Rajputs - Help?

[Knocker]

Slingshot 248 has an excellent article by Adrian Clarke on the Bhatti Rajputs of Jaisalmer. In it he provides a bibliography and a well justified warning that getting past the politics of the authors is a challenge. 

I have failed to find any further secondary source references of note than those recommended by Adrian in 2006. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My best source so far (aside from Slingshot) is the 2 volumes by General Sandhu.

[tadamson]

The wiki page is reasonable and has most of the references..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhati

[Knocker]

Thanks Tadamson, but that my research had progressed beyond Wikipedia. However, the link does highlight the problem of overcoming the politics of the author. For example, the link you provided states:

They had defeated multiple Islamic attacks by the Qaramithas, Ghaznavids, and Ghurids before the end of the 12th century.

This fails to mention the numerous raids (probably around 17 full scale invasions) by Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th century to fund his campaigns. This included the Somnath Temple raid in 1025. Nor does it mention the Bhatti's role in the first (1191 – Rayput victory) and second (1192 – Rayput defeat) battles of Tarain, which then resulted in the formation of the Delhi Sultanate. 

It then jumps to 1398, missing out the loss of their capital Jaisalmer to the Delhi Sultanate in 1294. Adrain provides a good overview of the siege in his Slingshot article.

From my experience, most of the sources referenced are from authors who some would call 'Hindu revivalists'. In a number of the second hand books I have purchased from an Indian online book seller there have been hand written, or cut outs from newspapers inserted, warning the reader of 'Hindutva'.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/what-is-hindu-nationalism-and-who-are-the-rss 


Therefore, my request was to see if anyone had managed to cut through the chaff to find more reliable interpretations of the history of the 36 Rayput tribes.

[tadamson]

Time to a holiday to Mumbai and the bookshop area.
They used to put most of their stock on alibris, but you don't get so much of it now.
Not all of the original histories etc have been translated into English (or other 'wargamer friendly' languages). This was a big thing in the late 19th early 20th C but it's less fasionable now.
Sadly I can't think of any current acadmics looking at this region. Hence the modern slope to viewing history from a hindu-muslum dichotamy...

[tadamson]

NB

Tom... 

[tadamson]

A very late follow up...

I was sorting books then started looking at the ones on India, then ....

However.  Have you read The "History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians"?  The extracts and texts cover a lot of the Rajput period.

The Wiki page has links to online copies on arcghive.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_India,_as_Told_by_Its_Own_Historians