Chandel

Chandel or Chandela is a Rajput clan^[1] ruled Bundelkhand in north-central India and fought against the early Muslim invaders. They were feudatories of the Pratiharas.^[2][3][4]

Origin and History

According to Indian Historian Romila Thapar, The Chandela kings narrated a complex origin myth linked to the lunar line in their inscriptions but their origin was associated with the Gond tribes of Central India. It is said that they originally worshipped a rock, Maniya Deo, installed in their earliest capital of Mahoba. Through the processes of acquiring Rajput status and subscribing to Sanskritic culture, which involved devotion to Puranic deities, they expressed this change by building the temples of Khajuraho which were distinctly different from the shrine of Maniya Deo. This illustrates a shift from a local cult to a patronage of a puranic sect.^[5]

According to S. N. Sen, the Chandels were originally Hinduised Bhars or Gonds or both, who became Kshatriyas on attaining political power. The Gaharwars similarly are associated with the Bhars; the Bundelas and the northern Rathors are offshoots of the Garhawars. The Dharmashastras recognise the possibility of lower castes being elevated to higher castes.^[6]

The British indologist V. A. Smith also believed that the Chandelas were in origin a non-Aryan tribe, associated with the original Gonds and Bhars.^[7]