CHAPTER 3

The Legend of Goha.—At this period Idar was governed by a chief of the savage race of Bhil; his name, Mandalika.[3]The young Goha frequented the forests in company with the Bhils, whose habits better assimilated with his daring nature than those of the Brahmans. He became a favourite with the Vanaputras, or ‘children of the forest,’ who resigned to him Idar with its woods and mountains. The fact is mentioned by Abu-l Fazl,[4]and is still repeated by the bards, with a characteristic version of the incident, of which doubtless there were many. The Bhils having determined in sport to elect a king, the choice fell on Goha; and one of the young savages, cutting his finger, applied the blood as the tīka of sovereignty to his forehead. What was done in sport was confirmed by the old forest chief. The sequel fixes on Goha the stain of ingratitude, for he slew his benefactor, and no motive is assigned in the legend for the deed. Goha’s name became the patronymic of his descendants, who were styled Guhilot, classically Grahilot, in time softened to Gehlot.

We know very little concerning these early princes but that they dwelt in this mountainous region for eight generations; when the Bhils, tired of a foreign rule, assailed Nagaditya, the eighth prince, while hunting, and deprived him of life and Idar. The descendants of Kamlavati (the Birnagar Brahmani), who retained the office of priest in the family, were again the preservers of the line of Valabhi. The infant Bappa, son of Nagaditya [222], then only three years old, was conveyed to the fortress of Bhander,[5]where he was protected by a Bhil of Yadu descent.Thence he was removed for greater security to the wilds of Parasar. Within its impervious recesses rose the three-peaked (trikuta) mountain, at whose base was the town of Nagindra,[6]the abode of Brahmans, who performed the rites of the ‘great god.’ In this retreat passed the early years of Bappa, wandering through these Alpine valleys, amidst the groves of Bal and the shrines of the brazen calf.

The most antique temples are to be seen in these spots—within the dark gorge of the mountain, or on its rugged summit—in the depths of the forest, and at the sources of streams, where sites of seclusion, beauty, and sublimity alternately exalt the mind’s devotion. In these regions the creative power appears to have been the earliest, and at one time the sole, object of adoration, whose symbols, the serpent-wreathed phallus (lingam), and its companion, the bull, were held sacred even by the ‘children of the forest.’ In these silent retreats Mahadeva continued to rule triumphant, and the most brilliant festivities of Udaipur were those where his rites are celebrated in the nine days sacred to him, when the Jains and Vaishnavas mix with the most zealous of his votaries; but the strange gods from the plains of the Yamuna and Ganges have withdrawn a portion of the zeal of the Guhilots from their patron divinity Eklinga, whose diwan,[7]or viceregent, is the Rana. The temple of Eklinga, situated in one of the narrow defiles leading to the capital, is an immense structure, though more sumptuous than elegant. It is built entirely of white marble, most elaborately carved and embellished; but lying in the route of a bigoted foe, it has undergone many dilapidations. The brazen bull, placed under his own dome, facing the sanctuary of the phallus, is nearly of the natural size, in a recumbent posture. It is cast (hollow) of good shape, highly polished and without flaw, except where the hammer of the Tatar had opened a passage in the hollow flank in search of treasure[8][223].

The Marriage of Bappa.—Tradition has preserved numerousdetails of Bappa’s[9]infancy, which resembles the adventures of every hero or founder of a race. The young prince attended the sacred kine, an occupation which was honourable even to the ‘children of the sun,’ and which they still pursue: possibly a remnant of their primitive Scythic habits. The pranks of the royal shepherd are the theme of many a tale. On the Jhal Jhulni, when swinging is the amusement of the youth of both sexes, the daughter of the Solanki chief of Nagda and the village maidens had gone to the groves to enjoy this festivity, but they were unprovided with ropes. Bappa happened to be at hand, and was called by the Rajput damsels to forward their sport. He promised to procure a rope if they would first have a game at marriage. One frolic was as good as another, and the scarf of the Solankini was united to the garment of Bappa, the whole of the village lasses joining hands with his as the connecting link; and thus they performed the mystical number of revolutions round an aged tree. This frolic caused his flight from Nagda, and originated his greatness, but at the same time burthened him with all these damsels; and hence a heterogeneous issue, whose descendants still ascribe their origin to the prank of Bappa round the old mango-tree of Nagda. A suitable offer being shortly after made for the young Solankini’s hand, the family priests of the bridegroom, whose duty it was, by his knowledge of palmistry, to investigate the fortunes of the bride, discovered that she was already married: intelligence which threw the family into the greatest consternation.[10]Though Bappa’s power over his brother shepherds was too strong to create any dread of disclosure as to his being the principal in this affair, yet was it too much to expect that a secret, in which no less than six hundred of the daughters of Eve were concerned, could long remain such? Bappa’s mode of swearing his companions to secrecy is preserved. Digging a small pit, and taking a pebble in his hand, “Swear,” cried he,“secrecy and obedience to me in good and in evil; that you will reveal to me all that you hear, and failing, desire that the good deeds of your forefathers may, like this pebble (dropping it into the pit) fall into the Washerman’s well.”[11]They took the oath. The Solanki chief, however, heard that [224] Bappa was the offender, who, receiving from his faithful scouts intimation of his danger, sought refuge in one of the retreats which abound in these mountains, and which in after-times proved the preservation of his race. The companions of his flight were two Bhils: one of Undri, in the valley of the present capital; the other of Solanki descent, from Oghna Panarwa, in the western wilds. Their names, Baleo and Dewa, have been handed down with Bappa’s; and the former had the honour of drawing the tika of sovereignty with his own blood on the forehead of the prince, on the occasion of his taking the crown from the Mori.[12]It is pleasing to trace, through a series of ages, the knowledge of a custom still ‘honoured in the observance.’ The descendants of Baleo of Oghna and the Undri Bhil still claim the privilege of performing the tika on the inauguration of the descendants of Bappa.

Oghna Panarwa.—Oghna Panarwa is the sole spot in India which enjoys a state of natural freedom. Attached to no State, having no foreign communications, living under its own patriarchal head, its chief, with the title of Rana, whom one thousand hamlets scattered over the forest-crowned valleys obey, can, if requisite, appear at ‘the head of five thousand bows.’ He is a Bhumia Bhil of mixed blood, from the Solanki Rajput, on the old stock of pure (ujla) Bhils, the autochthones (if such there be of any country) of Mewar. Besides making the tika of blood from an incision in the thumb, the Oghna chief takes the prince by the arm and seats him on the throne, while the Undri Bhil holds the salver of spices and sacred grains of rice[13]used in making the tika.

But the solemnity of being seated on the throne of Mewar is so expensive, that many of these rites have fallen into disuse. Jagat Singh was the last prince whose coronation was conducted with the ancient magnificence of this princely house. It cost the sum of ninety lakhs of rupees (£1,125,000), nearly one entire year’s revenue of the State in the days of its prosperity, and which, taking into consideration the comparative value of money, would amount to upwards of four millions sterling[14][225].

To resume the narrative: though the flight of Bappa and its cause are perfectly natural, we have another episode; when the bard assuming a higher strain has recourse to celestial machinery for thedénouementof this simple incident: but “an illustrious race must always be crowned with its proper mythology.” Bappa who was the founder of a line of a ‘hundred kings,’ feared as a monarch, adored as more than mortal, and, according to the legend, ‘still living’ (charanjiva), deserves to have the source of his pre-eminent fortune disclosed, which, in Mewar, it were sacrilege to doubt. While he pastured the sacred kine in the valleys of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of appropriating the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was distrusted and watched, and although indignant, the youth admitted that they had reason to suspect him, from the habitual dryness of the brown cow when she entered the pens at even.[15]He watched, and traced her to a narrow dell, when he beheld the udder spontaneously pouring its stores amidst the shrubs. Under a thicketof cane a hermit was reposing in a state of abstraction, from which the impetuosity of the shepherd soon roused him. The mystery was revealed in the phallic symbol of the ‘great God,’ which daily received the lacteal shower, and raised such doubts of the veracity of Bappa.

No eye had hitherto penetrated into this natural sanctuary of the rites of the Hindu Creator, except the sages and hermits of ancient days (of whom this was the celebrated Harita),[16]whom this bounteous cow also fed.

Bappa related to the sage all he knew of himself, received his blessing, and retired; but he went daily to visit him, to wash his feet, carry milk to him, and gather such wild flowers as were acceptable offerings to the deity. In return he received lessons of morality, and was initiated into the mysterious rites of Siva: and at length he was invested with the triple cordon of faith (tin parwa zunnar)[17]by the hands of the sage, who became his spiritual guide, and bestowed on his pupil the title of [226] ‘Regent (Diwan) of Eklinga.’ Bappa had proofs that his attentions to the saint and his devotions to Eklinga were acceptable, by a visit from his consort, ‘the lion-born goddess.’ From her hand he received the panoply of celestial fabrication, the work of Viswakarma (the Vulcan of Eastern mythology), which outvies all the arms ever forged for Greek or Trojan. The lance, bow, quiver, and arrows; a shield and sword (more famed than Balisarda)[18]which the goddess girded on him with her own hand: the oath of fidelity and devotion was the ‘relief’ of this celestial investiture. Thus initiated into the mysteries of ‘the first’ (adi), admitted under the banners of Bhavani, Harita resolved to leave his pupil to his fortunes, and to quit the worship of the symbol for the presence of the deity in the mansions above. He informed Bappa of his design, and commanded him to be at the sacred spot early on the following morn; but Bappa showed his materiality by oversleeping himself, and on reaching the spot the sage had already made some progress in his car, borne by theApsaras, or celestial messengers. He checked his aerial ascent to give a last token of affection to his pupil; and desiring him to reach up to receive his blessing, Bappa’s stature was extended to twenty cubits; but as he did not reach the car, he was commanded to open his mouth, when the sage did what was recorded as performed, about the same period, by Muhammad, who spat into the mouth of his favourite nephew, Husain, the son of Ali. Bappa showed his disgust and aversion by blinking, and the projected blessing fell on his foot, by which squeamishness he obtained only invulnerability by weapons instead of immortality. The saint was soon lost in the cerulean space. Thus marked as the favourite of heaven, and having learned from his mother that he was nephew to the Mori prince of Chitor, he ‘disdained a shepherd’s slothful life,’ and with some companions from these wilds quitted his retreat, and for the first time emerged into the plains. But, as if the brand of Bhavani was insufficient, he met with another hermit in the forest of the Tiger Mount,[19]the famed Gorakhnath, who presented to him the double-edged sword,[20]which, with the proper incantation, could ‘sever rocks.’ With this he opened the road to fortune leading to the throne of Chitor [227].

Chitor was at this period held by the Mori prince of the Pramar race, the ancient lords of Malwa, then paramount sovereigns of Hindustan: but whether this city was then the chief seat of power is not known. Various public works, reservoirs, and bastions, yet retain the name of this race.

Bappa’s connexion with the Mori[21]obtained him a good reception;he was enrolled amongst the sawants or leaders, and a suitable estate conferred upon him. The inscription of the Mori prince’s reign, so often alluded to, affords a good idea of his power, and of the feudal manners of his court. He was surrounded by a numerous nobility, holding estates on the tenure of military service, but whom he had disgusted by his neglect, and whose jealousy he had provoked by the superior regard shown to Bappa. A foreign foe appearing at this time, instead of obeying the summons to attend, they threw up their grants, and tauntingly desired him to call on his favourite.[22]

Bappa undertook the conduct of the war, and the chiefs, though dispossessed of their estates, accompanied him from a feeling of shame. The foe was defeated and driven out of the country; but instead of returning to Chitor, Bappa continued his course to the ancient seat of his family, Gajni, expelled the ‘barbarian’ called Salim, placed on the throne a chief of the Chaura tribe,[23]and returned with the discontented nobles. Bappa, on this occasion, is said to have married the daughter of his enemy. The nobles quitted Chitor, leaving their defiance with their prince. In vain were the spiritual preceptor (Guru) and foster-brother (Dhabhai) sent as ambassadors: their only reply was, that as they had ‘eaten his salt,’ they would forbear their vengeance for twelve months. The noble deportment of Bappa won their esteem, and they transferred to him their service and homage. With the temptation of a crown, the gratitude of the Grahilot was given to the winds. On return they assaulted and carried Chitor, and, in the words of the chronicle, “Bappa took Chitor from the Mori and became himself the mor (crown) of the land”: he obtained by universal consent the title of ‘sun of the Hindus (Hindua suraj), preceptor of princes (Raj Guru), and universal lord (Chakravartin)’ [228].

He had a numerous progeny, some of whom returned to their ancient seats in Saurashtra, whose descendants were powerful chieftains in that tract so late as Akbar’s reign.[24]Five sons went to Marwar, and the ancient Gohils ‘of the land of Kher,’ expelledand driven to Gohilwal,[25]have lost sight of their ancestry, and by a singular fatality are in possession of the wreck of Valabhipura, ignorant of its history and their connexion with it, mixing with Arabs and following marine and mercantile pursuits; and the office of the bard having fallen into disrepute, they cannot trace their forefathers beyond Kherdhar.[26]

The close of Bappa’s career is the strangest part of the legend, and which it might be expected they would be solicitous to suppress. Advanced in years, he abandoned his children and his country, carried his arms west to Khorasan, and there established himself, and married new wives from among the ‘barbarians,’ by whom he had a numerous offspring.[27]

Bappa had reached the patriarchal age of one hundred when he died. An old volume of historical anecdotes, belonging to the chief of Delwara, states that he became an ascetic at the foot of Meru, where he was buried alive after having overcome all the kings of the west, as in Ispahan, Kandahar, Kashmir, Irak, Iran, Turan, and Kafiristan; all of whose daughters he married, and by whom he had one hundred and thirty sons, called the Nausshahra Pathans. Each of these founded a tribe, bearing the name of the mother. His Hindu children were ninety-eight in number, and were called Agni-upasi Suryavansi, or ‘sunborn fire-worshippers.’ The chronicles also record that (in like manner as did the subjects of the Bactrian king Menander, though from a different motive) the subjects of Bappa quarrelled for the disposal of his remains. The Hindu wished the fire to consume them; the ‘barbarian’ to commit them to earth; but on raising the pall while the dispute was raging, innumerable flowers of the lotus were found in the place of the remains of mortality: these were conveyed and planted in the lake. This is precisely what is related of the end of the Persian Nushirwan[28][229].

The Question of Dates.—Having thus briefly sketched the history of the founder of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar, we must now endeavour to establish the epoch of this important event in its annals. Although Bappa Rawal was nine generations after the sack of Valabhipura, the domestic annals give S. 191 (A.D.135) for his birth; which the bards implicitly following, have vitiated the whole chronology. An important inscription[29]in a character little known, establishes the fact of the Mori dynasty being in possession of Chitor in S. 770 (A.D.714). Now the annals of the Rana’s house expressly state Bappa Rawal to be the nephew of the Mori prince of Chitor; that at the age of fifteen he was enrolled amongst the chieftains of his uncle, and that the vassals (before alluded to), in revenge for the resumption of their grants by the Mori, dethroned him and elevated as their sovereign the youthful Bappa. Notwithstanding this apparently irreconcilable anachronism, the family traditions accord with the inscription, except in date. Amidst such contradictions the development of the truth seemed impossible. Another valuable inscription of S. 1024 (A.D.968), though giving the genealogy from Bappa to Sakti Kumar and corroborating that from Chitor, and which furnished convincing evidence, was not sanctioned by the prince or his chroniclers, who would admit nothing as valid that militated against their established era 191 for the birth of their founder. After six years’ residence and unremitting search amid ruins, archives, inscriptions, traditions, and whatever could throw light upon this point, the author quitted Udaipur with all these doubts in his mind, for Saurashtra, to prosecute his inquiries in the pristine abodes of the race. Then it was that he was rewarded, beyond his most sanguine expectations, by the discovery of an inscription which reconciled these conflicting authorities and removed every difficulty. This marble, found in the celebrated temple of Somnath,[30]made mention of a distinct era, viz. theValabhi Samvat, as being used in Saurashtra; which era was three hundred and seventy-five years subsequent to Vikramaditya.[31]

On the sack of Valabhi thirty thousand families abandoned this ‘city of a hundred temples,’ and led by their priests found a retreat for themselves and their faith [230] in Mordardes (Marwar), where they erected the towns of Sandrai and Bali, in which latter we recognise the name of the city whence they were expelled. The religion of Valabhi, and consequently of the colonists, was the Jain; and it was by a priest descended from the survivors of this catastrophe, and still with their descendants inhabiting those towns, that these most important documents were furnished to the author. The Sandrai roll assigns the year 305 (Valabhi era) for the destruction of Valabhi: another, also from Jain authority, gives 205; and as there were but nine princes from Vijayasen, the founder, to its fall, we can readily believe the first a numerical error. Therefore 205 + 375 = 580 S. Vikrama (A.D.524), for the invasion of Saurashtra by ‘the barbarians from the north,’ and sack of Valabhipura.

Now if from 770, the date of the Mori tablet, we deduct 580, there remains 190; justifying the pertinacity with which the chroniclers of Mewar adhered to the date given in their annals for the birth of Bappa, viz. 191: though they were ignorant that this period was dated from the flight from Valabhipura.

Bappa, when he succeeded to the Mori prince, is said to have been fifteen years old; and his birth being one year anterior to the Mori inscription of 770 + 14 = S.V. 784 (A.D.728),[32]is the period for the foundation of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar: since which, during a space of eleven hundred years, fifty-nine princes lineally descended from Bappa have sat on the throne of Chitor.

Though the bards and chroniclers will never forgive the temerity which thus curtails the antiquity of their founder, he is yet placed in the dawn of chivalry, when the Carlovingian dynastywas established in the west, and when Walid, whose bands planted ‘the green standard’ on the Ebro, was ‘commander of the faithful.’

From the deserted and now forgotten ‘city of the sun,’ Aitpur, the abode of wild beasts and savage Bhils, another memorial[33]of the princes of Mewar was obtained. It relates to the prince Sakti Kumar. Its date is S. 1024 (A.D.968), and it contains the names of fourteen of his ancestors in regular succession. Amongst these is Bappa, or Saila. When compared with the chronicles and [231] family archives, it was highly gratifying to find that, with the exception of one superfluous name and the transposition of others, they were in perfect accordance.

Hume says, “Poets, though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, and use strange liberties with truth, when they are the sole historians, as among the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest exaggerations.” The remark is applicable here; for the names which had been mouldering for nine centuries, far from the abode of man, are the same they had worked into their poetical legends. It was at this exact epoch that the arms of Islam, for the first time, crossed the Indus. In the ninety-fifth year of the Hegira,[34]Muhammad bin Kasim, the general of the Caliph Walid, conquered Sind, and penetrated (according to early Arabian authors) to the Ganges; and although Elmacin mentions only Sind, yet other Hindu States were at this period convulsed from the same cause: witness the overthrow of Manikrae of Ajmer, in the middle of the eighth century, by a foe ‘coming in ships,’ Anjar specified as the point where they landed. If any doubt existed that it was Kasim who advanced to Chitor[35]and was defeated by Bappa, it was set at rest by finding at this time in Chitor ‘Dahir,[36]the prince of Debil.’Abu-l Fazl[37]records, from Arabian authorities, that Dahir was lord of Sind, and resided at his capital, Debal, the first place captured by Kasim in 95. His miserable end, and the destruction of his house, are mentioned by the historian, and account for the son being found with the Mori prince of Chitor.

Nine princes intervened between Bappa and Sakti Kumar, in two centuries (twenty-two years to each reign): just the time which should elapse from the founder, who ‘abandoned his country for Iran,’ in S. 820, orA.D.764. Having thus established four epochs in the earlier history of the family, viz.—Kanaksen’Kanaksen’,A.D.144; 2, Siladitya, and sack of Valabhi,A.D.524; 3, Establishment in Chitor and Mewar,A.D.720; 4, Sakti Kumar,A.D.1068;[38]we may endeavour to relieve this narrative by the notices which regard their Persian descent [232].

1. [This corroborates Bhandarkar’s theory that the Guhilots sprang from Nāgar Brāhmans.]

2. [This is a folk-etymology to explain the name Guhilot, probably derived from Guha or Guhasena (A.D.559-67), the fourth and apparently the first great Valabhi monarch (BG, i. Part i. 85).]

3. [Mandalīka seems to mean ‘ruler of a district’ (mandal), (Bayley,Dynasties of Gujarāt, 183).]

4. [Āīn, ii. 268.]

5. Fifteen miles south-west of Jharol, in the wildest region in India. [In Gwalior State,IGI, viii. 72.]

6. Or Nagda, still a place of religious resort, about ten miles north of Udaipur. Here I found several very old inscriptions relative to the family, which preserve the ancient denomination Gohil instead of Gehlot. One of these is about nine centuries old. [The ancient name was Nāgahrida (Erskine ii. A. 106).]

7. Ekling-ka-Diwan is the common title of the Rana.

8. Amongst the many temples where the brazen calf forms part of the establishment of Balkesar, there is one sacred to Nandi alone, at Nain in the valley. This lordly bull has his shrine attended as devoutly as was that of Apis at Memphis; nor will Eklinga yield to his brother Serapis. The changes of position of the Apis at Nain are received as indications of the fruitfulness of the seasons, though it is not apparent how such are contrived.

9.Bappais not a proper name, it signifies merely a ‘child.’ [This is wrong: it is the old Prākrit form ofbāp, ‘father’ (IA, xv. 275 f.;BG, i. Part i. 84).] He is frequently styledSaila, and in inscriptionsSailadīsa, ‘the mountain lord.’

10. [The legend implies that Bāpa, from association with Bhīls, was regarded to be of doubtful origin.]

11. Deemed in the East the most impure of all receptacles. These wells are dug at the sides of streams, and give a supply of pure water filtering through the sand.

12. [The right is said to have been enjoyed by the Bhils till the time of Rāna Hamīr Singh, who diedA.D.1364, and it was recognised in Dungarpur till fairly recent times (Erskine ii. A. 228). The Jāts have the same right in Bīkaner (Rose,Glossary, ii. 301): Mers in Porbandar (Wilberforce-Bell,Hist. of Kathiawad,53):53):Kandhs in Kalahandi (Russell,Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, iii. 465, and cf. ii. 280).]

13.Hence, perhaps, the namekhushkafor tika. [Khushka,khushk, ‘dry,’ is plain boiled rice without seasoning.] Grains of ground rice in curds is the material of the primitive tika, which the author has had applied to him by a lady in Gujargarh, one of the most savage spots in India, amidst thelevée en masse, assembled hostilely against him, but separated amicably.

14. Such the pride of these small kingdoms in days of yore, and such their resources, till reduced by constant oppression! But their public works speak what they could do, and have done; witness the stupendous work of marble, and its adjacent causeway, which dams the lake of Rajsamand at Kankrauli, and which cost upwards of a million. When the spectator views this expanse of water, this ‘royal sea’ (rajsamand) on the borders of the plain; the pillar of victory towering over the plains of Malwa, erected on the summit of Chitor by Rana Mokal; their palaces and temples in this ancient abode; the regal residence erected by the princes when ejected, must fill the observer with astonishment at the resources of the State. They are such as to explain the metaphor of my ancient friend Zalim Singh, who knew better than we the value of this country: “Every pinch of the soil of Mewar contains gold.”

15.Godhūli, the dust raised at the time when the cows come home.

16. On this spot the celebrated temple of Eklinga was erected, and the present high priest traces sixty-six descents from Harita to himself. To him (through the Rana) I was indebted for the copy of the Sheo (Siva) Purana presented to the Royal Asiatic Society.

17. [Zunnāris an Arabic word, the Hindijaneo.]

18. [The sword stolen from Orlando by Brunello, given to Rogero (Ariosto,Orlando Furioso).]

19. TheNahra Magra, seven miles from the eastern pass leading to the capital, where the prince has a hunting seat surrounded by several others belonging to the nobles, but all going to decay. The tiger and wild boar now prowl unmolested, as none of the ‘unlicensed’ dare shoot in these royal preserves.

20. They surmise that this is the individual blade which is yet annually worshipped by the sovereign and chiefs on its appropriate day, one of the nine sacred to the god of war; a rite completely Scythic. I had this relation from the chief genealogists of the family, who gravely repeated the incantation: “By the preceptor, Gorakhnath and the great god, Eklinga; by Takshka the serpent, and the sage Harita; by Bhavani (Pallas) strike!”

21. Bappa’s mother was a Pramar, probably from Abu or Chandravati, near to Idar; and consequently Bappa was nephew to every Pramar in existence. [The Morya or Maurya sub-clan of the Pramārs still exists (Census Report, Rajputana, 1911,i. 255).i. 255).For traces of the Mauryas in W. India seeBG, i. Part ii. 284, note.]

22. We are furnished with a catalogue of the tribes which served the Mori prince, which is extremely valuable, from its acquainting us with the names of tribes no longer existing.

23. [See p.121, above.]

24. SeeĀīn, ii. 247, which speaks of fifty thousand [8000] Guhilots in Sorath.

25. Pepara Guhilots.

26. The ‘land of Kher,’ on the south-west frontier of Marwar, near the Luni river.

27. The reigning prince told the author that there was no doubt of Bappa having ended his days among ‘the Turks’: a term now applied to all Muhammadans by the Hindu, but at that time confined to the inhabitants of Turkistan, the Turushka of the Puranas, and the Takshak of early inscriptions.

28. [Recent inquiries identify Bappa, whose name is merely a title, with either Mahendrāji ii. or Kālbhoja, early chiefs of Mewār (Erskine ii. B. 8). It has been suggested that his legend is mixed up with that of Bappa or Saila of Valabhi, the story of his retreat to Irān representing the latter being carried as a captive to Mansūra on the fall of Valabhi or Gandhār (BG, i. Part i. 94, note 2). In any case, the whole story is mere legend, a tale like that of the mysterious disappearance of Romulus and other kings (Sir J. Frazer,Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, 269 ff.). A similar tale is told of Rāna Uda in later Mewār history.]

29.VideAppendix, Translation, No. II.

30. See Translation, No. III.

31. [The Valabhi era begins inA.D.318-19.]

32. This will make Bappa’s attainment of Chitor fifteen years posterior to Muhammad bin Kasim’s invasion. I have observed generally a discrepancy of ten years between the Samvat and Hegira; the Hegira reckoned from the sixteenth year of Muhammad’s mission, and would if employed reconcile this difficulty. [The traditional dates are untrustworthy, being based on a confused reminiscence of Valabhi history (IA, xv. 275). A list of the chiefs of Mewār, with the dates as far as can be ascertained, is given by Erskine (ii. B. 8 ff.).]

33. See Translation of Inscription, No. IV.

34.A.D.713, or S. 769: the Inscription 770 of Man Mori, against whom came the ‘barbarian.’

35. I was informed by a friend, who had seen the papers of Captain Macmurdo, that he had a notice of Kasim’s having penetrated to Dungarpur. Had this gentleman lived, he would have thrown much light on these Western antiquities. [Muhammad bin Kāsim does not seem to have attacked Ajmer: the place was not founded tillA.D.1000 (Watson,Gazetteer, i. A. 9).]

36. By an orthographical error, the modern Hindu, ignorant of Debal, has written Delhi. But there was no lord of Delhi at this time: he is styled Dahir, Despat (lord) of Debal, fromdes, ‘a country,’ andpat, ‘the head.’

37.Āīn, ii. 344 f.

38. [The dates are open to much question. It is known from inscriptions that Sakti Kumār was alive inA.D.977.]

Connexion of the Rānas with Persia.—Historic truth has, in all countries, been sacrificed to national vanity: to its gratification every obstacle is made to give way; fictions become facts, and even religious prejudices vanish in this mirage of the imagination. What but this spurious zeal could for a moment induce any genuine Hindu to believe that, only twelve centuries ago, ‘an eater of beef’ occupied the chair of Rama, and enjoyed by universal acclaim the title of ‘Sun of the Hindus’; or that the most ancient dynasty in the world could owe its existence to the last of the Sassanian kings:[1]that a slip from such a tree could be surreptitiously grafted on that majestic stem, which has flourished from the golden to the iron age, covering the land with its branches? That there existed a marked affinity in religious rites between the Rana’s family and the Guebres, or ancient Persians, is evident. With both, the chief object of adoration was the sun; each bore the image of the orb on their banners. The chief day in the seven[2]was dedicated to the sun; to it issacred the chief gate of the city, the principal bastion of every fortress. But though the faith of Islam has driven away the fairy inhabitants from the fountains of Mithras, that of Surya has still its devotees on the summit of Chitor, as at Valabhi: and could we trace with accuracy their creeds to a distant age, we might discover them to be of one family, worshipping the sun at the fountains of the Oxus and Jaxartes.

The darkest period of Indian history is during the six centuries following Vikramaditya, which are scarcely enlightened by a ray of knowledge: but India was undergoing great changes, and foreign tribes were pouring in from the north. To this period, the sixth century, the genealogies of the Puranas are brought down, which expressly declare (adopting the prophetic spirit to conceal [233] the alterations and additions they then underwent) that at this time the genuine line of princes would be extinct, and that a mixed race would rule conjointly with foreign barbarians; as the Turushka, the Mauna,[3]the Yavan,[4]the Gorind, andGarddhabin.[5]There is much of truth in this; nor is it to be doubted that many of the Rajput tribes entered India from the north-west regions about this period. Gor and Gardhaba have the same signification; the first is Persian; the second its version in Hindi, meaning the ‘wild ass,’ an appellation of the Persian monarch Bahram, surnamed Gor from his partiality to hunting that animal. Various authorities state Bahramgor being in India in the fifth century, and his having there left progeny by a princess of Kanauj. A passage extracted by the author from an ancient Jain MS. indicates that “in S. 523 Raja Gardhabela, of Kakustha, or Suryavansa, ruled in Valabhipura.” It has been surmised that Gardhabela was the son of Bahramgor, a son of whom is stated to have obtained dominion at Patan; which may be borne in mind when the authorities for the Persian extraction of the Rana’s family are given.[6]

The Hindus, when conquered by the Muhammadans, naturally wished to gild the chains they could not break. To trace a common, though distant, origin with the conquerors was to remove some portion of the taint of dishonour which arose from giving their daughters in marriage to the Tatar emperors of Delhi; and a degree of satisfaction was derived from assuming that the blood thus corrupted once flowed from a common fountain[7][234].

Further to develop these claims of Persian descent, we shall commence with an extract from the Upadesa Prasād, a collection of historic fragments in the Magadhi dialect. "In Gujardes (Gujarat) there are eighty-four cities. In one of these, Kaira, resided the Brahman Devaditya, the expounder of the Vedas. He had an only child, Subhaga (of good fortune) by name, at once a maiden and a widow. Having learned from her preceptor the solar incantation, incautiously repeating it, the sun appeared and embraced her, and she thence became pregnant.[8]The affliction of her father was diminished when he discovered the parent; nevertheless [as others might be less charitable] he sent her with a female attendant to Valabhipura, where she was delivered of twins, male and female. When grown up the boy was sent to school; but being eternally plagued about his mysterious birth, whence he received the nickname of Ghaibi (‘concealed’), in a fit of irritation he one day threatened to kill his mother if she refused to disclose the author of his existence. At this moment the sun revealed himself: he gave the youth a pebble, with which it was sufficient to touch his companions in order to overcome them. Being carried before the Balhara prince, who menaced Ghaibi, the latter slew him with the pebble, and became himself sovereign of Saurashtra, taking the name of Siladitya[9](fromsila, ‘a stone or pebble,’ andaditya, ‘the sun’): his sister was married to the Raja of Broach." Such is the literal translation of a fragment totally unconnected with the history of the Rana’s family, though evidently bearing upon it. The father of Siladitya, according to the Sandrai roll and other authorities of that period, is Suraj (the sun) Rao, though two others make a Somaditya intervene[10][235].

Let us see what Abu-l Fazl says of the descent of the Ranas from Nushirwan: “The chief of the State was formerly called Rāwal, but for a long time past has been known as Rāna. He is of the Ghelot clan, and pretends to descent from Noshirwān the Just. An ancestor of this family through the vicissitudes of fortune came to Berār and was distinguished as the chief of Narnālah. About eight hundred years previous to the present time[11]Narnālah was taken by the enemy and many were slain. One Bāpa, a child, was carried by his mother from this scene of desolation to Mewār, and found refuge with Rājah Mandalīkh, a Bhīl.”[12]

The work which has furnished all the knowledge which exists on the Persian ancestry of the Mewar princes is theMaasiru-l-Umara, or that (in the author’s possession) founded on it, entitledBisatu-l-Ghanim, or ‘Display of the Foe,’ written inA.H.1204[13][A.D.1789]. The writer of this work styles himself Lachhmi Narayan Shafik Aurangabadi, or ‘the rhymer ofAurangabad.’Aurangabad.’He professes to give an account of Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta empire; for which purpose he goes deep into the lineage of the Ranas of Mewar, from whom Sivaji was descended,[14]quotingat length the Maasiru-l-Umara, from which the following is a literal translation: "It is well known that the Rajas of Udaipur are exalted over all the princes of Hind. Other Hindu princes, before they can succeed to the throne of their fathers, must receive the khushka, or tilak of regality and investiture, from them. This type of sovereignty is received with humility and veneration. The khushka of these princes is made with human blood: their title is Rana, and they deduce [236] their origin from Noshirwan-i-Adil (i.e.the Just), who conquered the countries of ——,[15]and many parts of Hindustan. During his lifetime his son Noshizad, whose mother was the daughter of Kaiser of Rum,[16]quitted the ancient worship and embraced the ‘faith[17]of the Christians,’ and with numerous followers entered Hindustan. Thence he marched a great army towards Iran, against his father Noshirwan; who despatched his general, Rambarzin,[18]withnumerous forces to oppose him. An action ensued, in which Noshizad was slain;but his issue remained in Hindustan, from whom are descended the Ranas of Udaipur. Nushirwan had a wife from the Khakhan[19]of China, by whom he had a son called Hormuz, declared heir to the throne shortly before his death. As according to the faith of the fire-worshippers[20]it is not customary either to bury or to burn the dead, but to leave the corpse exposed to the rays of the sun, so it is said the body of Nushirwan has to this day suffered no decay, but is still fresh."

I now come to the account of Yazd, "the son of Shahriyar, the son of Khusru Parves, the son of Hormuz, the son of Nushirwan.

"Yazd was the last king of Ajam. It is well known he fought many battles with the Muhammadans. In the fifteenth year of the caliphat, Rustam, son of Ferokh, a great chief, was slain in battle by Saad-bin-wakas, who commanded for Omar, which was the death-blow to the fortunes of the house of Sassan: so that a remnant of it did not remain inA.H.31, when Iran was seized by the Muhammadans. This battle had lasted four days when Rustam Ferokzad was slain by the hand of Hilkal, the son of Al Kumna, at Saad’s command [237]; though Firdausi asserts by Saad himself. Thirty thousand Muslims were slain, and the same number of the men of Ajam. To count the spoils was a torment. During this year (the thirty-first), the sixteenth of the prophet,[21]the era of the Hegira was introduced. InA.H.17 Abu Musa of Ashur seized Hormuz, the son of the uncle of Yazdegird, whom he sent with Yazdegird’s daughter to Imam Husain, and another daughter to Abubakr.

"Thus far have I[22]extracted from the history of the fire-worshippers. He who has a mind to examine these, let him do so. The people of the religion of Zardusht have a full knowledgeof all these events, with their dates; for the pleasure of their lives is the obtaining accounts of antiquity and astronomical knowledge, and their books contain information of two and three thousand years. It is also told, that when the fortunes of Yazdegird were on the wane, his family dispersed to different regions. The second daughter, Shahr Banu, was married to Imam Husain,[23]who, when he fell a martyr (shahid), an angel carried her to heaven. The third daughter, Banu, was seized by a plundering Arab and carried into the wilds of Chichik, thirty coss from Yazd. Praying to God for deliverance, she instantly disappeared; and the spot is still held sacred by the Parsis, and named ‘the secret abode of perfect purity.’ Hither, on the twenty-sixth of the month Bahman, the Parsis yet repair to pass a month in pilgrimage, living in huts under indigenous vines skirting the rock, out of whose fissures water falls into a fountain below: but if the unclean approach the spring, it ceases to flow.

“Of the eldest daughter of Yazdegird, Maha Banu, the Parsis have no accounts; but the books of Hind give evidence to her arrival in that country, and that from her issue is the tribe Sesodia. But, at all events, this race is either of the seed of Nushishad, the son of Nushirwan, or of that of the daughter of Yazdegird.”[24]

Thus have we adduced, perhaps, all the points of evidence for the supposed Persian origin of the Rana’s family. The period of the invasion of Saurashtra by Nushishad, who mounted the throneA.D.531, corresponds well with the sack of Valabhi,A.D.524 [238]. The army he collected in Laristan to depose his father might have been from the Parthians, Getae, Huns, and other Scythic races then on the Indus, though it is unlikely, with such an object in view as the throne of Persia, that he would waste his strength in Saurashtra. Khusru Parvez, grandson of Nushirwanthe great, and who assumed this title according to Firdausi, married Marian, the daughter of Maurice, the Greek emperor of Byzantium. She bore him Shirauah (the Siroes of the early Christian writers), who slew his father. It is difficult to separate the actions of the two Nushirwans, and still more to say which of them merited the epithet ofadil, or ‘just.’

According to the ‘Tables’ in Moreri,[25]Nushishad, son of Khusru the Great, reigned fromA.D.531 to 591. This is opposed to theMaasiru-l-Umara, which asserts that he was slain during his rebellion. Siroes, son of Khusru (the second Nushirwan) by his wife Marian, alternately called the friend and foe of the Christians, did raise the standard of revolt, and met the fate attributed to Nushishad; on which Yazdegird, his nephew, was proclaimed. The crown was intended for Shirauah’s younger brother, which caused the revolt, during which the elder sought refuge in India.

These revolutions in the Sassanian house were certainly simultaneous with those which occurred in the Rana’s, and no barrier existed to the political intercourse at least between the princely worshippers of Surya and Mithras. It is, therefore, curious to speculate even on the possibility of such a pedigree to a family whose ancestry is lost in the mists of time; and it becomes interesting when, from so many authentic sources, we can raise testimonies which would furnish, to one even untinctured with the love of hypothesis, grounds for giving ancestors to the Ranas in Maurice of Byzantium and Cyrus (Khusru) of Persia [239]. We have a singular support to these historic relics in a geographical fact, that places on the site of the ancient Valabhi a city called Byzantium, which almost affords conclusive proof that it must have been the son of Nushirwan who captured Valabhi and Gajni, and destroyed the family of Siladitya; for it would be a legitimate occasion to name such conquest after the city where his Christian mother had had birth.[26]Whichever of the propositions we adopt at the command of the author of The Annals of Princes, namely, “that the Sesodia race is of the seed of Nushishad, son of Nushirwan, or of that of Mahabanu, daughter of Yazdegird,” we arrive at a singular and startling conclusion, viz. that the ‘HinduaSuraj, descendant of a hundred kings,’ the undisputed possessor of the honours of Rama, the patriarch of the Solar race, is the issue of a Christian princess: that the chief prince amongst the nations of Hind can claim affinity with the emperors of ‘the mistress of the world,’ though at a time when her glory had waned, and her crown had been transferred from the Tiber to the Bosphorus.

But though I deem it morally impossible that the Ranas should have their lineage from anymalebranch of the Persian house, I would not equally assert that Mahabanu, the fugitive daughter of Yazdegird, may not have found a husband, as well as sanctuary, with the prince of Saurashtra; and she may be the Subhagna (mother of Siladitya), whose mysterious amour with the ‘sun’[27]compelled her to abandon her native city of Kaira. The son of Marian had been in Saurashtra, and it is therefore not unlikely that her grandchild should there seek protection in the reverses of her family.

The Salic law is here in full force, and honours, though never acquired by the female, may be stained by her; yet a daughter of the noble house of Sassan might be permitted to perpetuate the line of Rama without the reproach of taint.[28]

We shall now abandon this point to the reader, and take leaveof Yazdegird,[29]the last of the house of Sassan, in the words of the historian of Rome:“Avec lui, on voit périr pour jamais la gloire et l’empire des Perses. Les rochers du Mazendaran et les sables du Kerman, furent les seuls[30]asiles que les vainqueurs laissèrent aux sectateurs de Zoroastre”[31][240].

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