The Kushwaha (also spelled as Kachavāhā,Kachawaha,Kacchavahas, Kachhawa, Kuchhwaha,Kachhawaha,Kushwaha, & Keshwala including Kacchapghata, Kakutstha, and Kurma) are a Suryavanshi Kshatriya clan who ruled a number of kingdoms and princely states in India such as Alwar, Maihar, Talcher, while the largest kingdom was Jaipur (Jainagara) which was founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727. The Maharaja of Jaipur is regarded as the head of the extended Kachwaha clan.
Kushwaha caste is found in large numbers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh as well as in Nepal and Mauritius. They claim descent from Shri Kusha, the eldest son of Shri Rama. Kushwaha are locally called Koiri or Koiry (Bihar), Kashi or Kachi (Around Varanasi and MP), Maurya (Uttar Pradesh), Shakya (Uttar Pradesh and Nepal) as well as bhagirathi and sagarvanshi (Saini”Sainya”) or Gehlaut (Western Uttar Pradesh).
Legend and early history
Lord Sri Rama (center) with wife Sita, brother– Lakshmana and devotee Hanuman. Rama and Lakshmana are always shown to be ready for battle, with bow and arrow, as it is their Kshatriya dharma to fight. Rama was from Suryavanshi lineage. The Kachhawas belong to the Suryavanshi lineage, which claims descent from the Surya (Sun Dynasty) or Suryavansha of the ancient Kshatriyas.They are descent from Raghav (Raghuvanshi) as they claim descent from Kusha eldest of the twin sons of Rama, belongs to Raghav (Raghuvanshi) clan, hero of the Ramayana, to whom patrilineal descent from Surya is in turn ascribed. Indeed, the name Kachawaha is held by many to be a patronymic derived from the name “Kusha”. However, it has been suggested that Kachwaha is a diminutive of the Sanskrit conjoint word ‘Kachhahap-ghata’ or ‘Tortoise-killer’; Tortoise in Sanskrit being Kashyapa, although there may be several connotations for the interpretation of these terms. According to Vishnu Purana, bardic chronicles and popular tradition; Sumitra was the last king of this dynasty in Ayodhya. In the fourth century BC Mahapadma Nanda of Nanda Dynasty included Ayodhya in his empire and Kushwahas were forced to leave. Kurma was son of Sumitra thus migrated from their parental abode and established them self at the bank of the river son, where they constructed a fort called the Rohtas (Rahatas) fort.
