The ruling clans
Rajputરાજપૂત
The fourteen land-holding clans who ruled the sovereign states and estates of Gujarat, Saurashtra, and Kutch, claiming descent from the Kshatriya varna through the solar, lunar, and fire lines.
The account
The Rajputs proper are the ruling martial clans of Gujarat — Jhala (Zala), Gohil, Jadeja, Jethwa, Chudasama, Sarvaiya, Vala, Rathod, Parmar, Chavda, Vaghela, Chauhan, Solanki and Sisodia. Each held a tract of the land and a cluster of princely states, and each claimed a lineage reaching back to the ancient order.
They were bound by a common code: the seclusion of women behind the veil (), succession of the eldest son, hypergamy — giving daughters only to houses of equal or higher rank — and the strict prohibition of widow remarriage. It was these customs, as much as land and lineage, that marked a family as truly Rajput.
Within the great clans stood many branches. The Raijadas are an offshoot of the Chudasama house of Sorath; the Sarvaiyas descend from Chudasama cadets granted eighty-four villages around Sarvi; the Vajas and Vadhers are the two branches of the Rathods; and the Sisodias of Gohilwad, once without a political head, were slowly counted back among the Rajputs. Around each ruling stood cadet lineages — the Dewani, Wachhani and Govindani Gohils among them — holding their villages by right of blood.
Note — The Solankis (Chalukyas) were the imperial sovereigns of Anhilwad Patan (942–1244 A.D.) ruling all Gujarat, with major sovereign seats enduring at Lunavada (9-gun in Rewa Kantha), Bansda, and numerous thikanas across North and Central Gujarat. While earlier peninsular registers centered on Kathiawar omitted them from local Saurashtra clan rolls, the Solankis stand among the foremost imperial Rajput houses of Greater Gujarat.