u/v1n4yxk

recently i got to know i am maternally a chauhan... my maternal side uses bacchal as a subcaste, they reside in sarkaghat tehsil of mandi dist. in Himachal pradesh. i googled up a bit and got to know this subcaste is a sub-clan of chauhans , they mostly reside in states like up, rajasthan and haryana. im curious to know how and when did they come to migrate all the way here in central himachal. what i know about them is that they worship naag devta as a family deity and use vatsal gotra. if anyone would be able to fill me in on the lore.. please do

Hey everyone,

I’ve been diving deep into my family history recently and have hit a bit of a roadblock regarding Himachali Rajput identity. It’s been bugging me for a while, and I’m looking for some objective historical/anthropological perspectives.

For context, my family is from Khouda village (near Awah Devi, Dharampur Tehsil, Mandi, HP). According to my grandfather, we are Dogra Rajputs. I did some digging into official tehsil records, our family tree, and land records, and found the following:

• Caste/Subcaste: Listed as Rajput/Kaundal respectively in official records.
• When i searched these details up i got to know Kaundals are a branch of Raghuvanshi Sisodiyas who migrated from Mewar during Rana Amar Singh’s rule.
• Roots: Our panda records are in Haridwar, our Kuldevi is Jalpa Mata, and we even have an ancestral sword at home.

However, I’ve run into a couple of things that are making it hard to draw a clear conclusion:

1. Overlap of Titles: The term "Kaundal" (and generic titles like Rana, Chauhan, Thakur) seems incredibly widespread in the region, sometimes used by entirely different communities outside the General category, even chamaars. A lot of local people using these titles don't actually know their specific clan names.
2. The "Khasa" Connection & DNA Studies: I’ve read about recent genetic and historical studies suggesting that many Himachali Rajputs carry significant genetic markers from the Khasa—an ancient, indigenous Indo-Aryan warrior-agriculturalist group mentioned in texts like the Mahabharata as being outside the traditional Vedic Varna system.

Because the Khasa identity has essentially merged into modern surnames like Thakur, it's hard to distinguish between different historical lineages in the hills.

So my questions for the history/anthropology buffs here are:

• How historically accurate is the migration of clans like the Kaundals from Mewar to the HP hills versus the assimilation of local Khasa groups into the Rajput fold?
• Is it common in hill states for diverse communities to adopt the same clan names (gotra/al) over generations?
• How should one look at hill Rajput identity given this mix of genetic history and migration records?

edit: there are so many mixed opinions you guys are giving , it would be great if someone could give a solution/conclusion with some credible sources please.