The Raju are a Telugu caste found mostly in the Indian state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

Varna Status

The Raju caste, which A. Satyanarayana calls the "locally dominant landed gentry", claims

Kshatriya Kshatriya ( hi, क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority") is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society, associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...

status in the varna system despite there being "no real Kshatriya varna" in the Andhra region. ''Raju'' is a

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fam ...

variant of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

title ''

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

'', a term for a monarch or princely ruler. Cynthia Talbot describes the term as being: In medieval Andhra Pradesh, the title was used in both senses, and was very likely adopted by some secular

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

s, who occupied important advisory functions. The royal usage at that time was particularly prevalent in the northern coastal areas of the region. Talbot also notes that the title, and others in use at that time, do not align with the

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

four-fold varna system and in that sense could not refer to a caste. However, they do appear to have conformed to Temple inscriptions from the period of the Kakatiya dynasty, a

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

n dynasty that flourished between 1175-1324 CE in the Telugu-speaking lands now in Andhra Pradesh, refer both to royal and clerical ''rajus'' as donors, together with peasant leaders called '' Reddies''.

Modern community

Population

A report published by the

Overseas Development Institute ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the ...

in 2002, describing the Rajus of Andhra as an ex-warrior caste, noted that along with the Kapu and

Velama Velama is a caste found mainly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The earliest occurrence of ''Velama'' as a term for a community dates from the 17th century. Origin and history The Velamas are described by that name from the 17th century and in ...

they were the Rajus constituted less than 1 per cent of the population in Andhra Pradesh, concentrated mainly in the coastal region.

References

Notes Citations {{reflist Titles in India Indian castes Social groups of Andhra Pradesh