Considering the studies carefully the huge question again is
Aurangzeb had less reason to distrust the stability of his dominion
than why did he surmount all his armies into the field that
annihilated the forces of the empire further and the resources of
Marwar were reduced to as low an ebb as they are at the present time Recent investigation has thrown much new height on the origin of the
Rajputs. between the Vedic Kshatriya and the Rajput of medieval times
which it is now impossible to bridge. Understanding the roots is very
important for all of mankind. As the roots will lead us rightly to
know of our origins.Some clans, trace their lineage to the Kshatriyas
of Buddhist times, who recognized as one of the leading elements in
Hindu society, and, in their own estimation, stood even higher than
the Brahmans.
But it is now certain that the origin of many clans dates from the
Saka or Kushan invasion, which began about the middle of the second
century B.C., or more certainly, from that of the Huns who destroyed
the Gupta empire about A.D. 480.
The Gurjara tribe adopted Hinduism, and their leaders formed the
main stock from which the higher Rajput families sprang. When these
new claimants to princely honours accepted the faith and institutions
of Brahmanism, the attempt would naturally be made to initiate
themselves to the mythical heroes whose exploits are recorded in the
MAHABHARATA AND RAMAYANA.
Hence arose the body of legend recorded in The Annals by a fabulous
origin from the Sun or Moon is ascribed to two great Rajput branches,
a genealogy claimed by other princely families, like the Incas of Peru
or the Mikado of Japan. Or, as in the case of the Rathors of Marwar,
an equally fabulous story was invented to link them with the royal
house of Kanauj, one of the genuine old Hindu ruling families.
The same feeling lies at the root of the Aeneid of Virgil, the court
poet of the new empire. The clan of the emperor Augustus, the
patriachician family of Alban origin, represented as the heirs of
lulus, the supposed sou of Aeneas and founder of Alba Longa, thus
linking the new Augustan .
Than a sudden emergence of semi-darkness induced constant serpent
worship, which, years ago speculative writers mixed it up with occult
philosophies, juridical mysteries, and that pretentious nonsense
called the ' Arkite symbolism,'
In the midst of this there is a constant reference to the "
Takshaks," apparently one of the Scythian tribes. There is, however,
every reason to belive that serpent worship formed an important
element in the beliefs of the Scythians, or to suppose that the cult,
as we observe it in India, is of other than origin.
The term Kshatriya was, vague meaning, since it did not claim Brahmin
descent. Remember Kshatriya is the warrior cult and knowledge is
brahmanical. Occasionally a Raja might be a Brahman by caste, but the
Brahman's place at court was that of a minister rather than that of
king."
HOWEVER HERE THIS POST IS OCCUPIED BY MEMBERS OF THE BANIA OR
MERCANTILE CLASS, BECAUSE THE BRAHMANS OF THE DESERT, BY THEIR LACK OF
DISCIPLINE OF PRACTICE, WERE ILLITERATE.
Now the Kshatriya or Rajput depended on status rather than on
descent, and it was therefore possible for foreigners to be introduced
into the tribes without any violation of the prejudices of caste,
which was then only partially developed. But as the power of the
priesthood increased, it was necessary to disguise this admission of
foreigners initiated a convenient fiction.
HENCE AROSE THE LEGEND, TOLD IN TWO DIFFERENT FORMS IN THE ANNALS,
WHICH DESCRIBES HOW,BY A SERIOUS ACT OF PURIFICATION OR INITIATION,
UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF ONE OF THE ANCIENT VEDIC RISHIS OR
INSPIRED SAINTS, THE SO CALLED " FIRE-BORN " SECTS WERE CREATED TO
HELP THE BRAHMANS IN REPRESSING BUDDHISM, JAINISM, OR OTHER
FREESTANDING THE ANCIENT TRADITIONAL HINDU SOCIAL CULTURE , THE
TEMPORARY DOWNFALL OF WHICH, UNDER THE STRESS OF FOREIGN INVASIONS, IS
CAREFULLY CONCEALED IN THE HINDU SACRED LITERATURE.
This privilege was, we are told, confined to four sects, known as
Agnikula or ' fire-born '—the PRAMAR, PARIHAR, CHALUKYA OR SOLANKI,
AND THE CHAUHAN. However there is good reason to belive according to
author that the Pramar was the only sect which laid claim to this
distinction before the time of the poet Chand, who flourished in the
twelfth century of our era.
That these races, the sons of Agni, were but regenerated, and
converted by the Brahm'ans to fight their battles, the clearest
interpretations of their allegorical history will disclose ;
It was in S. 987 (a.d. 931) that Bhojraj, the last of the Chawaras,
and the Salic law of India were both set aside, to make way for the
young Solanki, Mulraj* who ruled Anhilwara for the space
• of fifty-eight years.
During the reign of his son and successor, Chamimd Rae, Mahmud of
Ghazni carried his desolatiag arms into the kingdom of Anhilwara.
With its wealth he raised those magnificent trophies of his conquest,
among which the ' Celestial Bride ' might have vied with anything ever
erected by man as a monument of folly . The wealth abstracted, as
reported in the history of the conquerors, though deemed incredible,
would obtain belief, if the commercial riches of Anhilwara could be
appreciated. It was to India what Venice was to Europe, the potent of
the products of both the eastern and western hemispheres.
It fully recovered the shock given by Mahmud and the desultory wars of
his successors ; and we find Siddharaja Jayasingha, the seventh from
the founder, at the head of the richest, if not the most warlike,
kingdom of India. ANHILWARA
Two-and-twenty principalities at one time owned his power, from the
CARNATIC TO THE BASE OF THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS ; but his unwise
successor drew upon himself the vengeance of the Chauhan, Prithviraja,
a slip of which race was en grafted in the person of Kumarapala, on
the genealogical tree of the Solankis ; and it is a curious fact that
this dynasty of the Balakaraes alone gives us two examples of the
Salic law of India being violated. KUMARAPALA, WAS INSTALLED ON THE
THRONE OF ANHILWARA, ' TIED ROUND HIS HEAD THE TURBAN OF THE SOLANKI.'
HE BECAME OF THE TRIBE INTO WHICH HE WAS ADOPTED. KUMARAPALA, AS WELL
AS SIDDHARAJA, WAS THE PATRON OF BUDDHISM ; * AND THE MONUMENTS
ERECTED UNDER THEM and their successors claim our admiration, from
their magnificence and the perfection of the arts ; for at no period
were they more cultivated than at the courts of Anhilwara.
The lieutenants of Shihabu-d-din disturbed the close of Kumarapal's
reign ; and his successor, Balo Muldeo, closed this dynasty in S. 1284
(a.d. 1228), when a new dynasty, called the Vaghela (descendants of
Siddharaja) under BIsaldeo, succeeded.
The dilapidations from religious persecution were repaired ; Somnath,
renowned as Delphos of old, rose from its ruins, and the kingdom of
the Balakaraes was attaining its pristine magnificence, when, under
the fourth prince Karandeva.
The angel of destruction appeared in the shape of Alau-d-din, and the
kingdom of AnhilwAra was annihilated. THE LIEUTENANTS OF THE TATAR DESPOT OF DELHI LET LOOSE THE SPIRIT OF
INTOLERANCE AND AVARICE ON THE RICH CITIES AND FERTILE PLAINS OF
GUJARAT AND SAURASHTRA TOO . IN CONTEMPT OF THEIR FAITH, THE ALTAR OF
AN ISLAMITE DARVESH WAS PLACED IN CONTACT WITH THE SHRINE OF ADINATH,
ON THE MOST ACCESSIBLE OF THEIR SACRED MOUNTS : THE STATUES OF BUDDHA
[THE JAIN TIRTHANKARAS WERE THROWN DOWN, AND THE BOOKS CONTAINING THE
MYSTERIES OF THEIR FAITH SUFFERED THE SAME FATE AS THE ALEXANDRIAN
LIBRARY.
The walls of Anhilwara were demolished ; its foundations excavated,
and again filled up with the fragments of their ancient temples.
The remnants of the Solanki dynasty were scattered over the land, and
this portion of India remained for upwards of a century without any
paramount head, until, by a singular dispensation of Providence, its
splendour was renovated, and its foundations rebuilt, by an adventurer
of the same race from which the Agnikulas were originally converts,
though Saharan the Tak hid his name and his tribe under his new
epithet of Zafar Khan, and as Muzaffar ascended the throne of Gujarat,
which he left to his son. This son was Ahmad, who founded Ahmadabad,
whose most splendid edifices were built from the ancient cities around
it.
Baghels. —Though the stem of the Solankis was thus uprooted, yet was it not
before many of its branches (Sakha), like their own indigenous
bar-tree, had fixed themselves in other soils. The most prominent of
these is the Baghela * family, which gave its name to an entire
division of Hindustan ; and Bagtielkhand lias now been ruled for many
centuries by the descendants of Siddharaja.
Besides Bandhugarh, tliere are minor chieftains still in Gujarat of
the Baghela tribe. Of these, Pethapur and Tharad are the most
conspicuous. One of the chieftains of the second class in Mewar is a
Solanki, and traces his line immediately from Siddharaja : this is the
chief of Rupnagar, whose stronghold commands one of the passes leading
to Marwar, and whose family annals would furnish a fine picture of the
state of border-feuds. Few of them, till of late years, have died
natural deaths.
The Solanki is divided into sixteen branches].
Baghela—Raja of Baghelkhand (capital Bandhugarh),
Raos of Pitapur, Tharad, and Adalaj, etc.
Birpura—Rao of Lunawara.
Bahala—Kalyanpur in Mewar, styled Rao, but serving the chief of
Salumbar oil" Baru, Tekra, and Chahir, in Jaisalmer.
Kalacha ^ J Langaha—^Muslims about Multan.
Togra—-Muslims in the Panjnad.
Brika— ,, „
Surki—In Deccan.
Sarwaria '—Girnar in Saurashtra.
. Raka—Toda in Jaipur.
Ranakia—Desuri in Mewar.
Kharara—Alota and Jawara, in Malwa.
Tantia—Chandbhar Sakanbari.*
Almecha—No land.
Kalamor—Gujarat.^
Pratihara or Parihara.—Of this, the last and least of _the Agnikulas,
we have not much to say.
The Pariharas never acted a conspicuous part in the history of
Rajasthan. They are always discovered in a subordinate capacity,
acting in feudal subjection to the Turks of Delhi or the Chauhans of
Aimer ; and the brightest page of their history is the record of an
abortive attempt of Nahar Rao to maintain his independence against
Prithwiraja.
THOUGH A PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN
A BIG FAILURE, HAS IMMORTALIZED HIS NAME
AND GIVEN TO THE SCENE OF ACTION, ONE OF THE PASSES OF THE ARAVALLI,
A MERITED CELEBRITY.
Mandor (classically Maddodara) was the capital of the Parihars, and
was the chief city of Marwar which owned the sway of this tribe prior
to the invasion and settlement of the Rathors. It is placed five miles
northward of the modern Jodhpur, and preserves some specimens of the
ancient Pali character, fragments of sculpture and Jain temples. The
Rathor emigrant princes of Kanauj found an asylum with the Parihars.
They repaid it by treachery, and Chonda, a name celebrated in the
Rathor annals, dispossessed the last of the Parihars, and pitched the
flag of the Rathors on the battlements of Mandor.
THE POWER OF THE PARIHARS HAD, HOWEVER, BEEN MUCH REDUCED PREVIOUSLY
BY THE PRINCES OF MEWAR, WHO NOT ONLY ABSTRACTED MUCH TERRITORY FROM
THEM, BUT ASSUMED THE TITLE OF ITS PRINCES—RANA.^
The Parihara scattered over Rajasthan, but the existence of
independent chieftainship there. At the confluence of the Kuhari, the
Sind, and the Chambal, there is a colony of this race, which has given
its name to a commune of twenty-four villages, besides hamlets,
situated amidst the ravines of these streams.
They were nominally subjects of Sindhia ; but it was deemed requisite
for the line of defence along the Chambal that it should be included
within the British demarcation, by which most notorious body of
thieves in the annals of Thug history.
The Parihars had twelve subdivisions, of which the chief were the
Indha and Sindhal : a few of both are still to be found about the
banks of the Luni.
Chawara or Chaura.—This tribe was once renowned in the history of
India, though its name is now scarcely known Ti, or only in the
chronicles of the bard. The origin of it was
- ignorance.
It belongs neither to the Solar nor Lunar race, and consequently
presumed to be of the Scythic Orgin The name is unknown in Hindustan, and is confined, with many others
originating from beyond the Indus, to the peninsula of Saurashtra. If
foreign to India proper, its establishment must have been at a remote
period, as we find individuals of it intermarrying with the Suryavansa
ancestry of the present princes of Mewar, when this family were the
lords of Valabhi.
The capital of the Chawaras was the insular Deobandar, on the coast of
Saurashtra, and the celebrated temple of Sonmath, with many others on
this coast, dedicated to Balnath, or the sun, is attributed to this
tribe of the Sauras,* or worshippers of the sun ; most probably the
generic name of the tribe as well as of the peninsula.*
By a natural catastrophe, or as the Hindu superstitious chroniclers
will have it, as a punishment for the piracies of the prince of Deo,
the element whose privilege he abused rose and overwhelmed his
capital. As all this coast is very low, such an occurrence is not
improbable ; though the abandonment of Deo might have been compelled
by the irruptions of the Arabians, who at this period carried on a
trade with these parts, and the plunder of some of their vessels may
have brought this punishment on the Chawaras. That it was owing to
some such political catastrophe, we have additional grounds for belief
from the annals of Mewar, which state that its princes inducted the
Chawaras into the seats of the power they abandoned on the continent
and peninsula of Saurashtra.
At all events, the prince of Deo laid the foundation of Anhilwara
Patan in S. 802 (a.d. 74.6), which henceforth became the capital city
of this portion of India, in lieu of Valabhipura, which gave the title
of Balakaraes to its princes, the Balhara of the earlier Arabian
travellers, and following them, the geographers of Europe."
Vana Raja (or, in the dialects, Banraj) was this founder, and his
dynasty ruled for one hundred and eighty-four years, when, as related
in the sketch of the Solanki tribe, Bhojraj, the seventh from the
founder, was deposed by his nephew.
It was during this dynasty that the Arabian travellers ^ visited this
court, of which they have left but a confused picture. We are not,
however, altogether in darkness regarding the Chawara race, as in the
Khuman Raesa, one of the chronicles of Mewar, mention is made of the
auxiliaries under a leader named Chatansi, in the defence of Chitor
against the first attack on record of the Muhammadans
.
When Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Saurashtra and captured its capital,
Anhilwara, he deposed its and placed upon the throne, according to
Ferishta, a prince of the former dynasty, renowned for his ancient
line and purity of blood, and who is styled Dabichalima ; a name which
has puzzled all European commentators.
Now the Dabhi ...........................was a celebrated tribe, said
by some to be a branch of the Chawara, and this therefore may be a
compound of Dabhi Chawara, or the Chaurasima, by some called a branch
of the ancient Yadus.
This ancient connexion between the Surya\ansi cliiefs and the
Chawaras, or Sauras, of Saurashtra, is still maintained after a lapse
of more than one thousand years ; for although an alliance with the
Rana's family is deemed the highest honour that a Hindu prince can
obtain, as being the first in rank in Rajasthan, yet is the humble
Chawara sought out, even at the foot of fortune's ladder, whence to
carry on the blood of Rama. The present heir-apparent of a line of '
one hundred kings,' the prince Jawan Singh [1828-38], is the offspring
of a Chawara mother, the daughter of a petty chieftain of Gujarat. It
were vain to give any account of the present stale of the families
bearing this name. They must depend upon the fame of past days ; to
this we leave them.
Tak or Takshak
Takshak appears to be the generic term of the race from which the
various Scythic tribes, the early invaders of India, branched off. It
appears of more ancient sakha.
It might not be judicious to separate them, though it would be
speculative to say which was the primitive title of the races called
Scythic, after their country, Sakatai or Sakadwipa, the land of the
great Getae.
Abul Ghazi makes Taunak^ the son of Turk or Targetai, who appears to
be the Turushka of the Puranas, the Tukyuks of the Chinese historians,
the nomadic Tokhari of Strabo, who aided to overturn the Greek kingdom
of Bactria, and gave their name to the grand division of Asia,
Tokharistan or Turkistan : and there is every appearance of that
singular race, tlie Tajik,* still scattered over these regions, and
whose history appears a mystery, being the descendants of the Takshak.
Also the ancient inscriptions in Pali or Buddhist character have been
discovered in various parts of Rajasthan, of the race called Tasta,
Takshak, and Tak, relating to the tribes, the Mori [or Maurya],
Pramara, their descendants.
Naga and Takshak in Sanskrit refers to the snake, and the Takshak is
the celebrated Nagvansa of the early heroic history of India. The Mahabharata describes in its usual style, the wars between the
Pandavas of Indraprastha and the Takshaks of the north.
The assassination of Parikshita by the Takshak, and the exterminating
warfare carried when Alexander invaded India, he found the Paraitakai,
the mountain Tak, inhabiting
The early History
The Bhatti princes of Jaisalmer, when driven from kabulistan, they
dispossessed the Taks on the Indus, and established themselves in
their land, the capital of which was called Salivahanpura ; and as the
date of this event is given as 3008 of the Yudhishthira era, it is by
no means unlikely that Salivahana, or Salbhan (who was a Takshak), the
conqueror of the Tuar Vikrama, was of the very family dispossessed by
the Bhattis, who compelled them to migrate to the south.
The calculated period of the invasion of the Takshaks, or . Nagvansa,
under Sheshnag, is about six or seven centuries before the Christian
era, at which very period the Scythic invasion of Egypt and Syria, "
by the sons of Togarmah riding on horses " (the Aswas, or Asi), is
alike recorded by the prophet Ezekiel and Diodorus.
The Abu Mahatma calls the Takshaks " the sons of Himachal," all
evincing Scythic descent ; and it was only eight reigns anterior to
this change in the Lunar dynasties of India, that Parsvanath, the
twenty-third Buddha [Jain Tirthankara], introduced his tenets into
India, and fixed his abode in the holy mount Sarnet. The Division of India
Janamejaya, who at last compelled them to sign tributary engagements,
divested of its allegory,' is plain historical fact the grand division
of Asia, Tokharistan or Turkistan : and there is every appearance of
that singular race, Tajik still scattered over these regions, and
whose history appears a mystery, being the descendants of the Takshak.
It has been already observed, that ancient inscriptions in t)ie Pali
or Buddhist character have been discovered in various parts of
Rajasthan, of the race called Tasta, Takshak, and Tak, relating to the
tribes, the Mori [or Maurya], Pramara, their descendants.
The Balhara of Arab travellers of the tenth century were the
Rashtrakuta dynasty of Malkhed, Balhara being a corruption of
Vallabharaja,
Vallabha being the royal title {BG, i. Part ii. 209).] [Vanaraja
reigned from a.d. 765 to 780, and the dynasty is said to have lasted
196 years, but the evidence is still incomplete. Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarat, 32 ff.]
Much of the account is mere tradition, but it has been plausibly
suggested that when Bhima the Chaulukya king of Anhilwara was defeated
by Mahmud of Ghazni in a.d. 1024, the latter may have appointed
Durlabha, uncle of Bhima, to keep order in Gujarat, and that the two
Dabshalims may be identified with Durlabha and his son [BG, i. Part i.
168). Also see Ferishta i. 76 ; Bayley,
Abulghazi [Hist, of the Turks, Moguls, and Tartars, 1730, i. 5 f .]
says, when Noah left the ark he divided the earth amongst his three
sons : Shem had Iran : Japhet, the country of ' Kuttup Shamach,' the
name of the regions between the Caspian Sea and India.
There he lived two hundred and fifty years. He left eight sons, of
whom Turk was the elder and the seventh Camari, supposed the Gomer of
Scripture. Turk had four sons ; the eldest of whom was Taunak, the
fourth from whom was Mogul, a corruption of Mongol, signifying sad,
whose successors made the Jaxartes their winter abode.
[The word means ' brave ' (Howorth, Hist, of the Mongols, i. 27).]
UNDER HIS REIGN NO TRACE OF THE TRUE RELIGION REMAINED : IDOLATRY
REIGNED EVERYWHERE. AGHUZ KHAN SUCCEEDED. THE ANCIENT CIMBRI, WHO WENT
WEST WITH ODIN'S HORDE OF JATS, CHATTIS, AND SU , WERE PROBABLY THE
TRIBES DESCENDED FROM CAMARI, THE SON OF TURK.
Tacash continued to be a proper name with the great Khans of Kharizm
(Chorasmia) until they adopted the faith of Muhammad. The father of
Jalal, the foe of Jenghiz Khan, was named Tacash.
Tashkent on the Jaxartes, the capital of Turkistan, may be derived
from the name of the race. Bayer says, " Tocharistan was the region of
the Tochari, who were • the ancient Tijxapoi (Tochari), or
Taxcipot(TachaA'oi)." Amraianus Marcellinus says, " many nations obey
the Bactrians, whom the Tochari surjoass t
This singular race, the Tajiks, are repeatedly mentioned by Mr.
Elpliinstone in his admirable account of the kingdom of Kabul. They
are also particularly noticed as monopoHsing the commercial
transactions of the kingdom of Bokhara, in that interesting work.
[The term Tajik means the settled population, as opposed to the Turks
or tent-dM'ellers.
It is the same word as Tazi, ' Arab,' still surviving in the name of
the Persian greyhound, which was apparently introduced by the Arabs.
Sykes (HIST, OF PERSIA, II. 153, NOTE) and Skrine-Ross {The Heart of
Asia, 3, 364 note) state that the Tajiks represent the Iranian branch
of the Aryans. The Mahabharata describes this warfare against the snakes literally :
of which, in one attack, he seized and made a burnt-ofering (hom) of
twenty thousand. It is surprising that the Hindu will accept these
things literally. It might be said he had but a choice of difficulties, and that it
would be as impossible for any human being to make the barbarous
sacrifice of twenty thousand of his species, as it would be difficult
to find twenty thousand snakes for the purpose.
The author's knowledge of what barbarity will inflict leaves the fact
of the human sacrifice, though not perhaps to this extent, not even
improbable. In 1811 his duties called him to a survey amidst the
ravines of the Chambal, the tract called Gujargarh, a district
inhabited by the Gujar tribe. Turbulent and independent, like the sons
of Esau, their hand against every man and every man's hand against
them, their nominal prince, SurajmaU, the Jat chief of Bharatpur,
pursued exactlj' the same plan towards the population of these
villages, whom they captured in a night attack, that Janamejaya did to
the Takshaks : he threw them into pits with combustibles, and actually
thus consumed them !
This occurred not three-quarters of a century ago.
Arrian says that his name was Omphis [Ambhi], and that his father
dying at this time, he did homage to Alexander, who invested him with
the title and estates of his father Taxiles.
Hence, perhaps (from Tak), the name of the Indus, Attak ; [?] not
Atak, or ' forbidden,' according to modern signification, and which
has only been given since the Muhammadan religion for a time made it
the boundary between the two faiths. [All these speculations ] In Bihar, during the reign of Pradyota, the successor of Ripunjaya.
Parsva's symbol is the serpent of Takshak. His doctrines spread to the
remotest parts of India, and the princes of Valabhipura of Ma'ndor and
Anhilwara all held to the tenets of Buddha. [As usual, Jains are confounded
with Buddhists. There is no reason to beheve that the Nagas, a
serpent-wor.shipping tribe, were not indigenous in India.] THE FIRST BUDHA IS THE PARENT OF THE LUNAR RACE, A.C. 2250.
THE SECOND (TWENTY-SECOND OF THE JAINS), NEMNATH, A.C. 1120.
THE THIRD (TWENTY-THIRD DO. ), PARSAWANATH, A.C. 650.
THE FOURTH (TWENTY-FOURTH DO. ), MAHIVIRA, A.C. 533. Most ancient inscriptions Pali character, discovered wherever the
Buddhist rehgion prevailed, their being declared of the race of Tasta
or Takshak, warrants the Agnikulas to be of this same race, which
invaded India about two centuries before Christ. FALSE EYEWASH
It was about this period that Parsvanatha the twenty-third Buddha,
appeared in India ; his symbol, the serpent. The legend of the snake
(Takshak) escaping wife the celebrated work Pingala, which was
recovered by Garuda, the eagle of Krishna, is purely figurative ; and
colorful of the contention between the followers of Parswanatha,
figured under his emblem, the snake, and those of Krishna, depicted
under his sign, the eagle.
In the case of the Sesodias of Mewar, Guhadatta, the name of its
founder is said to have belonged to the Gurjara stock, who entered
India about the sixth century of our era, and founded a kingdom in
Rajputana with its capital at Bhilmal or Srimal, about fifty miles
from Mount Abu, the scene of the regeneration of the Rajputs.
This branch, which took the name of Maitrika, is said to be closely
connected with the Mer tribe, which gave its name to Merwara, and is
fully described in The Annals.
The actual conqueror of Chitor, Bapa or Bappa, is said in inscriptions
to have belonged to the branch known as Nagar, or ' City ' Brahmans
which has its present headquarters at the town of Vadnagar in the
Baroda State.
These facts help us to understand the strange story in The Annals, and
the origin of our father Adam
Gohaditya received inauguration as chief by having his forehead
smeared with blood drawn from the finger of a Bhil
The Bhils, now a wild forest tribe, and the Rajputs.
The Bhils were the free lords of the jungle, original owners of the
soil, and though they practiced rites and followed customs repulsive
to orthodox Hindus, they did not share in the impurity which attached
to foul outcastes like the Dom or the Chandala. ,
As the Bhils were believed to be autonomous, and thus understood the
methods of controlling or conciliating the local spirits, by this form
of inauguration they passed on their knowledge to the Rajputs whom
they accepted as their lords. The relations of the Minas, another
jungle tribe of the same class, with the Kachhwahas of Jaipur were of
the same kind.
According to the bardic legend given in The Annals, the Rathors, the
second great Rajput clan, owed their origin to a migration of a body
of its members to the western Desert when the territory of Kanauj was
conquered by Shihabu-d-din in a.d. 1193. But it is now certain that
the ruling dynasty of Kanauj belonged, not to the Rathor, but to the
Gaharwar clan, and that the first Rathor settlement in Rajputana must
have occurred anterior to the conquest of Kanauj by the Musalmans.
An inscription, dated a.d. 997, found in the ruins of the ancient
town of Hathundi or Hastikundi in the Bali Hakumat of the Jodhpur
describing the popular religion of Mewar, the festival and rites in
honour of Gauri, the Mother goddess. There are also many incidental notices of cults and superstitions
scattered throughthe work during this time. A race of warriors like the Rajputs favours the worship of Siva who,
as the successor of Rudra, the Vedic storm-god, was originally a
terror-inspiring deity, a side of his character only imperfectly
veiled by his euphemistic title of Siva, ' the blessed or auspicious
One.'
in another inscription, dated a.d. 971, is in form of a dedication to
Lakultsa, a form of Siva represented as bearing a club, and refers to
the Saiva sect known as Lakullsa-Pasapatas. It records the name of a
king named Sri-Bappaka, ' the moon among the princes of the Guhila
dynasty,' who reigned at a place called Nagahvada, identified with
Nagda, an ancient town several times mentioned in The Annals, the
ruins of which exist at the foot of the hill on which the temple of
Eklingji stands. Sri-Bappaka is certainly Bapa or Bappa, the
traditional founder of the Mewar dynasty, which had at that time its
capital at Nagda.
From this inscription it is clear that the Eklingji temple was in
existence before a.d. 971,
The milder side of the Rajput character is represented in the cult of
Krishna at Nathdwara. The Mahant or Abbot of the temple, with image of
Kesavadeva, a form of Krishna, ' the cart bearing the image arrived at
Siarh, the god, by stopping the cart, is said to have expressed liis
intention of remaining there.
This was the origin of the famous temple, still visited by crowds of
pilgrims, and one of the leading seats of the Vallabhacharya sect, '
the Epicureans of the East,' whose practices, as disclosed in the
famous Maharaja libel case, tried at Bombay in 1861, gave rise to
grievous scandal.
Thou Emperor Akbar favoured the worship of Krishna, a feeling shared
by his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan.
Akbar, in his search for a new faith dallied with Hindu Pandits,
Parsi priests, and Christian missionaries, and he was doubtless well
informed about the sensuous ritual of the temple of Nathdwara. Examination—.........................................the constant
references to the cult of Bal-Siva, a form of the Sun god.
...................................It is, of course, not unlikely that
Siva, as a deity of fertility, should be associated with Sun worship,
but there is no evidence of the cult on which Tod lays special stress-
The Annals possesses importance because it represents a phase in the
study of Indian religions, ethnology, and sociology'.
He observed SINCE THE Rajputs when they were in a stage of
transition. Isolated by the inaccessibility of their country, against
the rising tide of the Muhammadan invasions To avoid anarchy and the
ultimate destruction of these States, it was necessary for them ta
accept a closer union with the British as the paramount power. By this
they lost something, but they gained much. The new connexion involved
new duties and responsiblities in adapting their primitive system of
government to modern requirements. • A material drawback
• love and war are their favourite themes.
• suspicious kind of historical evidence
• respecting places of pilgrimage and religious resort, profane events
• are blended with superstitious rites and ordinances, local ceremonies
• and customs.
The controversies of the Jains furnish, also, much historical
information, especially with reference to Gujarat and Nahrwala, during
the Chaulukya dynasty. From a close and attentive examination of the
Jain records, which embody all that those ancient sectarians knew of
science, many chasms in Hindu history might be filled up.
The party-spirit of the rival sects of India was, doubtless, adverse
to the purity of history ; and the very ground upon which the Brahmans
built their ascendency was the ignorance of the people.
There appears to have been in India as well as in Egypt in early
times, a coalition between the hierarchy and the state, with the view
of keeping the mass of the nation in darkness and subjugation.
These different records, works of a mixed historical and geographical
character which I know to exist ; raesas or poetical legends of
princes, which are common ; local Puranas, religious comments, and
traditionary couplets ; with authorities of a less dubious character,
namely, inscriptions ' cut on the rock,' coins, copper-p late grants,
containing charters of immunities, and expressing many singular
features of civil government, constitute, as observed, no despicable
materials for the historian, who would,
moreover,
ALL established ancient Pagan SYSTEM and THE SACRIFICE , THE LINEAGE IS
Sacred genealogy from the Puranas ; re- examined the Mahabharata, and
later Muhammadan writers incorporated the change .
The conquest by a handful of strangers for Thirty Years. The War to
show what the energy of one of these petty States, impelled by a sense
of oppression, effected against the colossal power of its enemies.
It is a portion of their history which should be deeply studied by
those who have succeeded to the paramount power ; for Aurangzeb had
less reason to distrust the stability of his dominion than we have :
yet what is now the house of Timur ?
The resources of Marwar were reduced to as low an ebb at the close of
Aurangzeb's reign, as they are at the present time ; yet did that
State surmount all its difficulties, and bring armies into the field
that annihilated the forces of the empire.
The link connecting the tribes of India Proper with the ancient races
west of the Indus, or Indo-Scythia
The ingenuous, pious, and liberal Abu-1 Fazl, when completing his
History of the Provinces of India ;
" Praise be unto God, that by the assistance of his Divine Grace, I
have completed the History of the Rajputs.
The Author's Surveys.—The route of the embassy was from Agra, through
the southern frontier of Jaipur to Udaipur.
Points laid down from celestial observation
It embraced all the extreme points of Central India : Agra, Narwar,
Datia, Jhansi, Bhopal, .Sarangpur, Ujjain, and on return from this,
the first meridian of the Hindus, by Kotah; Bundi, Rampura (Tonk),
Bayana, to Agra. The position of all these places was more or less accurately fixed,
according to the time which could be bestowed, by astronomical
observation The position then assigned to it, with most inadequate
instruments, has been changed only 1 ' of longitude, though the
latitude amounted to about 5'.
In 1820 important journey across the Aravalli, by Kumbhalmer, Pali, to
Jodhpur, the capital of Marwar, and hence by Merta, tracing the course
of the Luni to its source at Ajmer ; and from this celebrated
residence of the Chauhan
Rajasthan presents a great variety of feature.
The highest peak of the insulated Abu, ' the saint's
pinnacle,' as it is termed, Indus west to the ' withy-covered '
Betwa on the east. From this, the most elevated spot in Hindustan,
overlooking by fifteen hundred feet
The Aravalli moimtains, his eye descends to the plains of Medpat .
Sir. J. B. Fraser [whose book was published in 1825].
From Abu to the Chambal, to the Betwa at Kotra is one thousand feet
above the sea-level, and one thousand lower than the city and valley
of Udaipur, which again is on the same level with the base of Abu, two
thousand feet above the sea. This line, is about six geographic
degrees in length :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yet is this small space highly diversified, both in its inhabitants
and the production of the soil, whether hidden or revealed.
The essence of the extract from the Agni Pur ana is this : " When
ocean quitted his bounds and caused universal destruction by Brahma's
command, Vaiva- swata ^ Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya ^
mountains was giving water to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a
small fish fell into his hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it.
The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu, with his sons and their
wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing, entered
into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of the fish,
and thus they were preser-fed."
Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of
the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is
stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain
Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at
Ayodhya,* and his descendants filled the land and spread over the
earth."
Sumeru, designated the north pole of the earth. But they had also a
mountain with this same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, ' the
hill,' with the prefix Su, ' good, sacred ' : the Sacred Hill.
MEANING ' TABLE {PAT) MOUNTAIN (AR).'— A PRIMITIVE ROOT POSSESSING
SUCH MEANING—INSTANCE, AR-BUDDHA,
'HILL OF BUDDHA'; ARAVALLI, 'HILL OF STRENGTH.' AR IS HEBREW FOR
'MOUNTAIN - ' (QU. ARARAT ?) "OPOS IN GREEK ?
The common word for a mountain in Sanskrit, gir, is equally so in Hebrew.
The citadel pinnacle of Kumbhalmer, range running north to Ajmer,
where it loses its tabular form, and breaking into lofty ridges, sends
numerous branches through the Shaikhavati federation, and Alwar, till
in low heights it terminates at Delhi.
FROM KUMBHALMER TO AJMER THE WHOLE SPACE IS TERMED MERWARA, AND IS
INHABITED BY THE MOUNTAIN RACE OF MER OR MAIR, THE HABITS AND HISTORY
OF WHICH SINGULAR CLASS WILL BE RELATED.
The range averages from six to fifteen miles in breadth, in the east
or west—THE ANCIENT STOCK OF THE SURYAVANS OF INDIA, OUR ' CHILDREN
OF THE SUN,' THE PRINCES OF MEWAR.
Many years ago ' The Lord of the Mountain ' was dead : the men were
all abroad, and his widow alone in the hut.
Meru signifies ' a hill ' in Sanskrit, 'the hill' or 'mountain of
Kumbha/ a prince whose exploits are narrated. Likewise Ajmer is the
'hill of Ajaymeru ,' the 'Invincible' hill. Views from the Aravalli Hills.— along the chain, several fortresses
are observed on pinnacle guarding the passes on either side, while
numerous rills ( a small channel cut in soil) descend, pouring over
the mountain surface , seeking their devious exit between the
projecting ribs of the mountain. RESULT : Rapid mountain fast-moving water, IN THE soil below the
chaotic mass of rock where its ' fractured pinnacles ' are seen rising
the Aravalli the ' Apennines of India ' THE GHATS ON THE MALABAR COAST OF OLDEST OF ALL THE PHYSICAL FEATURES
WHICH INTERSECT THE CONTINENT IS THE RANGE OF MOUNTAINS KNOWN AS THE
ARAVALLIS, WHICH STRILIES ACROSS THE PENINSULA FROM NORTH-EAST TO
SOUTH-WEST, OVERLOOKING THE SANDY WASTES OF RAJPUTANA.
THE ARAVALLIS DEPRESSED AND DEGRADED RELICS OF A PROMINENT MOUNTAIN SYSTEM.
The Mountain System of Central India.
The Chambal River.—The Chambal has his fountains in a very elevated
point of the Vindhya,
It has three cluster, the Chambal, Chambela, and Gambhir ; while no
less than nine other streams have their origin on the south side, and
pour their waters into the Nerbudda.
The Sipra from Pipalda, the little Sind from Dewas, and other minor
streams passing Ujjain, all unite with the Chambal in different stages
before he breaks through the plateau.
The Kali Sind, from Bagri, and its petty branch, the Sodwia, from
Raghugarh ; the Niwaz (or Jamniri), from Morsukri and Magarda ; the
Parbati, from the pass of Amlakhera, with its more eastern arm from
Daulatpur, uniting at Pharhar, are all points in the crest of the
Vindhya range, whence they pursue their course through the plateau,
rolling over precipices, till engulfed in the Chambal at the ferries
of Nunera and Pali. All these unite on the right bank.
On the left bank his flood is increased by the Banas, fed by the
perennial streams from the Aravalli, and the Berach from the lakes of
Udaipur ; and after watering Mewar, the southern frontier of Jaipur,
and the highlands of Karauli, the river turns south to unite at the
holy Sangam,' Rameswar. Minor streams contribute (unworthy, however,
of separate notice), and after a thousand involutions he reaches the
Jumna, at the holy Triveni, or ' triple-allied ' stream, between Etawa
and Kalpi.
This is the fourth Sind of India. We have, first, the Sind or Indus ;
this little Sind ; then the Kali Sind, or ' black river ' ; and again
the Sind rising at Latoti, on the plateau west and above Sironj. Sin
is a Scythio word for river (now unused), so applied by the Hindus.
[Skr. Sindhu, probably from the root syand, ' to flow.'
The falls of the Kali Sind through the rocks at Gagraun and the
Parbati at Chapra (Gugal) are well worthy of a visit. The latter,
though I encamped twice at Chapra, from which it was reputed five
miles, I did not see.
Sangam is the point of confluence of two or more rivers, always sacred
to Mahadeva.
The Jumna, Chambal, and Sind [triveni, ' triple braid '].
PHYSIOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN
The course of the Chambal, not reckoning the minor sinuosities, is
upwards of five hundred miles ; ^ and along its banks specimens of
nearly every race now existing in India may be found : Sondis,
Chandarawats, Sesodias, Haras, Gaur, Jadon, Sakarwal, Gujar, Jat,*
Tuar, Chauhan, Bhadauria, Kachhwaha, Sengar, Bundela ; each in
associations of various magnitudes, from the substantive state of the
little republic communes between the Chambal and Kuwari'
The Western Desert. —Having thus sketched the central portion of
Rajasthan, or that eastward of the Aravalli, I shall give a rapid
general * view of that to the west, conducting the reader over the '
Thai ka Tiba,' or ' sand hills ' of the desert, to the valley of the
Indus.
The Luni River.— The most interesting object in this arid ' region of
death ' is the ' salt river,'
The Luni, from its sources, the sacred lakes of Pushkar and Ajmer, and
the more remote arm from Parbatsar to its embouchure in the great
western salt marsh, the Rann, has a course of more than three hundred
miles. Extensively formed by the deposits of the Luni, and the equally
saturated saline streams from the southern desert of Dhat.
The Mirage.—It is on the desiccated borders of this vast salt marsh
that the illusory phenomenon, the mirage, Such phenomena are common to
the desert, more particularly where these extensive saline depositions
exist, but varying from certain causes.
In most cases, this powerfully magnifying and reflecting medium is a
vertical stratum ; at first dense and opaque, it gradually tenuates
with increased temperature, till the maximum of heat, which it can
no longer resist, drives it off in an ethereal vapour.
The top of the ruined fortress of Hissar with unlimited range of
vision, no object to diverge its ray, save the miniature forests ; the
entire circle of tlie horizon a chain of more than fancy could form of
palaces, towers, and these airy ' pillars of heaven ' terminating in
turn their ephemeral existence.
But in the deserts of Dhat and Umrasumra, where the shepherds pasture
their flocks, and especially where the alkaline plant is produced, the
stratification is more horizontal, and produces more of the watery
deception. It is this illusion to which the inspired writer refers,
when he says, " the mock pool of the desert shall become real water "
[Isaiah xxv. 7].
The Desert.—From the north bank of the Luni to the south, and the
Shaikhavat frontier to the east, the sandy region commences.
Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer are all sandy plains, increasing in volume
as you proceed westward.
All this portion of territory is incumbent on a sandstone formation :
suroundings of all the new wells made from Jodhpur to Ajmer yielded
the same result : sand, concrete siliceous deposits, and chalk.
Though all these regions collectively bear the terra Marusthali, or '
region of death ' (the emphatic and figurative phrase for the desert),
the restrictive definition applies to a part only, that under the
dominion of the Rathor race .
From Balotra on the Luni, throughout the whole of Dhat and Umrasumra,
the western portion of Jaisalmer, and a broad strip between the
southern limits of Daudputra and Bikaner, there is real solitude and
desolation.
But from the Sutlej to the Rann, a space of five hundred miles of
longitudinal distance, and varying in breadth from fifty to one
hundred miles, numerous oases are found, where the shepherds from the
valley of the Indus and the Thai pasture their flocks.
Deluge Legend.—The Genesis of India commences with an event described
in the history of almost all nations, the deluge, which, though
treated with the fancy peculiar to the orientals, is not the less
entitled to attention.
The essence of the extract from the Agni Purana is this : When ocean
quitted his bounds and caused universal destruction by Brahma's
command, Vaivaswata
Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya mountains was giving water
to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a small fish fell into his
hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it.
The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu ( NOAH) , with his sons
and their wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing,
entered into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of the
fish, and thus they were preser-fed."
Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of
the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is
stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain
Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at
Ayodhya,* and his descendants filled the land and spread over the
earth."
This same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, ' the hill,' with the
prefix Su, ' good, sacred ' : the Sacred Hill.
Meru, Sumeru.—In the geography of the Agni Purana
* The present Ajodhya, capital of one of the twenty-two satrapies
constituting the Mogul Empire, and for some generations held by the
Title Wa zir, who has recently assumed the regal title. [Ghaziu-d-din
Haidar in 1819.]
* " To the south of Sumeru are the mountains Himavan, Hemakuta, and
Nishadha ; to the north are the countries Nil, Sveta, and Sringi
Between Hemachal and the ocean the land is Bharatkhand, called
Kukarraa Bhumi (land of vice, opposed to Aryavarta, or land of
virtue),
In which the seven grand ranges are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya,
Suktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Paripatra " {Agni Purana).
EARLY TRADITIONS
The rivers flowing from the mountainous ranges, whose relative
position with Sumeru are thei'e defined, still retain their ancient
appellations
This sacred mountain (Sumeru) is claimed by the Brahmans as the abode
of Mahadeva,^ Adiswar,^ or Baghes ' ; by the Jains, as the abode of
Adinath,* the first Jiniswara, or Jain lord.
Here they say he taught mankind the arts of agriculture and civilized
life. The Greeks claime
Aurangzeb had less reason to distrust the stability of his dominion
than why did he surmount all his armies into the field that
annihilated the forces of the empire further and the resources of
Marwar were reduced to as low an ebb as they are at the present time Recent investigation has thrown much new height on the origin of the
Rajputs. between the Vedic Kshatriya and the Rajput of medieval times
which it is now impossible to bridge. Understanding the roots is very
important for all of mankind. As the roots will lead us rightly to
know of our origins.Some clans, trace their lineage to the Kshatriyas
of Buddhist times, who recognized as one of the leading elements in
Hindu society, and, in their own estimation, stood even higher than
the Brahmans.
But it is now certain that the origin of many clans dates from the
Saka or Kushan invasion, which began about the middle of the second
century B.C., or more certainly, from that of the Huns who destroyed
the Gupta empire about A.D. 480.
The Gurjara tribe adopted Hinduism, and their leaders formed the
main stock from which the higher Rajput families sprang. When these
new claimants to princely honours accepted the faith and institutions
of Brahmanism, the attempt would naturally be made to initiate
themselves to the mythical heroes whose exploits are recorded in the
MAHABHARATA AND RAMAYANA.
Hence arose the body of legend recorded in The Annals by a fabulous
origin from the Sun or Moon is ascribed to two great Rajput branches,
a genealogy claimed by other princely families, like the Incas of Peru
or the Mikado of Japan. Or, as in the case of the Rathors of Marwar,
an equally fabulous story was invented to link them with the royal
house of Kanauj, one of the genuine old Hindu ruling families.
The same feeling lies at the root of the Aeneid of Virgil, the court
poet of the new empire. The clan of the emperor Augustus, the
patriachician family of Alban origin, represented as the heirs of
lulus, the supposed sou of Aeneas and founder of Alba Longa, thus
linking the new Augustan .
Than a sudden emergence of semi-darkness induced constant serpent
worship, which, years ago speculative writers mixed it up with occult
philosophies, juridical mysteries, and that pretentious nonsense
called the ' Arkite symbolism,'
In the midst of this there is a constant reference to the "
Takshaks," apparently one of the Scythian tribes. There is, however,
every reason to belive that serpent worship formed an important
element in the beliefs of the Scythians, or to suppose that the cult,
as we observe it in India, is of other than origin.
The term Kshatriya was, vague meaning, since it did not claim Brahmin
descent. Remember Kshatriya is the warrior cult and knowledge is
brahmanical. Occasionally a Raja might be a Brahman by caste, but the
Brahman's place at court was that of a minister rather than that of
king."
HOWEVER HERE THIS POST IS OCCUPIED BY MEMBERS OF THE BANIA OR
MERCANTILE CLASS, BECAUSE THE BRAHMANS OF THE DESERT, BY THEIR LACK OF
DISCIPLINE OF PRACTICE, WERE ILLITERATE.
Now the Kshatriya or Rajput depended on status rather than on
descent, and it was therefore possible for foreigners to be introduced
into the tribes without any violation of the prejudices of caste,
which was then only partially developed. But as the power of the
priesthood increased, it was necessary to disguise this admission of
foreigners initiated a convenient fiction.
HENCE AROSE THE LEGEND, TOLD IN TWO DIFFERENT FORMS IN THE ANNALS,
WHICH DESCRIBES HOW,BY A SERIOUS ACT OF PURIFICATION OR INITIATION,
UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF ONE OF THE ANCIENT VEDIC RISHIS OR
INSPIRED SAINTS, THE SO CALLED " FIRE-BORN " SECTS WERE CREATED TO
HELP THE BRAHMANS IN REPRESSING BUDDHISM, JAINISM, OR OTHER
FREESTANDING THE ANCIENT TRADITIONAL HINDU SOCIAL CULTURE , THE
TEMPORARY DOWNFALL OF WHICH, UNDER THE STRESS OF FOREIGN INVASIONS, IS
CAREFULLY CONCEALED IN THE HINDU SACRED LITERATURE.
This privilege was, we are told, confined to four sects, known as
Agnikula or ' fire-born '—the PRAMAR, PARIHAR, CHALUKYA OR SOLANKI,
AND THE CHAUHAN. However there is good reason to belive according to
author that the Pramar was the only sect which laid claim to this
distinction before the time of the poet Chand, who flourished in the
twelfth century of our era.
That these races, the sons of Agni, were but regenerated, and
converted by the Brahm'ans to fight their battles, the clearest
interpretations of their allegorical history will disclose ;
It was in S. 987 (a.d. 931) that Bhojraj, the last of the Chawaras,
and the Salic law of India were both set aside, to make way for the
young Solanki, Mulraj* who ruled Anhilwara for the space
• of fifty-eight years.
During the reign of his son and successor, Chamimd Rae, Mahmud of
Ghazni carried his desolatiag arms into the kingdom of Anhilwara.
With its wealth he raised those magnificent trophies of his conquest,
among which the ' Celestial Bride ' might have vied with anything ever
erected by man as a monument of folly . The wealth abstracted, as
reported in the history of the conquerors, though deemed incredible,
would obtain belief, if the commercial riches of Anhilwara could be
appreciated. It was to India what Venice was to Europe, the potent of
the products of both the eastern and western hemispheres.
It fully recovered the shock given by Mahmud and the desultory wars of
his successors ; and we find Siddharaja Jayasingha, the seventh from
the founder, at the head of the richest, if not the most warlike,
kingdom of India. ANHILWARA
Two-and-twenty principalities at one time owned his power, from the
CARNATIC TO THE BASE OF THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS ; but his unwise
successor drew upon himself the vengeance of the Chauhan, Prithviraja,
a slip of which race was en grafted in the person of Kumarapala, on
the genealogical tree of the Solankis ; and it is a curious fact that
this dynasty of the Balakaraes alone gives us two examples of the
Salic law of India being violated. KUMARAPALA, WAS INSTALLED ON THE
THRONE OF ANHILWARA, ' TIED ROUND HIS HEAD THE TURBAN OF THE SOLANKI.'
HE BECAME OF THE TRIBE INTO WHICH HE WAS ADOPTED. KUMARAPALA, AS WELL
AS SIDDHARAJA, WAS THE PATRON OF BUDDHISM ; * AND THE MONUMENTS
ERECTED UNDER THEM and their successors claim our admiration, from
their magnificence and the perfection of the arts ; for at no period
were they more cultivated than at the courts of Anhilwara.
The lieutenants of Shihabu-d-din disturbed the close of Kumarapal's
reign ; and his successor, Balo Muldeo, closed this dynasty in S. 1284
(a.d. 1228), when a new dynasty, called the Vaghela (descendants of
Siddharaja) under BIsaldeo, succeeded.
The dilapidations from religious persecution were repaired ; Somnath,
renowned as Delphos of old, rose from its ruins, and the kingdom of
the Balakaraes was attaining its pristine magnificence, when, under
the fourth prince Karandeva.
The angel of destruction appeared in the shape of Alau-d-din, and the
kingdom of AnhilwAra was annihilated. THE LIEUTENANTS OF THE TATAR DESPOT OF DELHI LET LOOSE THE SPIRIT OF
INTOLERANCE AND AVARICE ON THE RICH CITIES AND FERTILE PLAINS OF
GUJARAT AND SAURASHTRA TOO . IN CONTEMPT OF THEIR FAITH, THE ALTAR OF
AN ISLAMITE DARVESH WAS PLACED IN CONTACT WITH THE SHRINE OF ADINATH,
ON THE MOST ACCESSIBLE OF THEIR SACRED MOUNTS : THE STATUES OF BUDDHA
[THE JAIN TIRTHANKARAS WERE THROWN DOWN, AND THE BOOKS CONTAINING THE
MYSTERIES OF THEIR FAITH SUFFERED THE SAME FATE AS THE ALEXANDRIAN
LIBRARY.
The walls of Anhilwara were demolished ; its foundations excavated,
and again filled up with the fragments of their ancient temples.
The remnants of the Solanki dynasty were scattered over the land, and
this portion of India remained for upwards of a century without any
paramount head, until, by a singular dispensation of Providence, its
splendour was renovated, and its foundations rebuilt, by an adventurer
of the same race from which the Agnikulas were originally converts,
though Saharan the Tak hid his name and his tribe under his new
epithet of Zafar Khan, and as Muzaffar ascended the throne of Gujarat,
which he left to his son. This son was Ahmad, who founded Ahmadabad,
whose most splendid edifices were built from the ancient cities around
it.
Baghels. —Though the stem of the Solankis was thus uprooted, yet was it not
before many of its branches (Sakha), like their own indigenous
bar-tree, had fixed themselves in other soils. The most prominent of
these is the Baghela * family, which gave its name to an entire
division of Hindustan ; and Bagtielkhand lias now been ruled for many
centuries by the descendants of Siddharaja.
Besides Bandhugarh, tliere are minor chieftains still in Gujarat of
the Baghela tribe. Of these, Pethapur and Tharad are the most
conspicuous. One of the chieftains of the second class in Mewar is a
Solanki, and traces his line immediately from Siddharaja : this is the
chief of Rupnagar, whose stronghold commands one of the passes leading
to Marwar, and whose family annals would furnish a fine picture of the
state of border-feuds. Few of them, till of late years, have died
natural deaths.
The Solanki is divided into sixteen branches].
Baghela—Raja of Baghelkhand (capital Bandhugarh),
Raos of Pitapur, Tharad, and Adalaj, etc.
Birpura—Rao of Lunawara.
Bahala—Kalyanpur in Mewar, styled Rao, but serving the chief of
Salumbar oil" Baru, Tekra, and Chahir, in Jaisalmer.
Kalacha ^ J Langaha—^Muslims about Multan.
Togra—-Muslims in the Panjnad.
Brika— ,, „
Surki—In Deccan.
Sarwaria '—Girnar in Saurashtra.
. Raka—Toda in Jaipur.
Ranakia—Desuri in Mewar.
Kharara—Alota and Jawara, in Malwa.
Tantia—Chandbhar Sakanbari.*
Almecha—No land.
Kalamor—Gujarat.^
Pratihara or Parihara.—Of this, the last and least of _the Agnikulas,
we have not much to say.
The Pariharas never acted a conspicuous part in the history of
Rajasthan. They are always discovered in a subordinate capacity,
acting in feudal subjection to the Turks of Delhi or the Chauhans of
Aimer ; and the brightest page of their history is the record of an
abortive attempt of Nahar Rao to maintain his independence against
Prithwiraja.
THOUGH A PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN
A BIG FAILURE, HAS IMMORTALIZED HIS NAME
AND GIVEN TO THE SCENE OF ACTION, ONE OF THE PASSES OF THE ARAVALLI,
A MERITED CELEBRITY.
Mandor (classically Maddodara) was the capital of the Parihars, and
was the chief city of Marwar which owned the sway of this tribe prior
to the invasion and settlement of the Rathors. It is placed five miles
northward of the modern Jodhpur, and preserves some specimens of the
ancient Pali character, fragments of sculpture and Jain temples. The
Rathor emigrant princes of Kanauj found an asylum with the Parihars.
They repaid it by treachery, and Chonda, a name celebrated in the
Rathor annals, dispossessed the last of the Parihars, and pitched the
flag of the Rathors on the battlements of Mandor.
THE POWER OF THE PARIHARS HAD, HOWEVER, BEEN MUCH REDUCED PREVIOUSLY
BY THE PRINCES OF MEWAR, WHO NOT ONLY ABSTRACTED MUCH TERRITORY FROM
THEM, BUT ASSUMED THE TITLE OF ITS PRINCES—RANA.^
The Parihara scattered over Rajasthan, but the existence of
independent chieftainship there. At the confluence of the Kuhari, the
Sind, and the Chambal, there is a colony of this race, which has given
its name to a commune of twenty-four villages, besides hamlets,
situated amidst the ravines of these streams.
They were nominally subjects of Sindhia ; but it was deemed requisite
for the line of defence along the Chambal that it should be included
within the British demarcation, by which most notorious body of
thieves in the annals of Thug history.
The Parihars had twelve subdivisions, of which the chief were the
Indha and Sindhal : a few of both are still to be found about the
banks of the Luni.
Chawara or Chaura.—This tribe was once renowned in the history of
India, though its name is now scarcely known Ti, or only in the
chronicles of the bard. The origin of it was
- ignorance.
It belongs neither to the Solar nor Lunar race, and consequently
presumed to be of the Scythic Orgin The name is unknown in Hindustan, and is confined, with many others
originating from beyond the Indus, to the peninsula of Saurashtra. If
foreign to India proper, its establishment must have been at a remote
period, as we find individuals of it intermarrying with the Suryavansa
ancestry of the present princes of Mewar, when this family were the
lords of Valabhi.
The capital of the Chawaras was the insular Deobandar, on the coast of
Saurashtra, and the celebrated temple of Sonmath, with many others on
this coast, dedicated to Balnath, or the sun, is attributed to this
tribe of the Sauras,* or worshippers of the sun ; most probably the
generic name of the tribe as well as of the peninsula.*
By a natural catastrophe, or as the Hindu superstitious chroniclers
will have it, as a punishment for the piracies of the prince of Deo,
the element whose privilege he abused rose and overwhelmed his
capital. As all this coast is very low, such an occurrence is not
improbable ; though the abandonment of Deo might have been compelled
by the irruptions of the Arabians, who at this period carried on a
trade with these parts, and the plunder of some of their vessels may
have brought this punishment on the Chawaras. That it was owing to
some such political catastrophe, we have additional grounds for belief
from the annals of Mewar, which state that its princes inducted the
Chawaras into the seats of the power they abandoned on the continent
and peninsula of Saurashtra.
At all events, the prince of Deo laid the foundation of Anhilwara
Patan in S. 802 (a.d. 74.6), which henceforth became the capital city
of this portion of India, in lieu of Valabhipura, which gave the title
of Balakaraes to its princes, the Balhara of the earlier Arabian
travellers, and following them, the geographers of Europe."
Vana Raja (or, in the dialects, Banraj) was this founder, and his
dynasty ruled for one hundred and eighty-four years, when, as related
in the sketch of the Solanki tribe, Bhojraj, the seventh from the
founder, was deposed by his nephew.
It was during this dynasty that the Arabian travellers ^ visited this
court, of which they have left but a confused picture. We are not,
however, altogether in darkness regarding the Chawara race, as in the
Khuman Raesa, one of the chronicles of Mewar, mention is made of the
auxiliaries under a leader named Chatansi, in the defence of Chitor
against the first attack on record of the Muhammadans
.
When Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Saurashtra and captured its capital,
Anhilwara, he deposed its and placed upon the throne, according to
Ferishta, a prince of the former dynasty, renowned for his ancient
line and purity of blood, and who is styled Dabichalima ; a name which
has puzzled all European commentators.
Now the Dabhi ...........................was a celebrated tribe, said
by some to be a branch of the Chawara, and this therefore may be a
compound of Dabhi Chawara, or the Chaurasima, by some called a branch
of the ancient Yadus.
This ancient connexion between the Surya\ansi cliiefs and the
Chawaras, or Sauras, of Saurashtra, is still maintained after a lapse
of more than one thousand years ; for although an alliance with the
Rana's family is deemed the highest honour that a Hindu prince can
obtain, as being the first in rank in Rajasthan, yet is the humble
Chawara sought out, even at the foot of fortune's ladder, whence to
carry on the blood of Rama. The present heir-apparent of a line of '
one hundred kings,' the prince Jawan Singh [1828-38], is the offspring
of a Chawara mother, the daughter of a petty chieftain of Gujarat. It
were vain to give any account of the present stale of the families
bearing this name. They must depend upon the fame of past days ; to
this we leave them.
Tak or Takshak
Takshak appears to be the generic term of the race from which the
various Scythic tribes, the early invaders of India, branched off. It
appears of more ancient sakha.
It might not be judicious to separate them, though it would be
speculative to say which was the primitive title of the races called
Scythic, after their country, Sakatai or Sakadwipa, the land of the
great Getae.
Abul Ghazi makes Taunak^ the son of Turk or Targetai, who appears to
be the Turushka of the Puranas, the Tukyuks of the Chinese historians,
the nomadic Tokhari of Strabo, who aided to overturn the Greek kingdom
of Bactria, and gave their name to the grand division of Asia,
Tokharistan or Turkistan : and there is every appearance of that
singular race, tlie Tajik,* still scattered over these regions, and
whose history appears a mystery, being the descendants of the Takshak.
Also the ancient inscriptions in Pali or Buddhist character have been
discovered in various parts of Rajasthan, of the race called Tasta,
Takshak, and Tak, relating to the tribes, the Mori [or Maurya],
Pramara, their descendants.
Naga and Takshak in Sanskrit refers to the snake, and the Takshak is
the celebrated Nagvansa of the early heroic history of India. The Mahabharata describes in its usual style, the wars between the
Pandavas of Indraprastha and the Takshaks of the north.
The assassination of Parikshita by the Takshak, and the exterminating
warfare carried when Alexander invaded India, he found the Paraitakai,
the mountain Tak, inhabiting
The early History
The Bhatti princes of Jaisalmer, when driven from kabulistan, they
dispossessed the Taks on the Indus, and established themselves in
their land, the capital of which was called Salivahanpura ; and as the
date of this event is given as 3008 of the Yudhishthira era, it is by
no means unlikely that Salivahana, or Salbhan (who was a Takshak), the
conqueror of the Tuar Vikrama, was of the very family dispossessed by
the Bhattis, who compelled them to migrate to the south.
The calculated period of the invasion of the Takshaks, or . Nagvansa,
under Sheshnag, is about six or seven centuries before the Christian
era, at which very period the Scythic invasion of Egypt and Syria, "
by the sons of Togarmah riding on horses " (the Aswas, or Asi), is
alike recorded by the prophet Ezekiel and Diodorus.
The Abu Mahatma calls the Takshaks " the sons of Himachal," all
evincing Scythic descent ; and it was only eight reigns anterior to
this change in the Lunar dynasties of India, that Parsvanath, the
twenty-third Buddha [Jain Tirthankara], introduced his tenets into
India, and fixed his abode in the holy mount Sarnet. The Division of India
Janamejaya, who at last compelled them to sign tributary engagements,
divested of its allegory,' is plain historical fact the grand division
of Asia, Tokharistan or Turkistan : and there is every appearance of
that singular race, Tajik still scattered over these regions, and
whose history appears a mystery, being the descendants of the Takshak.
It has been already observed, that ancient inscriptions in t)ie Pali
or Buddhist character have been discovered in various parts of
Rajasthan, of the race called Tasta, Takshak, and Tak, relating to the
tribes, the Mori [or Maurya], Pramara, their descendants.
The Balhara of Arab travellers of the tenth century were the
Rashtrakuta dynasty of Malkhed, Balhara being a corruption of
Vallabharaja,
Vallabha being the royal title {BG, i. Part ii. 209).] [Vanaraja
reigned from a.d. 765 to 780, and the dynasty is said to have lasted
196 years, but the evidence is still incomplete. Muhammadan Dynasties of Gujarat, 32 ff.]
Much of the account is mere tradition, but it has been plausibly
suggested that when Bhima the Chaulukya king of Anhilwara was defeated
by Mahmud of Ghazni in a.d. 1024, the latter may have appointed
Durlabha, uncle of Bhima, to keep order in Gujarat, and that the two
Dabshalims may be identified with Durlabha and his son [BG, i. Part i.
168). Also see Ferishta i. 76 ; Bayley,
Abulghazi [Hist, of the Turks, Moguls, and Tartars, 1730, i. 5 f .]
says, when Noah left the ark he divided the earth amongst his three
sons : Shem had Iran : Japhet, the country of ' Kuttup Shamach,' the
name of the regions between the Caspian Sea and India.
There he lived two hundred and fifty years. He left eight sons, of
whom Turk was the elder and the seventh Camari, supposed the Gomer of
Scripture. Turk had four sons ; the eldest of whom was Taunak, the
fourth from whom was Mogul, a corruption of Mongol, signifying sad,
whose successors made the Jaxartes their winter abode.
[The word means ' brave ' (Howorth, Hist, of the Mongols, i. 27).]
UNDER HIS REIGN NO TRACE OF THE TRUE RELIGION REMAINED : IDOLATRY
REIGNED EVERYWHERE. AGHUZ KHAN SUCCEEDED. THE ANCIENT CIMBRI, WHO WENT
WEST WITH ODIN'S HORDE OF JATS, CHATTIS, AND SU , WERE PROBABLY THE
TRIBES DESCENDED FROM CAMARI, THE SON OF TURK.
Tacash continued to be a proper name with the great Khans of Kharizm
(Chorasmia) until they adopted the faith of Muhammad. The father of
Jalal, the foe of Jenghiz Khan, was named Tacash.
Tashkent on the Jaxartes, the capital of Turkistan, may be derived
from the name of the race. Bayer says, " Tocharistan was the region of
the Tochari, who were • the ancient Tijxapoi (Tochari), or
Taxcipot(TachaA'oi)." Amraianus Marcellinus says, " many nations obey
the Bactrians, whom the Tochari surjoass t
This singular race, the Tajiks, are repeatedly mentioned by Mr.
Elpliinstone in his admirable account of the kingdom of Kabul. They
are also particularly noticed as monopoHsing the commercial
transactions of the kingdom of Bokhara, in that interesting work.
[The term Tajik means the settled population, as opposed to the Turks
or tent-dM'ellers.
It is the same word as Tazi, ' Arab,' still surviving in the name of
the Persian greyhound, which was apparently introduced by the Arabs.
Sykes (HIST, OF PERSIA, II. 153, NOTE) and Skrine-Ross {The Heart of
Asia, 3, 364 note) state that the Tajiks represent the Iranian branch
of the Aryans. The Mahabharata describes this warfare against the snakes literally :
of which, in one attack, he seized and made a burnt-ofering (hom) of
twenty thousand. It is surprising that the Hindu will accept these
things literally. It might be said he had but a choice of difficulties, and that it
would be as impossible for any human being to make the barbarous
sacrifice of twenty thousand of his species, as it would be difficult
to find twenty thousand snakes for the purpose.
The author's knowledge of what barbarity will inflict leaves the fact
of the human sacrifice, though not perhaps to this extent, not even
improbable. In 1811 his duties called him to a survey amidst the
ravines of the Chambal, the tract called Gujargarh, a district
inhabited by the Gujar tribe. Turbulent and independent, like the sons
of Esau, their hand against every man and every man's hand against
them, their nominal prince, SurajmaU, the Jat chief of Bharatpur,
pursued exactlj' the same plan towards the population of these
villages, whom they captured in a night attack, that Janamejaya did to
the Takshaks : he threw them into pits with combustibles, and actually
thus consumed them !
This occurred not three-quarters of a century ago.
Arrian says that his name was Omphis [Ambhi], and that his father
dying at this time, he did homage to Alexander, who invested him with
the title and estates of his father Taxiles.
Hence, perhaps (from Tak), the name of the Indus, Attak ; [?] not
Atak, or ' forbidden,' according to modern signification, and which
has only been given since the Muhammadan religion for a time made it
the boundary between the two faiths. [All these speculations ] In Bihar, during the reign of Pradyota, the successor of Ripunjaya.
Parsva's symbol is the serpent of Takshak. His doctrines spread to the
remotest parts of India, and the princes of Valabhipura of Ma'ndor and
Anhilwara all held to the tenets of Buddha. [As usual, Jains are confounded
with Buddhists. There is no reason to beheve that the Nagas, a
serpent-wor.shipping tribe, were not indigenous in India.] THE FIRST BUDHA IS THE PARENT OF THE LUNAR RACE, A.C. 2250.
THE SECOND (TWENTY-SECOND OF THE JAINS), NEMNATH, A.C. 1120.
THE THIRD (TWENTY-THIRD DO. ), PARSAWANATH, A.C. 650.
THE FOURTH (TWENTY-FOURTH DO. ), MAHIVIRA, A.C. 533. Most ancient inscriptions Pali character, discovered wherever the
Buddhist rehgion prevailed, their being declared of the race of Tasta
or Takshak, warrants the Agnikulas to be of this same race, which
invaded India about two centuries before Christ. FALSE EYEWASH
It was about this period that Parsvanatha the twenty-third Buddha,
appeared in India ; his symbol, the serpent. The legend of the snake
(Takshak) escaping wife the celebrated work Pingala, which was
recovered by Garuda, the eagle of Krishna, is purely figurative ; and
colorful of the contention between the followers of Parswanatha,
figured under his emblem, the snake, and those of Krishna, depicted
under his sign, the eagle.
In the case of the Sesodias of Mewar, Guhadatta, the name of its
founder is said to have belonged to the Gurjara stock, who entered
India about the sixth century of our era, and founded a kingdom in
Rajputana with its capital at Bhilmal or Srimal, about fifty miles
from Mount Abu, the scene of the regeneration of the Rajputs.
This branch, which took the name of Maitrika, is said to be closely
connected with the Mer tribe, which gave its name to Merwara, and is
fully described in The Annals.
The actual conqueror of Chitor, Bapa or Bappa, is said in inscriptions
to have belonged to the branch known as Nagar, or ' City ' Brahmans
which has its present headquarters at the town of Vadnagar in the
Baroda State.
These facts help us to understand the strange story in The Annals, and
the origin of our father Adam
Gohaditya received inauguration as chief by having his forehead
smeared with blood drawn from the finger of a Bhil
The Bhils, now a wild forest tribe, and the Rajputs.
The Bhils were the free lords of the jungle, original owners of the
soil, and though they practiced rites and followed customs repulsive
to orthodox Hindus, they did not share in the impurity which attached
to foul outcastes like the Dom or the Chandala. ,
As the Bhils were believed to be autonomous, and thus understood the
methods of controlling or conciliating the local spirits, by this form
of inauguration they passed on their knowledge to the Rajputs whom
they accepted as their lords. The relations of the Minas, another
jungle tribe of the same class, with the Kachhwahas of Jaipur were of
the same kind.
According to the bardic legend given in The Annals, the Rathors, the
second great Rajput clan, owed their origin to a migration of a body
of its members to the western Desert when the territory of Kanauj was
conquered by Shihabu-d-din in a.d. 1193. But it is now certain that
the ruling dynasty of Kanauj belonged, not to the Rathor, but to the
Gaharwar clan, and that the first Rathor settlement in Rajputana must
have occurred anterior to the conquest of Kanauj by the Musalmans.
An inscription, dated a.d. 997, found in the ruins of the ancient
town of Hathundi or Hastikundi in the Bali Hakumat of the Jodhpur
describing the popular religion of Mewar, the festival and rites in
honour of Gauri, the Mother goddess. There are also many incidental notices of cults and superstitions
scattered throughthe work during this time. A race of warriors like the Rajputs favours the worship of Siva who,
as the successor of Rudra, the Vedic storm-god, was originally a
terror-inspiring deity, a side of his character only imperfectly
veiled by his euphemistic title of Siva, ' the blessed or auspicious
One.'
in another inscription, dated a.d. 971, is in form of a dedication to
Lakultsa, a form of Siva represented as bearing a club, and refers to
the Saiva sect known as Lakullsa-Pasapatas. It records the name of a
king named Sri-Bappaka, ' the moon among the princes of the Guhila
dynasty,' who reigned at a place called Nagahvada, identified with
Nagda, an ancient town several times mentioned in The Annals, the
ruins of which exist at the foot of the hill on which the temple of
Eklingji stands. Sri-Bappaka is certainly Bapa or Bappa, the
traditional founder of the Mewar dynasty, which had at that time its
capital at Nagda.
From this inscription it is clear that the Eklingji temple was in
existence before a.d. 971,
The milder side of the Rajput character is represented in the cult of
Krishna at Nathdwara. The Mahant or Abbot of the temple, with image of
Kesavadeva, a form of Krishna, ' the cart bearing the image arrived at
Siarh, the god, by stopping the cart, is said to have expressed liis
intention of remaining there.
This was the origin of the famous temple, still visited by crowds of
pilgrims, and one of the leading seats of the Vallabhacharya sect, '
the Epicureans of the East,' whose practices, as disclosed in the
famous Maharaja libel case, tried at Bombay in 1861, gave rise to
grievous scandal.
Thou Emperor Akbar favoured the worship of Krishna, a feeling shared
by his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan.
Akbar, in his search for a new faith dallied with Hindu Pandits,
Parsi priests, and Christian missionaries, and he was doubtless well
informed about the sensuous ritual of the temple of Nathdwara. Examination—.........................................the constant
references to the cult of Bal-Siva, a form of the Sun god.
...................................It is, of course, not unlikely that
Siva, as a deity of fertility, should be associated with Sun worship,
but there is no evidence of the cult on which Tod lays special stress-
The Annals possesses importance because it represents a phase in the
study of Indian religions, ethnology, and sociology'.
He observed SINCE THE Rajputs when they were in a stage of
transition. Isolated by the inaccessibility of their country, against
the rising tide of the Muhammadan invasions To avoid anarchy and the
ultimate destruction of these States, it was necessary for them ta
accept a closer union with the British as the paramount power. By this
they lost something, but they gained much. The new connexion involved
new duties and responsiblities in adapting their primitive system of
government to modern requirements. • A material drawback
• love and war are their favourite themes.
• suspicious kind of historical evidence
• respecting places of pilgrimage and religious resort, profane events
• are blended with superstitious rites and ordinances, local ceremonies
• and customs.
The controversies of the Jains furnish, also, much historical
information, especially with reference to Gujarat and Nahrwala, during
the Chaulukya dynasty. From a close and attentive examination of the
Jain records, which embody all that those ancient sectarians knew of
science, many chasms in Hindu history might be filled up.
The party-spirit of the rival sects of India was, doubtless, adverse
to the purity of history ; and the very ground upon which the Brahmans
built their ascendency was the ignorance of the people.
There appears to have been in India as well as in Egypt in early
times, a coalition between the hierarchy and the state, with the view
of keeping the mass of the nation in darkness and subjugation.
These different records, works of a mixed historical and geographical
character which I know to exist ; raesas or poetical legends of
princes, which are common ; local Puranas, religious comments, and
traditionary couplets ; with authorities of a less dubious character,
namely, inscriptions ' cut on the rock,' coins, copper-p late grants,
containing charters of immunities, and expressing many singular
features of civil government, constitute, as observed, no despicable
materials for the historian, who would,
moreover,
ALL established ancient Pagan SYSTEM and THE SACRIFICE , THE LINEAGE IS
Sacred genealogy from the Puranas ; re- examined the Mahabharata, and
later Muhammadan writers incorporated the change .
The conquest by a handful of strangers for Thirty Years. The War to
show what the energy of one of these petty States, impelled by a sense
of oppression, effected against the colossal power of its enemies.
It is a portion of their history which should be deeply studied by
those who have succeeded to the paramount power ; for Aurangzeb had
less reason to distrust the stability of his dominion than we have :
yet what is now the house of Timur ?
The resources of Marwar were reduced to as low an ebb at the close of
Aurangzeb's reign, as they are at the present time ; yet did that
State surmount all its difficulties, and bring armies into the field
that annihilated the forces of the empire.
The link connecting the tribes of India Proper with the ancient races
west of the Indus, or Indo-Scythia
The ingenuous, pious, and liberal Abu-1 Fazl, when completing his
History of the Provinces of India ;
" Praise be unto God, that by the assistance of his Divine Grace, I
have completed the History of the Rajputs.
The Author's Surveys.—The route of the embassy was from Agra, through
the southern frontier of Jaipur to Udaipur.
Points laid down from celestial observation
It embraced all the extreme points of Central India : Agra, Narwar,
Datia, Jhansi, Bhopal, .Sarangpur, Ujjain, and on return from this,
the first meridian of the Hindus, by Kotah; Bundi, Rampura (Tonk),
Bayana, to Agra. The position of all these places was more or less accurately fixed,
according to the time which could be bestowed, by astronomical
observation The position then assigned to it, with most inadequate
instruments, has been changed only 1 ' of longitude, though the
latitude amounted to about 5'.
In 1820 important journey across the Aravalli, by Kumbhalmer, Pali, to
Jodhpur, the capital of Marwar, and hence by Merta, tracing the course
of the Luni to its source at Ajmer ; and from this celebrated
residence of the Chauhan
Rajasthan presents a great variety of feature.
The highest peak of the insulated Abu, ' the saint's
pinnacle,' as it is termed, Indus west to the ' withy-covered '
Betwa on the east. From this, the most elevated spot in Hindustan,
overlooking by fifteen hundred feet
The Aravalli moimtains, his eye descends to the plains of Medpat .
Sir. J. B. Fraser [whose book was published in 1825].
From Abu to the Chambal, to the Betwa at Kotra is one thousand feet
above the sea-level, and one thousand lower than the city and valley
of Udaipur, which again is on the same level with the base of Abu, two
thousand feet above the sea. This line, is about six geographic
degrees in length :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yet is this small space highly diversified, both in its inhabitants
and the production of the soil, whether hidden or revealed.
The essence of the extract from the Agni Pur ana is this : " When
ocean quitted his bounds and caused universal destruction by Brahma's
command, Vaiva- swata ^ Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya ^
mountains was giving water to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a
small fish fell into his hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it.
The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu, with his sons and their
wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing, entered
into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of the fish,
and thus they were preser-fed."
Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of
the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is
stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain
Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at
Ayodhya,* and his descendants filled the land and spread over the
earth."
Sumeru, designated the north pole of the earth. But they had also a
mountain with this same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, ' the
hill,' with the prefix Su, ' good, sacred ' : the Sacred Hill.
MEANING ' TABLE {PAT) MOUNTAIN (AR).'— A PRIMITIVE ROOT POSSESSING
SUCH MEANING—INSTANCE, AR-BUDDHA,
'HILL OF BUDDHA'; ARAVALLI, 'HILL OF STRENGTH.' AR IS HEBREW FOR
'MOUNTAIN - ' (QU. ARARAT ?) "OPOS IN GREEK ?
The common word for a mountain in Sanskrit, gir, is equally so in Hebrew.
The citadel pinnacle of Kumbhalmer, range running north to Ajmer,
where it loses its tabular form, and breaking into lofty ridges, sends
numerous branches through the Shaikhavati federation, and Alwar, till
in low heights it terminates at Delhi.
FROM KUMBHALMER TO AJMER THE WHOLE SPACE IS TERMED MERWARA, AND IS
INHABITED BY THE MOUNTAIN RACE OF MER OR MAIR, THE HABITS AND HISTORY
OF WHICH SINGULAR CLASS WILL BE RELATED.
The range averages from six to fifteen miles in breadth, in the east
or west—THE ANCIENT STOCK OF THE SURYAVANS OF INDIA, OUR ' CHILDREN
OF THE SUN,' THE PRINCES OF MEWAR.
Many years ago ' The Lord of the Mountain ' was dead : the men were
all abroad, and his widow alone in the hut.
Meru signifies ' a hill ' in Sanskrit, 'the hill' or 'mountain of
Kumbha/ a prince whose exploits are narrated. Likewise Ajmer is the
'hill of Ajaymeru ,' the 'Invincible' hill. Views from the Aravalli Hills.— along the chain, several fortresses
are observed on pinnacle guarding the passes on either side, while
numerous rills ( a small channel cut in soil) descend, pouring over
the mountain surface , seeking their devious exit between the
projecting ribs of the mountain. RESULT : Rapid mountain fast-moving water, IN THE soil below the
chaotic mass of rock where its ' fractured pinnacles ' are seen rising
the Aravalli the ' Apennines of India ' THE GHATS ON THE MALABAR COAST OF OLDEST OF ALL THE PHYSICAL FEATURES
WHICH INTERSECT THE CONTINENT IS THE RANGE OF MOUNTAINS KNOWN AS THE
ARAVALLIS, WHICH STRILIES ACROSS THE PENINSULA FROM NORTH-EAST TO
SOUTH-WEST, OVERLOOKING THE SANDY WASTES OF RAJPUTANA.
THE ARAVALLIS DEPRESSED AND DEGRADED RELICS OF A PROMINENT MOUNTAIN SYSTEM.
The Mountain System of Central India.
The Chambal River.—The Chambal has his fountains in a very elevated
point of the Vindhya,
It has three cluster, the Chambal, Chambela, and Gambhir ; while no
less than nine other streams have their origin on the south side, and
pour their waters into the Nerbudda.
The Sipra from Pipalda, the little Sind from Dewas, and other minor
streams passing Ujjain, all unite with the Chambal in different stages
before he breaks through the plateau.
The Kali Sind, from Bagri, and its petty branch, the Sodwia, from
Raghugarh ; the Niwaz (or Jamniri), from Morsukri and Magarda ; the
Parbati, from the pass of Amlakhera, with its more eastern arm from
Daulatpur, uniting at Pharhar, are all points in the crest of the
Vindhya range, whence they pursue their course through the plateau,
rolling over precipices, till engulfed in the Chambal at the ferries
of Nunera and Pali. All these unite on the right bank.
On the left bank his flood is increased by the Banas, fed by the
perennial streams from the Aravalli, and the Berach from the lakes of
Udaipur ; and after watering Mewar, the southern frontier of Jaipur,
and the highlands of Karauli, the river turns south to unite at the
holy Sangam,' Rameswar. Minor streams contribute (unworthy, however,
of separate notice), and after a thousand involutions he reaches the
Jumna, at the holy Triveni, or ' triple-allied ' stream, between Etawa
and Kalpi.
This is the fourth Sind of India. We have, first, the Sind or Indus ;
this little Sind ; then the Kali Sind, or ' black river ' ; and again
the Sind rising at Latoti, on the plateau west and above Sironj. Sin
is a Scythio word for river (now unused), so applied by the Hindus.
[Skr. Sindhu, probably from the root syand, ' to flow.'
The falls of the Kali Sind through the rocks at Gagraun and the
Parbati at Chapra (Gugal) are well worthy of a visit. The latter,
though I encamped twice at Chapra, from which it was reputed five
miles, I did not see.
Sangam is the point of confluence of two or more rivers, always sacred
to Mahadeva.
The Jumna, Chambal, and Sind [triveni, ' triple braid '].
PHYSIOGRAPHY OF RAJASTHAN
The course of the Chambal, not reckoning the minor sinuosities, is
upwards of five hundred miles ; ^ and along its banks specimens of
nearly every race now existing in India may be found : Sondis,
Chandarawats, Sesodias, Haras, Gaur, Jadon, Sakarwal, Gujar, Jat,*
Tuar, Chauhan, Bhadauria, Kachhwaha, Sengar, Bundela ; each in
associations of various magnitudes, from the substantive state of the
little republic communes between the Chambal and Kuwari'
The Western Desert. —Having thus sketched the central portion of
Rajasthan, or that eastward of the Aravalli, I shall give a rapid
general * view of that to the west, conducting the reader over the '
Thai ka Tiba,' or ' sand hills ' of the desert, to the valley of the
Indus.
The Luni River.— The most interesting object in this arid ' region of
death ' is the ' salt river,'
The Luni, from its sources, the sacred lakes of Pushkar and Ajmer, and
the more remote arm from Parbatsar to its embouchure in the great
western salt marsh, the Rann, has a course of more than three hundred
miles. Extensively formed by the deposits of the Luni, and the equally
saturated saline streams from the southern desert of Dhat.
The Mirage.—It is on the desiccated borders of this vast salt marsh
that the illusory phenomenon, the mirage, Such phenomena are common to
the desert, more particularly where these extensive saline depositions
exist, but varying from certain causes.
In most cases, this powerfully magnifying and reflecting medium is a
vertical stratum ; at first dense and opaque, it gradually tenuates
with increased temperature, till the maximum of heat, which it can
no longer resist, drives it off in an ethereal vapour.
The top of the ruined fortress of Hissar with unlimited range of
vision, no object to diverge its ray, save the miniature forests ; the
entire circle of tlie horizon a chain of more than fancy could form of
palaces, towers, and these airy ' pillars of heaven ' terminating in
turn their ephemeral existence.
But in the deserts of Dhat and Umrasumra, where the shepherds pasture
their flocks, and especially where the alkaline plant is produced, the
stratification is more horizontal, and produces more of the watery
deception. It is this illusion to which the inspired writer refers,
when he says, " the mock pool of the desert shall become real water "
[Isaiah xxv. 7].
The Desert.—From the north bank of the Luni to the south, and the
Shaikhavat frontier to the east, the sandy region commences.
Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer are all sandy plains, increasing in volume
as you proceed westward.
All this portion of territory is incumbent on a sandstone formation :
suroundings of all the new wells made from Jodhpur to Ajmer yielded
the same result : sand, concrete siliceous deposits, and chalk.
Though all these regions collectively bear the terra Marusthali, or '
region of death ' (the emphatic and figurative phrase for the desert),
the restrictive definition applies to a part only, that under the
dominion of the Rathor race .
From Balotra on the Luni, throughout the whole of Dhat and Umrasumra,
the western portion of Jaisalmer, and a broad strip between the
southern limits of Daudputra and Bikaner, there is real solitude and
desolation.
But from the Sutlej to the Rann, a space of five hundred miles of
longitudinal distance, and varying in breadth from fifty to one
hundred miles, numerous oases are found, where the shepherds from the
valley of the Indus and the Thai pasture their flocks.
Deluge Legend.—The Genesis of India commences with an event described
in the history of almost all nations, the deluge, which, though
treated with the fancy peculiar to the orientals, is not the less
entitled to attention.
The essence of the extract from the Agni Purana is this : When ocean
quitted his bounds and caused universal destruction by Brahma's
command, Vaivaswata
Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya mountains was giving water
to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a small fish fell into his
hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it.
The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu ( NOAH) , with his sons
and their wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing,
entered into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of the
fish, and thus they were preser-fed."
Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of
the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is
stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain
Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at
Ayodhya,* and his descendants filled the land and spread over the
earth."
This same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, ' the hill,' with the
prefix Su, ' good, sacred ' : the Sacred Hill.
Meru, Sumeru.—In the geography of the Agni Purana
* The present Ajodhya, capital of one of the twenty-two satrapies
constituting the Mogul Empire, and for some generations held by the
Title Wa zir, who has recently assumed the regal title. [Ghaziu-d-din
Haidar in 1819.]
* " To the south of Sumeru are the mountains Himavan, Hemakuta, and
Nishadha ; to the north are the countries Nil, Sveta, and Sringi
Between Hemachal and the ocean the land is Bharatkhand, called
Kukarraa Bhumi (land of vice, opposed to Aryavarta, or land of
virtue),
In which the seven grand ranges are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya,
Suktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Paripatra " {Agni Purana).
EARLY TRADITIONS
The rivers flowing from the mountainous ranges, whose relative
position with Sumeru are thei'e defined, still retain their ancient
appellations
This sacred mountain (Sumeru) is claimed by the Brahmans as the abode
of Mahadeva,^ Adiswar,^ or Baghes ' ; by the Jains, as the abode of
Adinath,* the first Jiniswara, or Jain lord.
Here they say he taught mankind the arts of agriculture and civilized
life. The Greeks claime
