• History
In vikram samvat 683, present day egypt was called ‘Missar’, and there was one state in
missar called “Shonitpur”, which was rulled by great king Jam Devendra Sama.His fore father
were given title जाम (‘Jam’) by emperor of Iran.Inthat year v.s.683, Sonitpur was attacked by Omar
Khalifa, and King Devendra was defeated in that battle of sonitpur.Omar Khalifa offered the
eldest son Aspat of Devendra the Throne of Sonitpur with the condition that Aspat will have to
convert to Islam. So Asapt(असपत) converted to Islam and became king of sonitpur. Three other
brothers Gajpat(गज़पत),Narpat(नरपत) and Bhupat(भुपत) refused to get converted to Islam and they migrated to
present day Afghanistan. They captured Gazni by defeating king Firozshah. And Jam Narpat
was made King of Gaznee. He ruled a major part of Afaghanistan from Gazni for 18 years.
After that in a war with Badshah of Kabul,he was defeated and he became Martyr.His son
Samaji migrated to present day Sindh. (Pakistan.) They were all called “Sama” Rajputs at that
time. The King of Sama Rajput was called Jam.Since that many many generations of Sama
Rajputs rulled Sindh.Thier capital was “Sama nagar” or ‘Nagar-Thaththa’,100 k.m. from
Karachi.,still one can see remains of ThaThaa, about 100 k.m from Karachi.around 800 v.s.
,there was very famous samrat “Jam Lakho Ghuraro” who defeated the king of KABUL also.The
eldest son of Lakho Ghuraro Jam Mod sama had captured Kutchha in v.s. 875, ‘Gutaree gadh’
was its capital at that time.After that Sama Rajputs ruled Kutchha for about 200 years till v.s.
1075. The son of Mod,jam Sad, constructed great fort “Kanthkot(कंथकोट)”.The greatest Ruler was Jam
Lakho Fulani who rulled for 99 yers, and became martyr in a battle with Mulraj Solanki in
Atkot( 50 k.m from Rajkot)in v.s.1035. In v.s.1185, Jam Jadaji became king of Sama
nagar,sindh. He had no sons. So he adopted two sons of his Younger brother Veraji; Lakhaji
and Lakhiyarji. So The names of Lakhaji and Lakhiyarji were changed to Lakhaji ‘Jadeja’,
means ‘son of Jadaji. Thereafter all descendents were named ‘Jadeja’, means sons of Jadaji.
This Jam Lakhaji also called Lakha Jadani, captured again Kutchchha in v.s.1203 and
established his capital in “Lakhiyar Veero” named after his younger brother Lakhiyarji. Jam
Lakho jadani is attributed to the surname Jadeja being adopted for all his descendants. Lakho
Jadani reigned in Kutch between AD 1147–1175 and had one heir to the gaddi (throne), Jam
Rato Raydhan, Rato means Red in Kutchi and he was so called because he used to tie a red
cloth across his turban to prevent it from dislodging during battles. Jam Rato Raydhan had
four sons namely, J, Dedaji, Hothiji and Gajanji and Odhaji they were given the territories of ,
Kanthkot, Gajod and Bara and main capital lakhiyar veero respectively in Kutch. As Othaji was
the youngest and even then he was selected as occupying the main crown by GURU
MAMAIYA MATANG, he ascended to the throne and the rest became a part of Bhayyat or the
Brotherhood, Bhayyat is the term used for all the descendants of the royal family who own and
control their own domains allocated to them within the state and adhere to the feudal system.
Over the years, there were constant skirmishes due to INJUSTICE to THE elder brothers by
MAMA MATANG that marred within these houses, until they merged in two groups of Othaji
and Gajanji. The first incident among these which changed the history of kutch is the murder
of Jam Hamirji of Lakhiarviro, chief of YOUNGER branch of Jadeja and descendant of Othaji,
by Jam Rawal of Bara-TERA. It is believed that Jam Rawal attributed the murder of his father
Jam Lakhaji to Hamirji, as he was killed within the territory of Lakhiarviro, and on the pretense
of resolving the dispute between the two branches, took a fake oath of Maa Aashapura, the
supreme deity of Jadejas, invited Hamirji for a meal and killed him by deceit. During this time
Alioji and Khengarji, two sons of Hamirji were in Ahmedabad and escaped the complete
destruction of the royal family perpetuated by Jam Rawal,thereafter Jam Rawal usurped the
throne of Kutch and reigned with supreme authority.Thereafter Jam rawal captured Majority of
area Of Saurashtra by defeating all kings af that area a great kingdom” Navanagar” was
established, the capital city was called Jamnagar,which is still a promonent city of
Saurashtra.Jamnagar was founded by jam Rawal on 7th day of shrawan mounth of first
quarter of v.s. 1596.The Jam Rawal was never defeated in his life in any battle.In v.s.1606,
Jam Rawal defeated combined forces of all kings of Saurashtra and Gujrat ,even Sultan of
Ahmedabad supported opposition by giving 140 ‘guns’,which Jam Rawal did not possess.Even
Then Jam Rawal defeated all in great battle of “Mithoi”! the site near present day refinery of
reliance.In that Battle the younger brother of jam Rawal: Hardholji became Martyr.It was a
great battle “MITHOI BATTLE”.The combined forces of all kings of saurashtra and Gujrat with
support of sultan of ahmedabad, was about 2,50,000 in numbers and army of Jam Rawal was
about 1,50,000. combined forces had 140 big guns ‘topas’, none in possession of Jam Rawal’s
army. There was a meeting of ‘think tank’ of Jam Rawal’s army before battle started, in which it
was decided that ‘we can only win the battle if we can neutralise the power of ‘guns’! If a
particular screw is fitted at specific site of a big Gun, a Gun can not fire! So a huge meeting of
all armymen of Jam Rawal,s army was called ,in which a ‘Beedu’ was circulated in which it was
declared ” Is there any brave Rajput who can fit a screw in all the 140 big guns of combined
enemy forces? That brave Rajput will be awarded with 12 villages! according to the principles
of ‘beedu’, if nobody accepts that challenge, then a holi brahmin-man is killed in front of whole
meeting! and the ‘great sin’ of brahma-hatya applies to all the people present in the meeting.
AND also it is declared there is ‘no any brave person’ in this clan!The beedu is circulated
maximally four times!Then even if no body accepts challenge , a holy brahmin man is killed!
Nobody took challenge till three times, but on fourth circulation,one great brave man TOGAJI
SODHA took up the challeng along with three JADEJA rajputs,and went to opposition camps in
name of strangers,eager to know about ,’big-guns’!With great bravery,chivalry and skills
TOGAJI SODHA and his other three collegues, made all the 140 big guns of enemies totally
‘useless’! In later part, when enemies realised, there was fierce fight between soldiers of
enemies and these brave 4 persons of Army of Jam Rawal. There were 84 wounds in body of
TOGAJI SODHA ,when he came back after successfully completing the task of making all the
140 big guns invalid.!TOGAJI SODHA was one of the greatest war hero of that century in the
world at that time! Jam Rawals army had quite few of them. There was a great panic in the
camp of combined forces once they realised that ‘ only 4 soldiers’ of Jam Rawal’s army made
all of our guns invalid, then what will happen if all 1,50,000 soldiers come to fight us! As a last
resort, a huge meeting of all 2,50,000 soldiers of combined forces was called and acting in
same way as Jam Rawal’s strategy, they also circulated a ‘beedu’, that ‘ Is there any brave
person in our clan who can bring cut head of Jam Rawal?’ A soldier named Karsanji took up
the challenge. Karsanji went by putting a white flag on his ‘bhalo’, {a weapon similar to that
bused by Maharan Pratap.}. A white cloth suggesta that ‘we want to surrender!’ So he was
allowed to go to deepest part of army camp of Jam Rawal. Karsanji insisted that he will
personally hand over the message to Jam Rawal only, not to any body else. HARDHOLJI,
younger brother of Jam Rawal, and also commander of Jam Rawal’s army, told Karsanji that ”
I am Jam Rawal, give me ur message” ! Karsanji thoght he is Jam Rawal, so he immediately
took his Bhalo and a strong blow of bhalo was thrown on Hardholji and he was severely hurt
and later died and became martyr. Jam Rawal was very furious and ordered to kill Karsanji, but
by that time Karsanji ran very very fast on his horse and went out of army camp.There was a
young boy of 16 years name Meramanji Hala {a sub-branch of jadeja rajputs} was busy in
bathing his horse in river ‘SINHAN’,name OF HORSE WAS “Patti”, a female horse.He heard the
noise and show a person running away and hundreds of people shouting and running after
him some half kilometeres distance. He soon realised and immediately rided his horse ” patti”
and ran after enemy soldier Karsanji.There was a great race and still some good distance was
there between him and enemy. In between came river-pit some 50 feet wide, MERAMANJI
asked his horse ‘patti’, that ‘this is the time of test of bravery for Hala CLAN OF jADEJA, and it
is in ur hand’! The Patti horse jumped 50 feet river-pit and Meramanji Hala jadeja stood up on
horse and threw his ‘SANG’( A weapon just like Bhalo ,but only contains iron,no wood with
great weight about 50 to 100 kg.) on Karsanji. The Sang of Karsanji pierced through the
Karsanji,his horse and went deep into the soil! This was the force of one of the greatest
warroirs of the century Meramanji Hala Jadeja ! Then thousands of soldiers came and Jam
Rawal came and show the bravery, chivalry of Meramanji. Jam Rawal was never a poet, but
after seeing this great bravery, there were spontaneous words from mouth of Jam Rawal ”
HALAJI TARA HATH VAKHANU KE PATTI TARA PAGALA VAKHANU ” Means what to praise?
Whether I should praise the hands of meramanji Halaji or the legs of Patti horse! I am
confused! And these words became the words of great bravery song of Gujrati
Language,inspiring lacs and crores of people since centuries to fight for the Nation. ( ref: ‘Yadu
-vansh prakash’ by: Kavi Mavdanji Ratnu, ‘Sarashtra no itihas’ by Sambhu prasad desai,Jadeja
Vansh ane vasundhara. by Abhesang Barot). ! younger brother Hardholji was made king of
Dhrol state by Jam Rawal in 1575 itself.after Jam Rawal,Jam vibhaji became King of
Navanagar. After vibhaji Jam Sataji-1 became the king of Navanagar. He was again a very
great warrior and Defeated great Emperor Akbar of Delhi twice. In a battle of Junagadh,near
‘Majevadi’ village ground in v.s. 1633, Jam Sattaji defeated the Moghul Akbar’s army chasing
Muzffarshah-3 who was defeated in a battle with moghul army. 3335 horses and 52 elephants
of Moghul army were captured by Jam Sattaji’s Commander in chief. Bhanji Dal.Keeping this
inbsult in mind, Akbar attacked Jam Sattaji in 1640 again near ‘Tamachan’ village, ( AT present
near Und irrigation dam) and Again Akbar’s army was badly defeated!.The very very furious
Akbar dismssed suba of ahmedabd and Aziz Koko was newly appointed as governor ‘subo’ of
ahmedabad,gujrat. and Jam sattaji was attacked with a huge army of 90,000 of soldiers.Off
course in this famous battle ‘Bhucharmori’,near Dhrol, jam Sattaji was defeated, But akbar has
to compromised with this famous king Jam Sattaji just one and half year later.and again Jam
SATTAJI was the king of Navanagar.Even in famous book”Akbarnaama”, Akbar wrote ‘ Satta
was very powerful and ‘notorious’ keeping army of 30,000.” After defeating Akbar’ army in
v.s.1633, in battle of Majevadi,Junagadh, Jam Sattaji was given title of ” Paschim Bharat NO
Badshah” by local people and local poets etc.
The Khengarji,who was inheriting kutchha, was only 15 years old when his father was
murdered, he enlisted in to the army of Mahmud Begada, during one Royal Hunting party,
Khengar killed a lion and saved the life of Sultan for which he was asked to name his reward,
the prime ambition of Khengar was to regain Kutch and hence he asked for support to fight
Jam Rawal, whereby, he was given 1000 soldiers and complete access to Morvi and given a
title of Rao by the sultan Mohamad of Ahmedabad. Rao Khengar with the support of well
wishers within Kutch and Morvi fought with Jam Rawal and slowly started gaining the
territories of Rapar and nearby villages, as Khengar was the rightful heir to the throne he was
welcomed and dissent towards Jam Rawal grew within the state of Kutch. Jam Rawal was
ardent devotee of Maa Ashapura,it is believed that the Goddess indicated Jam Rawal to leave
Kutch and establish himself at Halar (Saurashtra), and that she will support him in this
venture.Jam Rawal set out for Saurashtra and established himself at Nawanagar. Khengar
became the 1st Rao of Kutch in AD 1549 and established Bhuj as Capital.
The first four Raos of Kutch ascended the throne in regular succession according to
primogeniture, however after Rao Khengarji II died, there was a break in succession, and in
order to prevent the throne being given to Khengarjis son by a Muslim mistress, the Bhayyat
instated Tamachiji who was the second son of Rao Khengarjis younger brother.
आभार :- यादवम् श्री अर्जुनसिंहजी जाडेजा , हालार ,सौराष्ट्र(गुजरात)
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