CHAPTER 4

1. Yezdegird diedA.D.651.

2.Surajwar, orAdityawar, Sun-day; and the other days of the week, from the other planets, which Western nations have taken from the East.

3. SeeHistory of the Tribes, pp. 123, 135, articles ‘Takshak,’ and ‘Jhala,’ orMakwahana, in all probability theMaunaof thePuranas[?].

4. The Yavan, or Greek princes, who apparently continued to rule within the Indus after the Christian era, were either the remains of the Bactrian dynasty or the independent kingdom of Demetrius or Apollodotus, who ruled in the Panjab, having as their capital Sagala, changed by Demetrius to Euthymedia. Bayer says, in hisHist. Reg. Bact., p. 84: “I find from Claudius Ptolemy, that there was a city within the Hydaspes yet nearer the Indus, called Sagala, also Euthymedia; but I scarcely doubt that Demetrius called it Euthydemia, from his father, after his death and that of Menander. Demetrius was deprived of his patrimony A.U.C. 562.” [The site of Sagala is uncertain—Chiniot, Shāhkot, Siālkot (IGI, ii. 80 f.; McCrindle,Ptolemy, 122 ff.).]On this ancient city, Sagala, I have already said much; conjecturing it to be the Salbhanpura of the Yadus when driven from Zabulistan, and that of the Yuch-chi or Yuti, who were fixed there from Central Asia in the fifth century, and if so early as the second century, when Ptolemy wrote, may have originated the change of Yuti-media, the ‘Central Yuti.’ The numerous medals which I possess, chiefly found within the probable limits of the Greek kingdom of Sagala, either belong to these princes or the Parthian kings of Minnagara on the Indus. The legends are in Greek on one side, and in the Sassanian character on the reverse. Hitherto I have not deciphered the names of any but those of Apollodotus and Menander; but the titles of ‘Great King,’ ‘Saviour,’ and other epithets adopted by the Arsacidae, are perfectly legible. The devices, however, all incline me to pronounce them Parthian. It would be curious to ascertain how these Greeks and Parthians gradually merged into the Hindu population [seeIGI, ii. 137].

On this ancient city, Sagala, I have already said much; conjecturing it to be the Salbhanpura of the Yadus when driven from Zabulistan, and that of the Yuch-chi or Yuti, who were fixed there from Central Asia in the fifth century, and if so early as the second century, when Ptolemy wrote, may have originated the change of Yuti-media, the ‘Central Yuti.’ The numerous medals which I possess, chiefly found within the probable limits of the Greek kingdom of Sagala, either belong to these princes or the Parthian kings of Minnagara on the Indus. The legends are in Greek on one side, and in the Sassanian character on the reverse. Hitherto I have not deciphered the names of any but those of Apollodotus and Menander; but the titles of ‘Great King,’ ‘Saviour,’ and other epithets adopted by the Arsacidae, are perfectly legible. The devices, however, all incline me to pronounce them Parthian. It would be curious to ascertain how these Greeks and Parthians gradually merged into the Hindu population [seeIGI, ii. 137].

5. [The list in the Vishnu Purāna (474 f.) gives 7 Abhīras, 10 Garddhabas, 16 Sakas, 14 Tushāras, 13 Mundas, 11 Maunas. On the impossibility of reducing the Purānic accounts to order see Smith,EHI, 274.]

6. [Rawlinson (Seventh Oriental Monarchy, 298) regards the eastern adventure of Bahrāmgor, Varahran V., as mythical. Sykes (Hist. of Persia, i. 470) thinks they can hardly be authentic, “but I do not reject it as entirely devoid of historical basis.”]

7. The Hindu genealogist, in ignorance of the existence of Aghuz Khan, the Tatar patriarch, could not connect the chain of Chagatai with Chandra. The Brahman, better read, supplied the defect, and with his doctrine of the metempsychosis animated the material frame of the beneficent Akbar with the ‘good genius’ of a Hindu; and that of their mortal foe, Aurangzeb, with one of evil destiny, being that of Kalayavana, the foe of Krishna. They gravely assert that Akbar visited his ancient hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, and excavated the implements of penance used by him in his former shape, as one of the sages of ancient times; while such is their aversion to Aurangzeb, that they declare the final avatar, Time (Kal), on his white steed, will appear in his person. The Jaisalmer annals affirm that the whole Turkish (Turushka) race of Chagatai are of Yadu stock; while the Jam Jareja of Cutch traces his descent from the Persian Jamshid, contemporary with Solomon. These are curious claims, but the Rana’s family would consider such vanity criminal.

8. [For legends of women impregnated by the sun see Frazer,Golden Bough, Part vii. vol. i. 74 ff.]

9. This is probably the Siladitya of the Satrunjaya Mahatma, who repaired the temple on Satrunjaya in S. 477 (A.D.421). [A mere folk etymology—Sīlāditya, fromsil, ‘to worship,’āditya, ‘the sun.’]

10. In perusing this fragment we are struck by the similarity of production of these Hindu Heliadae and that of the celebrated Tatar dynasty from which Jenghiz Khan was descended. The Niruns, or ‘children of light,’ were from an amour of the sun with Alung Goa, from which Jenghiz was the ninth in descent. Authorities quoted by Petis de la Croix, in his life of this conqueror, and likewise by Marigny, in hisHistory of the Saracens, affirm Jenghiz Khan to be a descendant of Yazdegird, the last Sassanian prince. Jenghiz was an idolater, and hated the very name of Muhammadan [see Howorth,Hist. of the Mongols, i. 37 ff.]. A courtier telling Aurangzeb of his celestial ancestry, gravely quoting the affair of the mother of the race of Timur with the sun, the bigoted monarch coarsely replied, “Mama qahba bud,” which we will not translate.

11. Akbar commenced his reignA.D.1556, and had been forty years on the throne when the ‘Institutes’ were composed by the Abu-l Fazl. [The translation of Gladwin in the original text has been replaced by that of Jarrett,Āīn, ii. 268.]

12. Orme [Historical Fragments, Notes, p. xxii] was acquainted with this passage, and shows his knowledge of the Hindu character by observing that it was a strange pedigree to assign a Hindu prince, for Khusru, of the religion of Zoroaster, though compelled to many abstinences, was not restrained from eating beef: and Anquetil du Perron says of the Parsis, their descendants, that they have refrained since their emigration from slaying the cow merely to please the Hindu.

13. The cryptographic date is contained in the numerical value of the letters which compose the title:B. S. A. T. a. l. G. N. A. E. M.2. 60. 1. 9. 1. 9. 1000. 50. 1. 10. 40.}As the total is only 1183, either the date is wrong, or a deficient value given to the numerals.

13. The cryptographic date is contained in the numerical value of the letters which compose the title:

14. Wilford, who by his indefatigable research and knowledge of Sanskrit had accumulated extensive materials, unhappily deteriorated by a too credulous imagination, yet containing much valuable matter available to those sufficiently familiar with the subject to select with safety, has touched on this, and almost on every other point in the circle of Hindu antiquities. Ali Ibrahim, a learned native of Benares, was Wilford’s authority for asserting the Rana’s Persian descent, who stated to him that he had seen the original history, which was entitled, Origin of the Peishwas from the Ranas of Mewar. (Ibrahim must have meant the Satara princes, whose ministers were the Peshwas.) From this authority three distinct emigrations of the Guebres, or ancient Persians, are recorded, from Persia into Gujarat. The first in the time of Abu Bakr,A.D.631; the second on the defeat of Yazdegird,A.D.651; and the third when the descendants of Abbas began to prevail,A.D.749. Also that a son of Noshirwan landed near Surat with eighteen thousand of his subjects, from Laristan, and were well received by the prince of the country. Abu-l Fazl confirms this account by saying, "the followers of Zoroaster, when they fled from Persia, settled inSurat," the contracted term for the peninsular of Saurashtra, as well as the city of this name [Āīn, ii. 243].

15. The names are obliterated in the original. Ferishta [i. Introd. lxxix] informs us that Ramdeo Rathor, sovereign of Kanauj, was made tributary by Firoz ‘Sassan’; and that Partap Chand, who usurped the throne of Ramdeo, neglecting to pay this tribute, Noshirwan marched into India to recover it, and in his progress subdued Kabul and the Panjab. From the striking coincidence of these original and decisive authorities, we may rest assured that they had recourse to ancient records, both of the Guebres and the Hindus, for the basis of their histories, which research may yet discover.

16. Maurice, emperor of Byzantium. [Sykes (Hist. of Persia, ii. 495) calls the son of Nushirwān Nushishad, and mentions his rebellion against his father. There seems to be no evidence that Nushishad reached India: he was slain after he revolted (Malcolm,Hist. Persia, 2nd ed. i. 112 ff.).]

17.Din-i-Tarsar.See Ebn Haukal, art. ‘Serir,’ or Russia; whose king, a son of Bahram Chassin, whom he styles aTersaror Christian, first possessed it about the end of the sixth century.

18. TheVeramesof Western historians [Malcolm,op. cit.i. 113].

19.Khakhanwas the title of the kings of Chinese Tartary. It was held by the leader of the Huns, who at this period held power on the Caspian: it was also held by the Urus, Khuzr, Bulgar, Serir, all terms for Russia, before itsKaisarwas cut down intoTzar, for the original of which, the kings of Rome, as of Russia, were indebted to the SanskritKesar, a ‘lion’ [Lat. Caesar] (videIbn Haukal, art. ‘Khozr’).

20. Din-i-Majusi; literally, ‘faith of the Magi.’

21. Muhammad, bornA.D.578; the Hegira, or flight,A.D.622.

22. It must be borne in mind that it is the author of theMaasiru-l-Umara, not the rhymer of Aurungabad, who is speaking.

23. [This is the Persian tradition (Sykes,op. cit.ii. 44).]

24. For the extract from “The Annals of Princes (Maasiru-l-Umara)” let us laud the memory of the rhymer of Aurungabad. An original copy, which I in vain attempted to procure in India, is stated by Sir William Ouseley to be in the British Museum. We owe that country a large debt, for we have robbed her of all her literary treasures, leaving them to sleep on the shelves of our public institutions. [There is no real evidence of the Persian descent of the Rānas, and it has been suggested that the story is based on the fire symbols on the coinage found in Kāthiawār and Mewār, these, though in the main Indo-Scythic, betraying from about sixth century a more direct Sassanian influence (BG, i. Part i. 102). At the same time recent discoveries indicate Persian influence in N. India.]

25. VideGrand Dictionnaire Historique.

26. [Byzantium cannot have been a Greek colony, the name apparently representing Vijayanta, now Vijayadurga, the southern entrance of the Vāghotan River in Ratnagiri (McCrindle,Ptolemy, 47;BG, i. Part ii. 174 f.).]

27. It will be recollected that the various authorities given state Raja Suraj (sun), of Kakustha race, to be the father of Siladitya.Kakusthais a term used synonymously withSuryavansa, according to the Solar genealogists. Those who may be inclined to the Persian descent may trace it fromKaikaus, a well-known epithet in the Persian dynasties. I am unacquainted with the etymology of Kakustha; but it may possibly be fromka, ‘of or belonging to,’Kusa(Cush), the second son of Rama [?]. I have already hinted that the Assyrian Medes might be descendants of Hyaspa, a branch of the Indu-Mede of the family of Yayati which bore the name ofKausika. [The reference in the text may be to Kakutstha, grandson of Ikshwāku, who is said to have taken his name because he stood on the hump (Kukuda) of Indra when he was turned into a bull (Wilson,Vishna Purāna, 361).]

28. “The moral consequence of a pedigree,” says Hume, “is differently marked by the influence of law and custom. The male sex is deemed more noble than the female. The association of our ideas pursues the regular descent of honour and estates from father to son, and their wives, however essential, are considered only in the light of foreign auxiliaries” (Essays, vol. ii. p. 192). Not unlike the Rajput axiom, though more coarsely expressed; “It is, who planted the tree, not where did it grow,” that marks his idea of the comparative value of the side whence honours originate; though purity of blood in both lines is essential.

29. A new era had commenced, not of Yazdegird’s accession, as is supposed, which would have been vain indeed, when the throne was tottering under him, but consequent to the completion of the grand cycle of 1440 years. He was slain at Merv inA.D.651, the 31st of the Hegira; on the eleventh year of which, orA.D.632 (according to Moreri), he commenced his reign.

30. Gibbon was wrong. India afforded them an asylum, and their issue constitutes the most wealthy, the most respected, and the most enlightened part of the native community of Bombay and the chief towns of that presidency.

31. Gibbon,Miscellaneous Works,‘Sur la Monarchie des Mèdes,’ vol. iii.

Samarsi, Samar Singh.—Having established Bappa on the throne of Chitor S. 784 (A.D.728), we will proceed to glean from the annals, from the period of his departure for Iran, S. 820 (A.D.764) to another halting point—the reign of Samarsi, S. 1249 (A.D.1193);[1]an important epoch, not only in the history of Mewar, but to the whole Hindu race; when the diadem of sovereignty was torn from the brow of the Hindu to adorn that of the Tatar. We shall not, however, overleap the four intervening centuries, though we may not be able to fill up the reigns of the eighteen princes[2]whose “banner at this time was a golden sun on a crimson field,”[3]and several of whose names yet live recorded “with an iron pen on the rock” of their native abodes.

An intermediate period, from Bappa to Samarsi, that of Sakti Kumar, is fixed by the Aitpur inscription in S. 1024 (A.D.968);and from the more perishable yet excellent authority of an ancient Jain MS. the era of Allat, the ancestor of Sakti Kumar, was S. 922 (A.D.866), four generations anterior. From Bappa’s departure for Iran, inA.D.764, to the subversion of Hindu dominion in the reign of Samarsi, inA.D.1193, we find recorded an intermediate Islamite invasion. This was during the reign of Khuman, betweenA.D.812 and 836, which event forms the chief subject of the Khuman-Raesa, the most ancient of the poetic chronicles of Mewar [241].

As the history of India at this period is totally dark, we gladly take advantage of the lights thus afforded. By combining these facts with what is received as authentic, though scarcely less obscure or more exact than these native legends, we may furnish materials for the future historian. With this view, let us take a rapid sketch of the irruptions of the Arabians into India, from the rise of Islamism to the foundation of the Ghaznivid empire, which sealed the fate of the Hindus. The materials are but scanty. El-Makin, in his history of the Caliphs, passes over such intercourse almost without notice. Abu-l-Fazl, though not diffuse, is minute in what he does say, and we can confide in his veracity. Ferishta has a chapter devoted to this subject, which merits a better translation than yet exists.[4]We shall, however, in the first place, touch on Bappa’s descendants, till we arrive at the point proper for the introduction of the intended sketch.

Of the twenty-four tribes of Guhilot, several issued from the founder, Bappa. Shortly after the conquest of Chitor, Bappa proceeded to Saurashtra and married the daughter of Yusufgol, prince of the island of Bandardiva.[5]With his bride he conveyedto Chitor the statue of Vyanmata, the tutelary goddess of her race, who still divides with Eklinga the devotion of the Guhilot princes. The temple in which he enshrined this islandic goddess yet stands on the summit of Chitor, with many other monuments assigned by tradition to Bappa. This princess bore him Aparajit, who from being born in Chitor was nominated successor to the throne, to the exclusion of his less fortunate elder brother, Asil (born of the daughter of the Kaba (Pramara) prince of Kalibao near Dwaraka), who, however, obtained possessions in Saurashtra, and founded a race called the Asila Guhilots,[6]whose descendants were so numerous, even in Akbar’s reign, as to [242] be supposed able to bring into the field fifty thousand men at arms. We have nothing important to record of the actions of Aparajit, who had two sons, Kalbhoj[7]and Nandkumar. Kalbhoj succeeded Aparajit, and his warlike qualities are extolled in an inscription discovered by the author in the valley of Nagda. Nandkumar slew Bhimsen Dor (Doda), and possessed himself of Deogarh in the Deccan.

Khumān I.—Khuman succeeded Kalbhoj. His name is remarkable in the history of Mewar. He came to the throne at thebeginning of the ninth century, when Chitor was assailed by another formidable invasion of Muhammadans. The chief object of the Khuman Raesa is to celebrate the defence made on this occasion, and the value of this Raesa consists in the catalogue of the princes who aided in defending this bulwark of the Hindu faith. The bard, in an animated strain, makes his sovereign on this occasion successfully defend the ‘crimson standard’ of Mewar, treat with contempt the demand for tribute, and after a violent assault, in which the ‘barbarian’ is driven back, follow and discomfit him in the plan, carrying back the hostile leader, Mahmud, captive. With this event, which introduces the name of Mahmud two centuries before the conqueror of Ghazni, we will pause, and resume the promised sketch of the intercourse of Arabia and Hindustan at this period.

The Muhammadan Invasion,A.D.644-55.—The first intimation of the Moslems attempting the invasion of India is during the caliphat of Omar, who built the port of Bassorah at the mouth of the Tigris, chiefly to secure the trade of Gujarat and Sind; into which latter country a powerful army penetrated under Abul Aas,[8]who was killed in battle at Aror. The Caliph Osman, who succeeded Omar, sent to explore the state of India, while he prepared an army to invade it in person: a design which he never fulfilled. The generals of the Caliph Ali made conquests in Sind, which they abandoned at Ali’s death. While Yazid was governor of Khorasan several attempts were made on India, as also during the caliphat of Abdu-l Malik, but without any lasting [243] results. It was not till the reign of Walid[9]that any successful invasion took place. He not only finally conquered Sind and the adjoining continent of India, but rendered tributary all that part of India on this side the Ganges.[10]What an exalted idea must we not form of the energy and rapidity of such conquests, when we find the arms of Islam at once on the Ganges and the Ebro, and two regal dynasties simultaneously cut off, that of Roderic, the last of the Goths of Andaloos, and Dahir Despati in the valley of the Indus. It was inA.H.99 (A.D.712, S. 774) that Muhammad bin Kasim vanquished and slew Dahir,prince of Sind, after numerous conflicts. Amongst the spoils of victory sent to the caliph on this occasion were the daughters of the subjugated monarch, who were the cause of Kasim’s destruction,[11]when he was on the eve of carrying the war against Raja [244] Harchand of Kanauj. Some authorities state that he actually prosecuted it; and as Sind remained a dependency of the caliphat during several successive reigns, the successor of Kasim may have executed his plans. Little is said of India from this period to the reign of Al-Mansur, except in regard to the rebellion of Yazid in Khorasan, and the flight of his son to Sind. The eight sovereigns, who rapidly followed, were too much engaged with the Christians of the west and the Huns on the Caspian to think of India. Their armies were then in the heart of France, which was only saved from the Koran by their overthrow at Tours by Charles Martel.

GUHILOT AND CONTEMPORARY PRINCES[13]

GuhilotPrincesEras.Caliphs of BaghdadandKings of Ghazni.Eras.Remarks.Samvat.Christian.A.H.A.D.Caliphs of Baghdad.Bappa,born769713Walid (7th Ummaiya Caliph)86 to 96705 to 715Conquered India to the Ganges.———obtained Chitor784728Omar II. (9th do.)99 to 102718 to 721Sindi conquered. The Mori prince Chitor attacked by Muhammad (son of Kasim), the General of Omar.———governs MewarHasham (10th do.)104 to 125723 to 742Battle of Tours,A.D.732, and defeat of the Caliph’s army, under Abdulrahman, by Charles Martel.———abandons Chitor820764Al-Mansur Abbasi (2nd do.)136 to 158754 to 775Final conquest of Sind, and the name of its capital, Aror, changed to Mansura. Bappa, founder of the Guhilot race in Mewar, retires to Iran.Aparajit, KalbhojHarunu-r-rashid (5th do.)170 to 193786 to 809Partition of the caliphat amongst Harun’s sons. The second, Al-Mamun, obtains Zabulistan, Sind, and India, and ruled them tillA.D.813, when he became Caliph.Khuman868 to 892812 to 836Al-Mamun (7th do.)198 to 218813 to 833Invasion and attack on Chitor from Zabulistan.Bhartaribhat.Singhji.Allat.Narabahan.Kings of Ghazni.Salivahan.Sakti Kumar1024968Alptigin350957Inscription of Sakti-kumar from ruins of Aitpur.Amba Pasao.NaravarmanSabuktigin367977Invasion of India.Jasuvarman [or Kirtivarman]Mahmud387 to 418997 to 1027Invasions of India, destruction of Aitpur.

Al-Mansur, when only the lieutenant of the Caliph Abbas, held the government of Sind and of India, and made the island of Bakhar on the Indus, and the adjacent Aror,[14]the ancient capital, his residence, naming it Mansura; and it was during his government that Bappa Rawal abandoned Chitor for Iran.

The celebrated Harunu-r-rashid, contemporary of Charlemagne, in apportioning his immense empire amongst his sons, gave to the second, Al-Mamun, Khorasan, Zabulistan, Kabulistan, Sind, and Hindustan.[15]Al-Mamun, on the death of Harun, deposed his brother, and became caliph inA.H.198 orA.D.813, and ruled to 833, the exact period of the reign of Khuman, prince of Chitor. The domestic history brings the enemy assailant of Chitor from Zabulistan; and as the leader’s name is givenMahmud Khorasan Pat, there can be little doubt that it is an error arising from ignorance of the copyist, and should beMamun.

Mahmūd’s Invasion.—Within twenty years after this event, the sword of conquest and conversion was withdrawn from India, and Sind was the only province left to Mutawakkil (A.D.850 [847-861]), the grandson of Harun, for a century after whom the throne of Baghdad, like that of ancient Rome, was sold by her praetorians to the highest bidder. From this time we find no mention whatever of Hindustan, or even of Sind, until Sabuktigin,[16]governor of Khorasan, hoisted the standard of independent sovereignty at Ghazni. InA.H.365 (A.D.974) he carried his arms [245] across the Indus, forcing the inhabitants to abandon the religion of their ancestors, and to read the Koran from the altars of Bal and Krishna. Towards the close of this century he made his last invasion, accompanied by his son, the celebrated Mahmud, destined to be the scourge of the Hindu race, who early imbibed the paternal lesson inculcating the extirpation of infidels. Twelve several visitations did Mahmud make with his Tatar hordes, sweeping India of her riches, destroying her temples and architectural remains, and leaving the country plunged in poverty and ignorance. From the effect of these incursions she never recovered; for though she had a respite of a century between Mahmud and the final conquest, it was too short to repair what it had cost ages to rear: the temples of Somnath, of Chitor, and Girnar are but types of the magnificence of past times. The memorial of Sakti Kumar proves him to have been the contemporary of Sabuktigin, and to one of his son’s visitations is attributed the destruction of the ‘city of the sun’ (Aitpur),[17]his capital.

Attack on Chitor.—Having thus condensed the little information afforded by Muhammadan historians of the connexion between the caliphs of Baghdad and princes of Hind, from the first to the end of the fourth century of the Hegira, we shall revert to the first recorded attack on the Mori prince of Chitor, which brought Bappa into notice. This was either by Yazid or Muhammad bin Kasim from Sind.[18]Though in the histories of the caliphs we can only expect to find recorded those expeditionswhich were successful, or had some lasting results, there are inroads of their revolted lieutenants or their frontier deputies, which frequently, though indistinctly, alluded to in Hindu annals, have no place in Muhammadan records. Throughout the period mentioned there was a stir amongst the Hindu nations, in which we find confusion and dethronement from an unknown invader, who is described as coming sometimes by Sind, sometimes by sea, and not unfrequently as a demon and magician; but invariably asmlechchha, or ‘barbarian.’[19]From S. 750 to S. 780 (A.D.694 to [246] 724), the annals of the Yadus, the Chauhans, the Chawaras, and the Guhilots, bear evidence to simultaneous convulsions in their respective houses at this period. In S. 750 (A.H.75) the Yadu Bhatti was driven from his capital Salpura in the Panjab, across the Sutlej into the Indian desert; the invader named Farid. At the same period Manika Rae, the Chauhan prince of Ajmer, was assailed and slain.[20]

The Muster of the Clans.—The first of the Khichi princes who occupied the Duab of Sindsagar in the Panjab, as well as the ancestor of the Haras established in Golkonda, was expelled at the same time. The invader is treated in the genuine Hindu style as a Danava, or demon, and is named Ghairaram[21](i.e.restless), from Kujliban,[22]a term geographically given to a portion of the Himalaya mountains about the glaciers of the Ganges. The ancestor of the founder of Patan was expelled from his petty islandic dominion on the coast of Saurashtra at the same time. This is the period when Yazid was the caliph’s lieutenant in Khorasan, and when the arms of Walid conquered to the Ganges; nor is there a doubt that Yazid or Kasim was the author of all these revolutions in the Hindu dynasties. We are supported in this by the names of the princes contained in the catalogue who aided to defend Chitor and the Mori prince on this occasion. It is evident that Chitor was, alternately with Ujjain, the seat of sovereignty of the Pramara at this period, and, as it became the rallying point of the Hindus, that this race was the first in consequence.[23]We find the prince of Ajmer, and the quotas ofSaurashtra and Gujarat [247]; Angatsi, lord of the Huns; Busa, the lord of the North; Sheo, the prince of the Jarejas; the Johya, lord of Jangaldes; the Aswaria, the Sepat, the Kulhar, the Malan, the Ohir, the Hul, and many others, having nothing of the Hindu in name, now extinct. But the most conspicuous is ‘Dahir Despati from Debal.’ This is erroneously written Delhi, the seat of the Tuars; whereas we recognize the name of the prince of Sind, slain by Kasim, whose expatriated son doubtless found refuge in Chitor.[24]

The Defeat of the Enemy.—This attack on the Mori prince was defeated chiefly through the bravery of the youthful Guhilot. The foe from Kujliban, though stated to have advanced by Mathura, retreated by Saurashtra and Sind, pursued by Bappa. He found the ancient seat of his ancestors, Gajni,[25]still in the possession of the ‘Asur’: a term as well asmlechchha, or ‘barbarian,’ always given to the Islamite at this period. Salim, who held Gajni, was attacked and forced to surrender, and Bappa inductedinto this stronghold of his ancestors a nephew of his own. It is no less singular than honourable to their veracity that the annals should record the fact, so contrary to their religion, of Bappa having married the daughter of the conquered Salim; and we have a right to infer that it was from the influence acquired by this union that he ultimately abandoned the sovereignty of Mewar and the title of ‘Hindua Suraj’ to become the founder of the ‘one hundred and thirty tribes of Naushahra [248] Pathans’ of the west. It is fair to conclude from all these notices regarding the founder of the Guhilot race in Chitor that he must have abjured his faith for that of Islam; and it is probable (though the surmise must ever remain unproved) that, under some new title applicable to such change, we may have, in one of the early distinguished leaders of ‘the Faith,’ the ancestor of the Guhilots.

Khumān II.—Let us now proceed to the next irruption of the Islamite invaders in the reign of Khuman, fromA.D.812 to 836. Though the leader of this attack is styled ‘Mahmud Khorasan Pat,’ it is evident from the catalogue of Hindu princes who came to defend Chitor that this ‘lord of Khorasan’ was at least two centuries before the son of Sabuktigin; and as the period is in perfect accordance with the partition of the caliphat by Harun amongst his sons, we can have no hesitation in assigning such invasion to Mamun, to whose share was allotted Khorasan, Sind, and the Indian dependencies. The records of this period are too scanty to admit of our passing over in silence even a barren catalogue of names, which, as texts, with the aid of collateral information, may prove of some benefit to the future antiquarian and historian.

"From Gajni came the Guhilot; the Tak from Asir; from Narlai the Chauhan; the Chalukya from Rahargarh; from Setubandha the Jarkhera; from Mandor the Khairavi; from Mangrol the Makwahana; from Jethgarh the Joria; from Taragarh the Rewar; the Kachhwaha from Narwar; from Sanchor the Kalam; from Junagarh the Dasanoh; from Ajmer the Gaur; from Lohadargarh the Chandano; from Dasaundi the Dor; from Delhi the Tuar; from Patan the Chawara, preserver of royalty (Rajdhar); from Jalor the Sonigira; from Sirohi the Deora; from Gagraun the Khichi; the Jadon from Junagarh; the Jhala from Patri; from Kanauj the Rathor; from Chotiala the Bala; from Piramgarh the Gohil; from Jaisalgarh the Bhatti; theBusa from Lahore; the Sankhla from Roneja; the Sehat from Kherligarh; from Mandalgarh the Nikumbha; the Bargujar from Rajor; from Karangarh the Chandel; from Sikar the Sikarwal; from Umargarh the Jethwa; from Pali the Bargota; from Khantargarh the Jareja; from Jirga the Kherwar; from Kashmir the Parihara."

Of the Guhilot from Gajni we have said enough; nor shall we comment on the Tak, or his capital, Asir, which now belongs to the British Government. The Chauhan, who came from Narlai, was a celebrated branch of the Ajmer [249] house, and claims the honour of being the parent of the Sonigiras of Jalor and the Deoras of Sirohi. Nadol is mentioned by Ferishta as falling a prey to one of Mahmud’s invasions, who destroyed its ancient temples; but from erroneous punctuation it is lost in the translation as Bazule.[26]Of Rahargarh and the Jarkhera from Setubandha (on the Malabar coast) nothing is known.[27]Of the Khairavi from Mandor we can only say that it appears to be a branch of the Pramaras (who reckoned Mandor one of the nine strongholds, ‘Nau-kot,’ under its dominion), established anterior to the Pariharas, who at this period had sovereignty in Kashmir. Both the Dor and his capital, Dasaundi, are described in ancient books as situated on the Ganges below Kanauj.

It is a subject of regret that the annals do not mention the name of the Tuar prince of Delhi, which city could not have been refounded above a century when this call was made upon its aid. Abu-l Fazl, Ferishta, their translators, and those who have followed them have been corrected by theEdinburgh Review, whose critical judgment on this portion of ancient history is eminently good. I possess the original Hindu record used by Abu-l Fazl, which gives S. 829 for the first Anangpal instead of S. 429; andas there were but nineteen princes who intervened until his dynasty was set aside by the Chauhan, it requires no argument to support thefourinstead ofeightcenturies. The former will give the just average of twenty-one years to a reign. The name of Anangpal was titular in the family, and the epithet was applied to the last as to the first of the race.

The name of the Chawara prince of Patan (Anhilwara) being recorded amongst the auxiliaries of Khuman, is another satisfactory proof of the antiquity of this invasion; for this dynasty was extinct, and succeeded by the Solankis, in S. 998 (A.D.942), fifty years prior to Mahmud of Ghazni, who captured Patan during the reign of Chawand, the second Solanki prince.[28]

The Sonigira, who came from Jalor, is a celebrated branch of the Chauhan race, but we are ignorant of the extent of time that it held this fortress: and as nothing can invalidate the testimonies afforded by the names of the Chawara of [250] Patan, the Kachhwaha of Narwar, the Tuar of Delhi, and the Rathor from Kanauj, there can be no hesitation at pointing out the anachronisms of the chronicle, which states the Deora from Sirohi, the Khichi from Gagraun, or the Bhatti from Jaisalgarh, amongst the levies on this occasion; and which we must affirm to be decided interpolations, the two first being at that period in possession of the Pramara, and the latter not erected for three centuries later. That the Deoras, the Khichis, and the Bhattis came to the aid of Khuman, we cannot doubt; but the copyist, ignorant even of the names of the ancient capitals of these tribes, Chhotan, Sindsagar, and Tanot, substituted those which they subsequently founded.

The Jadon (Yadu) from Junagarh (Girnar) was of the race of Krishna, and appeared long to have held possession of this territory; and the names of the Khengars, of this tribe, will remain as long as the stupendous monuments they reared on this sacred hill. Besides the Jadon, we find Saurashtra sending forth the Jhalas, the Balas, and the Gohils to the aid of the descendant of the lord of Valabhipura, whose paramount authority they once all acknowledged, and who appeared to have long maintained influence in that distant region.

Of the tribe of Busa, who left their capital, Lahore, to succourChitor, we have no mention, further than the name being enumerated amongst the unassigned tribes of Rajputs.[29]Ferishta frequently notices the princes of Lahore in the early progress of Islamism, though he does not tell us the name of the tribe. In the reign of the caliph Al-Mansur,A.H.143 (A.D.761), the Afghans of Kirman and Peshawar, who, according to this authority, were a Coptic colony expelled from Egypt,[30]had increased in such numbers as to abandon their residence about the ‘hill of Sulaiman,’ and crossing the Indus, wrested possessions from the Hindu princes of Lahore. This frontier warfare with a tribe which, though it had certainly not then embraced the faith of Islam, brought to their succour the forces of the caliph in Zabulistan, so that in five months seventy battles were fought with varied success; but the last, in which the Lahore prince carried his arms to Peshawar,[31]produced a peace. Hence arose a union of interests between them and the hill tribe of Gakkhar, and all the Kohistan west of the Indus was ceded to them [251] on the condition of guarding this barrier into Hindustan against invasion. For this purpose the fortress of Khaibar was erected in the chief pass of the Koh-i-Daman. For two centuries after this event Ferishta is silent on this frontier warfare, stating that henceforth Hindustan was only accessible through Sind. When Aliptigin first crossed the Indus, the prince of Lahore and the Afghans still maintained this alliance and united to oppose him. Jaipal was then prince of Lahore; and it is on this event that Ferishta, for the first time, mentions the tribe of Bhatti,[32]“at the advice of whose prince he conferred the command of the united forces on an Afghan chief,” to whom he assigned the provinces of Multan and Lamghan. From this junction of interests the princes of Lahore enjoyed comparative security, until Sabuktigin and Mahmud compelled the Afghans to serve them: then Lahore was captured. The territory dependent upon Lahore, at this period, extended from Sirhind to Lamghan, and from Kashmir to Multan. Bhatinda divided with Lahore the residence of its princes. Their first encounter was at Lingham, on which occasion young Mahmud first distinguished himself, and as the historian says, “the eyesof the heavens were obscured at seeing his deeds.”[33]A tributary engagement was the result, which Jaipal soon broke; and being aided by levies from all the princes of Hindustan, marched an army of one hundred thousand men against Sabuktigin, and was again defeated on the banks of the Indus. He was at length invested and taken in Bhatinda by Mahmud, when he put himself to death.[34]The successors of Jaipal are mentioned merely as fugitives, and always distinct from the princes of Delhi. It is most probable that they were of the tribe termed Busa in the annals of Mewar, possibly a subdivision of another; though Ferishta calls the prince of Lahore a Brahman.

The Sankhla from Roneja. Both tribe and abode are well known: it is a subdivision of the Pramara. Harbuji Sankhla was the Paladin of Marwar, in which Roneja was situated.

The Sehat from Kherligarh was a northern tribe, dwelling about the Indus, and though entirely unknown to the modern genealogists of India, is frequently mentioned in the early history of the Bhattis, when their possessions extended on both sides of the Hyphasis. As intermarriages between the Bhattis and Sehats are [252] often spoken of, it must have been Rajput. It most probably occupied the province of Swat, the Suvat of D’Anville, a division of the province of Ashthanagar, where dwelt the Assakenoi of Alexander; concerning which this celebrated geographer says,“Il est mention de Suvat comme d’un canton du pays d’Ash-nagar dans la même géographie turque”(Ecl.p. 25). The whole of this ground was sacred to the Jadon tribe from the most remote antiquity, from Multan, the hills of Jud, to Aswinikot (the Tshehin-kote of D’Anville), which, built on the point of confluence of the Choaspes of the Greeks with the Indus, marks the spot where dwelt the Assakenoi, corroborated by the Puranas, which mention the partition of all these territories amongst the sons of Bajaswa, the lord of Kampilnagara, the grand subdivision of the Yadu race. In all likelihood the Sehat, who came to the aid of Khuman of Chitor, was a branch of these Assakenoi, the opponents of Alexander.[35]The modern town of Dinkotappears to occupy the site of Aswinikot, though D’Anville feels inclined to carry it into the heart of Bajaur and place it on the rock (silla) Aornos.[36]Such the Sehat; not improbably the Soha, one of the eight subdivisions of the Yadu.[37]When, in S. 785, the Bhatti chief Rao Tanu was driven across the Sutlej, the Sehats are mentioned with other tribes as forming the army of Husain Shah, with the Barahas, the Judis, and Johyas (the Juds and Jinjohyas of Babur), the Butas, and the ‘men of Dud.’

The Chandel, from Karangarh, occupied the tracts now termed Bundelkhand.

We shall pass over the other auxiliary tribes and conclude with the Parihar, who came from Kashmir on this occasion; a circumstance entirely overlooked in the dissertation on this tribe;[38]nor does this isolated fact afford room for further discussion on a race which expelled the Pramaras from Mandor.

Such aids, who preserved Khuman when assailed by the ‘Khorasan Pat,’ fully demonstrate the antiquity of the annals, which is further attested by inscriptions. Khuman fought twenty-four great battles, and his name, like that of Caesar, became a family distinction. At Udaipur, if you make a false step, or even sneeze, you hear the ejaculation of ‘Khuman aid you!’ Khuman, by the advice of the Brahmans, resigned the gaddi to his younger son, Jograj; but again resumed [253] it, slaying his advisers and execrating the name of Brahman, which he almost exterminated in his own dominions. Khuman was at length slain by his own son, Mangal; but the chiefs expelled the parricide, who seized upon Lodorwa in the northern desert, and there established the Mangalia Guhilots.

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