Jadejaજાડેજા

The account

The Jadejas claim to be Yadavas — descendants of Lord Krishna of the lunar race — through Samba, grandson of the Lord. The Samma clan of Sindh, to which they belong, invaded Kutch in A.D. 900 and gradually made themselves its rulers; both the Raijada–Chudasama–Sarvaiya clans of Sorath and the Jadejas of Halar are its offshoots.

The Jadejas of Kutch began their infiltration into Saurashtra about a century before they finally settled at Jamnagar in 1529, taking the northern tract that became Halar. Jam Raidhanji of Kutch had set his youngest son on the throne over the prime claim of the eldest — an injustice that kept the two branches at feud for twelve generations.

During Jam Sataji’s rule the Sultan Muzaffar of Gujarat, fleeing Akbar’s army, took refuge at Nawanagar; the imperial viceroy marched against the combined armies and one of the bloodiest battles the peninsula had known was fought at Bhoochar Mori near Dhrol, in which the Jadejas suffered a severe defeat and Jamnagar was plundered.

Jam Sataji’s younger son Vibhaji, dissatisfied with his share, obtained Sardhar by stratagem and laid the foundation of an independent state at Rajkot in 1611. Morvi, Dhrol, Gondal, Virpur, Kotda Sangani and some thirteen lesser chieftainships complete the Jadeja map of Saurashtra.

Colonel Walker, who settled the tributes of Kathiawar in 1807, next turned his energy to the suppression of female infanticide, which had prevailed for centuries in Cutch and Saurashtra, particularly among the Jadeja Rajputs — the engagements entered into by the Jadeja chiefs mark a turning point in the social history of the peninsula.