Rathore dynasty

The Rathore dynasty is an Indian dynasty belonging to the Rathore clan of Rajputs that has historically ruled over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. The Rathores trace their ancestry from the Suryavamsha (Solar dynasty) and to the Rashtrakutas and later to the Gahadavalas of Kannauj, migrating to Marwar region of Rajasthan after the fall of Kannauj.

This article discusses the "Kanaujiya" Rathores of Marwar and lineages, thereof; Norman Ziegler had noted of 12 other similar branches ("shakhas") of Rathores — Sur, Shir, Kapaliya, Kherada, Abhepura, Jevamt, Vagula, Karaha, Parakra, Ahrao, Jalkheda, and Camdel. Scholarship about those branches are scarce to non-existent.

A section of historians argue for a Rashtrakuta origin. Branches of Rashtrakutas had migrated to Western Rajasthan as early as the late tenth century. Multiple inscriptions of Rathauras have been located in and around Marwar dating from the tenth to thirteenth century, indicating that the Rathores may have emerged from one of the Rashtrakuta branches.

Muhnot Nainsi, employed by the Rathores of Marwar, chronicled Nainsi ri Khyat, a bardic genealogical history of the Rajputs in western Rajasthan c. 1660; one of the oldest extant historical records of the region, the Khyata collated information from existing oral literature, genealogies and administrative sources in a chronological fashion.^{[page needed]} Nainsi had noted of the Rathores to have originated from Kannauj before migrating to Marwar.

British indologist V. A. Smith theorized that the Rathores and Bundelas are an offshoot of the Gahadavala dynasty. Roma Niyogi considers this claim to be of a later origin.

These bardic claims of descent have been since deemed to be largely ahistorical by Ziegler. Ziegler notes the theme of migrations to be common across Rajput genealogies; a construct, borrowed from literary canon of other regions. Later genealogies of Rathores went as far as to derive origin from Gods of the Hindu pantheon — Indra, Narayana et al.

The first Rathore chieftain was Rao Siha Setramot, grandson of the last Gahadavala king Jayachandra. Setramot abdicated the throne of Kanauj to become an ascetic but got embroiled in a royal rivalry and eventually married the daughter of a Gujarati ruler, who birthed him three sons. Rao Asthan, the eldest, was raised at Paltan after Siha's death (at Kanauj) and he went on to establish the first Rathore polity in Pali (and few adjoining villages), after winning over the local Brahmins by defeating an oppressive king named Kanha Mer. Other contemporary sources claim the same descent and construct slightly variable narratives about migration from Kanauj: Setramot fled the Ghurid Sultanate to Marwar and established the first Rathore polity. The Bithoor inscription provides the date of Siha's death in 1273 CE and calls him the son of Set Kunwar; however, it does not claim any Gaharwal origin.

Under Asthan's regime, and that of his successor-rulers, the Rathore territories significantly expanded courtesy confrontations and diplomatic negotiations with other pastoral groups; the primary base shifted multiple times. Marital alliances with any warrior-group operating out of Thar were especially favored and they were welcome to be inducted in the Rathore fold. Multiple new Rathore branches seem to have split out in these spans.