Jadeja | |
---|---|
Sketch of Jadeja Chief Bharvaji Jadeja, 1838, by Mrs Postans. | |
Country | India and Pakistan |
Current region | Kutch Sindh Saurashtra |
Founded | 1540 |
Founder | Jadaji |
Estate(s) | Kutch State Nawanagar State Morvi State Dhrol State Gondal State Rajkot State |
Jadeja (Gujarati, Sindhi: Jāḍejā,[1] or Jāṛejā[2]) is a Samma Rajput clan that inhabits the Indian state of Gujarat and the Tharparkar district of Sindh, Pakistan.[3][4] They originated from Sammas of Sindh,[5][6] a pastoral group, and laid a claim on the Rajput identity[7] after marriages with Sodha Rajput women[8][9] by adopting a process called Rajputisation.[10]
For much of its history, Kachchh was ruled by the dynasties that dominated Sind and Gujarat. Beginning in the seventh/thirteenth century, several principalities were established in the region by the Jādejās, a Rājpūt clan descended from the Sammā dynasty of Sind.
On the peninsulas, Jadeja Rajputs became the most powerful lineage. Their ancestry goes back to Samma Rajputs in Sindh who established small chieftains in the 14th century on the peninsula across the Rann. These provided the foundation for the establishment of the larger kingdom of Kacchch in the 15th century by the Jadeja lineage.
An example of the process by which a pastoralist group originating in Sind became one of the prestigious Rajput clans of Saurashtra and Kachchh is that of the Sammas. Branches of this clan (who trace their descent to Kṛṣṇa) moved into Kachchh and Saurashtra, where they eventually became the important Rajput ruling houses of the Jāḍejās in Kachchh and the Cūḍāsamās in Junagadh.
The Jadejas entered the rank of Rajput society slowly from pastoralist pasts, as was frequently the norm in this region. Steady intermarriage between Jadeja men and Sodha Rajput women in Sindh enabled the former to lay claim to a Rajput identity.
..Kutch was a princely state governed by the Jadeja dynasty. They originated from Sindh and traditionally married Sodha Rajput women from the Thar region..
After the Arab conquest of Sindh in the eighth century, pastoralists from Sindh and Arab merchants settled in Kachchh. Some of these pastoralists – the Sammas - were to eventually rise to be the ruling power under the name Jadeja in the mid-1500s. ...At the time, there were Samas in Kachchh as well as Sind. While the Sindhi Samas tended to be Muslim, the Samas in Kachchh were hindus and it is suggested that they might possibly have moved into Kachchh in order ro resist conversion to Islam. (ii):-They also established a kin-based system of administration based on the extraction of agrarian surplus. Adopting Rajput symbol of life was important in the rajputization of the Jadejas, especially to maintain an imperial aura in the face of their subjects