Rathores, had come of age.
Jodha was succeeded by his son Rao Satal (sixteenth Rathore chief) who ruled for only four years but is remembered as one of Marwar's greatest martyrs and a shining exemplar of Rajput chivalry. For he died in 1492 rescuing a hundred and forty village maidens who had been abducted by Muslim invaders. Sadly, for it bespeaks a deterioration of martial spirit, he was the last Rathore ruler to die by the sword. Of the fifteen who preceded him nine died on the battlefield, of them six against Muslim armies; of the twenty one who followed, none.
Rao Maldeo Rathore also called the "most Potent Prince of Hindustan" by the Muslim historian Ferishta stretched the Rathore frontiers to within fifty miles of Delhi. Maldev gave an early indication of the extraordinary talents that would propel him to the centre-stage of Indian history for a decade, when, in 1527, as the heir-apparent, he commanded the Rathore cavalry to the plain of Khanua, forty miles from Agra, against the Mughal invader Babur.
The Rajput Confederacy there was defeated and the Battle of Khanua all but established Babur as the Emperor of India. But the first Mughal emperor died only three years later, and taking advantage of the disorder in Delhi, Maldev, who succeeded his father in 1532, launched his clan into a decade of unrestrained expansion. By 1540 he held sway over more than a hundred thousand square miles of territory. Delhi was only fifty miles away and all of Rajputana had been subdued. It was the high noon of Rathoree Raj, the glory of that decade still exciting the imagination of the Rathore today. Alas! It would not last, for in the same year, a thousand miles away, there took place a series of events that would culminate in the invasion of Marwar.
It was in 1540 that Sher Shah the Afghan defeated Babur's son and successor, Humayun, who fled to Sind (now in Pakistan) after a brief halt in Marwar at Maldev's invitation. It is said that Maldev finally asked the exiled emperor to leave Marwar when reports of Mughal soldiers butchering cows trickled into Jodhpur. At any rate, Humayun left and Sher Shah, who had requested Maldev to capture him, was furious. In the winter of 1543 the Afghan brought his army of eighty thousand to Marwar. The Rathore army of fifty thousand was defeated in a close battle of sword and stratagem at Sumel, a village sixty miles north of Jodhpur. Sher Shah, exhausted after a long and hard-won campaign, and terribly relieved, exclaimed, "For a handful of millet I almost lost the throne of Hindustan!" This millet, a coarse grain, the staple diet of most of Marwar, is immortalised in the Jodhpur Coat-of-Arms. In the top left corner of the Arms there are three tiny ears of millet which remind the world of the day the Rathores almost captured the heart of Hindustan.
The defeat at Sumel lead to further ignominy; Jodhpur and Mehrangarh's first occupation. Maldev returned only after Sher Shah was killed in a freak accident a year later. And though he was able to recover most of Marwar he was never again more than a shadow of his former self.
Two years after he died, in 1564, the twenty-one-year-old Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, invaded Marwar and occupied Mehrangarh and Jodhpur again; the second occupation. This did not break the spirit of Maldev's son and successor, Rao Chandra Sen, Marwar's 'Forgotten Hero' who remained free and independent, for all it was worth, till he died in 1581. Two years after he died, his unpopular brother Udai Singh acceded to the Gadi or throne of Marwar with Akbar's blessings. Thus began the Mughal era in Marwar.
The Rathore chiefs now began to enjoy two separate identities. In Marwar they were royal, the rulers and the heads of their clan. In recognition of this the Emperor bestowed upon them the title of Raja or King and later of Maharaja or Great King. Their second identity emerged at the Mughal Court where they were Mansabdars or Officers of the Realm. It was in this, the more mundane capacity, that they amassed huge fortunes. These fortunes were hard won. In the next hundred years the Rathore rulers, all senior Mansabdars, travelled the length and breadth of the country. Gubernatorial and vice-regal posts, the command of armies and the grant of rich lands outside Marwar; the Rathore submission to the Mughals expanded their horizons beyond belief.
In 1678, when Maharaja Jaswant Singh I died in Afghanistan and Aurangzeb invaded Marwar, the Rathores happily demonstrated to the world, perhaps even to themselves, that they could still fight. Jaswant Singh I died without an heir but two of his queens were pregnant and it was around the elder baby, Ajit Singh, born a few months later, that the clan now rallied, displaying a degree of resilience and loyalty unsurpassed in history.
From 1678 to 1707, The Thirty Year Rathore War of Independence, is one of the most glorious chapters in the history of the clan and it produced its greatest hero, Durgadas Rathore. It was Durga Das, a Thakur, who protected the young prince Ajit singh rathore from the Mughals and challenged Aurangzeb for twenty five of those thirty years. The war of independence also produced a heroine, Gora Dai, Ajit's wet-nurse, who smuggled him out of Delhi in a basket when Aurangzeb had the Rathore Haveli surrounded. She left behind her own child so that the Emperor's spies would continue to hear an infant's cry in the haveli.
By the turn of the seventeenth century Durga Das had recovered most of Marwar but Jodhpur itself was regained only a few days after Aurangzeb's death in 1707. Before entering their citadel Ajit Singh and Durga Das had Mehrangarh washed clean with sacred water from the River Ganga. And to commemorate their re-conquest the ecstatic Ajit built the Fateh Pol, the Gate of Victory in the fort which opens out into the walled city.
The Jodhpur Ajit Singh inherited in 1707 was very different from what his father had bequeathed to him thirty years before. Most of her temples had been destroyed by Aurangzeb's men. These Ajit repaired and built anew. Thus began the century that would bless the Rathore capital with prolific construction of the highest quality.
In the twilight of the Mughal era Maharaja Ajit Singh rose to great prominence and power in Delhi, placing on Shah Jahan's Peacock Throne as many as five puppet emperors. But he died in a most brutal and foul manner. In 1724 he was murdered by his second son Bakhta Singh as he lay asleep in his chamber in Mehrangarh. The motive in all likelihood was political ambition for he was granted the district of Nagaur soon after by his brother, the new Maharaja Abhaya Singh. The Rathores would take many years to recover from this monstrous act and when they finally did, it was too late.
In spite of the turbulent times the eighteenth century in the history of Marwar is significant because it witnessed a strong revival of Hindu culture; somewhat neglected in the Mughal age; a mini renaissance, as it were.The rulers, Maharajas Abhaya Singh (1724–49), Bakhta Singh (1751–52), Bijaya Singh (1752–93) and Maan Singh (1803–43), none as powerful as Jodha and Maldev or as influential as Jaswant Singh I and Ajit Singh, were acutely conscious of this and patronised the arts and culture enthusiastically. Music, poetry, literature and formal debate flourished and theological study was encouraged. The Pustak Prakash, a historical library which still exists in Mehrangarh, was established; the Marwar School of Miniature Painting matured and Jodhpur was lavished with exquisite architecture. That this cultural flowering took place at all is remarkable because politically it was not the most stable of times.
Indeed, the power vacuum in Delhi with the fall of the Mughals was filled not by the Rajputs but by the Marathas from the south and the British from their base Calcutta in the east. The Rajput clans exhausted themselves in petty internecine warfare and were powerless against the crippling Maratha raids. Within the Rathore clan itself there was much dissent, with many of Marwar's principal Thakurs defying the Maharaja in open rebellion. Things came to such a pass in the second decade of the nineteenth century that Maharaja Maan Singh was forced to feign madness in his own citadel to protect himself. Finally, in desperation, he endorsed a treaty with The East India Company in Januaruy,1818. The Treaty forged what was clearly a subordinate alliance but did not intrude on the internal sovereignty of the Maharaja. But even this the martial Rathores squandered with their petty infighting.
Maharaja Maan Singh resisted British incursions for many years but in 1839 they occupied Mehrangarh and Jodhpur for five months and left behind a Resident Political Agent. Their actions were clearly in violation of the Treaty but the Rathores, bitterly divided, were not in any position to fight.
Two threads in the economic, social and political development of Marwar emerge after Maharaja Takhat Singh's (Maan Singh's successor) accession in 1843. The first of these was the gradual erosion of the Rathore's sovereignty, their further emasculation, and with it the ascendancy of the British, reflected in the growing influence of the Resident. The second was the positive aspect of Britain's rule in India; the stream of progress that brought to Marwar unprecedented peace and prosperity. Even the events of 1857, the Great Indian Uprising, failed to deflect this desert kingdom from her march to modernity.
Faithful to the Treaty, Takhat Singh sent soldiers to protect British garrisons and magnanimously afforded sanctuary to British women and children in Mehrangarh. It was not merely enlightened self-interest. As Takhat Singh himself said, " Rajputs, when they have sworn friendship with anybody, will not desert him to the last breath of their life".
Three minority reigns followed that of Jaswant Singh II; those of his son Sardar Singh (1895–98-1911), grandson Sumer Singh (1911-16-1918) and younger grandson Umaid Singh (1918–1923) but with Sir Pratap Singh as the Regent (1895–98, 1911–1916 and 1918–1922)), Marwar's development remained top priority. In 1914 Pratap took the Rathore cavalry, The Jodhpur Lancers, to the First World War. After a three years of trench warfare in France they moved to the Middle East. There they covered themselves with glory. Indeed, their charge and capture of Haifa (now in Israel) in 1918 against Turkish machine gun fire, with quicksand and a river to negotiate, is regarded by many as the finest cavalry action ever in the history of warfare. On 23rd Sept 1918 the charge on Haifa was led by Capt Aman Singh Jodha, OBI as the leading Squadron commander after Maj Dalpat Singh,MC was killed in the action right at the beginning of the battle. Capt Aman Singh was awarded the highest gallantry award of Indian Order of Merit (IOM).
The Jodhpur Lancers would return to the Middle East in the Second World War to protect oil fields and pipelines.
Also in the first world war, Lance dafadar Govind Singh, a mertia rathore from village Damoi was awarded a Victoria cross, the highest gallantry award by UK.
Maharaja Sumer Singh died in 1918 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Umaid Singh. Jaswant Singh II's mission was now completed by him, and in grand style.
Whatever Umaid Singh built, from the huge Jawai Bandh Dam in southern Marwar, which fifty years later, is still one of Jodhpur's main sources of drinking water, to landing strips all over the state for emergency relief, and the modern Windham (now Mahatma Gandhi) Hospital which remains Jodhpur's biggest, was state-of-the-art and of the finest quality. And he built much. A prolific builder who changed the face of Marwar, he is remembered best however, quite unjustly but not surprisingly, for his magnificent palace, rivalling Mehrangarh Fort in the east as Jodhpur's presiding deity. Built as a part of a comprehensive Famine Relief-Employment Generation programme launched by Umaid Singh in 1925 the Umaid Bhawan Palace remains the grandest monument to Keynesian economics.
Maharaja Umaid Singh died in June,1947 and was succeeded by his twenty four year old elder son, Hanwant Singh.On the fifteenth of August the British departed and India became free. Like the other Princely States, Marwar-Jodhpur acceded to the Dominion of India on the three areas of Defense, Communications and Foreign Affairs. In all other respects Maharaja Hanwant Singh remained the sovereign ruler of Marwar.
This changed in 1949 when the Government of India in New Delhi chose to dishonour the Instruments of Accession and moved to merge the Princely States with the Dominion. The Merger of Marwar took place on 30 March 1949. On that day the desert kingdom merged with the other Princely States of Rajputana to form the new Indian state of Rajasthan. Individual Covenants with the rulers allowed them privy purses and a few privileges but they surrendered all their powers.
Three years later, in January, 1952, Maharaja Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash as he flew from constituency to constituency on the vote counting day of the Indian Republic's first General Elections. That night, as they brought his body back to his stunned capital, the results were announced. Of the thirty five Rajasthan State Legislative Assembly seats that made up the former kingdom of Marwar Hanwant Singh's candidates had emerged victorious in thirty one. Of the four parliamentary seats, his candidates won all.
The Maharaja had himself won both a State Assembly and Parliamentary seat, both from Jodhpur. The man he defeated in Jodhpur, Jai Narayan Vyas, fought a by-election a few months later from outside Marwar and was elected the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. An early indication of the convoluted path Indian politics was about to take.
On 12 May 1952, coincidentally Jodhpur Foundation Day, Hanwant's son, the four-year-old Gaj Singh II, was anointed Maharaja in a time honoured dynastic ritual. The ceremony was performed by the Thakur of Bagri, descendant of Jodha's elder brother Akhairaj, who celebrates his ancestor's noble renunciation in Jodha's favour by anointing the forehead of the prince with his blood after nicking his thumb with his sword.
The ceremony took place on the eighteenth century Shringar Chowki in Mehrangarh, and Gaj Singh II was officially recognised as the Maharaja of Jodhpur by the Government of India. This "recognition" was taken away by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 who moved Parliament to amend the Constitution. The former rulers of India were "de-recognised" and their privy purses and privileges withdrawn.
For the people of Marwar, however, the fifty three year old Gaj Singh II remains their Maharaja. He, on his part, continues to discharge his manifold social, cultural, charitable and religious duties. The Eton and Oxford educated Maharaja and his family still reside in Umaid Bhawan, now partly a luxury hotel, and Mehrangarh, still in private possession, is today undoubtedly the country's finest fort-museum.
The Rathores gradually spread across Marwar, there was a time when the Rathore clan had expanded all the way from Delhi to Indore becoming the strongest Rajput clan in history but gradually weakened because of wars with the Sur Dynasty and Mughal Empire which lasted for more than 10 years until the Rathores were pushed back.An epoch in the history both of Marwar and of the Rathores was marked by Rao Jodha, a warrior who founded a kingdom that grew to encompass all of Marwar. He also founded the city of Jodhpur in 1459, and moved his capital thither from Mandore.
Idar State (Sabarkantha Dist and some areas of Mahesana Dist in Gujarat) was one of the largest princely states in Gujarat, was ruled by Rathores. Apart from Idar many of the Rathods had migrated to the different parts of Gujarat and one of them is Lunavada State (Currently in Panchmahals District of Gujarat.)
One of his sons, Rao Bika, with the help of his uncle Rawat Kandhal, established the town of Bikaner in 1488, in the Jangladesh region lying to the north of Marwar; that town was to become the seat of a second major Rathore kingdom. Some of these migrations from Marwar into Gujarat caused changes in language and the spelling of Rathore to Rathod, which is seen in clans present in Gujarat. Rathods of Gujarat trace their history to the city Jodhpur.
The various cadet branches of the Rathore clan gradually spread to encompass all of Marwar and later sallied abroad to found states in Central India and Gujarat. At the time of India's independence in 1947, the princely states ruled by various branches of the Rathore clan included:
There is a small number of Rathores in Village Baburban, Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.The family was headed by Sri Sugreev Singh. Eminent Industrialist Sunil Singh Rathore and Rajesh Singh Rathore belongs to the same family.They have inhabited 60 villages in Kaimur and Buxar district of Bihar.Twenty five miles to the east of Ballia-Bairiya bandh, There is a small village called Majhauan in Ballia district of Uttar pradesh. This area ruled by semariya patti RATHORE jodha clan. The place has a rich population of rathore(about 500 rathore families). They had migrated from Jodhpur Rajasthan, speak Bhojpuri language