| Guhila dynasty | |
|---|---|
| Country | Kingdom of Mewar |
| Founded | 566 |
| Founder | Rawal Guhil |
| Current head | None (extinct) Mahendra Singh Mewar (cadet branch) |
| Final ruler | Ratnasimha (main branch) Bhupal Singh (cadet branch) |
| Seat | |
| Deposition | 1303 (main branch) 1948 (cadet branch) |
| Cadet branches | House of Sisodia |
The Guhilas of Medapata colloquially known as Guhilas of Mewar were a Rajput dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Mewar (Medapata, modern Mewar) region in present-day Rajasthan state of India.[1][2] The Guhila kings initially ruled as Gurjara-Pratihara feudatories between the end of 8th and 9th centuries and later were independent in period of the early 10th century and allied themselves with the Rashtrakutas.[3] Their capitals included Nagahrada (Nagda) and Aghata (Ahar). For this reason, they are also known as the Nagda-Ahar branch of the Guhilas.
The Guhilas assumed sovereignty after the decline of the Pratiharas in the 10th century under Rawal Bharttripatta II and Rawal Allata. During the 10th-13th centuries, they were involved in military conflicts with several of their neighbours, including the Kingdom of Malwa, the Kingdom of Sambhar, the Delhi Sultanate, the Chaulukyas, and the Kingdom of Gujarat. In the late 11th century, the Paramara king Bhoja interfered in the Guhila throne possibly deposing a ruler and placing some other ruler of the branch.[4]
In the mid-12th century, the dynasty divided into two branches. The senior branch (whose rulers are called Rawal in the later medieval literature) ruled from Chitrakuta (modern Chittorgarh), and ended with Ratnasimha's defeat against the Delhi Sultanate at the 1303 Siege of Chittorgarh. The junior branch rose from the village of Sisoda with the title Rana and established the Sisodia Rajput dynasty.
The period between the seventh and the twelfth century witnessed gradual rise of a number of new royal-lineages in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which came to constitute a social-political category known as 'Rajput'. Some of the major lineages were the Pratiharas of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and adjacent areas, the Guhilas and Chahamanas of Rajasthan, the Caulukyas or Solankis of Gujarat and Rajasthan and the Paramaras of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
By contrast in Rajasthan a single warrior group evolved called Rajput (from Rajaputra-sons of kings): they rarely engaged in farming, even to supervise farm labour as farming was literally beneath them, farming was for their peasant subjects. In the ninth century separate clans of Rajputs Cahamanas (Chauhans), Paramaras (Pawars), Guhilas (Sisodias) and Caulukyas were splitting off from sprawling Gurjara Pratihara clans...