The Yadavas (modern Jadus ) of Eastern and North-Eastern Rajasthan ---

The Yadavas ( modern Jadus ) of Eastern and Nothern- Eastern Rajasthan --

Besides the Bhatis of Jaisalmer, there were other clans enjoying political power in different parts of Rajasthan , who traced their descent from the ancient Indian hero Yadu. They styled themselves as Yadavas or ‘Yaduvansis  (meaning descendants of  Yadu) Kshatriyas.

Ancient Yadus /Yadavas (Sanskrit ) means in Hindi  is Jadus /Jadon.The modern Bhatis ,Jadons and Jadejah are the real yadus or Yadava clan of Lunar race kshatriyas .

According to Vasistha,the priest of Raja Sudas in his prayers to Indra says( Rv.VII, 19 , 8.) that  the Yadava and Turvasa evidently means the distant descendants of Yadu and Turvasu  of Lunar race kshatriy kings , sons of Maharaja Yayati and his wife Devayani respectively , for the word Yadava is admittedly a Vedic patronymic derived from Yadu , and the word Turvasa is a derivative of the Vedic word Turvas , {Turvas being the Vedic form which stands for the Puranic form Turvasu ; the form Turvasu also is some times used in the Rgveda} .same is in case of Yadava and Yadu .Lines other than those preserved in the Puranas existed , as each king was the father , not of one son only ,but of many sons ;in this way the Yadus and Turvasus multiplied into Tribes.The chiefs of these  tribes  were titled as Yadavas and Turvasa respectively.
Mahabharata says (Kumb MBh I ,79 ,42)
"It has been remembered that the Yavanas and Yadavas were the descendants of theTurvasu and Yadu ,the sons of Yayati Nahusa ." The Philologists declare that the "Y "in 'Yavana or Yadava ' may be replaced by "J" ; that is both the form "Yavana " and "Javana" , same as in" Yadava and Jadava " are permissible and therefore the interchangeable.Javana even in later Sanskrit literature "one who possesses speed " .Now the word Turvas also means "one who runs fast " ; so that both the words Turvas and Javanas means same .Just as the Yadavas mean the descendants of Yadu   .So the Yavanas --the Javanas mean the descendants of Yavana.(Turvasu ).

Prominent among them was the branch of Yaduvamshis or Yadavas (Jadons ) who later came to rule over the kingdom of Karauli, and the Yaduvamshis of the Alwar-Bharatpur area.

The traditional genealogists assert that the Yadavas of Karauli have descended from one of the Surasena or Yadava branches. This branch, having
migrated along with Krishna and the rest of the clan from Mathura to Dwarka, during the age of the epic Mahabharata because of the hostile activities of King
Jarasandh of Magadha, did not remain at Dwarka after hearing of Jarasandh’s death. Instead, they returned subsequently to the Mathura area. Their chroniclers
state that a descendant of this Yadava branch, king Ichhapal, ruled over Mathura and its hinterland around AD 879 .
The descent of the Karauli Yadavas (part of the old Surasena group) is taken from Ichhapal, through a King Jaitapal, down to King Vijaypal (who shifted the capital from Mathura to Bayana in the mid-eleventh century), and his
successors, including Tahanpal, Kumarapal etc., as already mentioned in a previous section. Following the occupation of their territories by Muhammad of
Ghor in 1196 during the reign of Kumarapal, this branch of the Yadavas lost its power and prestige over the ensuing century and a quarter. They apparently
sought refuge in the wilderness to the south of Tahangarh, and when pressed further, moved across the River Chambal into the jungles of Sabalgarh, where their succeeding generations consolidated their hold, and lent their name to the
tract, which became known as ‘Jadonwati’.

  A genealogy given in a work called the Vritta-vilas by Yadunath  states that after Kumarapal came, in turn, Ajaypal, Haripal, Sahanpal, Anangapal,
Prithvipal, Rajapal, Trilokpal, Bapal Dev, Aasal Dev, Sahas Dev, Gughal Dev (Gokul Dev), and his son Arjun Dev. If the Ajaypal, Haripal and Sahanpal listed in Yadunath’s genealogy are identical to the Ajaypal, Haripal and Sahanpal
named in inscriptions found in the Mahana area (see previous chapter), it would imply that Kumarapal’s direct line ended with his defeat. On the other hand, the
Vritta-vilas may have confused and combined together the names of rulers of two sub-branches of one family. It is possible that Ajaypal was a brother or close
relative of Kumarapal. He may even have been a son, in which case one would assume that Ajaypal was a co-ruler during his father’s lifetime over the areas
where his inscription was found!
It was during the reign of Gughal (or Gokul) Dev’s son, Arjun Dev, also called Arjunpal, that the clan’s fortunes eventually revived. Arjunpal (r. 1327-61), son of Gughal Dev (or Gokul Dev), “...taking advantage of the unpopularity of Miyan Makhan of Mandrayal, drove [out] the Turks and established his authority over his patrimony” . He strengthened his position by subduing the local Meenas too, as well as the Panwar Rajputs, who were also strong in the region. Arjunpal also successfully retook Tahangarh — the fortress-capital of previous chiefs of his line — from the Delhi Sultanate’s control.
Arjunpal is credited with founding the town of Kalyanpur (present Karauli) in VS 1405, i.e. A.D 1348. (Karauli lies about 40 km from Tahangarh).

  The town was reputedly resplendent, according to the Khyat tradition, with many
temples, mansions, gardens and lakes, besides the royal palace . This would remain the capital of his descendants for nearly seven hundred years.

  Among Arjunpal’s successors were Vikramaditya, Abhaychand
(Abhaypal), Prithvipal (Prithipal), Udaichand (Udaipal), Rudra Pratap, Chandrasen (Chandrapal), Gopal Das, Dwarka Das and Jagmani. (The names of
the various rulers listed in the Vritta-vilas are slightly different.

According to that text, after Arjun Dev (Arjunpal) came Vikramaditya, Vakhatavilas, Abhaychandra, Prithviraj, Rudra Pratap, and then Chandrasen, etc). It was
during the rule of Prithvipal, in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, that the ancestral fort of Tawangarh (Tahangarh) was wrested afresh from the Yadavas
by Afghans . The local Meenas too proved a formidable adversary for Prithvipal, and he failed in his attempt to suppress them. However, it seems he
was able to repulse an attack by the ruler of Gwalior.

The reigns of Udaichand (Udaipal), Rudra Pratap (d. 1449) and Chandrasen (Chandrapal) followed. In AD 1454, Chandrapal (who had succeeded Rudra Pratap in 1449), was defeated by Malwa’s powerful sultan, Mahmud Khalji, who stormed Karauli and seized it. The sultan handed over the
administration of the town to his son, Fidvi Khan. Meanwhile, deprived of his kingdom, the Karauli chief retired to Untagarh, where he lived out the rest of his
life. Chandrapal’s immediate successors ruled over a drastically truncated territory. The fortunes of this branch did not change until the reign of Gopaldas— variously described as Chandrapal’s son or grandson — who took up his
sword to consolidate his position locally. We shall take up the history of Karauli from the reign of Gopaldas in the next chapter.
While one branch of the Yaduvamshi warriors was carving out a new state in the Karauli area, in the Alwar-Bharatpur area the advent of the Turks and
establishment of the Delhi Sultanate as a near neighbour resulted in the further
weakening of other local Yaduvamshi chiefs during the AD 1200-1500 period.

There was certain general resistance led by the local chiefs 130, some of whom found it necessary to re-locate themselves (and their communities), in
strategically defensible locales. Others migrated. Yet, others sank to positions of less prominence, only to be replaced by other, newer, fief-holders and
chiefships. In time, some of these groups and their elite gradually converted to Islam. The Khan-i-Khana and Khanzada (literally, sons of Khans, i.e. great
leaders) group of the Alwar area are among those who assert that they are descended from Yaduvamshis who had accepted Islam. One may add here that Powlett, in his Gazetteer of Ulwar noted that
various Delhi Sultanate’s records in the Persian language held that the Mewati chief Bahadur Nahar — discussed further in this chapter, was the ancestor of the
Khanzadas, but the family traditions of the Khanzadas themselves traced their
lineage further back . According to the Khanzada traditions, Adhanpal
(Anandpal), fourth in descent from Tahanpal, the Yadava/Jadon chief of Bayana, temporarily established himself at Durala, amidst the hills around Tijara and Firozpur (in Gurgaon, Haryana), but was later driven to Saretha, some miles to
the north. In the reign of Sultan Feroze Shah Tughlaq of Delhi, Adhanpal’s grandson, Lakhanpal, accepted Islam. He made Kotila his base. Powlett adds
that many Khanzadas insisted that the term is derived from ‘Khan Jadu’ — or ‘Lord Jadu’, “and was intended to render still nobler the name of the princely race from which they came” ).
In all this, one cannot be certain whether during this period the ordinary farmers carried on their seasonal activities relatively undisturbed here (and in
other areas of Rajasthan), or whether they were affected drastically in the wake
of the Delhi Sultanate’s concentrated effort to subdue and dominate the people
of the ‘Mewat’ region.

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Author-Dr Dhirendra Singh Jadaun
Village-Larhota near Sasni
District-Hatharas ,U.P.
Associate Prof in Agric.
Sahid Captain Ripudaman Singh Govt.College , Sawaimadhopur ,Raj.
322001.