Harauti

The Harauti are the Indo-Aryan people of Hadoti, Chambal River country in south-eastern Rajputana, around fortress cities Kota and Bundi. Their Hadauti speech is a Central-Eastern Rajasthani language close to Malvi, written in Devanagari after an older Mahajani script and named for the Hada Chauhans, the Rajput clan defining the region since the thirteenth century.

Rao Deva took Bundi in 1241 and Kota in 1264, naming the country Haravati; for two centuries the Hadas of Bundi held it as Mewar vassals, until Rao Surjan Singh submitted to Akbar in 1569.

Hada generals served the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan: Rao Chattar Sal of Bundi died at Samugarh in 1658, and in 1631 the emperor detached Kota for Madho Singh, founding Kota state later famous for miniature painting. Marathas ravaged Hadoti in the eighteenth century, until both Kota and Bundi accepted British paramountcy in 1817 and 1818 as princely states.