page_title: Rajput
section_title: Culture and ethos
hierarchical_section_title: Rajput / Culture and ethos
caption_attribution_description: English: The Rajput bride
context_page_description: Rajput is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral origin.
  The term "Rajput" acquired its present meaning only in the 16th century, although it is also anachronistically used to describe the earlier lineages that emerged in northern India from the sixth century onwards. In the 11th century, the term "rajaputra" appeared as a non-hereditary designation for royal officials. Gradually, the Rajputs emerged as a social class comprising people from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the membership of this class became largely hereditary, although new claims to Rajput status continued to be made in the later centuries. Several Rajput-ruled kingdoms played a significant role in many regions of central and northern India until the 20th century.
context_section_description: The Bengal army of the East India Company  recruited heavily from upper castes such as Brahmins and Rajputs. However,after the revolt of 1857 by the Bengal sepoys, the British Indian army shifted recruitment to the Punjab.
  The Rajputs were designated as a Martial Race in the period of the British Raj. This was a designation created by administrators that classified each ethnic group as either "martial" or "non-martial": a "martial race" was typically considered brave and well built for fighting, whilst the remainder were those whom the British believed to be unfit for battle because of their sedentary lifestyles.
caption: The Rajput bride, illustration in The Oriental Annual, or Scenes of India (1835)
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