Rajput: Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-BhattiJadon

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This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in 1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch. See examples and a tutorial.

From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India

By R. V. Russell

Of The Indian Civil Service

Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces

Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner

Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.

NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.

Rajput: Yadu, Yadava, Yadu-Bhatti Jadon

The Yadus are a well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yadu was the most illustrious of all the tribes of Ind, and became the patronymic of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu) race. It is not clear, even according to legendary tradition, what, if any, connection the Yadus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held to have been a prince of this tribe and founded Dwarka in Gujarat with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been killed.

Colonel Tod states that the Yadu after the death of Krishna, and their expulsion from Dwarka and Delhi, the last stronghold of their power, retired by Multan across the Indus, founded Ghazni in Afghanistan, and peopled these countries even to Samarcand. Again driven back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and founded Salbhanpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej and Gara into the Indian deserts, where they foundedTannote, Derawal and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 11 57.

It has been suggested in the main article on Rajput that the Y^adus might have been the Sakas, who invaded India in the second century A.D. This, is only a speculation. At a later date a Yadava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital at Deogiri or Daulatabad and its territory lying between that place and Nasik.^ Mr. Smith states that these Yadava kings were descendants of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts of western India and also Gujarat. The Yadu clan can scarcely, however, be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that case it would not probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member.

The Yadava dynasty only lasted from A.D. 11 50 to 13 I 8, when the last prince of the line, Harapala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to whom the king, his father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated, was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yadu-Bhatti Rajputs of Jaisalmer claim descent from Salivahana, who founded the Saka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era belonged to the Saka dynasty of Gujarat, where, according ^ Seealsoarticlejadum for a separate ^ Early History of India, 3rd ediaccount of the local caste in the Central tion, p. 434. Provinces.

to the tradition given above, the Yadus also settled. This point IS not important, but so far as it goes would favour the identification of the Sakas with the Yadavas. The Bhatti branch of the Yadus claim descent from Bhati, the grandson of Salivahana. They have no legend of having come from Gujarat, but they had the title of Rawal, which is used in Gujarat, and also by the Sesodia clan who came from there.

The Bhattis are said to have arrived in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city being founded much later in A.D. 1 1 83. Jaisalmer State, the third in Rajputana, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is desert, and a population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the title of Maharawal and receives a salute of fifteen guns.

The Jareja Rajputs of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yadus who have largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent from Jamshid, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states, the title of their rulers is Jam. They were formerly much addicted to female infanticide. The name Yadu has in other parts of India been corrupted into Jadon, and the class of Jadon Rajpiats is fairly numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have become a caste, its members marrying among themselves. This is also the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jadum, and have been treated under that name in a separate article. The small State of Karauli in Rajputana is held by a Jadon chief.