Raja (title)
Raja (/ˈrɑːdʒɑː/; also spelled rajah, from Sanskrit राजन् rājan-), is a title for a monarch or princely ruler in South and Southeast Asia. The female form rani (sometimes spelled ranee) applies equally to the wife of a raja (or of an equivalent style such as rana), usually as queen consort and occasionally as regent.
The title has a long history in the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia, being attested from the Rigveda, where a rājan- is a ruler, see for example the dāśarājñá, the "battle of ten kings".
Sanskrit rājan- is cognate to Latin rēx (genitive rēgis) 'king' (as in pre-republican Rome), Gaulish rīx, Gaelic rí (genitive ríg), etc., originally denoting heads of petty kingdoms and city states. It is believed to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European *h3rēǵs, a vrddhi formation to the root *h3reǵ- "to straighten, to order, to rule". The Sanskrit n-stem is secondary in the male title, apparently adapted from the female counterpart rājñī which also has an -n- suffix in related languages, compare Old Irish rígain and Latin regina. Cognates of the word rājan in other Indo-European languages include English reign and German Reich. The alternative English form 'rajah' is an example of the common error of inappropriately adding an 'h' to any final 'a', since masculine Sanskrit words ending in 'a' take the termination 'h' in the singular nominative case. It is to be deprecated, as being based on a false etymology.
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