Mewar 07: Khuman II
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Mewar 07: Khuman India
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 col lateral 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 Chalukj- a from Rahargarh ; from Setu bandha 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 Patau 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 Busa from Lahore ; the Sankhla from Roneja ; the Sehat from Kherligarh ; from Mandalgarh the Nikumbha ; the BargUjar from Raj or ; 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 trans lation as Bazule.1 Of Rahargarh and the Jarkhera from Setu bandha (on the Malabar coast) nothing is known." 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 Pari haras, 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-1 Fazl, Ferishta, their translators, and those who have fol lowed 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-1 Fazl, which gives S. 829 for the first Anangpal instead of S. 429 ; and
1 presented to the Royal Asiatic Society two inscriptions from Nadol, one dated S. 1024, the other 1039. They are of Prince Lakha, and state as instances of his power that he collected the transit duties at the further barrier of Patau, and levied tribute from the prince of Chitor. He was the contemporary of Mahmud, who devastated Nadol. I also discovered inscriptions of the tweKth century relative to this celebrated Chauhan family, 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.] 2 [Setubandha is the causeway made by Rama to Lanka or Ceylon {10 1, V. 81).] as there were but nineteen princes who intervened untU his dynasty was set aside by the Chauhan, it requires no argument to support the foiir 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 satis factory proof of the antiquity of this invasion ; for this dynasty was extinct, and succeeded by the Solankis, in S. 998 (a.d. 942), fifty years prior to Mahmud of Ghazni, who captured Patan during the reign of Chawand, the second Solanki prince.1 The Sonigira, who came from Jalor, is a celebrated branch of the Chauhan race, but we are ignorant of the extent of tune that it held this fortress : and as nothing can invalidate the testimonies afforded by the names. of the Chawara of [250] Patan, the Kaclih waha 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 inter polations, 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 KJiuman, we cannot doubt ; but the copyist, ignorant even of the nanaes of the ancient capitals of these tribes, Chhotan, Sind sagar, and Tanot, substituted those which they subsequently founded.
The Jadon (Yadu) from Junagarh (Girnar) was of the race of Krishna, and appeared long to have held possession of this terri tory ; and the names of the Khcngars, 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 1 [Chamunda reigned a.d. 997-1010 ; Anhilwara was captured under Bhima I. (1022-64).] Chitor, we have no mention, further than the name being enumer ated amongst the unassigned tribes of Rajputs.1 Ferishta fre quently notices the princes of Lahore in the early progress of Islamism, though he does not tell us the name of the tribe. In the reign of the caliph Al-Mansur, a.h. 143 (a.d. 761), the Afghans of Kirman and Peshawar, who, according to this authority, were a Coptic colony expelled from Egypt, 2 had increased in such numbers as to abandon their residence about the ' hill of Sulaiman,' and crossing the Indus, wrested possessions from the Hindu princes of Lahore. This frontier warfare with a tribe which, though it had certainly not then embraced the faith of Islam, brought to their succour the forces of the caliph in Zabulistan, so that in five months seventy battles were fought with varied success ; but the last, in which the Lahore prince carried his arms to Peshawar,3 produced a peace. Hence arose a union of interests between them and the hill tribe of Gakkhar, and all the Kohistan west of the Indus was ceded to them [251] on the condition of guarding this barrier into Hindustan against invasion. For this purpose the fortress of Khaibar was erected in the chief pass of the Koh-i Daman. For two centuries after this event Ferishta is silent on this frontier warfare, stating that henceforth Hindustan was only accessible through Sind.
When Aliptigin first crossed the Indus, the prince of Lahore and the Afghans still maintained this alliance and united to oppose him. Jaipal was then prince of Lahore ; and it is on this event that Ferishta, for the first time, mentions the tribe of Bhatti,4 " 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 Lam ghan. 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
1 See p. 144. 2 [Ferishta i. 6 3 The scene of action was between Peshawar and Kirman, the latter lying ninety miles south-west of the former. 4 Dow omits this in his translation [see Briggs i. Introd. 9, i. 16]. of the heavens were obscured at seeing his deeds." 1 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 him self to death.2 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, i)ossibly a subdivision of another ; though Ferishta calls the j^rince 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 pf 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 Assa kenoi of Alexander ; concerning which this celebrated geographer says, " II est mention de Suvat comme d'un canton du pays d'Ash-nagar dans la meme geographic turque " {Eel. 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 con fluence 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 sub division of the Yadu race. In all likelihood the Sehat, who came to the aid of Khuman of Chitor, was a branch of these Assakenoi, the opponents of Alexander.3 The modern town of Dinkot
1 The sense of this passage has been quite perverted by Dow [see Briggs i. 16]. 2 [See Smith, EHI, .382.] 3 [The capital of the Assakenoi was Massaga, near the Malakand Pass (Smith, EHI, 54 ; McCrindle. Alexander, .334 £.).] appears to occupy the site of Aswinikot, though D'Anville feels inchned to carry it into the heart of Bajaur and place it on the rock (silla) Aornos.1 Such the Sehat ; not improbably the Soha, one of the eight subdivisions of the Yadu.2 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 cir cxmistance entirely overlooked in the dissertation on this tribe ; 3 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 parri cide, who seized upon Lodorwa in the northern desert, and there established the Mangalia Guhilots.
Bhartribhat III
Bhartribhat (familiarly Bhato) 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 main tain them. He established no less than thirteen 4 of his sons in
1 [For the site see Smith, EHI, 56, note 2.] 2 See p. 104. 3 See p. 119 f. 3 By name, Kulanagar, Champaner, Choreta, Bhojpur, Lunara, Nimthor, Sodara, Jodhgarh, Sandpur, Aitpur, and Gangabheva. The remaining two are not mentioned. independent possessions in Malwa and Gujarat, and these were distinguished as the Bhatera 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 Ajiner 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 hunt ing " ; and, we may add, continued bickering with their vassals within when left unemployed by the enemy from without [254],
