Early History

Dasharatha Sharma^[4] considers Meenas in the list of Antyajas and writes....Last in the social scale stood the Antyajas. . An allied tribe was that of the Minas who lived in and at times terrorised parts of south east Rajasthan by their predator activities.

The Bavaris, according to Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar, are perhaps referred to in the Jalor Inscription of V. 1239. ^[5] The Antyaja who helped Lakshmana in the foundation of his kingdom ^[6] may have been a Meena or Bhil or perhaps even a Bavari.

Meena's as dasyus!

Dr Naval Viyogi^[7]calls Gonds, Bhils, Meenas etc as dasyus, a term applied to the aboriginal tribes of India as contra distinguished from Aryans.

_{REF*Dr Naval Viyogi: Nagas – The Ancient Rulers of India,p.207}

Rajpu-tana (Amer / Jaipur)

Amer (sometimes known as Amber, modern Jaipur from 1727) was one of the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan which existed in India in the modern north-west of the country. It was centred around the city of Amer (close to modern Jaipur) in eastern Rajasthan, near Delhi. Amber was originally a Meena kingdom which was founded by the Chanda Meena king, Alan Singh, but was later captured by the Kachwaha Rajputs around 1036 or 1037. The Kachwahas claim descent from Raja Nal of Ayodhya, a member of one of the Rajput Hindu warrior clans. The word 'rajput' itself literally means 'the son of the king', with the people being known for their valour. In 1727, Sawai Jai Singh II shifted his capital from Amber to a newly constructed city very nearby which he named Jaipur. By now this was the senior Kachwaha clan and state.

There were a number of small Rajput kingdoms which emerged between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, including Alwar, Bikaner, Bundi, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Malwa, Kannauj, and Mewar, and all were eventually conquered by the Moghuls.

Amrapura

Amber was capital of Meena kings. Its ancient name was Amrapura (आम्रपुर). Founded by the Meena Raja Alan Singh (He was from Chanda clan of Meenas), Amber was a flourishing settlement as far back as 967 AD. Around 1037 AD, it was conquered by the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs. Much of the present structure known as Amber fort is actually the palace built by the great conqueror Raja Man Singh I who ruled from 1590 - 1614 AD.

descended from Kush,

Col. G. B. Malleson^[10] writes.... The kingdom of Jaipur, better known as the kingdom of Amber or Dhundhar, was founded by Dhola Rae in the year 957. Dhola Rae was thirty-fourth in descent from Raja Nal, traditional founder of the kingdom and city of Narwar. Raja Nal is said to have been lineally descended from Kush, the second son of Rama, King of Koshala, whose capital was Ayodhya, the modern Oudh. Hence the reigning family in Jaipur has been known from time immemorial as the Katchhawa family or rule.

_{[p.321]: consulted the Meena dhadhi¹ or bard, as to the best means of executing his plan, he recommended him to take advantage of the festival of the Dewali, when it is customary to perform the ablutions en masse, in a tank. Having brought a few of his Rajpoot brethren from Dehli, he accomplished his object, filling the reservoirs in which the Meenas bathed with their dead bodies. The treacherous bard did not escape ; Dhola Rae put him to death with his own hand, observing, " he who had proved unfaithful to one master, could not be trusted by another."}

Dhola Rae killed in war with Meenas:

Dhola subsequently married the daughter of the prince of Ajmer, whose name was Maroni. Returning on one occasion with her from visiting the shrine of Jumwahi Mata, the whole force of the Meenas of that region assembled, to the number of eleven thousand, to oppose his passage through their country. Dhola gave them battle : but after slaying vast numbers of his foes, he was himself killed, and his followers fled. Maroni escaped, and bore a posthumous child, who was named Kankul, and who conquered the country of Dhoondar. His son, Maidul Rao, made a conquest of Amber from the Soosawut Meenas, the residence of their chief, named Bhatto, who had the title of Rao, and was head of the Meena confederation. He also subdued the Nandla Meenas, and added the district of Gatoor-Gatti to his territory.

Dhadi, dholi, Dhom, Jaega, are all terms for the bards or minstrels of the Meena tribes.

Bundi Kingdom of Meenas

James Tod^[12] write...Rao Dewa, S. 1398 (AD. 1342), took the Bandu valley from the Meenas, founded the city of Bundi, and styled the country Harawati.

James Tod^[13] writes that having resigned Bumaoda to Hara-Raj, Rao Dewa came to Bandu-Nal, the spot where his ancestor Colun was cured of disease. Here the Meenas of the Usarda tribe dwelt, under the patriarchal government of Jaita, their chief there was then no regular city ; the extremities of the valley (thal) were closed with barriers of masonry and gates, and the huts of the Meenas were scattered wherever their fancy led them to build.

It was in S. 1398 (A.D. 1342) that Jaita and the Meenas of Usarra clan acknowledged Rae Dewa the Hara Chauhan as their lord, who erected Bundi in the valley of the Bandu-ca-Nal, which henceforth became the capital of the Haras.

Nayan Kingdom of Meenas

An important kingdom of Meenas was on Naen or Nayan. It was ruled by Rao Bada Meena, which was destroyed by Bharmal Kachhawa (father of Jodha Bai) with aid from the Mughal connections. On its ruins he erected the town of Lowain. In local language there is a famous quotation , Rao Bada ko bijano akbar ko darbar, it means a hand made fan of Rao Bada in his palace was considered as having worth equivalent to the whole treasury of Akbar. Akbar wanted to marry Shashiwadini (daughter of Rao Bada Meena) but she refused to do so, after that Akbar married with Bharmal's daughter Jodhabai and the combined army of Akbar and Bharmal won the kingdom Naen and grab all treasure and buried that under the Chil ka Tila (a mountain, on which Jaigarh fort has been built). ^[14]

violent, plundering criminals and an anti-social ethnic tribal group.

Nandini Sinha Kapur, a historian who has studied early India, notes that the oral traditions of the Meenas were developed from the early 19th century AD in an attempt to reconstruct their identity. She says of this process, which continued throughout the 20th century, that "The Minas try to furnish themselves a respectable present by giving themselves a glorious past". In common with the people of countries such as Finland and Scotland, the Meenas found it necessary to invent tradition through oral accounts, one of the primary uses of which is recognised by both historians and sociologists as being "social protest against injustices, exploitation and oppression, a raison d'être that helps to retrieve the image of a community."

Kapur notes that the Meenas not merely lack a recorded history of their own but also have been depicted in a negative manner both by medieval Persian accounts and records of the colonial period. From medieval times through to the British Raj, references to the Meenas describe them as violent, plundering criminals and an anti-social ethnic tribal group.^[15]