Rathi
Encyclopedia
Rathi, Rathee or Rath (राठ) is a gotra
of mainly Gujjars, Jats, Yaduvanshi Ahirs and Rajputs found in Jammu
, Himachal Pradesh
, Rajasthan
, Haryana
, Uttar Pradesh
and parts of Madhya Pradesh
, India and in Pakistan
, Lahore
, Sialkot
, Gujranwala
, Gujarat, Kasur
, Shakr Garh, Narowal
. In earlier times Rathis were found in Kashmir too. Rathi is also used as a title in the Maheshwari
community of Rajasthan
. Dilip Singh Ahlawat has mentioned it as one of the ruling clans in Central Asia
. Rathis are now a trading and business community in Rajasthan
State. Rathi gotra originated from Rajasthan.
Rathee (रथी) Rathi (रथी) people fought wars with rath (chariot
) hence known as Rathi (रथी). They are considered descendants of Nagavanshi
ancestor named Ratharvi (रथर्वी).
Rathi is common surname found in Maheshwari
community which is a business caste of Rajasthan
. But now they have migrated to every part of the country and outside India too. They are renowned surname in business. For e.g. Anand Rathi fin services belongs to this community.
Rathi are also present in Pakistan (mainly in Mithi, Thar, Pakistan)
In the Hathigumpha inscription
, King Kharavela
of Orissa
is stated to have defeated the Rathikas and Bhojakas, i.e. Rathis and Bhojas, in the fourth year of his reign. Their royal insignia was umbrella. They were, at that time in Central India (East Malwa ? ) It is significant that the inscription of Kharavela says that Rathis and Bhojas, "were abandoned by good Brahmans", obviously because they were conquerors and they had not accepted the orthodox, unequal and useless ideas of those priests. They had their own priests called Magas or Bhojas, after they settled in Bhoja County.
Raja Brihdval was a king of this clan during Mahabharata. In medieval period there was rule of Rath rulers in Malwa, Kathiawar
, Gaya
, Badayun etc.
. Rathi have a population 2,550 in Patiala district. In Haryana, they are concentrated in the Jhajjar and Rohtak districts (villages Bhaproda, Kharar, Asandha, Bahadurgarh, Sankhol). Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in Uttarakhand have a sizeable Rathee presence.
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 mainly Gujjars, Jats, Yaduvanshi Ahirs and Rajputs found in Jammu
Jammu
Jammu , also known as Duggar, is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India.Jammu city is the largest city in Jammu and the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir...
, Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
, 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...
, Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
and parts of Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, India and in 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...
, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Sialkot
Sialkot
Sialkot is a city in Pakistan situated in the north-east of the Punjab province at the foothills of snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. It is the capital of Sialkot District. The city is about north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometers from Indian-controlled Jammu.The...
, Gujranwala
Gujranwala
Gujranwala is a industrial city in the north-east of the Punjab province. It is the sixth largest city in Pakistan with a population of approximately 2,661,360 as on 24 June 2011...
, Gujarat, Kasur
Kasur
Kasur , the capital of Kasur District in Pakistan. Kasur is located adjacent to the border of Ganda Singh Wala between Pakistan and India, and is a tourist attraction because of the daily occurring Flags lowering ceremony...
, Shakr Garh, Narowal
Narowal
Narowal is a city in the northeast of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city is the capital of Narowal District and tehsil. It is situated on the banks of Ravi River about 4–5 km from the Indian border.-Etymology:...
. In earlier times Rathis were found in Kashmir too. Rathi is also used as a title in the Maheshwari
Maheshwari
Maheshwari are a business community of Vaishnava, originating from Khandela, Rajasthan in western India. They are a sub-group within the Marwaris community. The community is found throughout North India.- History & Origin :...
community of 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...
. Dilip Singh Ahlawat has mentioned it as one of the ruling clans in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. Rathis are now a trading and business community 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...
State. Rathi gotra originated from Rajasthan.
Rathee (रथी) Rathi (रथी) people fought wars with rath (chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
) hence known as Rathi (रथी). They are considered descendants of 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...
ancestor named Ratharvi (रथर्वी).
Rathi is common surname found in Maheshwari
Maheshwari
Maheshwari are a business community of Vaishnava, originating from Khandela, Rajasthan in western India. They are a sub-group within the Marwaris community. The community is found throughout North India.- History & Origin :...
community which is a business caste of 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...
. But now they have migrated to every part of the country and outside India too. They are renowned surname in business. For e.g. Anand Rathi fin services belongs to this community.
Rathi are also present in Pakistan (mainly in Mithi, Thar, Pakistan)
In the Hathigumpha inscription
Hathigumpha inscription
The Hathigumpha inscription , from Udayagiri, near Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, was written by Kharavela, the king of Kalinga in India, during the 2nd century BCE...
, King Kharavela
Kharavela
Khārabēḷa was the third and greatest emperor of the Mahāmēghabāhana Dynasty of Kaḷinga . The main source of information about Khārabeḷa is his famous seventeen line rock-cut Hātigumphā inscription in a cave in the Udayagiri hills near Bhubaneswar, Orissa.During the reign of Khārabēḷa, the Chedi...
of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
is stated to have defeated the Rathikas and Bhojakas, i.e. Rathis and Bhojas, in the fourth year of his reign. Their royal insignia was umbrella. They were, at that time in Central India (East Malwa ? ) It is significant that the inscription of Kharavela says that Rathis and Bhojas, "were abandoned by good Brahmans", obviously because they were conquerors and they had not accepted the orthodox, unequal and useless ideas of those priests. They had their own priests called Magas or Bhojas, after they settled in Bhoja County.
Raja Brihdval was a king of this clan during Mahabharata. In medieval period there was rule of Rath rulers in Malwa, Kathiawar
Kathiawar
Kathiawar or Kathiawad is a peninsula in western India, which is part of the Saurashtra region on the Arabian Sea coast of Gujarat state. It is bounded on the north by the great wetland of the Rann of Kutch, on the northwest by the Gulf of Kutch, on the west and south by the Arabian Sea, and on...
, Gaya
Gaya, India
Gaya is the second largest city of Bihar, India, and it is also the headquarters of Gaya District.Gaya is 100 kilometers south of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Situated on the banks of Falgu River , it is a place sanctified by both the Hindu and the Buddhist religions...
, Badayun etc.
Distribution in Punjab
They are found in Ludhiana and Patiala in PunjabPunjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
. Rathi have a population 2,550 in Patiala district. In Haryana, they are concentrated in the Jhajjar and Rohtak districts (villages Bhaproda, Kharar, Asandha, Bahadurgarh, Sankhol). Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in Uttarakhand have a sizeable Rathee presence.
Notable persons from this gotra
- Acharya Mahavir Singh Rathi - poet, author, social worker. Born at village Jalalpur Pisaba in Aligarh district on 17 January 1930.