Henry Miers Elliot thought Jatwan to be a leader of Jats, a claim repeated by later writers. For example, Kalika Ranjan Qanungo believed that Jatwan led a Jat rebellion against Aibak.[4] However, the contemporary writer Hasan Nizami, who provides information about Jatwan's rebellion, does not state this. Elliot's guess appears to be based on the similarity of the words "Jatwan" and "Jat", and the rebellion's locality, where Jats can be found.
According to S.H. Hodivala, "Jatwan" is a mistranscription of the "Chahwan" in the manuscript, and the rebel was probably a Chahamana (Chawhan or Chauhan) subordinate of Prithviraja III. According to Rima Hooja, it is probably a corrupt form of the name "Jaitra".