The Bhilalas are commonly considered, and the general belief may in their case be accepted as correct, to be a mixed caste sprung from the invading immigrant Rajputs with Bhils of the Central India hills.
[3] Several Bhilala families hold estates in Nimar and Indore, and their chiefs now paradoxically claim to be "pure" Rajputs.
The main Bhilala houses, as those of Bhamgarh, Selani and Mandhata, do not inter-marry with the rest of their original caste, but only among themselves and with other families of the same standing in Malwa and Holkar's Nimar.
According to the mythological family traditions, their ancestor, Bharat Singh, was a Chauhan Rajput, who took Mandhata from Nathu Bhil in A.D. 1165, and restored the worship of Siva to the island, which had been made inaccessible to pilgrims by the terrible deities, Kali and Bhairava, devourers of human flesh.
chiefs were Chouhan Rajput of Anjana section Belongs to a Bhilala family, born about 1848; succeeded to the gadi In 1858.
The Chauhan Bhilalas gained importance during the Pindari raids in Central India by enlisting under the Holkar rulers.