By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Aug 12 (IANS): After Rajasthan's erstwhile royal families of Jaipur and Mewar claimed to be descended from Lord Ram in response to the Supreme Court's query, a state Congress spokesperson has also claimed the distinction, saying his clan are "the real descendants" of the Hindu deity.

"The Raghav Rajputs are the real descendants of Ram," Satendra Raghav contended.

In a Facebook post, Raghav cited Valmiki's Ramayana for his claim, saying his family, belonging to Alwar 'thikana' (royalty), are of the Badgurjar Gotra which sprang up in third generation of Luv, the elder son of Lord Rama.

"The kingdom of Luv spread towards North Kaushal which comes under Ayodhya now while (Lord Ram's younger son) Kush spread his empire in South Kaushal which comes under Chhattisgarh. On page 1,671 of the 'Ramayana', it is said that Badgujar clan came from Luv," said Raghav, a relative of late former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Meanwhile, Jaipur princess and Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari, who had on Saturday, tweeted that the descendants of the Hindu god "are all over the world", on Monday again reiterated that her family has descended from Lord Ram's son Kush.

"I just responded through a tweet on the query of the Hon'ble Supreme Court Judge: 'If there are any descendants of Lord Ram?' We are direct descendants of Kush, which is why the descendants are known as Kushwahas and the Kachwahas. We have the relevant documents of our lineage in the City Palace Museum. Earlier, in 1992, my father, late Sawai Bhawani Singh Ji had submitted the documents to the Allahabad High Court. He is the 309th descendant of Kush. We are not the only descendants of Lord Ram - there must be millions all over the world," she said in a statement.

The BJP MP also maintained that her family was "not interested in becoming a party to the case and neither are we claiming any land or title in Ayodhya", but if "our documents help us in expediting the case, we shall be happy to provide them".

Close on the heels of the Jaipur royal family's claim, the Mewar royalty also asserted the descent from the deity.

Mewar scion Vishvaraj Singh, in a statement to IANS, said that a number of representations have been received urging him to respond to the news reports of the Supreme Court of India's query, while hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi title suit, as to whether there were any descendants of Lord Ram now.

"I do state with conviction that my family had descended from Ikshvaku to Lord Ram. This is also the accepted belief of many.

"Further, I also state that the family record is not going to be presented before the Honourable Supreme Court, unless expressly directed to do so as the matter of my ancestry is beyond the purview of the courts....

"It has not been clarified as to what purpose this reported query serves, as to the best of my knowledge, the question of descendants has no bearing on the issue before the Honourable Supreme Court," he said.

Viswaraj Singh said that the late Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh of Jaipur had decades ago made public the related documents of the Jaipur family ancestry, but the current reported query shows that the apex court had not taken these into account.

In a related development, Ramu Ramdev, the OSD at the Jaipur City Palace, showed out Lord Rama's birth place on an old, fraying map of Ayodhya taken out from archives of erstwhile royal family at the palace.

He also showed a record of genealogy of Kachchawahas to media on this occasion.

According to him, Sawai Raja Jaising II of Amer-Jaipur (1699-1743) bought the Ramkot land at Ayodhya in 1717 AD, 10 years after the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and built a Ram temple there, while establishing the city of Jaisinghpura.

Historian R. Nath, the former head of department of history and culture at University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, has written in his book "Studies in Medieval Indian Architecture" that many documents and maps etc being preserved in Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh II City Palace Museum testify that the Kachhwahas had the ownership of the Jaisinghpura (in Ayodhya) which was the place where the Ram Janmasthan Temple was situated.