Rajput 02: Genealogies continued
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Rajput 02: Genealogies continued
Puranic Genealogies
The chronicles of the Bhagavat and Agni, containing the genealogies of the Surya (sun) and Indu [moon) races, shall now be examined. The first of these, by calculation, brings down the chain to a period six centuries subsequent to Vikramaditya (A.D. 650), so that these books may have been remodelled or commented on about this period : their fabrication' cannot be supposed.
Although portions of these genealogies by Sir William Jones, Mr. Bentley, and Colonel Wilford, have appeared in the volumes of the Asiatic Researches, yet no one should rest satisfied with the inquiries of others, if by any process he can reach the fountain- head himself.
If, after all, these are fabricated genealogies of the ancient 1 haya or Hi, in Sanskrit, horse’ - El, ' sun ' : whence ittttos and rJ\(os. HX appears to have been a term of Scythian origin for the sun ; and Hari, the Indian Apollo, is addressed as the sun. Hiul, or Jul, of northern nations (qu. Noel of France ?), is the Hindu Sankranti, of which more will be said hereafter. [The feast was known as Hvil, .jul, or Yule, and the suggested derivation is impossible.]
2 Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
families of India, the fabrication is of ancient date, and they are all they know themselves upon the subject. The step next in importance to obtaining a perfect acquaintance with the genuine early history of nations, is to learn what those nations repute to be such.
Doubtless the original Puranas contained much valuable historical matter ; but, at present, it is difficult to separate a little pure metal from the base alloy of ignorant expounders and interpolators. I have but skimmed the surface : research, to the capable, may yet be rewarded by many isolated facts and important transactions, now hid under the veil of ignorance and allegory.
Neglect of History by the Hindus
The Hindus, with the de- crease of intellectual power, their possession of which is evinced by their architectural remains, where just proportion and elegant mythological device are still visible, lost the relish for the beauty of truth, and adopted the monstrous in their writings as well as their edifices. But for detection and shame, matters of history would be hideously distorted even in civilized Europe ; but in the East, in the moral decrepitude of ancient Asia, with no judge to condemn, no public to praise, each priestly expounder may revel in an unfettered imagination, and reckon his admirers in proportion to the mixture of the marvellous 1 [26]. Plain histori- cal truths have long ceased to interest this artificially fed people.
If at such a comparatively modern period as the third century before Christ, the Babylonian historian Berosus composed his fictions, which assigned to that monarchy such incredible anti quity, it became capable of refutation from the many historians of repute who preceded him. But on the fabulist of India we have no such check. If Vyasa himself penned these legends as now existing, then is the stream of knowledge corrupt from the fountain-head. If such the source, the stream, filtering through ages of ignorance, has only been increased by fresh impurities.
It is difficult to conceive how the arts and sciences could advance, 1 The celebrated Goguet remarks on the madness of most nations pre- tending to trace their origin to infinity. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Scythians, particularly, piqued themselves on their high antiquity, and the first assimilate with- the Hindus in boasting they had observed the course of the stars 473,000 years. Each heaped ages on ages ; but the foundations of this pretended antiquity are not supported by probability, and are even of modern invention (Origin of Laws).
when it is held impious to doubt the truth of whatever has been handed down, and still more to suppose that the degenerate could improve thereon. The highest ambition of the present learned priesthood, generation after generation, is to be able to compre- hend what has thus reached them, and to form commentaries upon past wisdom ; which commentaries are commented on ad infinitum. whoever dare now aspire to improve thereon must keep the secret in his own breast. They are but the expounders of the olden oracles ; were they more they would be infidels. But this could not always have been the case.
With the Hindus, as with other nations, the progress to the heights of science they attained must have been gradual ; unless we take from them the merit of original invention, and set them down as borrowers of a system. These slavish fetters of the mind must have been forged at a later period, and it is fair to infer that the monopoly of science and religion was simultaneous. What must be the effect of such monopoly on the impulses and operations of the understanding ? Where such exists, knowledge could not long remain stationary' ; it must perforce retrograde. Could we but discover the period when religion 1 ceased to be a profession [27] and became hereditary (and that such there was these very genealogies bear evidence), we might approximate the era when science attained its height.
The Priestly Office
In the early ages of these Solar and Lunar dynasties, the priestly office was not hereditary in families ; it was a profession ; and the genealogies exhibit frequent instances of branches of these races terminating their martial career in the 1 It has been said that the Brahmanical religion was foreign to India ; but as to the period of importation we have but loose assertion. We can easily give credit to various creeds and tenets of faith being from time to time incorporated, ere the present books were composed, and that previously the sons of royalty alone possessed the office. Authorities of weight infonn t us of these grafts ; for instance, Mr. Colebrooke gives a passage in his Indian Classes : " A chief of the twice-born tribe was brought by Vishnu's eagle from Saca Dwipa ; hence Saca Dwipa Brahmins were known in Jambu Dwipa." By Saka Dwipa, Scythia is understood, of which more will be said hereafter. Ferishta also, translating from ancient authorities, says, to the same effect, that " in the reign of Mahraje, King of Canouj, a Brahmin ' came from Persia, who introduced magic, idolatry, and the worship of the stars " ; so that there is no want of authority for the introduction of new tenets of faith. [The passage, inaccurately quoted, is taken from Dow i. 16. See Briggs's translation, i. Introd. Ixviii.]
commencement of a religions sect, or gotra, and of their descend- ants reassuming their warlike occupations. Thus, of the ten sons of Ikshwaku,1 three are represented as abandoning worldly affairs and taking to religion ; and one of these, Kanina, is said to be the first who made an agnihotra, or pyreum, and worshipped fire, while another son embraced commerce. Of the Lunar line and the six sons of Pururavas, the name of the fourth was Raya ; " from him the fifteenth generation was Harita, who with his eight brothers took to the office of religion, and established the Kausika Gotra, or tribe of Brahmans."
From the twenty-fourth prince in lineal descent from Yayati, by name Bharadwaja, originated a celebrated sect, who still bear his name, and are the spiritual teachers of several Rajput tribes.
Of the twenty-sixth prince, Manava, two sons devoted them- selves to religion, and established celebrated sects, viz. Mahavira, whose descendants were the Pushkar Brahmans ; and Sankriti. whose issue were learned in the Vedas From the line of Ajamidha these ministers of religion were continually branching off.
In the very early periods, the princes of the Solar line, like the Egyptians and Romans, combined the offices of the priesthood with kingly power, and this whether Brahmanical or Buddhist.2 Many of the royal line, before and subsequent to Rama, passed great part of their lives as ascetics ; and in ancient sculpture and drawings the head is as often adorned with the braided lock of the ascetic as with the diadem of royalty.3
The greatest monarchs bestowed their daughters on these royal hermits and sages [28]. Ahalya, the daughter of the power- ful Panchala,4 became the wife of the ascetic Gautama. The sage .Jamadagni espoused the daughter of Sahasra '5 Arjuna, of
1 Sec Table T. [now obsolete, not reprinted].
2 Some of the earlier of the twenty-four Tirthakaras, or Jain hierarchs, trace their origin from the solar race of princes. [As usual, Buchlhisni confused with Jainism.]
3 Even now the Rana of Mewar mingles spiritual duties with those of royalty, and when he attends the temple of the tutelary deity of his race, he performs himself all the offices of the high priest for the day. In this point a strong resemblance exists to many of the races of antiquity.
4 Prince of the country of Panjab, or five streams east of the Indus. [Panchrda was in the Ganges-Jumna Duab and its neighbourhood.]
5 The legend of this monarch stealing his son-in-law's, the hermit's, cow (of which the Ramayana gives another version), the incarnation of Para- Mahishmat,1 king of the Haihaya tribe, a great branch of the Yadu race.
Among the Egyptians, according to Herodotus [ii. 87, 141], the priests succeeded to sovereignty, as they and the military class alone could hold lands ; and Sethos, the priest of Vulcan, caused a revolution, by depriving the military of their estates.
We have various instances in India of the Brahmans from Jamadagni to the Mahratta Peshwa, contesting for sovereignty ; power 2 and homage being still their great aim, as in the days of Vishvamitra 3 and Vasishtha, the royal sages [29] whom " Janaka suram, son of Jamadagni, and his exploits, appear purely allegorical, signify- ing the violence and oppression of royalty over the earth (prithivi), personified by the sacred gao, or cow; and that the Brahmans were enabled to 'wrest royalty from the martial tribe, shows how they had multiplied.
On the derivatives from the word gao, I venture an etymology for others to pursue : TAI A, yea, yij (Dor. ya), that which produces all things (from yaw, genero) ; Jones's Dictionary.
TAAA, IVIilk. Gaola, Herdsman, in Sanskrit. VaXariKoi, KeXroL, Galatians, or Gauls, and Celts (allowed to be the same) would be the shep- herd races, the pastoral invaders of Europe [?].
1 Maheswar, on the Nerbudda River.
2 Hindustan abounds with Brahmans, who make excellent soldiers, as far as bravery is a virtue ; but our officers are cautious, from experience, of admitting too many into a troop or company, for they still retain their intriguing habits. I have seen nearly as many of the Brahmans as of military in some companies ; a dangerous error [realized in the Great Mutiny]. ;
3 The Brahman Vasishtha possessed a cow named Savala, so fruitful that with her assistance he could accomplish whatever he desired. By her aid he entertained King Vishvamitra and his army. It is evident that this cow denotes some tract of country which the priest held (bearing in mind that gao, prithivi, signify ' the earth,' as well as ' cow ') : a grant, beyond doubt, by some of Vishvamitra's unwise ancestors, and which he wislied to resume.
From her were supplied " the oblations to the gods and the pitrideva (father gods, or ancestors), the perpetual sacrificial fire, the burnt-offerings and sacrifices." This was " the fountain of devotional acts " ; this was the Savala for which the king offered " a hundred thousand cows " ; this was “savala for which the king only should be proprietor”- The subjects of the Brahman appeared not to relish such transfer, and by " the lowing of the cow Savala " obtained numerous foreign auxiliaries, which enabled the Brahman to set his sovereign at defiance. Of these " the Pahlavi (Persian) kings, the dreadful Sakas (Sakai), and Yavanas (Greeks), with scymitars and gold armour, the Kambojas," etc., were each in turn created by the all- producing cow. The armies of the Pahlavi kings were cut to pieces by Vishvamitra ; who at last, by continual reinforcements, was overpowered sovereign of Mithila, addressed witli folded hands in token of superiority."
