Pajawan or Pajjun was the 5th

Kachhwaha The Kachhwaha or Kachawa is a Rajput clan found primarily in India. Sometimes families within the clan ruled a number of kingdoms and princely states, such as Jaipur State, Jaipur, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Alwar State, Alwar and M ...

ruler of the

Kingdom of Amber Jaipur State was a princely state in India during East India Company rule and thereafter under the British Raj. It signed a treaty creating a subsidiary alliance with the Company in 1818, after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. It accede ...

. He belonged to the

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

clan who had migrated to

Rajputana Rājputana, meaning "Land of the Rajputs", was a region in the Indian subcontinent that included mainly the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan, as well as parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and some adjoining areas of Sindh in modern-day ...

in the 12th century. He was married to

Prithviraj Chauhan Prithviraja III (IAST: Pṛthvī-rāja; reign. – 1192 CE), popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, with his capital at Ajmer in present- ...

's cousin and was a prominent and trusted general of Prithviraj. Pajwan fought 64 important battles in his military career.

Reign

According to the ''

Prithviraj Raso The ''Prithviraj Raso'' (IAST: Pṛthvīrāja Rāso) is a Braj language epic poem about the life of Prithviraj Chauhan (reign. c. 1177–1192 CE). It is attributed to Chand Bardai, who according to the text, was a court poet of the king. Th ...

'', Pajawan played a role in the battles at Hansi and Nagour, fighting alongside Prithviraj Chauhan, who subsequently appointed Pajawan the governor of Mahoba. He also helped Prithviraj in defeating Bhimdev, a Solanki king of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. In 1185, Raja

Jaichand of Kannauj Jaya-chandra ( IAST: Jayacandra, r. c. 1170–1194 CE) was a king from the Gahadavala dynasty of northern India. He is also known as Jayachchandra ( IAST: Jayaccandra) in inscriptions, and Jaichand in vernacular legends. He ruled the Antarvedi ...

organised the

Swayamvara Svayamvara ( sa, स्वयंवर, svayaṃvara, translit-std=IAST), in ancient India, was a method of marriage in which a woman chose a man as her husband from a group of suitors. In this context, in Sanskrit means 'self' and means 'g ...

of his daughter

Sanyogita Samyukta, also known as Sanyogita or Sanjukta, was the daughter of Jaichand, the King of Kannauj, and one of three wives of Prithviraj Chauhan. The love between Prithviraj and Samyukta is one of India's most popular medieval romances, composed ...

, inviting all the prominent kings and princes to the ceremony, but deliberately avoiding Prithviraj Chauhan. Furthermore, he placed an earthen statue of Prithviraj at the entrance of the venue, posing him as the doorman. Prithviraj got information about it. He arrived at Kannauj in disguise together with his trusted generals, one of which was Pajawan. When Sanyogita chose Prithviraj as her would-be husband by placing the garland on the statue of Prithviraj, he took her with him on a horse and escaped. The pursuing forces of Jaichand then engaged with Pajawan in a fierce battle.

Death and succession

Pajawan fought for the victorious army in the

First Battle of Tarain The First Battle of Tarain, also spelt as the First Battle of Taroari, was fought in 1191 between the invading Ghurid army led by Muhammad of Ghor and the Rajput confederacy led by Prithviraj Chauhan, near Tarain (modern Taraori in Haryana, In ...

. However, he died soon after the battle. The poet

Chand Bardai Chand Bardai was an Indian poet who composed ''Prithviraj Raso'', an epic poem in Brajbhasa about the life of the Chahamana king Prithviraj Chauhan. The poem presents him as a court poet of Prithviraj. According to it, after Prithviraj was defea ...

called him bravest of the allies of Chauhan. He was succeeded by his son Malesi Kacchwaha.

References

Sources

* *{{Cite book, author=Jadunath Sarkar, author-link=Jadunath Sarkar, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoRDAAAAYAAJ, title=Military History of India, date=1960, publisher=Orient Longmans, isbn=9780861251551 , language=en History of Jaipur