Chapter 4

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)886; 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 princes887 whose “banner at this time was a golden sun on a crimson field888,” 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);

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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, in A.D. 764, to the subversion of Hindu dominion in the reign of Samarsi, in A.D. 1193, we find recorded an intermediate Islamite invasion. This was during the reign of Khuman, between A.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 scaled 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 exists889. 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 alter the conquest of Chitor, Bappa proceeded to Saurashtra and married the daughter of Yusufgol, prince of the island of Bandardiva890. With his bride he conveyed

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to 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 Baba (Pramara) prince of Kalibao near Dwaraka), who, however, obtained possessions in Saurashtra, and founded a race called the Asila Guhilots891, 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, Kalbhoj892 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.

Khuman I

Khuman succeeded Kalbhoj. His name is remarkable in the history of Mewar. He came to the throne at the

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beginning 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

Tile 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 Aas893, 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-1 Malik, but without any lasting [243] results. It was not till the reign of Walid894 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 Ganges895. 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 in A.H. 99 (A.D. 712, S. 774) that Muhammad bin Kasim vanquished and slew Dahir,

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Guhilot and contemporary princes896

Guhilot Princes Samvat Era Christian Era Caliphs of Baghdad and Kings of Ghazni A.H. A.D. Remarks
Caliphs of Baghdad
Bappa, born 769 713 Walid (7th Ummaiya Caliph) 86–96 705–715 Conquered India to the Ganges.
–––– obtained Chitor 784 728 Omar II (9th do.) 99–102 718–721 Sindi conquered. The Mori prince of Chitor attacked by Muhammad (son of Kasim), the General of Omar.
–––– governs Mewar . . . . Hasham (10th do.) 104–125 723–742 Battle of Tours, A.D. 732, and defeat of the Caliph’s army, under Abdulrahman, by Charles Martel.
–––– abandons Chitor 820 764 Al-Mansur Abbasi (2nd do.) 136–158 754–775 Final 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, Kalbhoj Harunu-r-rashid (5th do.) 170–193 786–809 Partition of the caliphate amongst Harun’s sons. The second, Al-Mamun obtains Zabulistan, Sind, and India, and ruled them till A.D. 813, when he became Caliph.
Khuman 868–892 812–836 Al-Mamun (7th do.) 198–218 813–833 Invasion and attack on Chitor from Zabulistan
Bhartaribhat
Singhji
Allat
Narabahan
Salivahan Kings of Ghazni
Sakti Kumar 1024 968 Alptigin 350 957 Inscription of Sakti-kumar from ruins of Aitpur.
Amba Pasao
Naravarman Sabuktigin 367 977 Invasion of India.
Jasuvarrnan [or Kirtivarman] Mahmud 387–418 997–1027 Invasions of India, destruction of Aitpur.

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prince of Sind, after numerous Afflicts. 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 destruction897, 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.

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 Aror898, the ancient capital, his residence, naming it Mansura; and it was during his government that Bappa Bawal 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 Hindustan899. Al-Manum, on the death of ‘Harun, deposed his brother, and became caliph in A.H. 198 or A.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 given Mahmud Khorasan Pat, there can be little doubt that it is an error arising from ignorance of the copyist, and should be Mamun.

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Mahmud’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 Harlin, 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 Sabuktigin900, governor of Khorasan, hoisted the standard of independent sovereignty at Ghazni. In A.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)901, 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 Rappa into notice. This was either by Yazid or Muhammad bin Kasim from Sind902. Though in the histories of the caliphs we can only expect to find recorded those expeditions

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which 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 as mlechchha, or barbarian903.’ 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 Chaulian prince of Ajmer, was assailed and slain904.

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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 Tiaras 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 Ghairaram905 (i.e. restless), from Kujliban906, 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 consequence907. We find the prince of Ajmer, and the quotas of

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Saurashtra 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 Chitor908.

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, Gajni909, still in the possession of the ‘Asur’: a term as well as mlechchha, or ‘barbarian,’ always given to the Islamite at this period. Salim, who held Gajni, was attacked and forced to surrender, and Bappa inducted

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into 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 (laughter 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.

Khuman II

Let us now proceed to the next irruption of the Islamite invaders in the reign of Khuman, from A.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; the

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Busa 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 Bazule910. Of Rahargarh and the Jarkhera from Setubandha (on the Malabar coast) nothing is known911. 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 Parihams, 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 the Edinburgh 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; and

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as there were but nineteen princes who intervened until his dynasty was set aside by the Chauhan, it requires no argument to support the four instead of eight centuries. 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 prince912.

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 (Yalu) 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 succour

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Chitor, we have no mention, further than the name being enumerated amongst the unassigned tribes of Rajputs913. 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 Egypt914, 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 Peshawar915, 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 Bhatti916, “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 eyes

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of the heavens were obscured at seeing his deeds917.” 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 death918. 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 Alexander919. The modern town of Dinkot

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appears 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) Aornos920. Such the Sehat; not improbably the Soha, one of the eight subdivisions of the Yadu921. 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 tribe922; 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.

Bhartribhat III

Bhartribhat (familiarly Mato) succeeded. In his reign, and in that of his successor, the territory dependent on Chitor was greatly increased. All the forest tribes, from the banks of the Mahi to Abu, were subjugated, and strongholds erected, of which Dharangarh and Ujargarh still remain to maintain them. He established no less than thirteen923 of his sons in

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independent possessions in Malwa and Gujarat, and these were distinguished as the Bhatcra Guhilots.

We shall now leap over fifteen generations; which, though affording a few interesting facts to the antiquary, would not amuse the general reader. We will rest satisfied with stating that the Chauhans of Ajmer and the Guhilots of Chitor were alternately friends and foes; that Durlabh Chauhan was slain by Bersi Rawal in a grand battle fought at Kawaria, of which the Chauhan annals state ‘that their princes were now so powerful as to oppose the chief of Chitor.’ Again, in the next reign, we find the renowned Bisaldeo, son of Durlabh, combining with Rawal Tejsi of Chitor to oppose the progress of Islamite invasion: facts recorded by inscriptions as well as by the annals. We may close these remarks on the fifteen princes, from Khuman to Samarsi, with the words of Gibbon on the dark period of Guelphic annals: “It may be presumed that they were illiterate and valiant; that they plundered in their youth, and reared churches in their old age; that they were fond of arms, horses, and hunting”; and, we may add, continued bickering with their vassals within when left unemployed by the enemy from without. [254]

Footnotes

886. [“We now know that Samar Singh was alive up to 1299, only four years before Alau-d-din’s siege of Chitor, and that in several inscriptions his dates are given as 1273, 1274, 1285, etc. ... Instead of being the father of Karan Singh I., as stated by Tod, Samar Singh came eight generations after him, and was the father of Ratan Singh I., who, according to Muhammadan historians, was the ruler of Chitor during the reign of Alau-d-din, and the husband of Padmini” (Erskine ii. A. 14 f.)]

887. See Genealogical Table.

888. This, according to the roll, was the standard of Bappa.

889. Amongst the passages which Dow [i. 37] has slurred over in his translation is the interesting account of the origin of the Afghans; who, when they first came in contact with those of the new faith, in A.H. 62, dwelt around the Koh-i-Sulaiman. Ferishta, quoting authority, says: “The Afghans were Copts, ruled by Pharaun, many of whom were converted to the laws and religion of Moses; but others, who were stubborn in their worship to their gods, fled towards Hindustan, and took possession of the country adjoining the Koh-i-Sulaiman. They were visited by Kasim from Sind, and in the 143rd year of the Hegira had possessed themselves of the provinces of Kirwan, Peshawar, and all within their bounds (sinoran),” which Dow has converted into a province. Tho whole geographical description of the Kohistan, the etymology of the term Rohilla, and other important matter, is omitted by him [see Briggs, trans. i. 6 f.].

890. [The island Diu.] Yusufgol is stated to have held Chaul on the mainland. He was most probably the father of Vanaraja Chawara, the founder of Patan Anhilwara, whose ancestors, on the authority of the Kumarpal Charitra, were princes of Bandardiva, held by the Portuguese since the time of Albuquerque, who changed its name to Deo. [But Yusufgol, if he existed, must have been a Musalman. Vanaraja Chawara was son of Jayasekhara, said to have been slain in battle, A.D. 696, leaving his wife pregnant (BG, i. Part i. 150 f.). Yusufgol does not appear in the local history.]

891. The ancient roll from which this is taken mentions Asil giving his name to a fortress, called Asilgarh. His son, Bijai Pal, was slain in attempting to wrest Khambayat (Cambay) from Sangram Dabhi. One of his wives, from a violent death, was prematurely delivered of a boy, called Setu; and as, in such cases, the Hindu supposes the deceased to become a discontented spirit (churail), Churaila became the name of the tribe. Bija, the twelfth from Asil, obtained Sonal from his maternal uncle, Khengar Dabhi, prince of Girnar, but was slain by Jai Singh Deo, prince of Surat. From these names compounded, Dabi and Churaila, we may have the Dabisalima, of Mahmud. [The Asil Guhilots are now included hi the Mere of the Kathiawar coast; their numbers are exaggerated in the text (Ain, ii. 247; BG, ix. Part i. 126).] [See p. 266 above.]

892. Also called Karna. He it was who excavated the Boraila lake, and erected the grand temple of Eklinga on the site of the hermitage of Harita, whose descendant, the present officiating priest, reckons sixty-six descents, while the princes of Mewar amount to seventy-two in the same period.

893. [Ferishta (i. 2) calls him Sayyid bin Abiu-l-Aas.]

894. See Table next page.

895. Marigny (quoting El-Makin), Hist. of the Arabians, vol. ii. p. 283; Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 47.

896. [The Mewar dates are quite untrustworthy (see Erskine iii. B. 8 f ).]

897. “The two young princesses, in order to revenge the death of their father, represented falsely to the Khalif that Muhammad bin Kasim had been connected with them. The Khalif, in a rage, gave order for Muhammad bin Kasim to be sewed up in a raw hide, and sent in that condition to court. When the mandate arrived at Tatta, Kasim was prepared to carry an expedition against Harchand, monarch of Kanauj. When he arrived at court, the Khalif showed him to the daughters of Dahir, who expressed their joy upon beholding their father’s murderer in such a condition” [Ain, ii. 345; Elliot-Dowson i. 209 f.].

898. Aror is seven miles east of Bakhar.

899. Marigny, vol. iii. p. 83; Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 162.

900. His father’s name was Aliptigin, termed a slave by Ferishta and his authorities; though El-Makin gives him an ancestor in Yazdegird. [He was a slave (Elliot-Dowson iv. 159).]

901. Ait, contracted from Aditya: hence Itwar, ‘Sunday.’

902. [This is not corroborated by Musulman authorities.]

903. Even from the puerilities of Hindu legends something may be extracted. A mendicant dervesh, called Roshan Ali (i.e. the ‘light of Ali’), had found his way to Garh Bitli (the ancient name of the Ajmer fortress), and having thrust his hand into a vessel of curds destined for the Raja, had his finger cut off. The disjointed member flew to Mecca, and was recognized as belonging to the saint. An army was equipped in the disguise of horse-merchants, which invaded Ajmer, whose prince was slain. May we not gather from this incident that an insult to the first Islamite missionary, in the person of Roshan Ali, brought upon the prince the arms of the Caliph? The same Chauhan legends state that Ajaipal was prince of Ajmer at this time; that in this invasion by sea he hastened to Anjar (on the coast of Cutch), where he held the ‘guard of the ocean’ (Samudra ki Chauki), where he fell in opposing the landing. An altar was erected on the spot, on which was sculptured the figure of the prince on horseback, with his lance at rest, and which still annually attracts multitudes at the ‘fair (Mela) of Ajaipal.’ The subsequent invasion alluded to in the text, of S. 750 (A.D. 694), is marked by a curious anecdote. When the ‘Asurs’ had blockaded Ajmer, Lot, the infant son of Manika Rae, was playing on the battlements, when an arrow from the foe killed the heir of Ajmer, who has ever since been worshipped amongst the lares and penates of the Chauhans; and as he had on a silver chain anklet at the time, this ornament is forbid to the children of the race. In all these Rajput families there is a putra (adolescens) amongst the penates, always one who has come to an untimely end, and chiefly worshipped by females; having a strong resemblance to the rites in honour of Adonis. We have traced several Roman and Grecian terms to Sanskrit origin; may we add that of lares, from larla, ‘dear’ or ‘beloved’ ? [?]

904. [The story is “puerile and fictitious: independent of which the Arabs had quite enough to do nearer home” (Elliot-Dowson i. 426).]

905. [Persian: not a likely name.]

906. Signifying ‘Elephant forests,’ and described in a Hindu map (stamped on cloth and painted) of India from Kujliban to Lanka, and the provinces west of the Indus to Calcutta; presented by me to the Royal Asiatic Society.

907. The list of the vassal princes at the court of the Mori confirms the statement of the bard Chand, of the supremacy of Ram Pramara, and the partition of his dominion, as described (see p. 63, note) amongst the princes who founded separate dynasties at this period; hitherto in vassalage or subordinate to the Pramara. We can scarcely suppose the family to have suffered any decay since their ancestor, Chandragupta, connected by marriage with as well as the ally of the Grecian Seleucus, and who held Greeks in his pay. From such connexion, the arts of sculpture and architecture may have derived a character hitherto unnoticed. Amidst the ruins of Barolli are seen sculptured the Grecian helmet; and the elegant ornament, the Kumbha, or ‘vessel of desire,’ on the temple of Annapurna (i.e. ‘giver of food’), the Hindu Ceres, has much affinity to the Grecian device. From the inscription (see No. 2) it is evident that Chitor was an appanage of Ujjain, the seat of Pramar empire. Its monarch, Chandragupta (Mori [Maurya]), degraded into the barber (Maurya) tribe, was the descendant of Srenika, prince of Rajagriha, who, according to the Jain work, Kalpadruma Kalka, flourished in the year 477 before Vikramaditya, and from whom Chandragupta was the thirteenth in descent. The names as follows: Kanika, Udsen, and nine in succession of the name of Nanda, thence called the Nau-nanda. These, at twenty-two years to a reign (see p. 64), would give 286 years, which-477 = 191 s.v. + 56 = 247 A.C. Now it was in A.C. 260, according to Bayer, that the treaty was formed between Seleucus and Chandragupta; so that this scrap of Jain history may be regarded as authentic and valuable. Asoka (a name of weight in Jain annals) succeeded Chandragupta. He by Kunala, whose son was Samprati, with whose name ends the line of Srenika, according to the authority from which I made the extract. The name of Samprati is well known from Ajmer to Saurashtra, and his era is given in a valuable chronogrammatic catalogue in an ancient Jain manuscript from the temple of Nadol, at 202 of the Virat Samvat. He is mentioned both traditionally and by books as the great supporter of the Jain faith, and the remains of temples dedicated to Mahavira, erected by this prince, yet exist at Ajmer, on Abu, Kumbhalmer, and Girnar. [Much of this needs correction, which cannot be done in the limits of a note. For the Nanda dynasty see Smith, EHI, 40, and for Chandragupta Maurya and Asoka, 115 ff.]

908. [This and the second catalogue are fictions. They conflict with the conditions then existing in Gujarat, and such motley arrays are a favourite bardic theme (Forbes, Raswala, 31, note; ASR, ii. 379).]

909. It has already been stated that the ancient name of Cambay was Gaini or Gajni, whose ruins are three miles from the present city [see p. 254 above]. There is also a Gajni on the estuary of the Mali, and Abu-l Fail incidentally mentions a Gajnagar as one of the most important fortresses of Gujarat, belonging to Ahinad Shah; in attempting to obtain which by stratagem, his antagonist, Hoshang, king of Malwa, was made prisoner. I am unaware of the site of this place, though there are remains of an extensive fortress near the capital, founded by Ahmad, and which preserves no name. It may be the ancient Gajnagar. [The Author confuses the place in Gujarat with Jajnagar or Jajpur in Orissa, captured through a stratagem by Hoshang (Ain, ii. 219; Ferishta iv. 178; BG, i. Part i. 359).]

910. I presented to the Royal Asiatic Society two inscriptions from Nadol, one dated S. 1024, the other 1039. They are of Prince Lana, and state as instances of his power that he collected the transit duties at the further barrier of Patan, and levied tribute from the prince of Chitor. He was the contemporary of Mahmud, who devastated Nadol. I also discovered inscriptions of the twelfth century relative to this celebrated Chauhan in passing from Udaipur to Jodhpur. [Dow (i. 170) writes “Tilli and Buzule”; Briggs (i. 196) has “Baly and Nadole”; Elliot-Dowson (ii. 229) writes “Pali and Nandul,” the differences being due to misreading of the Arabic script.]

911. [Setubandha is the causeway made by Rama to Lanka or Ceylon (IGI, v. 31).]

912. [Chamunda reigned A.D. 907–1010; Anhilwara was captured under Bhima I. (1022–64).]

913. See p. 144.

914. [Ferishta i. 6.]

915. The scene of action was between Peshawar and Kirman, the latter lying ninety miles south-west of the former.

916. Dow omits this in his translation [see Briggs i. Introd. 9, i. 16].

917. The sense of this passage has been quite perverted by Dow [see Briggs i. 16].

918. [See Smith, EHI, 332.]

919. [The capital of the Assakenoi was Massaga, near the Malakand Pass (Smith, EHI, 54; McCrindle, Alexander, 334 f.).]

920. [For the site see Smith, EHI, 56, note 2.]

921. See p. 104.

922. See p. 119 f.

923. By name, Kulanagar, Champaner, Choreta, Bhojpur, Lunara, Nimthor, Sodara, Jodhgarh, Sandpur, Aitpur, and Gangabheva. The remaining two are not mentioned.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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