Rajput 08: Foundations of States and Cities by the different tribes B
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Rajput 08: Foundations of States and Cities by the different tribes B
Kanauj
Kusa had four sons, two of whom, Kusanabha and Kusamba, are well known to traditional history, and by the still surviving cities founded by them. Kusanabha founded the city of Mahodaya on the Ganges, afterwards changed to Kanyakubja, or Kanauj, which maintained its celebrity until the Muhammadan invasion of Shihabu-d-din (a.d. 1193), when this overgrown city was laid prostrate for ever. It was not unfrequently called Gadhipura, or the ' city of Gadhi.' This practice of multiply ing names of cities in the east is very destructive to history. Abu-1 Fazl has taken from Hindu authorities an account of Kanauj ; and could we admit the authority of a poet on such subjects, Chand, the bard of Prithwiraja,3 would afford materials. Ferishta states it in the early ages to have been twenty five coss [42] (thirty-five miles) in circumference, and that there were thirty thousand shops for the sale of the areca or beetle - nut only ; 4 and this in the sixth century, at which period the Rathor dynasty, which terminated with Jaichand, in the twelfth, had been in possession from the end of the fifth century.
Kusamba also founded a city, called after his own name 1 Ajamidha, by his wife Nila, had five sons, who spread their branches (Sakha) on both sides the Indus. Regarding three the Puranas are silent, which implies their migration to distant regions. Is it possible they might be the origin of the Medes ? These Medes are descendants of Yayati, third son of the patriarch Manu ; and Madai, founder of the Medes, was of Japhet's line. Ajamidha, the patronymic of the branch of Bajaswa, is from Aja, ' a goat.' The Assyrian Mode, in Scripture, is typified by the goat. [These speculations are worthless.] 2 Of this house was Draupadi, the wife, in common, of the five Pandava brothers : manners peculiar to Scythia. 3 King of Delhi. 4 [Briggs i. 57. The accounts of the size of the city are extravagant (Elphinstone, HI, 332 note ; Cunningham, ASR, i. 270 ff.).]
Kaiisambi.1 The name was in existence in the eleventh century ; and ruins might yet exist, if search were made on the shores of the Ganges, from Kanauj southward.
The other sons built two capitals, Dharmaranya and Vasumati ; but of neither have we any correct knowledge. Kuru had two sons, Sudhanush and Parikhshita. The descend- ants of the former terminated with Jarasandha, whose capital was Rajagriha (the modern Rajmahal) on the Ganges, in the province of Bihar.2 From Parikhshita descended the monarchs Santanu and Balaka : the first producing the rivals of the Great War, Yudhishthira and Duryodhana ; the other the Balakaputras.
Duryodhana, the successor to the throne of Kuru, resided at the ancient capital, Hastinapura ; while the junior branch, Yudhishthira, founded Indraprastha, on the Yamuna or Jumna, which name in the eighth century was changed to Delhi. The sons of Balaka founded two kingdoms : Palibothra, on the lower Ganges ; and Aror,3 on the eastern bank of the Indus, founded by Sahl [43].
1 An inscription was discovered at Kara on the Ganges, in which Yaspal is mentioned as prince of the realm of Kausambi (As. Res. vol. ix. p. 440). Wilford, in his Essay on the Geography of the Purans, says " Causambi, near Alluhabad " (As. Res. vol. xiv.). [The site is uncertain (Smith, EHI, 29.3, note).]
2 [Rajgir in Patna District.]
3 Aror, or Alor, was the capital of Sind in remote antiquity : a bridge over the stream which branched from the Indus, near Dara, is almost the sole vestige of this capital of the Sogdoi of Alexander. On its site the shepherds of the desert have established an extensive hamlet ; it is placed on a ridge of siliceous rock, seven miles east of the insular Bakhar, and free from the inundations of the Indus. The Sodha tribe, a powerful branch of the Pramara race, has ruled in these countries from remote antiquity, and to a very late period they were lords of Umarkot and Umrasurara, in which divisions was Aror. Sahl and his capital were known to Abu-l Fazl, though he was ignorant of its position, which he transferred to Debal, or Dewal, the modern Tatta. This indefatigable historian thus describes it : In ancient times there lived a raja named Siharas (Sahl), whose capital was Alor, and his dominions extended north to Kashmir and south to the ocean " [Ain, ii. 343]. Sahl, or Sahr, became a titular appellation of the country, its princes, and its inhabitants, the Sehraes. [See p. 21 above.]
Alor appears to have been the capital of the kingdom of Sigerdis, conquered by Menander of Bactria. Ibn Haukal, the Arabian geographer, mentions it ; but a superfluous point in writing has changed Aror into Azor, or Azour, as translated by Sir W. Ouseley. The illustrious D'Anville mentions it ; but, in ignorance of its position, quoting Abulfeda, says, in grandeur " Azour est presque comparable a Mooltan." I have to claim the discovery of One great arm of the tree of Yayati remains unnoticed, that of Uru or Urvasu, written by others Turvasu. Uru was the father of a line of kings who founded several empires. Virupa, the eighth prince from Uru, had eight sons, two of whom are particu- larly mentioned as sending forth two grand shoots, Druhyu and Bhabru. From Druhyu a dynasty was established in the north.
Aradwat, with his son Gandhara, is stated to have founded a State : Prachetas is said to have become king of Mlecchhades, or the barbarous regions. This line terminated with Dushyanta, the husband of the celebrated Sakuntala, father of Bharat, and who, labouring under the displeasure of some offended deity, is said by the Hindus to have been the cause of all the woes which subsequently befell the race. The four grandsons of Dushyanta, Kalanjar, Keral, Pand, and Chaul, gave their names to countries.
Kalanjar
Kalanjar is the celebrated fortress in Bundelkhand, so well known for its antiquities, which have claimed considerable notice.
Kerala
Of the second, Kerala, it is only known that in the list of the thirty-six royal races in the twelfth century, the Kerala makes one, but the capital is unknown.1 several ancient capital cities in the north of India : Surpur, on the Jumna, the capital of the Yadus ; Alor, on the Indus, the capital of the Sodhas ; Mandodri, capital of the Pariharas ; Chandravati, at the foot of the Aravalli mountains ; and Valabhipura, in Gujarat, capital of the Balaka-raes, the Balharas of Arab travellers. The Bala Rajput of Saurashtra may have given the name to Valabhipura, as descendants of Balaka, from Sahl of Aror. The blessing of the bard to them is yet, Tatta Multan ka Rao ( ' lord of Tatta and Multan,' the seats of the Balaka-putras) : nor is it improbable that a branch of these under the Indian Hercules, Balaram, who left India after the Great War, may have founded Bahch, or Balkh, emphatically called the ' mother of cities.' The Jaisalmer annals assert that the Yadu and Balaka branches of the Indo race ruled Khorasan after the Great War, the Indo-Seythic races of Grecian authors. Besides the Balakas, and the numerous branches of the Indo-Medes, many of the sons of Kuru dispersed over these regions : amongst whom we may place Uttara Kuru (Northern Kurus) of the Puranas, the Ottorokorrhai of the Greek authors. Both the Indu and Surya races were eternally sending their superfluous population to those distant regions, when probably the same primeval religion governed the races east and west of the Indus. [Much of this is incorrect.]
1 [The Chera or Kerala kingdom comprised the Southern Konkans or Malabar coast, the present Malabar district with Travancore and Cochin, the dynasty being in e.Kistence early in the Christian era (Smith, EHI, 447 ; IGI, X. 192 f.).]
Pandya
The kingdom founded by Pand may be that on the coast of Malabar, the Pandu-Mandal of the Hindus, the Regia Pandiona of the geographers of the west, and of which, probably, Tanjore is the modern capital.1
Chaul
Chaul 2 is in the Saurashtra peninsula, and on the coast, towards Jagat Khunt, ' the world's end,' and still retains its appellation.
Anga
The other shoot from Bhabru became celebrated. The thirty-fourth prince, Anga, founded the kingdom of Angadesa, of which Champapuri 3 was the [44] capital, established about the same time with Kanauj, probably fifteen hundred years before Christ. With him the patronymic was changed, and the Anga race became famous in ancient Hindu history ; and to this day Un-des still designates the Alpine regions of Tibet bordering on Chinese Tartary.
Prithusena terminates the line of Anga ; and as he survived the disasters of the Great War, his race probably multiplied in those regions, where caste appears never to have been introduced.
Recapitulation
Thus have we rapidly reviewed the dynasties of Surya and Chandra, from Manu and Budha to Rama, Krishna, Yudhishthira, and Jarasandha ; establishing, it is hoped, some new points, and perhaps adding to the credibility of the whole.
The wrecks of almost all the vast cities founded by them are yet to be traced in ruins. The city of Ikshwaku and Rama, on the Sarju ; Indraprastha, Mathura, Surpura, Prayag on the Yamuna ; Hastinapura, Kanyakubja, Rajagriha on the Ganges ; Maheswar on the Nerbudda ; Aror on the Indus ; and Kusasthali
1 [The Pandya kingdom included the Madura and Tinnevelly districts, with parts of Trichinopoly, and sometimes Travancore, its capitals being Madura, or Kudal, and Korkai (Smith, op. cil. 449 f. ; IGI, xix. 394 f.).]
2 From Chaul on the coast, in journeying towards Junagarh, and about seven miles from the former, are the remains of an ancient city.
3 From the description in the Ramayana of King Dasaratha proceeding to Champamalina, the capital of Lomapada, king of Anga (sixth in descent from the founder), it is evident that it was a very mountainous region, and the deep forests and large rivers presented serious obstructions to his journey. From this 1 should imagine it impossible that Angadesa should apply to a portion of Bengal, in which there is a Champamalina, described by Colonel Francklin in his Essay on Palibothra. [The Anga kingdom, with its capital at Champapuri, near Bhagalpur, corresponded to the modern districts of North Monghyr, North Bhagalpur, and Purnea west of the Mahananda river (IGI, v. 373).]
Dwarka on the shore of the Indian Ocean. Each has left some memorial of former grandeur : research may discover others. There is yet an unexplored region in Panchala ; Kampilana- gara its capital, and those cities established west of the Indus by the sons of Bajaswa.
Traces of the early Indo-Seythic nations may possibly reward the search of some adventurous traveller who may penetrate into Transoxiana, on the sites of Cyropolis, and the most northern Alexandria ; in Balkh, and amidst the caves of Bamian.
The plains of India retain yet many ancient cities, from whose ruins somewhat may be gleaned to add a mite to knowledge ; and where inscriptions may be found in a character which, though yet unintelligible,- will not always remain so in this age of dis- covery. For such let the search be general, and when once a key is obtained, they will enlighten each other. Wherever the races of Kuru, Urn, and Yadu have swayed, have been found ancient and yet udeciphered characters.
Much would reward him who would make a better digest of the historical and geographical matter in the Puranas. But we must discard the idea that the history of Rama, the mahabharata of Krishna and the five Pandava 1 brothers, are [45] mere alle- gory : an idea supported by some, although their races, their cities, and their coins still exist. Let us master the characters on the columns of Indraprastha, of Prayag and Mewar, on the rocks of Junagarh,2 at Bijolli, on the Aravalli, and in the Jain
1 The history and exploits of the Pandavas and Harikulas are best known in the most remote parts of India : amidst the forest-covered mountains of Saurashtra, the deep woods and caves of Hidimba and Virat (still the shelter of the savage Bhil and Koli), or on the craggy banks of the Charmanvati (Chambal). In each, tradition has localized the shelter of these heroes when exiled from the Yamuna ; and colossal figures cut from the mountain, ancient temples and caves inscribed with characters yet unknown, attributed to the Pandavas, confirm the legendary tale.
2 The ' ancient city,' par eminence, is the only name this old capital, at the foot of, and guarding, the sacred mount Girnar, is known by. Abu-1 Fazl says it had long remained desolate and unknown, and was discovered by mere accident. [Ain, ii. 245. For a description of the place see BG, viii. 487 ; E. C. Bayley, Local Muhammadan Dynasties, Gujarat, 182 ff.] Tradition even being silent, they gave it the emphatic appellation of Juna (old) Garh (fortress). J have little doubt that it is the Asaldurga , or Asalgarh, of the Guhilot annals ; where it is said that prince Asal raised a fortress, called after him, near to Girnar, by the consent of the Dabhi prince, his uncle.
temples scattered over India, and then we shall be able to arrive at just and satisfactory conclusions.
