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Raja

Monarch or princely ruler in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia

  • 14 min read
  • 3 chapters

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The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested from the Rigveda, where a rājan- is a ruler, see for example the daśarājñá yuddhá, the "Battle of Ten Kings".

The title has equivalent cognates in other Indo-European languages, notably the Latin Rex and the Celtic Rix.

The Maratha title "Rao" (or "Rao") functions as both a given name and an honorific title. Derived from words like the Sanskrit "Rājā" meaning "king," it is associated with the Kshatriya varna and can be considered a Kshatriya title.

Raja-ruled Indian states

While most of the Indian salute states (those granted a gun salute by the British Crown) were ruled by a Maharaja (or variation; some promoted from an earlier Raja- or equivalent style), even exclusively from 13 guns up, a number had Rajas:

Hereditary salutes of 13-guns

Hereditary salutes of 11-gun
  • the Raja of Sathasi Raj
  • the Raja of Raigarh
  • the Raja of Ali Rajpur
  • the Raja of Bilaspur
  • the Raja of Chamba
  • the Raja of Faridkot
  • the Raja of Jhabua
  • the Raja of Mandi
  • the Raja of Manipur
  • the Raja of Narsinghgarh
  • the Raja of Pudukkottai
  • the Raja of Rajgarh
  • the Raja of Sangli
  • the Raja of Sailana
  • the Raja of Samthar
  • the Raja of Sitamau
  • the Raja of Suket
Hereditary salutes of 9-guns (11-guns personal)
  • the Raja of Dharampur
  • the Raja of Bhor
Hereditary salute of 9-guns (11-guns local)
  • the Raja of Savantwadi
Hereditary salutes of 9-guns
  • the Raja of Baraundha
  • the Raja of Jawhar
Hereditary salute of 9-guns
  • the Raja of Chhota Udepur
  • 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

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More in Indian history

RajputSocial community of South AsiaBritish Indian Army1895–1947 military forcePrakritGroup of languages of the 5th century BCE – 12th century CEBengal PresidencyProvince of British India from 1699 to 1947JahangirMughal emperor from 1605 to 1627Brahmi scriptAncient script of Central and South Asia
Source and licence. Adapted from the Wikipedia article “Raja” (this version, 2026-09-22) by its contributors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Lablypedia has left out its tables, references and most pictures, and linked it to other Lablypedia articles.