Katewa - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jat Clan: Katewa
Distribution	Rajasthan Rajasthan Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
Varna:	Kshatriya Kshatriya *For the Bollywood film of the same name see Kshatriya Kshatriya or Kashtriya, meaning warrior, is one of the four varnas in Hinduism...
Vansh	Nagavansha Nagavanshi The Nagavanshi dynasty is one of the ancient Kshatriya dynasties of India. The Vedas do not mention Kshatriyas of either Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi, Nagavanshi, Agnivanshi or such Vanshas or lineages. The Puranas, of debatable dating, constructed such genealogies. The Puranas were supposedly...
Branches: (alternative names)	Katewa (कटेवा), Karkotaka (कर्कॊटक), Kikat, Kikata, Kikatwa
Religion	Hinduism Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
Languages	Hindi and Rajasthani Rajasthani language Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...

Katewa is a gotra

Gotra

In the Hindu society, the term Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram , which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son"...

of Jats

Jat people

The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...

found in Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The Katewa gotra

Gotra

people are also settled in Sindh

Sindh

Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. They are descendants of Karkotaka

Karkotaka

Karkotaka was a naga king, who bit Nala at the request of Indra, transforming Nala into a twisted and ugly shape. Karkotaka had deceived Narada who cursed him due to which he could not move a step...

(कर्कॊटक), a Nagavanshi king. They were inhabiting Kikata Kingdom

Kikata Kingdom

Kikata was an ancient kingdom mentioned in the Vedas. It is believed that they were the forefathers of Magadhas. It lay to the south of Magadha Kingdom....

, during Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

period. While some historians suggests that they belong to Yadu

Yadu

Yadu is one of the five Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rig Veda . The Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Puranas mention Yadu as the eldest son of king Yayati and his queen Devayani. The prince of King Yayati, Yadu was a self-respecting and a very established ruler...

vansh. In fact they are Karkotaka

Karkotaka

Karkotaka was a naga king, who bit Nala at the request of Indra, transforming Nala into a twisted and ugly shape. Karkotaka had deceived Narada who cursed him due to which he could not move a step...

or Vakataka

Vakataka

The Vākāṭakas were a royal Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-third century CE. Their kingdom is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the western to the...

Yadava

Yadu

s. The group of people developed their Vamsha according to their system of worship of Devas

Deva (Hinduism)

' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...

and Nāgas. The worshippers of Karka

Karka

Karka is a summit in the Hindu Raj range in Northern Pakistan and has a peak elevation of .Multiple Italian expeditions have been exploring the area from a geographic and ethnographic point of view ....

Naga were known as Karkotaka

Karkotaka

Karkotaka was a naga king, who bit Nala at the request of Indra, transforming Nala into a twisted and ugly shape. Karkotaka had deceived Narada who cursed him due to which he could not move a step...

. Thus, Karkotaka was a Nagavanshi

Nagavanshi

The Nagavanshi dynasty is one of the ancient Kshatriya dynasties of India. The Vedas do not mention Kshatriyas of either Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi, Nagavanshi, Agnivanshi or such Vanshas or lineages. The Puranas, of debatable dating, constructed such genealogies. The Puranas were supposedly...

king. The descendants of Karkotaka are still found in Jats of Rajasthan

Rajasthan

as Katewa clan

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

.

It is believed that these were the people who lost maximum heads in war with Yavanas and hence were known as Katewas like Shishodia in Rajputs.

The Katli River that flows in Jhunjhunu

Jhunjhunu

Jhunjhunu is a town in the state of Rajasthan in India, and the administrative headquarters of Jhunjhunu District. It is located a 180 km from Jaipur and 245 km from Delhi. The town is famous for the frescos on its grand Havelis, a special artistic feature of this region.- Etymology...

was named after them. There was a Janapada of Katewas on its banks. There is place called Khudana on the banks of Katni River

Katni River

Katni River is a river that flows through the Katni District in the state of Madhya Pradesh, located in the northeastern part of India.The river was named after Katewa, a gotra of Jats now found in the state of Rajasthan. Katewa built a fort on the river's banks for the Janapada of Katewa during...

where there was a fort ruled by Katewas.

They were initially known as Kikat inhabiting Kikata Kingdom

Kikata Kingdom

Kikata was an ancient kingdom mentioned in the Vedas. It is believed that they were the forefathers of Magadhas. It lay to the south of Magadha Kingdom....

, on the banks of Vipasha (Beas River

Beas River

The Beas River is a river in the northern part of India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows for some 470 km to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab....

) and Shatrudh (Ravi River

Ravi River

The Ravi is a trans-boundary river flowing through Northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of the six rivers of the Indus System in Punjab region ....

). Later, they came to settle on the banks of river Katni

Katni

Katni is a town on the banks of the Katni River in Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Katni District. It is located in the Mahakoshal Region of Central India. The city is away from the Divisional Headquarters of the region, Jabalpur...

and here were known as Kikatwa or Katewa. They have been mentioned in Matsya

Matsya

Matsya was the first Avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism. The great flood finds mention in Hindu mythology texts like the Satapatha Brahmana, where in the Matsya Avatar takes place to save the pious and the first man, Manu and advices him to build a giant boat.-The Legend:According to the Matsya...

Shatapatha Brahmana

The Shatapatha Brahmana is one of the prose texts describing the Vedic ritual, associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It survives in two recensions, Madhyandina and Kanva , with the former having the eponymous 100 adhyayas,7624 kandikas in 14 books, and the latter 104 adhyayas,6806 kandikas in 17...

13/5/4/9.

Some historians mention their presence in Jaipur

Jaipur

Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....

region where they were called Kachwaha

Kachwaha

Kachwaha are a Suryavanshi Kshatriya clan who ruled a number of kingdoms and princely states in India such as Alwar, Maihar, Talcher, while the largest kingdom was Jaipur which was founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727...

. Some of these people did not believe in widow re-marriage and became Rajput

Rajput

A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

s and migrated to Narwar

Narwar

Narwar is a town and a nagar panchayat in Shivpuri district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Narwar is a historic town and the Narwar Fort is just east of the Kali Sindh River and is situated at a distance of 42 km from Shivpuri. Narwar was known as Narwar District during the times of...

. Rest who did not leave their old traditions remained Jats.

Karkotaka in Indian epics

Katewa (कटेवा) may be identified with one of The Mahabharata Tribes Karkotaka

Karkotaka

Karkotaka was a naga king, who bit Nala at the request of Indra, transforming Nala into a twisted and ugly shape. Karkotaka had deceived Narada who cursed him due to which he could not move a step...

(कर्कॊटक).
Sabha Parva, Mahabharata/Book II Chapter 9, mentions names of chief Nagavanshi kings who attended the Sabha of Yudhishthira. Karkotaka was one of them.

Karkotaka in Indian epics

See also