A Raja (sometimes spelled Rajah) is a king, or princely ruler from the Kshatriya lineages. The title has a long history in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, being attested from the Rigveda.where it is more accurately translated as "tribal chief"; see for example the , the "battle of ten rajas"

Raja comes from the Sanskrit word ' (an n-stem with nominative '), and is cognate to Latin rēx, the Gaulish rīx etc. (originally denoting tribal chiefs or heads of small 'city states'), ultimately a vrddhi derivation from a PIE root '' "to straighten, to order, to rule".

Rather common variants in Hindi, used for the same royal rank in (parts of) India include Rana, Rao, Raol, Rawal, and Rawat. The female form, 'queen', mainly used for a Raja's wife, is Rani (sometimes spelled Ranee), from Sanskrit (compare Old Irish rígain).

Raja, the lower title Thakore and mainy variations, compounds and derivations including either of these were used in and around India by most Hindu and some Buddhist and Sikh rulers, while Muslims rather used Nawab or Sultan, and still is commonly used in India. However in Pakistan, Raja is still used by the Chibhs, Janjua, Ranial, Dhamial, Chauhan and Rathore clans as hereditary titles.

Major Rajas in India

As the theoretical hierarchy of princely titles did not reflect the true importance of the ruling houses' princely states, not even at the time of awarding of titles (e.g. raised purely to reward an incumbent's personal merit), the British introduced the alternative ranking by gun salute for the over hundred most important Indian (and some other) states, regardless of native princely titles (which they continued to award), but linking the Westers style His Highness to the higher classes of gun salutes.

As a result of massive title inflation, by the time of Indian independence only a relatively small numbers of rulers still 'merely' styled Raja remained amongst the elite which had been awarded gun salutes, and only in the lower classes (the highest was 21 guns, no even numbers were used):

Hereditary salutes of 11-guns:

• H.H. the Raja of Ali Rajpur
• H.H. the Raja of Chamba
• H.H. the Raja of Faridkot
• H.H. the Raja of Jhabua
• H.H. the Raja of Bilaspur
• H.H. the Raja of Mandi
• H.H. the Raja of Manipur
• H.H. the Raja of Pudukkottai
• H.H. the Raja of Rajgarh
• H.H. the Raja of Sailana
• H.H. the Raja of Samthar
• H.H. the Raja of Sitamau
• H.H. the Raja of Suket

Hereditary salutes of 9-guns (11-guns personal):

• H.H. the Raja of Dharampur
• H.H. the Raja of Sangli

Hereditary salutes of 9-guns:

• The Raja of Baraundha
• The Raja of Bhor
• The Raja of Chhota
• The Raja of Khilchipur
• The Raja of Maihar
• The Raja of Mudhol
• The Raja of Nagod
• The Raja of Sant
• The Raja of Shahpura

Personal salute of 9-guns: only The Raja of Bashahr

Nepal

• The raja of Kaski

Rajas in the Malay world

The ruler of Perlis (a constitutive peninsular state of federal Malaysia, most colleagues are Sultans; he is one of the electors who designate one of their number as King every five years) is to this day title the Raja of Perlis.

• The White Rajahs of Sarawak in Borneo were James Brooke and his dynasty.
• Various traditional princely states in Indonesia still style their ruler raja, or did so until their abolition after which the title became hollow, e.g. Buleleng on Bali.

• In the Philippines, the Raja is also called Raha.

Compound and derived titles

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A considerable number of princely styles, used by rulers, their families and/or even ennobled courtiers, include the title/root Raja

• Rao Raja, a juxtaposition of two equivalent titles, was used by the rulers of Bundi until they were awarded the higher title of Maharao Raja
• Raja Bahadur is a typical Mughal compound, as the adjective Bahadur 'valourous' always raises one rank in the imperial court protocol; in the specific hierarchy among the (en)noble(d) Hindu retainers at the court of the Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad, it was the equivalent of the rank Nawab for Muslim members of the retinue
• Maharaja and equivalent compound of variants on Raja with the prefix Maha- 'Great' (e.g. Maharana, Maharawal) mean 'Great King'; the word originally denoted a Raja who had conquered other Rajas, thus becoming a great ruler, but was soon adopted or awarded by the paramount ruler of India (Mughal or British) as a hollow style too, causing too massive title inflation and - devaluation to remain a truly high distinction
• Rajadhiraja means 'King of Kings'; again, trough title devaluation this is less prestigious then the equivalents in most linguistic families
• Raja Perumal is considered the most powerful title of all according to Tamil literature.
• in South India, the title of the Samraj (Hindu 'emperor') of Vijayanagar was Raya instead of (Maha)Raja.
• A number of medieval rulers in Southeast Asia used variants such as the devotional titles Buddharaja and Devaraja or the geographically specific Lingaraja.
• Uparaja (with its own variations and derivations; can mean viceroy or other high dynastic ranks)

Other uses

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Like many titles, Raja often occurs in personal names (just as Latin Rex and English King in Western first - and family names), usually without noble or political significance. For example, Raja Vaidyanathan. Besides that, Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, the late former Singapore politician was fondly known as Raja.

Notes

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See also

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• British Raj (colonial era in British India)
• White Rajahs of Sarawak
• Janjua
• Muslim Rajputs

Sources and references

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• Indian Princely States, the most comprehensive, specialised site on (princely) (e)states in British India
• RoyalArk (more elaborate, on a smaller number of dynasties)- here India
• WorldStatesmen- Indian princely states, here K-Z

Court titles | Heads of state | Noble titles | Titles in India | Titles of national or ethnic leadership

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