League of Lord Ram’s descendants in Rajasthan gets longer

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Aug 15 (IANS) Several Rajput families from Rajasthan, including the erstwhile royals of Jaipur and Udaipur, a Congress Minister and partys spokesperson, have joined the league of claimants to the rich legacy of Lord Ram.

Claiming to be descendants of Lord Rama soon after the Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution bench raised the question: "We are just wondering if anyone from the 'Raghuvansha' dynasty is still living there (at Ayodhya)?", all the claimants to Ram's bloodline expressed confidence and said they hold strong proofs.

Initially, it was Diya Kumari, the former Jaipur princess and BJP MP from Rajsamand, who claimed that her family had descended from Kush, Lord Ram's son.

In her tweet, she said, "Yes, descendants of Lord Ram are all over the world, including our family who descended from his son Kush." and claimed that their genealogy started from Lord Ram's clan and continues till date.

"My family is the descendant of Lord Ram. My father was the 309th descendant of Lord Ram. We have documents that show that we descended from Kush, Lord Rama's son. We belong to the Kushwaha or the Kachhawa clan," she added.

Meanwhile Ramuramdev, the OSD at museum of City Palace, Jaipur showed the genealogy (vanshavali) from archives of erstwhile royal family at the palace.

This vanshawali clearly shows Raja Dashrath at 62nd number while Ram is numbered at 63rd position in the lineage. Kush has been placed at 64th number in the vanshavali."

"The pothikhana of rajgharana has many interesting documents related to Ayodhya, he says. "The map showing the presence of Ram Mandir is estimated to have come up here in 1710. It proves how and what things were accommodated on different parts of land in the city at that time."

The documents pertaining to Maharaj Sawai Jai Singh who bought the land and established Jai Singhpura there are also here, he says adding that the renovation and construction took place there from 1717 to 1725 after he bought the land.

"Sawai Raja Jaising II of Amer-Jaipur (1699-1743) bought the Ramkot land in Ayodhya in 1717 AD, 10 years after the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and built a Ram temple there, while establishing the city of Jaisinghpura.

"The construction took place for seven years for which we have a documented proof," he added.

He further quoted historian R. Nath, the former Head of Department of History and Culture at University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, who in his book "Studies in Medieval Indian Architecture" said that many documents and maps are being preserved in Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh II City Palace Museum which testify that the Kachhwahas had the ownership of the Jaisinghpura (in Ayodhya) which was the place where the Ram Janmasthan Temple was situated.

The map with us clearly shows the presence of temple on vast spread land in Jaisinghpura. Now how and when this family came to Jaipur is a long story, he adds.

Quoting a research of Nath, he said, "Nath did an intensive research which claims that this erstwhile family will have the final rights over land there. There are documents supporting this fact, he added quoting this historian.

However, Jaipur princess made it clear in her statement saying: "Our family is not interested in becoming a party to the case and neither are we claiming any land or title in Ayodhya. If our documents help us in expediting the case, we shall be happy to provide them."

We have the relevant documents of our lineage in the City Palace Museum. Earlier, in 1992, my father Late Sawai Bhawani Singhji had submitted the documents to the Allahabad High Court," she added.

Meanwhile, Ramuramdev says that Jammu was ruled by Khangaroth-which is again a branch of Kuchwahas. In fact, Ram descendants including Luv and Kush are there at many places.

Another erstwhile royal from Udiapur, Arvind Singh Mewar became a part of this league when he tweeted, "It is historically proven that my family is direct descendants of Shree Ram. We do not wish to stake any claim on Ram Janmabhoomi but believe that Shree Ram Temple must be built at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya," he said.

The Mewar scion Vishvaraj Singh said: "I do state with conviction that my family had descended from Ikshvaku to Lord Ram. This is also the accepted belief of many. The old and new textbooks of history, our elders and those families staying here for years claim the same," he said.

Next in league was Rajasthan spokesperson Satendra Raghav who also came in picture stating himself to be from Lord Ram's clan. He said, "The Raghav Rajputs are the real descendants of Ram."

In a Facebook post, Raghav cited Valmiki's "Ramayana" for his claim, saying his family, belonging to Alwar 'thikana' (royalty), are of the Badgurjar Gotra which sprang up in third generation of Luv, the elder son of Lord Rama.

"The kingdom of Luv spread towards North Kaushal which comes under Ayodhya now while (Lord Ram's younger son) Kush spread his empire in South Kaushal which comes under Chhattisgarh. On page 1,671 of the 'Ramayana', it is said that Badgujar clan came from Luv," said Raghav, a relative of late former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

However, he also claimed that Princess Diya's claims are not true which was refuted by Lokendra Singh Kalvi, Parton of Karni Sena, who also claimed his family to come from Ram's lineage.

"What Diya is saying is true. Raghav is making it a Congress vs BJP fight here by annulling Diya's claim. We need to believe that Kuchhwahas came from Kush, Rama's younger son while Sisodiyas, whom we belong, came from Luv, another son of Ram, we have strong proofs for the same, he added.

Later, State Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas also joined the bandwagon saying: "We are Suryavanshi Rajputs who are known to be the descendants of Lord Ram. No one should have any second thoughts about it. We are descendants of Lord Ram's son Kush."

"In fact, descendants of Lord Ram are spread across the world, which includes my family too," he said, adding that he can provide proof of this to the court, if required.

"Let the court expedite the hearing and pronounce its decision at the earliest," he said.

"Rajawat, Shekhawat and Kuchhwah are all descendants of Lord Ram. The Kushwah clan representing Suryavanshi Rajput were called as Kucchwah", he added.