Mewar 02: Kanaksen
This page is an extract from OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN By Edited with an Introduction and Notes by In Three Volumes HUMPHREY MILFORD |
Note: This article is likely to contain several spelling mistakes that occurred during scanning. If these errors are reported as messages to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com your help will be gratefully acknowledged.
Contents |
Mewar 02: Kanaksen
Kanaksen
At least ten genealogical hsts, derived from the most opposite sources, agree in making Kanaksen the founder of this dynasty ; and assign his emigxation from the most northern of the provinces of India to the peninsula of Saurashtra in S. 201, or A.D. 145. We shall, therefore, make this the point of outset ; though it may be premised that Jai Singh, the royal historian and astronomer of Amber, connects the line with Sumitra (the fifty-sixth descendant from the deified Rama), who appears to have been the contemporary of Vikramaditya, a.c. 56. The country of which Ayodhya (now Oudh) was the capital, and Rama monarch, is termed, in the geographical writings of the Hindus, Kosala ; doubtless from the mother of Rama, whose 1 Tiiese inscriptions will be described in the Personal Narrative. name was Kausalya. 1 The first royal emigrant from the north is styled, in the Rana's archives, Kosala-putra, ' son of Kosala.'
Titles of the Chiefs
Rama had two sons, Lava and Kusa : from the former the Rana's family claim descent. He is stated to have built Lahore, the ancient Lohkot ; 2 and the branch from which the princes of Mewar are descended resided there until Kanaksen emigrated to Dwarka. The difficulty of tracing these races through a long period of years is greatly increased by the custom of changing the appellation of the tribe, from conquest, locality, or personal celebrity. Sen 3 seems to have been the martial termination for many generations : this was followed by Dit, or Aditya, a term for the ' sun.' The first change in the name of the tribe was on their expulsion from Saurashtra, when for the generic term of Suryavansi was substituted the particular appellation of Guhilot. This name was maintained till another event dispersed the family, and when they settled in [216] Ahar,4 Aharya became the appellative of the branch. This continued till loss of territory and new acquisitions once more transferred the dynasty to Sesoda, 5 a temporary capital in the western moun tains. The title of Ranawat, borne by all descendants of the blood royal since the eventful change which removed the seat of government from Chitor to Udaipur, might in time have super seded that of Sesodia, if continued warfare had not checked the increase of population ; but the Guhilot branch of the Suryavansi still retain the name of Sesodia.
Having premised thus much, we must retrograde to the darker ages, through which we shall endeavour to conduct this celebrated dynasty, though the clue sometimes nearly escapes from our hands in these labyrinths of antiquity. 6 When it is recollected 1 [It is the other way : Kausalya took her name from Kosala.] 2 [See p. 116 above.] 3 Sen, 'army'; kanak, 'gold.' [Kanaksen is entirely mythical. It has been suggested that the name is a reminiscence of the connexion of the great Kushan Emperor, Kanishka, with Gujarat and Kathiawar {BG, i. Part i. 101).] 4 Ahar, or Ar, is in the valley of the present capital, Udaipur. 5 The origin of this name is from the trivial occurrence of the expelled prince of Chitor having erected a town to commemorate the spot, where after an extraordinarily hard chase he killed a hare {sasu). 6 The wila fable which envelops or adorns the cradle of every illustrious family is not easily disentangled. The bards weave the web with skill, and it clings like ivy round each modern branch, obscuring the aged stem, in to what violence this family has been subjected during the last eight centuries, often dispossessed of all but their native hills and compelled to live on their spontaneous produce, we could scarcely expect that historical records should be preserved. Chitor was thrice sacked and destroyed, and the existing records are formed from fragments, registers of births and marriages, or from the oral relations of the bards.
Legend of Kanaksen
By what route Kanaksen, the first emigrant of the solar race, found his way into Saurashtra from Lohkot, is uncertam : he, however, wrested dominion from a prince of the Pramara race, and founded Birnagara in the second century (a.d. 144). Four generations afterwards, Vijayasen. whom the prince of Amber calls Nushirwan, founded Vijayapur, supposed to be where Dholka now stands, at the head of the Saurashtra peninsula. 1 Vidarba was also founded by him, the name of which was afterwards changed to Sihor. But the most celebrated was the capital, Valabhipura, which for years baffled all search, till it was revealed in its now humbled condition as Walai, ten miles west [217] of Bhaunagar. The existence of this city was confirmed by a celebrated Jain work, the Satrunjaya Mahatma. 2 The want of satisfactory proof of the Rana's emigra tion from thence was obviated by the most unexpected discovery of an inscription of the twelfth century, in a ruined temple on the tableland forming the eastern boundary of the Rana'? present territory, which appeals to the ' walls of Valabhi ' for the truth of the action it records. And a work written to commemorate the reign of Rana Raj Singh opens with these words : "In the west is Sorathdes, 3 a country well known : the barbarians invaded it, and conquered Bal-ka-nath ; 4 all fell in the sack of Valab hipura, except the daughter of the Pramara." And the Sandrai the time-worn branches of which monsters and demi-gods are perched, whose claims of affinity are held in high estimation by thesfe ' children of the sun,' who would deem it criminal to doubt that the loin-robe (dhoti) of their great founder, Bapa Rawal, was less than five hundred cubits in circum ference, that his two-edged sword (khanda), the gift of the Hindu Proserpine, weighed an ounce less than sixty-four pounds, or that he was an inch under twenty feet in height.
1 [Vijayapur has been doubtfully identified with Bijapur in the Alima dabad district (BG, i. Part i. 110).] 2 Presented to the Royal Asiatic Society of London. 3 Sorath or Saurashtra. 4 The ' lord of Bal.' roll thus commences : " When the city of Valabhi was sacked, the inhabitants fled and founded Bali, Sandrai, and Nadol in Mordar des." 1 These are towns yet of consequence, and in all the Jain religion is still naaintained, which was the chief worship of Valabhipura when sacked by the ' barbarian.' The records preserved by the Jains give s.b. 205 (a.d. 524) as the date of this event.2
The tract about Valabhipura and northward is termed Bal, probably from the tribe of Bala, which might have been the designation of the Rana's tribe prior to that of Grahilot ; and most probably Multan, and all these regions of the Kathi, Bala, etc., were dependent on Lohkot, whence emigrated Kanaksen ; thus strengthening the surmise of the Scythic descent of the Ranas, though now installed in the seat of Rama. The sun was the deity of this northern tribe, as of the Rana's ancestry, and the remains of numerous temples to this grand object of Scj'thic homage are still to be found scattered over the peninsula ; whence its name, Saurashtra, the coimtry of the Sauras, or Sun-worship pers ; the Surastrene or Syrastrene of ancient geographers ; its inhabitants, the Suros (∑6pwv) of Strabo.3 Besides these cities, the MSS. give Gayni 4 as the last refuge 1 Marwar. 2 [The date of the fall of Valabhi is very uncertain (Smith, EH I, 315, note). It is said to have been destroyed in the reign of Siladitya VI., the last of the dynasty, about a.d. 776 (Duff, Chronology of India, 31, G7, 308).] 3 [There is possibly a confusion with the Soras of Aehan (xv. 8) which has been identified by Caldwell {Dravidian Grammar, 17) with the ∑wpat of Ptolemy, and with the Chola kingdom of Southern India. Surashtra or Saurashtra, ' land of the Sus,' was afterwards Sanskritized into ' goodly country ' (Monier Williams, Skt. Diet. s.v. ; BG, i. Part i. 6).] 4 Gaini, or Gajni, is one of the ancient names of Cambay (the port of Valabhipura), the ruins of which are about three miles from the modern city. Other sources indicate that these princes held possessions in the southern continent of India, as well as in the Saurashtra peninsula. Tala talpur Patau, on the Godavari, is mentioned, which tradition asserts to be the city of Deogir ; but which, after many years' research, I discovered in Saurashtra, it being one of the ancient names of Kandala. In after times, when succeeding dynasties held the title of Balakarae, though the capital was removed inland to Anhilwara Patau, they still held possession of the western shore, and Cambay continued the chief port. [For the identifica tion of Gajni with Cambay see I A, iv. 147 ; BG, vi. 213 note. The site of Devagiri has been identified with Daulatabad (BG, i. Part ii. 136 ; Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, ii. 255, note).] of the family [218] when expelled Saurashtra. One of the poetic chronicles thus commences : " The barbarians had captured Gajni. The house of Siladitya was left desolate. In its defence his heroes fell ; of his seed but the name remained."
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 ts ∑vdias, 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.1 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.2 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.3 Arrian, who resided in the second century at Barugaza (Broach), describes a Parthian sovereignty as extending from the Indus to the Nerbudda.4 Their capital has already been mentioned, Minnagara. Whether these, the Abtelites 5 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 seventh 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).] 4 [Ibid. 230 f.] 5 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.1
The Fountain of the Sun
There was a fountain [Surya kunda) ' sacred to the sun ' at Valabhipura, from which arose? at the summons of Siladitya (according to the legend) the seven headed horse Saptasva, which draws the car of Surya, to bear him to battle. With such an auxiliary no foe could prevail ; but a wicked minister revealed to the enemy the secret of annulling this aid, by polluting the sacred foimtain with blood. This accomplished, in vain did the prince call on Saptasva to save him from the strange and barbarous foe : the charm was broken, and with it sunk the dynasty of Valabhi. Who the ' barbarian ' was that defiled with blood of kine [220] the fountain of the sun,2 whether Getae, Parthian, or Hun, we are left to conjecture. The Persian, though he venerated the bull, yet sacrificed him on the 1 Ferishta, in the early part of his history [i. Introd. Ixviii f.], observes that, some centuries prior to Vikramaditya, the Hindus abandoned the simple religion of their ancestors, made idols, and worshipped the host of heaven, which faith they had from Kashmir, the foundry of magic super stition. 2 Divested of allegory, it means simply that the supply of water was rendered impure, and consequently useless to the Hindus, which compelled them to abandon their defences and meet death in the open field. Alau-d din practised the same ruse against the celebrated Achal, the Khichi prince of Gagraun, which caused the surrender of this impregnable fortress. " It matters not," observes an historian whose name I do not recollect, " whether such things are true, it is sufficient that they were behoved. We may smile at the mention of the ghost, the evil genius of Brutus, appearing to him before the battle of PharsaUa ; yet it never would have been stated, had it not assimilated with the opinions and prejudices of the age." And we may deduce a simple moral from " the parent orb refusing the aid of his steed to his terrestrial offspring," viz. that he was deserted by the deity. Fountains sacred to the sun and other deities were common to the Persians, Scythians, and Hindus, and both the last offered steeds to him in sacrifice.
Vide History of the Tribes, article ' Aswamedha,' p. 91. altar of Mithras ; 1 and though the ancient Guebre purifies with the urine 2 of the cow, he will not refuse to eat beef ; and the iniquity of Cambyses, who thrust his lance into the flank of the Egyptian Apis, is a proof that the bull was abstractedly no object of worship. It would be indulging a legitimate curiosity, could we by any means discover how these ' strange ' tribes obtained a footing amongst the Hindu races ; for so late as seven centuries ago we find Getae, Huns, Kathi, Ariaspas, Dahae, definitively settled, and enumerated amongst the Chhattis rajkula. How much earlier the admission, no authority states ; but mention is made of several of them aiding in the defence of Chitor, on the first appearance of the faith of Islam upwards of eleven hundred years ago.
