HISTORY OF NIKUMBH RAJPUTS

The traditional ancestor of this clan was Kuvalayasva one of the Suryavanshi Kings of Ayodhya who having conquered the demon Dhunda, acquired the tite of Dhundumara and gave his name to country called Dhundhar or Jaipur. Here his descendants remained and were known as Nikumbhas. they appear to have been earliest Aryan settlers in Rajputana and on being driven out of Alwar and Jaipur about 1450, settled in Awadh
The Nikumbhas are descendents of a very ancient and famous Solar race. The Solar race of the Nikumbhas, the kings of Ayodhya, from which sprang Mandhatri, Sagara, Bhagiratha, and Rama. Kuvalayaswa, the great-grandfather of Nikumbha, having conquered the demon Dhundhu, acquired the title of Dhundhumara, or " Slayer of Dhundhu," and gave his name to the country which is now known as Dhundhar, or Jaypur. Here his descendants remained under the name of Nikumbhas, and to them is attributed the foundation of most of the old forts and cities in Alwar and Northern Jaypur.
Under Mandhatri and Sagara they came into collision with the Haihayas and Talajangas on the Narbada, where a branch of their race still held territory in the thirteenth century. Two inscriptions have been found in Khandesh, one dated in Saka 1075, or A.D. 1153,and the other in Saka 1 128, or A.D. 1216. In the latter the reigning king is said to be of the great solar race, from which " the king Nikumbha, best of princes, sprang ; in whose line Mandhata was famous, as well as Sagara, Bhagiratha, and others." In the former the reigning prince is said to be " celebrated in the race — the illustrious solar race in which the Nikumbh was bom — whose descendant was Rama."
Of this race (as Tod * says), to which celebrity attaches in all the genealogies, we can only discover that they were proprietors of the district of Mandalgarh prior to the Gahlots," that is, they preceded the Sisodiyas in Mewar. The foundation of Alwar and Indor of Mewat is attributed to them, and the ruined city of Abhaner, near Alwar, is said to have been their capital.
Nikumbhas were amongst the earliest Aryan settlers in Rajputana. During the lapse of many centuries they lost their central provinces, and at the time of the Muhammadan conquest only the two outlying districts of Khandesh on the south and Alwar on the north remained to them.