Mewar: Invaders of Saurashtra
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Invaders of Saurashtra
These invaders were Scythic, and in all probability a colony from the Parthian kingdom, which was established in sovereignty on the Indus in the second century, having their capital at Saminagara, where the ancient Yadu ruled for ages : the Minnagara 1 of Arrian, and the Mankir of the Arabian geographers. It was by this route, through the eastern portion of the valley of the Indus, that the various hordes of Getae or Jats, Huns, Kamari, Kathi, Makwahana, Bala and Aswaria, had peopled this peninsula, leaving traces still visible. The period is also remarkable when these and other Scythic hordes were simultaneously abandoning higher Asia for the cold regions
1 The position of Minnagara has occupied the attention of geographers from D'Anville to Pottinger. Sind being conquered by Omar, general of the caUph Al-Mansur (Abbasi), the name of Minagara was changed to Mansura, " une ville celcbre sur le rivage droit du Sind ou Mehran." " Ptole mee fait aussi mention de cette ville ; mais en la depla9ant," etc. D'Anville places it about 26°, but not so high as Ulug Beg, whose tables make it 26° 40'. I have said elsewhere that I had little doubt that Minnagara, handed down to us by the author of the Periplus as the ^uerpoTroXis t^s ^Kvdias, was the Saminagara of the Yadu Jarejas, whose chronicles claim Seistan as their ancient possession, and in all probability was the stronghold {nagara) of Sambos, the opponent of Alexander. On every consideration, I am inchned to place it on the site of Sehwan. The learned Vincent, in his translation of the Peripbis, enters fully and with great judgment upon this point, citing every authority, Arrian, Ptolemy, Al-Biruni, Edrisi, D'Anville, and De la Rochette. He has a note (26, p. 386, vol. i.) which is conclusive, could he have applied it : " Al-Birun [equi-distant] between Debeil and Mansura." D'Anville also says : " de Mansora a la ville nommee Birun, la distance est indiquee de quinze parasanges dans Abulfeda," who fixes it, on the authority of Abu-Rehan (.surnamed Al-Biruni from his birthplace), at 26° 40'. The ancient name of Haidarabad, the present capital of Sind, was Nerun (^ j »*i ; ) or Nirun, and is almost equi-distant, as Abulfeda says, between Debal (Dewal or Tatta) and Mansura, Sehwan, or Minnagara, the latitude of which, accord ing to my construction, is 26° 11'. Those who wish to pursue this may examine the Eclaircisfiemens sur la Carle de Vlnde, p. 37 et seq., and Dr. Vincent's estimable translation, p. 386. [The site of Minnagara, like those of all the cities in the delta of the Indus, owing to changes in the course of the river, is very uncertain. Jhajhpur or Mungrapur has been suggested (McCrindle, Ptolemy, 72, Periplus, 1086 f.). Nirun has been identified with Helai, a little below Jarak, on the high road from Tatta to Haidarabad (EHiot-Dowson i. 400).] of Europe and the warm plains of Hindustan. From the first to the sixth century of the Christian era, various records exist of tliese irruptions from the north. Gibbon, quoting De Guignes, mentions one in the second century, which fixed permanently in the Saurashtra peninsula ; and the latter, from original authorities, describes another of the Getae or Jats, styled by the Chinese Yueh-chi, in the north of India.^ But the authority directly in point is that of Cosmas, surnamed Indikopleustes, who was in India during the reign of Justinian, and that of the first monarch of the Chinese dynasty of Leam.^ Cosmas [219] had visited Kalyan, included in the Balhara kingdom ; and he mentions the Ephthalites, or White Huns, under their king Golas, as being established on the Indus at the very period of the invasion of Valabhipura.'
Arrian, who resided in the second century at Barugaza (Broach), describes a Parthian sovereignty as extending from the Indus to the Nerbudda.* Their capital has already been mentioned, Minnagara. Whether these, the Abtelites * of Cosmas, were the Parthian dynasty of Arrian, or whether the Parthians were supplanted by the Huns, we must remain in ignorance, but to one or the other we must attribute the sack of Valabhipura.
1 See History of the Tribes, p. 107, and translation of Inscription No. I. Vide Appendix.
2 Considerable intercourse was carried on between the princes of India and China from the earliest periods ; but particularly during the dynasties of Sum, Leam and Tarn, from the fourth to the^eventh centuries, when the princes from Bengal and Malabar to the Panjab sent embassies to the Chinese monarchs. The dominions of these Hindu princes may yet be identified. [Cosmas flourished in the sixth century a.d., and never reached India proper {EB, vii. 214).]
3 [GoUas was Mihiragula (Smith, EHI, 317).]
3 [Ibid. 230 f.]
4 D'Herbelot (vol. i. p. 179) calls them the Haiathelah or Indoscythae, and says that they were apparently from Thibet, between India and China. De Guignes (tome i. p. 325) is offended with this explanation, and says : " Cette conjecture ne pent avoir lieu, les Euthehtes n'ayant jamais demeure dans le Thibet." A branch of the Huns, however, did most assuredly dwell in that quarter, though we will not positively assert that they were the AbteUtes. The Haihaya was a great branch of the Lunar race of Yayati, and appears early to have left India for the northern regions, and would afford a more plausible etymology for the Haiathelah than the Te-le, who dwelt on the waters {ab) of the Oxiis. This branch of the Hunnish race has also been termed Nephthalite, and fancied one of the lost tribes of Israel [?].
The legend of this event affords scope for speculation, both as
regards the conquerors and the conquered, and gives at least a
colour of truth to the reputed Persian ancestry of the Rana : a
subject which will be distinctly considered. The solar orb, and
its type, fire, were the chief objects of adoration of Siladitya of
Valabhipura. Whether to these was added that of the lingam,
the symbol of Balnath (the sun), the primary object of worship
with his descendants, may be doubted. It was certainly con
lined to these, and the adoption of ' strange gods ' by the Sur
yavansi Guhilot is comparatively of modern invention.
