16th C Rajput Feminine Names

by Sara L. Uckelman
known in the SCA as Aryanhwy merch Catmael

© 2013 Sara L. Uckelman; all rights reserved
last updated 04Dec13

This article arose from a request for information about Rajput women's names in the 16th century. The term 'Rajput' refers to the members of 36 clans from western, northern, and central India. The Rajputs dominated during the 6th to 12th centuries, but until the 20th century in many cases still ruled in the princely states of Rajasthan and Surashtra. Because most record arise from the ruling overlords, who were often not native to India, in many times and cultures in the Indian subcontinent, there are few records recording the native names, and even fewer which discuss women by name. In particular, in the 16th century, northern India was first under the rule of the Lodhi dynasty of Pashtun Muslims, and then later of the Mughals, who were of Chagatai-Turkic origin. As a result, references to Rajputs tend to occur in the records of their conquerors. This makes finding data on feminine names extremely difficult. Nevertheless, what meager amount I have found is sufficient to warrant collecting in to one place, with the strong caveat that all conclusions are extremely speculative.

The Rajput clans are divided into three main lineages (vamshas), each claiming descent from a different Hindu god:

Each lineage is divided into several clans (kula), some of which are further subdivided into branches (shakhas). The Suryavanshi clans are:

The Agnivanshi clans are:

The Chandravanshi clans are:

While I have not been able to establish the existence of all of these clans in the 16th C, the main lineages certainly existed, as the attributions of the mythical origins date to medieval times. [Shah & Shroff, p. 263]

Much of the data that I have found is associated with the Sisodia dynasty that ruled over the Mewar Kingdom (Udaipur Kingdom) from 1303 (the previous dynasty, the Gehlot, was, by lineage, the same dynasty, but the name was changed to Sisodia in 1330 in recognition of the defeat by Rana Hammir of the Muslims after a 16 year occupation. The name derives from Sisoda, the village from which Rana Hammir came).

Molly Emma Aitken, "Pardah and Portrayal: Rajput Women as Subjects, Patrons, and Collectors", _Artibus Asiae>_ Vol. 62, No. 2, 2002 unfortunately focuses primarily on 17th-19th C material, but has a lot of interesting discussion that your submitter might find relevant nonetheless. One starting point is this: "Though concubines, dancers, and maid servants bore proper names, Rajput women were known by the names of their fathers' clans: R{a-}{t.}ho{r.}ani, Sisody{a-}n{i-}, Bha{t.}y{a-}{n.}{i-}, and so on" (p. 256). Sara L. Uckelman T.H. Holdich, "Notes on Ancient and Mediæval Makran", _The Geographical Journal_ Vol. 7, No. 4, Apr., 1896 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773551) mentions a few Rajput tribes: (p. 392, p. 399), (p. 393), (p. 399). No dates, but the implication is that they are ancient/old. Sara L. Uckelman The submitter has probably already come across this in her research, but I've finally found my first unequivocal example of a pre-1600 Rajput feminine name: ( being a title meaning 'queen' or 'lady'), who was "queen mother of the Rajput principality of Mewar" in the 1530s (Alain Desoulières, "Mughal Diplomacy in Gujarat (1533-1534) in Correia's 'Lendas da India'", _Modern Asian Studies_ Vol. 22, No. 3, 1988, pp.437-438, http://www.jstor.org/stable/312590). Sara L. Uckelman Apparently, Karmavati's husband's mother's name was Sringardevi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_Raimal); is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess', but it's use as part of a compound given name is not automatically presumptuous. Sara L. Uckelman Durgavati maravi (1524-1564) was a Rajput queen of the Gonds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_Durgavati). I haven't been able to figure out what "maravi" might be. Sara L. Uckelman Oooh, there are appear to be a number of women's names known in connection with Maharana Udai Singh (1522-1572), ruler of Mewar (in addition to Karnavati mentioned above). Four wives or consorts are named in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udai_Singh: Jaivantabai Songara Sajjabai Solankini Lalabai Vikram Dev. Dheerbai Bhattiyani His nurse was named (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panna_Dhai); her given name is asserted to mean 'emerald' but I don't have anything to corroborate this. is a Hindi occupational byname meaning 'wetnurse'. And his sister was named (George Birdwood, "The Rajputs in the History of Hindustan, Part 1", Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 60, p. 923). <-bai> here clearly appears to be a suffix of some sort, though I'm not sure (yet) what it means. was the second element of the name of a local ruler who founded Jodhpur (hence the name) in 1459: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jodhpurs.... and are both Rajput clans (cf. the article cited earlier), which lends credence to the idea that + is a plausible structure for a 16th C Rajput woman, one that I bet would be given the benefit of the doubt by the CoA in the absence of further information.

Sources & references