CHAPTER 2

11. Prayaga is the modern Allahabad, at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges, the capital of the Prasioi of Megasthenes. [Their capital was Pātaliputra, Patna.]

12. This is alternately called Chhappan Kula and Chhappan Kror, “fifty-six tribes,” and “fifty-six millions,” of Yadus. As they were long supreme over India, this number is not inadmissible.

13.Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii.Videpaper entitled “Comparison of the Hindu and Theban Hercules.”

14. Jambuvati was the name of the seventh wife, whose eldest son was called Samba; he obtained possession of the tracts on both sides the Indus, and founded the Sind-Samma dynasty, from which the Jarejas are descended. There is every probability that Sambus, of Sambanagari (Minnagara), the opponent of Alexander, was a descendant of Samba, son of Krishna [?]. The Jareja chronicles, in ignorance of the origin of this titular appellation, say that their “ancestors came from Sham, or Syria.” [These speculations possess no value.]

15. [This name does not appear in the Vishnu Purāna list.]

16. Jad, Jud, Jadon, are the various modes of pronouncing Yadu in the Bhakha, or spoken dialects of the west. Judh-bhan, ‘the rocket of the Yadus,’ would imply the knowledge of gunpowder at a very remote period [?].

17. The precise knowledge of the topography of these regions, displayed in the Bhatti annals, is the most satisfactory proof of their authenticity. In the present day, it would be in vain to ask any native of Jaisalmer the position of the “hill of Jud,” or the site of Bahra; and but for the valuable translation of Babur’sMemoirs, by Mr. Erskine, we should have been unable to adduce the following testimony. Babur crossed the Indus the 17th February 1519, and on the 19th, between that river and one of its great towns, the Behat, he reached the very tract where the descendant of Krishna established himself twenty-five centuries before. Babur says, “Seven kos from Behreh to the north there is a hill. This hill in the Zefer Nameh (History of Timoor), and other books, is called the Hill of Jud. At first I was ignorant of the origin of its name, but afterwards discovered that in this hill there were two races of men descended of the same father. One tribe is called Jud, the other Jenjuheh. From old times they have been the rulers and lords of the inhabitants of this hill, and of the Ils and Uluses (political divisions) between Nilab and Behreh. Their power is exerted in a friendly and brotherly way. They cannot take from them whatever they please. They take as their share a portion that has been fixed from very remote times. The Jud is divided into various branches or families, as well as the Jenjuheh. The chief man amongst them gets the name of Rae.”—Erskine’sBaber, p. 254.Here is a decided confirmation that this Hindu colony preserved all their original manners and customs even to Babur’s day. The tribe of Janjuhahs, beyond a doubt, is the tribe of Johya, so celebrated in the region skirting the Sutlej, and which will be noticed hereafter. I presented a small work entirely relating to their history to the Royal Asiatic Society. As Babur says they are of the same family as the Juds, they are probably the descendants of Janj, the brother of Bhatti, who changed the family patronymic from Jadu or Judu to Bhatti; and thus it appears that when the elder branch was driven from Gajni, they retreated amongst their relations of the hills of Jud. Babur was quite enamoured with the beauty of the hill of Jud, which, with its lake and valleys, he describes as a miniature Kashmir.—P. 255.

Here is a decided confirmation that this Hindu colony preserved all their original manners and customs even to Babur’s day. The tribe of Janjuhahs, beyond a doubt, is the tribe of Johya, so celebrated in the region skirting the Sutlej, and which will be noticed hereafter. I presented a small work entirely relating to their history to the Royal Asiatic Society. As Babur says they are of the same family as the Juds, they are probably the descendants of Janj, the brother of Bhatti, who changed the family patronymic from Jadu or Judu to Bhatti; and thus it appears that when the elder branch was driven from Gajni, they retreated amongst their relations of the hills of Jud. Babur was quite enamoured with the beauty of the hill of Jud, which, with its lake and valleys, he describes as a miniature Kashmir.—P. 255.

18. The Pramars were formerly the most powerful potentates of Central India. Handmaids, and bedsteads of gold, were always a part of thedaejaor dower of Hindu princesses.

19. Abulfazl [? Abulghazi] mentions Joga as prince of Gasmien and Kashmir, who was slain by Aghuz Khan, the Patriarch of the Tatar tribes.

20. In this early portion of the annals there is a singular mixture of historical facts, and it appears that the Yadu scribes confound their connexions with the Syrian and Bactrian Greeks, and with the first Muslim conquerors. Imperfect as is this notice of Subahu, his son Rajh, and grandson Gaj, who were thus assailed by Farid of Khorasan (Bactria), and his auxiliary, the king of Rum (Syria), we have a powerful allusion to Antiochus the Great, who, two hundred and four years before Christ, invaded Bactria and India. Amongst the few facts left of this expedition is his treaty with Sophagasenas, the Indian monarch, in which the Syrian king stipulated for a tribute in elephants. There are, even in this medley of incidents, grounds for imagining that Sophagasenas is the Yadu prince of Gajni. Whether, out of Subahu and Gaj, the Greeks manufactured their Sophagasenas, or whether prince Gaj could have been entitled Subhagsen, in compliment to his mother, Subhag-Sundari, of Malwa, must be left for the speculative to decide. It is not unlikely that the nature of the tribute, said to have been elephants, which the Indian agreed to furnish to the Greek prince, may have originated with the name ofGaj, which means ‘elephant.’ [Sophagasenas, mentioned by Polybius (xi. 34) was probably an Indian king, Subhāgasena, who ruled in the Kābul valley.]There is at the same time much that refers to the early progress of Islam in these regions of Central Asia. Price, in his excellent history, extracting from the Khulasatu-l-Akhbar, says, “Hejauge was entrusted with the government of Khorasan, and Obaidoolah with Seistan, who had orders from Hejauge, his superior, to invade Caubul, whose prince was Reteil or Retpeil, whom the Author supposes either a Tatar or Hindoo prince. Artfully retiring, he drew the Mohamedan army into the defiles, and blocking up the rear, cut off their retreat, and Obaidoolah was compelled to purchase his liberation by the payment of seven hundred thousand dirhems.” [See Elliot-Dowson ii. 417; “Retpeil” is possibly Ratnapāla.]This was the seventy-eighth year of the Hegira, orA.D.697. Conjoined to what follows, it appears to have reference to Rajh, father of Gaj. Again,“Obaidoolah and Abdoorehman invaded Seistan with forty thousand men. The prince of Caubul tried the same manœuvre, but was outwitted by the Mohamedan, who conquered a great part of Caubul and acquired great booty, with which he returned to Seistan, to the great displeasure of Hejauge; and Abdoorehman entered into a confederacy with Retpeil to attack Hejauge, and absolve Caubul from tribute. Moghairah was the successor of Abdoorehman in Khorasan, while his father, Mohilel, was employed beyond the Jehoon, but died at Meru of a burning diarrhoea, bequeathing his government to Yezzid.”This account of Mughaira’s (the governor of Khorasan) death, while carrying on war against the Hindu “Retpeil” of Kabul, has much analogy to the sudden death of Mamrez, the foe of Rajh of Zabulistan. One thing is now proved, that princes of the Hindu faith ruled over all these regions in the first ages of Islamism, and made frequent attempts, for centuries after, to reconquer them. Of this fact, Babur gives us a most striking instance in his description of Gajni, or, as he writes, Ghazni. He says, “I have seen, in another history, that when the Rai of Hind besieged Subaktegin in Ghazni, Subaktegin ordered dead flesh and other impurities to be thrown into the fountain, when there instantly arose a tempest and hurricane, with rain and snow, and by this device he drove away the enemy.” Babur adds, “I made then inquiry in Ghazni for this well, but nobody could give me the slightest information regarding it” (p. 150). Doubtless, when Babur conquered India, and became better acquainted with the Hindu warriors, he would have got to the bottom of this anecdote, and have seen that the success of the ruse of Sabuktegin arose out of the religion of his foes, who could not use water thus contaminated by the flesh of the sacred kine. The celebrated Valabhi was reduced by the same stratagem.

There is at the same time much that refers to the early progress of Islam in these regions of Central Asia. Price, in his excellent history, extracting from the Khulasatu-l-Akhbar, says, “Hejauge was entrusted with the government of Khorasan, and Obaidoolah with Seistan, who had orders from Hejauge, his superior, to invade Caubul, whose prince was Reteil or Retpeil, whom the Author supposes either a Tatar or Hindoo prince. Artfully retiring, he drew the Mohamedan army into the defiles, and blocking up the rear, cut off their retreat, and Obaidoolah was compelled to purchase his liberation by the payment of seven hundred thousand dirhems.” [See Elliot-Dowson ii. 417; “Retpeil” is possibly Ratnapāla.]

This was the seventy-eighth year of the Hegira, orA.D.697. Conjoined to what follows, it appears to have reference to Rajh, father of Gaj. Again,

“Obaidoolah and Abdoorehman invaded Seistan with forty thousand men. The prince of Caubul tried the same manœuvre, but was outwitted by the Mohamedan, who conquered a great part of Caubul and acquired great booty, with which he returned to Seistan, to the great displeasure of Hejauge; and Abdoorehman entered into a confederacy with Retpeil to attack Hejauge, and absolve Caubul from tribute. Moghairah was the successor of Abdoorehman in Khorasan, while his father, Mohilel, was employed beyond the Jehoon, but died at Meru of a burning diarrhoea, bequeathing his government to Yezzid.”

This account of Mughaira’s (the governor of Khorasan) death, while carrying on war against the Hindu “Retpeil” of Kabul, has much analogy to the sudden death of Mamrez, the foe of Rajh of Zabulistan. One thing is now proved, that princes of the Hindu faith ruled over all these regions in the first ages of Islamism, and made frequent attempts, for centuries after, to reconquer them. Of this fact, Babur gives us a most striking instance in his description of Gajni, or, as he writes, Ghazni. He says, “I have seen, in another history, that when the Rai of Hind besieged Subaktegin in Ghazni, Subaktegin ordered dead flesh and other impurities to be thrown into the fountain, when there instantly arose a tempest and hurricane, with rain and snow, and by this device he drove away the enemy.” Babur adds, “I made then inquiry in Ghazni for this well, but nobody could give me the slightest information regarding it” (p. 150). Doubtless, when Babur conquered India, and became better acquainted with the Hindu warriors, he would have got to the bottom of this anecdote, and have seen that the success of the ruse of Sabuktegin arose out of the religion of his foes, who could not use water thus contaminated by the flesh of the sacred kine. The celebrated Valabhi was reduced by the same stratagem.

21. Neither of these towns appears in any map. “There is a Koonj Reshak in Khorasan, and a Penjher in Balk.” Sir W. Ouseley’sEbn Haukal, pp. 213-223.

22. “The king of Rum and the king of Khorasan, with horse (haya), elephants (gayaorgaj), caparisons (pākhar), and foot-soldiers (pāēorpāyik) [are at hand]. Beware, let it enter your mind, O Rāē, Lord of the Jadus!“

23. [Aghari= 24 minutes.]

24. The unclean spirits of Rajput martial mythology, who feed on the slain.

25. This date is circumstantial, and might be fixed or disproved by calculation; if the heterogeneous mixture of such widely separated incidents as those in Syro-Macedonian and Muhammadan history did not deter us from the attempt.

26. No such name appears in Wilson’sRaj Taringini. [Nor in Stein’s Index.]

27. Tutelary goddess, or “of the race (kula).”

28. This volcano [or rather jets of combustible gas] is a well-known place of pilgrimage in the Siwalik mountains [in the Kāngra District, Panjāb].

29. A pahar is one-fourth of the day.

30. For a description of this rite see Vol. I. pp.85,309.

31. In conformity with the Hindu ordinances ofmatam, or mourning.

32. Here is another circumstantial date, S. 72, orA.D.16, for the foundation of Salbahana in the Panjab, by the fugitive Yadu prince from Gajni. Of its exact position we have no means of judging, but it could not have been remote from Lahore. It may be deemed a fortunate coincidence that I should discover that ancient inscription (p.914) of this capital, styled Salpur, governed by a Gete or Jat in the fourth century; which suggested the idea (which many facts tend to prove), whether these Yadus (whose illegitimate issue, as will appear in the sequel, are called Jats) may not be the Yuti or Getes from Central Asia. The coincidence of the date of Salbahan-Yadu with that of the Saka Salivahan, the Tak, will not fail to strike the inquirer into Hindu antiquities: and it is not the least curious circumstance, that these Yadus, or Yuti, displaced the Takshak, or Tak, from this region, as will appear immediately. In further corroboration, see notes2and4, p.916f., and Inscriptions II. p.917and VI. p.925.]

33. At every page of these annals, it is evident that they have been transcribed by some ignoramus, who has jumbled together events of ancient and modern date. The prince of Delhi might have been Jaipal, but if we are to place any faith in the chronology of the Tuar race, no prince of this family could be synchronous with the Yadu Salbahan. I am inclined to think that the emigration of Salbahan’s ancestors from Gajni was at a much later period than S. 72, as I shall note as we proceed. [As will be seen later on, the whole story swarms with anachronisms.]

34. Turk is the term in the dialects which the Hindus apply to the races from central Asia, the Turushka of the Puranas.

35. Doubtless the ancestor of the Johya race, termed the Janjuha by Babur, and who dwelt with the Juds in the hills of Jud, the Jadu-ka-dang of the Bhatti MSS.

36. However curious this assertion, of the Chagatais being descended from the Yadus, it ought not to surprise us: I repeat, that all these tribes, whether termed Indo-Scythic or Tatar, prior to Islamism professed a faith which may be termed Hinduism.

37. As it is evident the period has reference to the very first years of Islamism, and it is stated that the sons of Gaj were to be proselytes, it is by no means improbable that this is Jaipal, the infidel prince of Khwarizm.—See Price’sMahomedan History.

38. This is a most important admission of the proselytism of the ancient Indo-Scythic Yadu princes to the faith of Islam, though there can be no reasonable doubt of it. Temugin, better known by hisnomme de guerre, Jangiz, the father of Chagatai, according to the Muhammadan historians, is termed an infidel, and so was Takash, the father of Muhammad of Khwarizm: the one was of the Getic or Yuti race; the other, as his name discloses, of the Tak or Takshak, the two grand races of Central Asia. The insertion of this pedigree in this place completely vitiates chronology; yet for what purpose it could have been interpolated, if not founded on some fact, we cannot surmise.

39. We can, by means of the valuable translation of the Commentaries of Babur, trace many of these tribes.

40. It has already been stated that the fifteen brothers of Baland established themselves in the mountainous parts of the Panjab, and that his sons inherited those west of the Indus, or Daman. The Afghan tribes, whose supposed genealogy from the Jews has excited so much curiosity, and who now inhabit the regions conquered by the sons of Salbahan, are possibly Yadus, who, on conversion, to give more éclat to their antiquity, converted Yadu into Yahudi or Jew, and added the rest of the story from the Koran. That grand division of Afghans called the Yusufzai, or ‘Sons of Joseph,’ whose original country was Kabul and Ghazni, yet retain the name of Jadon (vulgar of Yadu) as one of their principal subdivisions; and they still occupy a position in the hilly region east of the Indus, conquered by the sons of Baland. It would be a curious fact could we prove the Afghans not Yahudis but Yadus [?].

41. Doubtless the junction of Janj with that of Johya, another numerous tribe, formed the Janjuha of Babur; the Johyas of the Bhatti annals, now known only by name, but whose history forms a volume. The sons of Janj have left numerous traces—Janjian on the Gara; Jinjiniali in the desert, etc.

42. Even the mention of an animal unknown in the desert of India evinces the ancient source whence these annals are compiled. Had the Yadu colony at this period obtained a footing in the desert, south of the Sutlej, the computation would have been by camel-loads, not by mules.

43. See Vol. I. p.315, for an account of this military foray.

44. This would almost imply that Lahore and Salbahana were one and the same place, but from what follows, the intervening distance could not have been great between the two cities. There is a Sangala, south of Lahore, near the altars of Alexander, and a Sialkot in our modern maps. Salbahana, Salbahanpur, or simply Salpura, may have been erected on the ruins of Kampilanagari. We may hope that researches in that yet untouched region, the Panjab, will afford much to the elucidation of ancient history. [Sālbahanpur is usually identified with Siālkot (Cunningham,ASR, ii. 21).]

45. The Lakhi Jungle is well known in India for its once celebrated breed of horses, extinct within the last twenty years.

46. [They take their name from the old town of Abohar in the Firozpur District, Panjāb (IGI, v. 2). Compare the local legend with that from Hissār (Rose,Glossary, ii. 103 f.).]

47. Thus it is that the most extensive agricultural races spread all over India, called Jāts or Jats, have a tradition that they are descended from the Yadu race (qu.Yuti?), and that their original country is Kandahar. Such was stated to me as the origin of the Jats of Bayana and Bharatpur. Why the descendants of Saran assumed the name of Jats is not stated.

48. This incidental mention of the race of Tak, and of its being in great consideration on the settlement of the Yadus in the Panjab, is very important. I have given a sketch of this tribe (Vol. I. p.123), but since I wrote it I have discovered the capital of the Tak, and on the very spot where I should have expected the site of Taxila, the capital of Taxiles, the friend of Alexander. In that sketch I hesitated not to say that the name was not personal, but arose from his being the head of the Takshak or Naga tribe, which is confirmed. It is to Babur, or rather to his translator, that I am indebted for this discovery. In describing the limits of Banu, Babur thus mentions it: “And on the west is Dasht, which is also called Bazar and Tak”; to which the erudite translator adds, “Tak is said long to have been the capital of Daman.” In Mr. Elphinstone’s map, Bazar, which Babur makes identical with Tak, is a few miles north of the city of Attok. There is no question that both the river and city were named after the race of Tak or Takshak, the Nagas, Nagvansi, or snake race, who spread over India. Indeed, I would assume that the name of Omphis, which young Taxiles had on his father’s death, is Ophis, the Greek version of Tak, the ‘serpent.’ The Taks appear to have been established in the same regions at the earliest period. The Mahabharata describes the wars between Janamejaya and the Takshaks, to revenge on their king the death of his father Parikshit, emperor of Indraprastha, or Delhi. [These theories have no foundation. Omphis is the Greek form of Skt. Āmbhi, and has no connexion with a snake cult (Smith,EHI, 60).]

49. [This is a series of folk etymologies intended to explain the intermixture of these tribes. For the Kalhora tribe see Rose,Glossary, ii. 440 ff.]

50. The names of these Rajput races, several of which are now blotted from the page of existence, prove the fidelity of the original manuscript. The Barahas are now Muhammadans.

51. The Buta is amongst the extinct tribes.

52. Pugal from the most remote times has been inhabited by the Pramar race. It is one of the Nau-koti Maru-ki, the nine castles of the desert.

53. The Sodhas of Umarkot have inhabited the desert from time immemorial, and are in all probability the Sogdoi of Alexander. See Vol. I. p.111.

54. Lodorva will be described hereafter.

55. [The above series of legends of the Bhatti settlement in the desert is a mass of fiction. “We are told that Sālivāhan founded the city of Sālbāhanpur in Vikrama Sambat 72, or aboutA.D.16; that the third in succession to him, Mangal Rāo, was driven southward into the desert, and that Mangal Rāo’s grandson, Kehar, laid the foundations of a castle called Tanot (still in Jaisalmer territory), which was completed inA.D.731; or, in other words, that Sālivāhan and his five immediate successors reigned for more than seven hundred years. Again, it is said that in Sālivāhan’s time the coconut, an offer of marriage, came from Rāja Jaipāl Tonwar of Delhi, whereas the Tonwar dynasty ruled at Delhi for just a century from aboutA.D.1050.” This Sālivāhana cannot be the hero who is said to have conquered the Indo-Scythians, but some of the many legends connected with him may have suggested the fictions of the Bhatti bards (Erskine iii. A. 96).]

56. Mulraj had three sons, Rajpal, Lohwa, and Chubar. The elder son had two sons, Rana and Giga; the first of whom had five sons, Dhukur, Pohor, Budh, Kulru, Jaipal, all of whom had issue, and became heads of clans. The descendants of Giga bore the name of Khengar (qu.chiefs of Girnar?). The annals of all these States abound with similar minute genealogical details, which to the Rajputs are of the highest importance in enabling them to trace the affinities of families, but which it is imperative to omit, as they possess no interest for the European reader. I have extracted the names of the issue of Mulraj to show this. The Khengars were famed in the peninsula of Surashtra—nine of them ruled in Junagarh Girnar; and but for this incidental relation, their origin must have ever remained concealed from the archaeologist, as the race has long been extinct. On some future day I hope to present a sketch of Khengar’s palace, on the sacred mount Girnar, to the public. [The famous well, at least, is attributed to Rāo Khengār II. (A.D.1098-1125) (BG, viii. 444).]

57. The remains of this once famous town, the ancient capital of the upper valley of the Indus, I had the happiness to discover by means of one of my parties, in 1811. It is the Alor of Abu-l-fazl, the capital of Raja Siharas, whose kingdom extended north to Kashmir, and south to the ocean; and the Azour of D’Anville, who, on the authority of Ebn Haukal, says, “Azour est presque comparable à Multan pour la grandeur.” He adds, that Azizi places it “trente parasanges de Mansora.” If Mansura is the ancient Bakhar (capital of the Sogdoi), we should read three instead of thirty. SeeMap,Vol. IVol. I.[Mansūra was near Bāhmanābād.]

58. Panjnad is the name which the Indus bears immediately below the point of confluence of the five streams (panj-nadi). The mere mention of such terms as the Panjnad, and the ancient Aror, stamps these annals with authenticity, however they may be deformed by the interpolations and anachronisms of ignorant copyists. Of Aror, or the Panjnad, excepting the regular kasids, or messengers, perhaps not an individual living in Jaisalmer could not speak.

59. [This is another anachronism. The Deora sept of the Chauhāns, of which the Rāja of Sirohi is head, did not come into existence until the thirteenth century, and Jālor was then held by the Paramāras, who kept possession till they were ousted by the Chauhāns at the end of the twelfth century (Erskine iii. A. 10).]

60. This shows that the Baraha tribe was of the same faith with the Yadu Bhatti; in fact ‘the star of Islam’ did not shine in these regions for some time after, although Umar, in the first century, had established a colony of the faithful at Bakhar, afterwards Mansura. The Barahas are mentioned by Pottinger in his travels in Balochistan.

61. There are but six descents given from Salbahan, the leader of the Yadu colony from Zabulistan into the Panjab, and Kehar, the founder of their first settlement in the desert of India. The period of the first is S. 72, of the other S. 787. Either names are wanting, or the period of Salbahan is erroneous. Kehar’s period, namely, S. 787, appears a landmark, and is borne out by numerous subsequent most valuable synchronisms. Were we to admit one hundred years to have elapsed between Salbahan and Kehar, it would make the period of expulsion from Zabulistan about S. 687, which is just about the era of Muhammad.

62. See “Essay on the Hindu and Theban Hercules,”Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii.

63. [Sīstān is Sakastēnē, “The Saka country”.]

64. [The capital of Sambos was Sindimana, probably Sihwān (Smith,EHI, 101).]

65. Mr. Wilson discovered the name of Pandu in Ptolemy’sGeography of Sogdiana; and according to Ebn Haukal, the city of Herat is also called Hari. This adjoins Maru, or Merv, and to Marusthali the Pandu and Harikula races retired on their exile from India. If ever these remote regions are searched for ancient inscriptions, we may yet ascend the ladder of Time. What was that Hamiri language, inscribed on the gate of Samarkand? (Ouseley,Ebn Haukal, p. 254). The lamented death of that enterprising traveller, Mr. Brown, when he was about visiting Transoxiana, leaves a fine field to the adventurous. The Buddhist colossal sculptures and caves at Bamian, with such inscriptions as they may contain, are of the highest importance; and I have little doubt, will be found of the same character as those discovered in the cave temples of India, attributed to the Pandus. [The author depended on Wilford (Asiatic Researches, vi. 462 ff.). For Bamiān seeEB, 11th ed. iii. 304 f.]

66. In a portion of the essay “On the Theban and Hindu Hercules,” which I suppressed as better suited to an intended dissertation “On the Sepulchral Monuments of the Rajpoots,” where I trace a close analogy between their customs and those of the Scythic and Scandinavian Warriors, my particular attention was drawn to that singular monument discovered by Elphinstone, called the “Tope Manikiala.” I had before (Trans. R.A.S.vol. i. p. 330) conjectured it to be one of the many mausoleums erected to Menander, but on observing the geography of St. Croix, in hisExamen Critique des Historiens d’Alexandre, who places the city of Bucephalus on the very spot where the monument found by Mr. E. exists, I gave up Menander for Alexander’s horse, and this, long anterior to its reported excavation by the Chev. Ventura, for whose subsequent observations we impatiently wait. [Mānikiāla, in the Rāwalpindi District; the Stūpa marks the spot where Gautama Buddha offered his body to appease the hunger of seven tiger cubs (IGI, xvii. 182 f.). The site of Boukephala is practically identical with the modern Jihlam (Smith,EHI, 71).]

Question of Dates.—The dates of the varied events related in the preceding chapter may be of doubtful accuracy, but we have at length arrived on theterra firmaof Bhatti chronology. We may distrust the date, 3008 of Yudishthira’s era, for the victory obtained by the Jadon prince of Gajni over the kings of Rum and Khorasan;[1]as well as that of S. 72 assigned for the exode of Salbahan and his Yadus from Zabulistan, and their colonization of the Panjab;[2]but their settlements in the desert, and the foundation of [233] Tanot, their first seat of power, in S. 787 (A.D.731), are corroborated by incontrovertible synchronisms in almost every subsequent reign of these annals.

Rāo Kehar I.—Kehar, a name highly respected in the history of the Bhatti race, and whose exploit has been already recorded, must have been the cotemporary of the celebrated Caliph Al Walid,[3]the first whose arms extended to the plains of India, and one of whose earliest conquests and chief positions was Aror, the capital of Upper Sind.

Rāo Tano or Tanuji.—Kehar[4]had five sons; namely, Tano, Utirao, Chanar, Kaphrio, Them. All of them had offspring,[5]who became the heads of clans, retaining the patronymic. All were soldiers of fortune, and they conquered the lands of the Chana Rajputs;[6]but the latter revenged themselves upon Kehar, whom they attacked and slew as he was hunting.

Tano succeeded. He laid waste the lands of the Barahas,[7]and those of the Langaha of Multan. But Husain Shah advanced with the Langaha Pathans,[8]clothed in armour with iron helms, with the men of Dudi,[9]of Khichi[10]the Khokhar;[11]the Mogul, the Johya,[12]the Jud,[12]and Sayyid, all mounted on horses, to thenumber of ten thousand men, to attack the Jadon. They reached the territory of the Barahas, who [234] joined them, and there they encamped. Tano collected his brethren around him, and prepared for defence. During four days they defended the castle; and on the fifth the Rao ordered the gates to be thrown open, and with his son, Bijairae, sallied out sword in hand, and attacked the besiegers. The Barahas were the first to fly, and they were soon followed by the rest of the Asurs. The victors carried the spoils of the field into Tanot. As soon as the armies of Multan and Langaha were driven off, the coco-nut came from Jiju, chief of the Butas of Butaban,[13]and an alliance offensive and defensive was formed against the prince of Multan.

Tano had five sons, Bijairae, Makar, Jaitang, Alan, and Rakecha. The second son, Makar, had issue Maipa, who had two sons, Mohola and Dakao, the latter of whom excavated the lake known by his name. His issue became carpenters (Sutar), and are to this day known as the Makar Sutar.[14]

The third son, Jaitang, had two sons, Ratansi and Chohar. The first repaired the ruined city of Bikampur.[15]Chohar had two sons, Kola and Girraj, who founded the towns of Kolasar and Girrajsar.[15]

The fourth son, Alan, had four sons, Deosi, Tirpal, Bhaoni, andRakecha. The descendants of Deosi became Rabaris (who rear camels),[16]and the issue of Rakecha became merchants (Banias), and are now classed amongst the Oswal tribe.[17]

Tano having, by the interposition of the goddess Bijaiseni, discovered a hidden treasure, erected a fortress, which he named Bijnot;[18]and in this he placed a statue of the goddess, on the 13th, the enlightened part of the month Margsir, the Rohini Nakshatra, S. 813 (A.D.757). He died after ruling eighty years.

Bijairāē.—Bijairae succeeded in S. 870 (A.D.814). He commenced his reign with thetika-dauragainst his old enemies, the Barahas, whom he defeated and plundered. In S. 892, he had a son by the Buta queen, who was called Deoraj. The Barahas and Langahas once more united to attack the Bhatti prince; but they were defeated [235] and put to flight. Finding that they could not succeed by open warfare, they had recourse to treachery. Having, under pretence of terminating this long feud, invited young Deoraj to marry the daughter of the Baraha chief, the Bhattis attended, when Bijairae and eight hundred of his kin and clan were massacred. Deoraj escaped to the house of the Purohit (of the Barahas, it is presumed), whither he was pursued. There being no hope of escape, the Brahman threw the Brahmanical thread round the neck of the young prince, and in order to convince his pursuers that they were deceived as to the object of their search, he sat down to eat with him from the same dish.[19]Tanot was invested and taken, and nearly every soul in it put to the sword, so that the very name of Bhatti was for a while extinct.

Rāo Deorāj.—Deoraj remained for a long time concealed in the territory of the Barahas; but at length he ventured to Buta, his maternal abode, where he had the happiness to find his mother, who had escaped the massacre at Tanot. She was rejoiced to behold her son’s face, and “waved the salt over his head,” then threw it into the water, exclaiming, “Thus may your enemies melt away!” Soon tired of a life of dependence, Deoraj asked for a single village, which was promised; but the kin of the Buta chief alarmed him, and he recalled it, and limited his grant to such a quantity of land as he could encompass by the thongs cut from a single buffalo’s hide; and this, too, in the depth of the desert. For this expedient he was indebted to the architect Kaikeya, who had constructed the castle of Bhatner.[20]Deorajimmediately commenced erecting a [236] place of strength, which he called after himself Deogarh, or Derawar,[21]on Monday, the 5th of the month Magh (sudi), the Pushya Nakshatra, S. 909.

Soon as the Buta chief heard that his son-in-law was erecting, not a dwelling, but a castle, he sent a force to raze it. Deoraj despatched his mother with the keys to the assailants, and invitedthe leaders to receive the castle and his homage; when the chief men, to the number of a hundred and twenty, entered, they were inveigled, under pretence of consultation, ten at a time, and each party put to death and their bodies thrown over the wall. Deprived of their leaders, the rest took to flight.

Soon after, the prince was visited by his patron, the Jogi who had protected him amongst the Barahas, and who now gave him the title of Siddh.[22]This Jogi, who possessed the art of transmuting metals, lodged in the same house where Deoraj found protection on the massacre of his father and kindred. One day, the holy man had gone abroad, leaving his jarjarikakantha, or ‘tattered doublet,’ in which was the Raskumbha, or ‘elixir-vessel,’ a drop of which having fallen on the dagger of Deoraj and changed it to gold, he decamped with both, and it was by the possession of this he was enabled to erect Derawar. The Jogi was well aware of the thief whom he now came to visit; and he confirmed him in the possession of the stolen property, on one condition, that he should become his chela and disciple, and, as a token of submission and fidelity, adopt the external symbols of the Jogi. Deoraj assented, and was invested with the Jogi robe of ochre.[23]He placed the mudra[24]in his ear, the little horn round his neck, and [237] the bandage (langota) about his loins; and with the gourd (khopra) in his hand, he perambulated the dwellings of his kin, exclaiming, Alakh! Alakh![25]The gourd was filled with gold and pearls; the title of Rao was abandoned for that of Rawal;[26]the tika was made on his forehead; and exacting a pledge that these rites of inauguration should be continued to the latest posterity, the Baba Rata (for such was the Jogi’s name) disappeared.

Deoraj determined to wreak his revenge on the Barahas, and he enjoyed it even “to stripping the scarfs from the heads of their females.” On his return to Derawar, he prepared for an attack on Langaha, the heir of which was then on a marriage expedition at Alipur. There, Deoraj attacked and slew a thousandof them, the rest henceforth acknowledged his supremacy. The Langahas were gallant Rajputs.

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