Rajput 11: Genealogical history of the Rajput tribes subsequent to Vikramaditya
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Rajput 11: Genealogical history of the Rajput tribes subsequent to Vikramaditya
Rajputs and Mongols
Having thus brought down the genea- logical history of the ancient martial races of India, from the earliest period to Yudhishthira and Krishna, and thence to Vikrama- ditya and the present day, a few observations on the races invading India during that time, and now ranked amongst the thirty-six royal races of Rajasthan, affording scope for sonic curious analogies, may not be inopportune.
The tribes here alluded to are the Haihaya or Aswa, the Takshak, and the Jat or Getae ; the similitude of whose theogony, names in their early genealogies, and many other points, with the Chinese, Tatar, Mogul, Hindu, and Scythic races, would appear to warrant the assertion of one common origin. Though the periods of the passage of these tribes into India cannot be stated with exactitude, the regions whence they migrated may more easily be ascertained.
Mongol Origin.
Let us compare the origin of the Tatars and Moguls, as given by their historian, Abulghazi, with the races we have been treating of from the Puranas.
Mogol was the name of the Tatarian patriarch. His son was Aghuz,2 the founder of all the races of those northern regions, called Tatars and Mogol [57]. Aghuz had six sons.3 First, Kun,4 'the sun,' the Surya of the Puranas ; secondly, Ai,5 ' the moon,' 1 [The evidence quoted in this chapter by which the author endeavours To frame a chronology for this early period, is untrustworthy. Mr. Pargiter tentatively dates the great Bharata battle about 1000 B.C., but the evidence is very uncertain (JRAS, January 1910, p. 56 ; April 1914, p. 294).] 2 Query, if from Mogol and Aghuz, compounded, we have not the Magog, son of Japhet, of Scripture ? 3 The other four sons are the remaining elements, personified : whence the six races of Tatars. The Hindus had long but two races, till the four Agnikula made them also six, and now thirty-six ! 4 In Tatar, according to Abulghazi, the sun and moon. 5 De Guignes.
the Indu of the Puranas. In the latter, Ai, we have even the same name [Ayus] as in the Puranas for the Lunar ancestor. The Tatars all claim from Ai, ' the moon,' the Indus of the Puranas. Hence with them, as with the German tribes, the moon was always a male deity. The Tatar Ai had a son, Yulduz. His son was Hyu, from whom 1 came the first race of the kings of China. The Puranic Ayus had a son, Yadu (pronounced Jadon) ; from whose third son, Haya, the Hindu genealogist deduces no line, and from whom the Chinese may claim their Indu 1 origin. II Khan (ninth from Ai) had two sons : first, Kian ; and secondly, Nagas ; whose descendants peopled all Tatary. From Kian, Jenghiz khan claimed descent.2 Nagas was probablj- the founder of the Takshak, or Snake race ' of the Puranas and Tatar genealogists, the Tak-i-uk Moguls of De Guignes.
Such are the comparative genealogical origins of the three races. Let us compare their theogony, the fabulous birth assigned by each for the founder of the Indu race.
Mongol and Hindu Traditions
1. The Puranic. " Ila (the earth), daughter of the sun-born Ikshwaku, while wandering in the forests was encountered by Budha {Mercury), and from the rape of Ila sprimg the Indu race." 2. The Chinese account of the birth of Yu (Ayu), their first monarch. " A star 4 (Mercury or Fo) struck his mother while journeying. She conceived, and gave to the world Yu, the founder of the first dynasty which reigned in China. Yu divided China into nine provinces, and began to reign 2207 5years before Christ " [58].
Thus the Ai of the Tatars, the Yu of the Chinese, and the Ayus 1 Sir W. Jones says the Chinese assert their Hindu origin ; but a com- parison proves both these Indu races to be of Scythic origin. [Yadu was son of Yayati, and Haya was Yadu's grandson, not son. The comparison of Mongol with Hindu tradition is of no value.] 2 [For the Mongol genealogy see Howorth, History of the Mongols, Part i. 35. Abu-I Fazl (Akbarnama, trans. H. Beveridge, i. 171 f.) gives the names As follows: aghuz khan, whose sons were- Kun (Sun) ; Ai (Moon) ; Yulduz (Star) ; Kok or Gok (Sky) ; Tagh (Mountain) ; Tangiz (Sky)]. 3 Naga and Takshak are Sanskrit names for a snake or serpent, the emblem of Budha or Mercury. The Naga race, so well known to India, the Takshaks or Takiuks of Scythia, invaded India about six centuries before Clirist. 4 De Guignes, Sur Us Dynasties des Huns, vol. i. p. 7. 5 Nearly the calculated period from the Puranas. of the Puranas, evidently indicate the great Indu (Lunar) pro genitor of the three races. Budha (Mercury), the son of Indu (the moon), became the patriarchal and spiritual leader ; as Fo, in China ; Woden and Teutates,^ of the tribes migrating to Europe. Hence it follows that the religion of Buddha must be coeval with the existence of these nations ; that it was brought into India Proper by them, and guided them until the schism of Krishna and the Suryas, worshippers of Bal, in time depressed them, when the Buddha reUgion was modified into its present mild form, the Jain.^
Scythian Traditions
Let us contrast with these the origin of the Scythic nations, as related by Diodorus ; 3 when it will be observed the same legends were known to him which have been handed down by the Puranas and Abulghazi.
" The Scythians had their first abodes on the Araxes.4 Their origin was from a virgin born of the earth 5 of the shape of a woman from the waist upwards, and below a serpent (symbol of Budha or Mercury) ; that Jupiter had a son by her, named Scythes,6 whose name the nation adopted. Scythes had two sons, Palas and Napas (qu. the Nagas, or Snake race, of the Tatar genealogy ?), who were celebrated for their great actions, and who divided the countries ; and the nations were called after them, the Palians (qu. Pali ?) 7 and Napians. They led their forces as far as the Nile on Egypt, and subdued many nations. They enlarged the empire of the Scythians as far as the Eastern ocean,
1 Tauth, ' father ' in Sanskrit [? tata]. Qu. Tenths, and Toth, the Mercury of Egypt ? 2 [The author seems to confuse Budha (Mercury) with Gautama Buddha, the teacher. Buddhism arose in India, not in Central Asia, and Jainism was not a milder form of it, but an independent, and probably earlier, religion.] 3 Diodorus Siculus book ii. 4 The Arvarma of the Puranas ; the Jaxartes or Sihun. The Puranas thus describe Sakadwipa or Scythia. Diodorus (lib. ii.) makes the Hemodus the boundary between Saka-Scythia and India Proper. 5 Ila, the mother of the Lunar race, is the earth personified. Ertha of the Saxons ; epa of the Greeks ; ard in Hebrew [?]. 6 Scythes, from Sakatai, ' Sakadwipa,' and is, ' Lord ' : Lord of Sakatai, or Scythia [?]. 7 Qu. Whether the Scythic Pali may not be the shepherd invaders of Egypt [?]. The Pali character yet exists, and appears the same as ancient fragments of the Buddha inscriptions in my possession : many letters assimilate with the Coptic.
and to the Caspian and lake moeotis. The nation had many kings, from whom the Sacans (Sakae), the Massagetae ( Getae or Jats), the Ari-aspians (Aswas of Aria), and many other races. They over- ran Assyria and Media 1 [59], overturning the empire, and trans- planting the inhabitants to the Araxes under the name of Sauro- Matians." 2
As the Sakae, Getae, Aswa, and Takshak are names which have crept in amongst our thirty-six royal races, common with others also to early civilization in Europe, let us seek further ancient authority on the original abodes.
Strabo 3 says : " All the tribes east of the Caspian are called Scythic. The Dahae 4 next the sea, the Massagetae (great Gete) and Sakae more eastward ; but every tribe has a particular name. All are nomadic : but of these nomads the best -known are the Asii,5 the Pasiani, Tochari, Sacarauli, who took Bactria from the Greeks. The Sakae 6 (' races ') have made in Asia irruptions similar to those of the Cimmerians ; thus they have been seen to possess themselves of Bactria, and the best district of Armenia, called after them Sakasenae." 7
Which of the tribes of Rajasthan are the offspring of the Aswa and Medes, of Indu race, returned under new appellations, we 1 The three great branches of the Indu (Lunar) Aswa bore the epithet of Midia (pronounced Mede), viz. Urumidha, Ajamidha, and Dvimidha. Qu. The Aswa invaders of Assyria and Media, the sons of Bajaswa, expressly stated to have multiplied in the countries west of the Indus, emigrating from their paternal seats in Panchalaka ? [Midha means ' pouring out seed, prolific,' and has no connexion with Mede, the Madai of Genesis X. 2 ; the Assyrian Mada.] 2 Sun-worshippers, the Suryavansa. 3 Strabo lib. xi. p. 511. 4 Dahya (one of the thirty-six tribes), now extinct. 5 The Asii and Tochari, the Aswa and Takshak, or Turushka races, of the Puranas, of Sakadwipa [?]. " C'est vraisemblablement d'apres le nom de Tachari, que M. D'Anville aura cru devoir placer les tribus ainsi de- nommees dans le territoire qui s'appelle aujourdhui Tokarist'hpon, situe, dit ce grand geographe, entre les montagnes et le Gihon ou Amou " (Note 3, liv. xi. p. 254, Strabon). 6 Once more I may state Sakha in Sanskrit has the aspirate : literally, the ' branches ' or ' races.' [Saka and Sakha have no connexion ; see Smith, EHI, 226.] 7 " La Sacasene etoit une contree do I'Armenie sur les confins de I'Albanie ou du Shirvan" (Note 4, tome i. p. 191, Strabon). " The Sacasenae were the ancestors of the Saxons" (Turner's History of the Anglo -Saxons).
shall not now stop to inquire, limiting our hypothesis to the fact
of invasions, and adducing some evidence of such being simul-
taneous with migrations of the same bands into Europe. Hence
the inference of a common origin between the Rajput and early
races of Europe ; to support which, a similar mythology, martial
manners and poetry, language, and even music and architectural
ornaments, may be adduced.1
Of the first migrations of the Indu-Scythic Getae, Takshak, and Asii, into India, that of Sheshnag (Takshak), from Shesh- nagdes (Tocharistan ?) or Sheshnag, six centuries, by calculation, before Christ, is the first noticed by the Puranas.2 About this period a grand irruption of the same races conquered Asia Minor, and [60] eventually Scandinavia ; and not long after the Asii and Tochari overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria, the Romans felt the power of the Asi,3 the Chatti, and Cimbri, from the Baltic shore.
" If we can show the Germans to have been originally Scythae or Goths (Getes or Jits), a wide field of curiosity and inquiry is open to the origin of government, manners, etc. ; all the anti- quities of Europe will assume a new appearance, and, instead of being traced to the bands of Germany, as Montesquieu and the greatest writers have hitherto done, may be followed through long descriptions of the manners of the Scythians, etc., as given by Herodotus. Scandinavia was occupied by the Scythae five hundred years before Christ. These Scythians worshipped Mercury (Budha), Woden or Odin, and believed themselves his progeny. The Gothic mythology, by parallel, might be shown
1 Herodotus (iv. 12) says : " The Cimmerians, expelled by the Massa- getae, migrated to the Crimea." Here were the Thyssagetae, or western Getae [the lesser Getae, Herodotus iv..22]; and thence both the Getae and Cimbri found their way to the Baltic. Rubruquis the Jesuit, describing the monuments of the Comani in the Dasht-i Kipchak, whence these tribes, says : " Their monuments and circles of stones are like our Celtic or Druidical remains " (Bell's Collection). The Khuman are a branch of the Kathi tribe of Saurashtra, whose paliyas, or funeral monumental pillars, are seen in groups at every town and village. The Chatti were one of the early German tribes. [Needless to say, the German Chatti had no connexion with the Kathi of Gujarat.] 2 [The reference, again, is to the Saisunaga dynasty, p. 64 above.] 3 Asi was the term applied to the Getes, Yeuts, or Juts, when they in vaded Scandinavia and founded Yeutland or Jutland (see ' Edda,’ Mallet's Introduction).
to be Grecian, whose gods were the progeny of Coelus and Terra (Budha and Ella).1 Dryads, satyrs, fairies, and all the Greek and Roman superstition, may be found in the Scandinavian creed. The Goths consulted the heart of victims, had oracles, had sibyls, had a Venus in Freya, and Parcae in the Valkyrie." 2
The Scythian Descent of the Rajputs
Ere we proceed to trace these mythological resemblances, let us adduce further opinions in proof of the' position assumed of a common origin of the tribes of early Europe and the Scythic Rajput.
The translator of Abulghazi, in his preface, observes : " Our contempt for the Tatars would lessen did we consider how nearly we stand related to them, and that our ancestors originally came from the north of Asia, and that our customs, laws, and way of living were formerly the same as theirs. In short, that we are no other than a colony of Tatars.
" It was from Tatary those people came, who, under the suc- cessive names of Cymbrians,3 Kelts, and Gauls, possessed all the northern part of Europe. What were the Goths, Huns, Alans, Swedes, Vandals, Franks, but swarms of the same hive ? The Swedish chronicles bring the Swedes 4 from Cashgar, and [61] the affinity between the Saxon language and Kipchak is great ; and the Keltick language still subsisting in Britany and Wales is a demonstration that the inhabitants are descended from Tatar nations."
1 Mercury and earth. 2 Pinkerton, On the Goths, vol. ii. p. 94. [All this is obsolete.] 3 Camari was one of the eight sons of Japhet, says Abulghazi : whence the Camari, Cimmeru, or Cimbri. Karaari is one of the tribes of Saurashtra. [Kymry = fellow-countrymen (Rhys, Celtic Britain, 116).] 4 The Suiones, Suevi, or Su. Now the Su, Yueh-chi, or Yuti, are Getes, according to De Guignes. Marco Polo calls Cashgar, where he was in the sixth century, the birthplace of the Swedes ; and De la Croix adds, that in 1691 Sparvenfeldt, the Swedish ambassador at Paris, told him he had read in Swedish chronicles that Cashgar was their country. When the Huns were chased from the north of China, the greater part retired into the southern countries adjoining Europe. The rest passed directly to the Oxus and Jaxartes ; thence they spread to the Caspian and Persian frontiers. In Mawaru-1-nahr (Transoxiana) they mixed with the Su, the Yueh-chi, or Getes, who were particularly powerful, and extended into Europe. One would be tempted to regard them as the ancestors of those Getes who were known in Europe. Some bands of Su might equally pass into the north of Europe, known as the Suevi. [The meaning of Suevi is uncertain, but the word has no connexion with that of any Central Asian tribe.]
From between the parallels of 30° and 50° of north latitude, and from 75° to 95° of east longitude, the highlands of Central Asia, alike removed from the fires of the equator and the cold of the arctic circle, migrated the races which passed into Europe and within the Indus. We must therefore voyage up the Indus, cross the Paropanisos, to the Oxus or Jihun, to Sakatai1 or Sakadwipa, and from thence and the Dasht-i Kipchak conduct the Takshaks, the Getae, the Kamari, the Chatti, and the Huns, into the plains of Hindustan.
We have much to learn in these unexplored regions, the abode of ancient civilisation, and which, so late as Jenghiz Khan's invasion, abounded with large cities. It is an error to suppose that the nations of Higher Asia were merely pastoral ; and De Guignes, from original authorities, informs us that when the Su invaded the Yueh-chi or Jats, they found upwards of a hundred cities containing the merchandise of India, and with the currency bearing the effigies of the prince.
Such was the state of Central Asia long before the Christian era, though now depopulated and rendered desert by desolating wars, which have raged in these countries, and to which Europe can exhibit no parallel. Timur's wars, in more modern times, against the Getic nation, will illustrate the paths of his ambitious predecessors in the career of destruction.
If we examine the political limits of the great Getic nation in the time of Cyrus, six centuries before Christ, we shall find them little circumscribed in power on the rise of Timur, though twenty centuries had elapsed [62].
Jats and Getae
At this period (A.D. 1330), under the last prince of Getic race, Tughlak Timur Khan, the kingdom of Chagatai2 was bounded on the west by the Dasht-i Kipchak, and 1 Mr. Pinkerton's research had discovered Sakatai, though he does not give his authority (D'Anville) for the Sakadwipa of the Puranas ! " Sakitai, a region at the fountains of the Oxus and Jaxartes, styled Sakita from the Sacae" (D'Anville, Anc. Geog.). The Yadus of Jaisalmer, who ruled Zabulistan and founded Ghazni, claim the Chagatais as of their own Indu stock : a claim which, without deep reflection, appeared inadmissible ; but which I now deem worthy of credit.
2 Chagatai, or Sakatai, the Sakadwipa of the Puranas (corrupted by the Greeks to Scythia), " whose inhabitants worship the sun and whence is the river Arvarma." [For the Chagatai Mongols see Elias-Ross, History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, Introd. 28 ff.]
on the south by the Jihun, on which river the Getic Khan, like Tomyris, had his capital. Kokhand, Tashkent, Utrar,1 Cyropolis, and the most northern of the Alexandrias, were within the bounds of Chagatai.
The Getae, Jut, or Jat, and Takshak races, which occupy places amongst the thirty-six royal races of India, are all from the region of Sakatai. Regarding their earliest migrations, we shall endeavour to make the Puranas contribute ; but of their invasions in more modem times the histories of Mahmud of Ghazni, and Timur abundantly acquaint us.
From the mountains of Jud2 to the shores of Makran,3 and along the Ganges, the Jat is widely spread ; while the Takshak name is now confined to inscriptions or old writings.
Inquiries in their original haunts, and among tribes now under different names, might doubtless bring to light their original designation, now best known within the Indus ; while the Takshak or Takiuk may probably be discovered in the Tajik, still in his ancient haunts, the Transoxiana and Chorasinia of classic authors ; the Mawaru-n-nahr of the Persians ; the Turan, Turkistan, or Tocharistan of native geography ; the abode of the Tochari, Takshak, or Turushka invaders of India, described in the Puranas and existing inscriptions.
The Getae had long maintained their independence when Tomyris defended their liberty against Cyrus. Driven in success- ive wars across the Sutlej, we shall elsewhere show them preserv- ing their ancient habits, as desultory cavaliers, under the Jat leader of Lahore, in pastoral communities in Bikaner the Indian
1 Utrar, probably the Uttarakuru of ancient geography : the uttara (northern) kuru (race) ; a branch of Indu stock. 2 Jadu ka dang, the Joudes of Rennell's map ; the Yadu hills high up in the Panjab, where a colony of the Yadu race dwelt when expelled Saurashtra. [The Salt Range in the Jhelum, Shahpur, and Mianwall districts of the Panjab, was known to ancient historians as Koh-i-Jud, or ' the hills of Jud,' the name being applied by the Muhammadans to this range on account of its resemblance to Mount Al-Judi, or Ararat. The author constantly refers to it, and suggests that the name was connected with the Indian Yadu, or Yadava tribe (IGI, xxi._412; Abu-1 Fazl, Akbarndma, i. 237; Elliot- Dowson, ii. 235, v. 561 ; Ain, ii. 405 ; ASR, ii. 17 ; Hughes, Diet, of Islam, 23).]
3 The Numri, or Lumri (foxes) of Baluchistan, are Jats [?]. These are the Noniardies of Rennell. [They are believed to be aborigines (IGI, xvi. 146; Census Report, Baluchistan, 1911, i. 17).]
desert and elsewhere, though they have lost sight of their early history. The transition from pastoral to agricultural pursuits is but short, and the descendant of the nomadic Getae of Transoxiana is now the best husbandman on the plains of Hindustan1 [63].
The invasion of these Indu-Scythic tribes, Getae, Takshaks, Asii, Chatti, Rajpali,2 Huns, Kamari, introduced the worship of Budha, the founder of the Indu or Lunar race. Herodotus says the Getae were theists,3 and held the tenets of the soul's immortality ; so with the Buddhists.
Before, however, touching on points of religious resemblance between the Asii, Getae, or Jut of Scandinavia (who gave his name to the Cimbric Chersonese) and the Getae of Scythia and India, let us make a few remarks on the Asii or Aswa.
The Aswa
To the Indu race of Aswa (the descendants of Dvimidha and Bajaswa), spread over the countries on both sides the Indus, do we probably owe the distinctive appellation of Asia. Herodotus 4 says the Greeks denominated Asia from the wife of Prometheus ; while others deduce it from a grandson of Manes, indicating the Aswa descendants of the patriarch Manu. Asa,5 Sakambhari,6 Mata,7 is the divinity Hope, ' mother-pro- tectress of the Sakha,' or races. Every Rajput adores Asapurna, ' the fulfiller of desire ' ; or, as Sakambhari Devi (goddess pro- tectress), she is invoked previous to any undertaking.
The Aswas were chiefly of the Indu race ; yet a branch of the Suryas also bore this designation. It appears to indicate their celebrity as horsemen.8 All of them worshipped the horse, which they sacrificed to the sun. This grand rite, the Asvamedha, on 1 [There is no evidence, beyond resemblance of name, to connect the Jats with the Getae.] 2 Royal pastors [?]. 3 [iv. 59.] The sun was their ' great deity,' though they had in Xamolxis a lord of terror, with affinity to Yama, or the Hindu Pluto. " The chief divinity of the Fenns, a Scythic race, was Yammalu " (Pinkerton's Hist, of the Goths, vol. ii. p. 215). 4 iv. 45 [Asia probably means ' land of the rising sun.'] 5 Asa, ' hope.' 6 Sakambhari : from sakham, the plural of sakha, ' branch or race,' and ambhar, ' covering, protecting.' [The word means ' herb nourishing.'] 7 Mata, ' mother.' 8 Aswa and haya are synonymous Sanskrit terms for ' horse ' ; asp in Persian ; and as applied by the prophet Ezekiel [xxxviii. 6] to the Getic invasion of Scythia, A.C. 600 : " the sons of Togarmah riding on horses " ; described by Diodorus, the period the same as the Takshak invasion of India.
the festival of the winter solstice, would alone go far to exemplify their common Scythic origin with the Getic Saka, authorising the inference of Pinkerton, " that a grand Scythic nation extended from the Caspian to the Ganges."
The Asvamedha
The Asvamedha was practised on the Ganges and Sarju by the Solar princes [64], twelve hundred years before Christ, as by the Getae in the time of Cyrus ; " deeming it right," says Herodotus [i. 216] " to offer the swiftest of created to the chief of uncreated beings " : and this worship and sacrifice of the horse has been handed down to the Rajput of the present day. A description of this grand ceremony shall close these analogies.
The Getic Asii carried this veneration for the steed, symbolic of their chief deity the sun, into Scandinavia : equally so of all the early German tribes, the Su, Suevi, Chatti, Sucimbri, Getae, in the forests of Germany, and on the banks of the Elbe and Weser. The milk-white steed was supposed to be the organ of the gods, from whose neighing they calculated future events ; notions possessed also by the Aswa, sons of Budha (Woden), on the Yamuna and Ganges, when the rocks of Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic were yet untrod by man. It was this omen which gave Darius Hystaspes1 (hinsna, ' to neigh,' aspa, ' a horse ') a crown. The bard Chand makes it the omen of death to his principal heroes. The steed of the Scandinavian god of battle was kept in the temple of Upsala, and always " found foaming and sweating after battle." " Money," says Tacitus, " was only acceptable to the German when bearing the effigies of the horse." 2
In the Edda we are informed that the Getae, or Jats, who entered Scandinavia, were termed Asi, and their first settlement As-gard.3
Pinkerton rejects the authority of the Edda and follows Torfaeus, who " from Icelandic chronicles and genealogies con cludes Odin to have come into Scandinavia in the time of Darius Hystaspes, five hundred years before Christ." 1 [Hystaspes is from old Persian, Vishtaspa, ' possessor of horses.' The author derives it from a modern Hindi word hinsna, ' to neigh,' possibly from recollection of the story in Herodotus iii. 85.] 2 [He possibly refers to the statement (Germania, v.), that their coins bore the impress of a two-horse chariot.] 3 Asirgarb, ' fortress of the Asi1 [IGI, vi. 12]. This is the period of the last Buddha, or Mahavira, whose era is four hundred and seventy-seven years before Vikrama, or five hundred and thirty-three before Christ.
The successor of Odin in Scandinavia was Gotama ; and Gautama was the successor of the last Buddha, Mahavira,1 who as Gotama, or Gaudama, is still adored from the Straits of Malacca to the Caspian Sea.
"Other antiquaries," says Pinkerton, " assert another Odin, who was put as the supreme deity one thousand years before Christ" [65]. Mallet admits two Odins, but Mr. Pinkerton wishes he had abided by that of Torfaeus, in 500 A.C.
It is a singular fact that the periods of both the Scandinavian Odins should assimilate with the twenty-second Buddha [Jain Tirthakara], Neminath, and twenty-fourth and last, Mahavira ; the first the contemporary of Krishna, about 1000 or 1100 years, the last 533, before Christ. The Asii, Getae, etc., of Europe worshipped Mercury as founder of their line, as did the Eastern Asi, Takshaks, and Getae. The Chinese and Tatar historians also say Buddha, or Fo, appeared 1027 years before Christ. " The Yuchi, established in Bactria and along the Jihun, eventually bore the name of Jeta or Yetan,2 that is to say, Getae. Their empire subsisted a long time in this part of Asia, and extended even into India. These are the people whom the Greeks knew under the name of Indo-Scythes. Their manners are the same as those of the Turks .3 Revolutions occurred in the very heart of the East, whose consequences were felt afar." 4 The period allowed by all these authorities for the migration of these Scythic hordes into Europe is also that for their entry into India.
The sixth century is that calculated for the Takshak from Sheshnagdesa ; and it is on this event and reign that the Puranas declare, that from this period " no prince of pure blood would be 1 The great [maha) warrior (vir). [Buddha lived 567-487 B.C. : Mahavira, founder of Jainism, died about 527 B.C.] 2 Yeutland was the name given to the whole Cimbric Chersonese, or Jutland (Pinkerton, On the Goths). 3 Turk, Turushka, Takshak, or ' Taunak, fils de Ture' (Abulghazi, History of the Tatars). 4 Histoire des Huns, vol. i. p. 42. found, but that the Sudra, the Turushka, and the Yavan, would prevail."
All these Indu- Scythic invaders held the religion of Buddha : and hence the conformity of manners and mythology between the Scandinavian or German tribes and the Rajputs increased by comparing their martial poetry.
Similarity of religious manners affords stronger proofs of original identity than language. Language is eternally changing — so are manners ; but an exploded custom or rite traced to its source, and maintained in opposition to climate, is a testimony not to be rejected.
Personal Habits, Dress
When Tacitus informs us that the first act of a German on rising was ablution, it will be conceded this habit was not acquired in [66] the cold climate of Germany, but must have been of eastern1 origin ; as were " the loose flowing robe ; the long and braided hair, tied in a knot at the top of the head " ; with many other customs, personal habits, and superstitions of the Scythic Cimbri, Juts, Chatti, Suevi, analogous to the Getic nations of the same name, as described by Herodotus, Justin, and Strabo, and which yet obtain amongst the Rajput Sakhae of the present day. Let us contrast what history affords of resemblance in religion or manners. First, as to religion.
Theogony
Tuisto (mercury) and Ertha (the earth) were the chief divinities of the early German tribes. Tuisto2 was born of the Earth (Ila) and Manus (Manu). he is often confounded with Odin, or Woden, the Budha of the eastern tribes, though they are the Mars and Mercury of these nations.
1 Though Tacitus calls the German tribes indigenous, it is evident he knew their claim to Asiatic origin, when he asks, " Who would leave the softer abodes of Asia for Germany, where Nature yields nothing but deformity ? "
2 In an inscription of the Geta or Jat Prince of Salindrapur (Salpur) of the fifth century, he is styled " of the race of Tusta " (qu. Tuisto ?). It is in that ancient nail-headed character used by the ancient Buddhists of India, and still the sacred character of the Tatar Lamas : in short, the Pali. All the ancient inscriptions I possess of the branches of the Agnikulas, as the Chauhan, Pramara, Solanki, and Parihara, are in this character. That of the Jat prince styles him " Jat Kathida " (qu. of (da) Cathay ?). From Tuisto and Woden we have our Tuesday and Wednesday. In India, Wednesday is Budhwar (Dies Mercurii), and Tuesday Mangalwar (Dies Martis), the Mardi of the French.
Religious Rites
The Suiones or Suevi, the most powerful Getic nation of Scandinavia, were divided into many tribes, one of whom, the Su (Yueh-chi or Jat), made human sacrifices in their consecrated groves 1 to Ertha (Ila), whom all worshipped, and whose chariot was drawn by a cow.2 The Suevi worshipped isis (Isa, Gauri, the Isis and Ceres of Rajasthan), in whose rites the figure of a ship is introduced ; " symbolic," observes Tacitus, " of its foreign origin." 3 The festival of Isa, or Gauri, wife of Iswara, at Udaipur, is performed on the lake, and appears to be exactly that of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, as described by Herodotus. On this occasion Iswara (Osiris), who is secondary to his wife, has a stalk of the onion in blossom in his hand ; a root detested by the Hindus generally, though adored by the Egyptians.
Customs of War
They sung hymns in praise of Hercules, as well as Tuisto or Odin, whose banners and images they carried to the field ; and fought in clans, using the feram or javelin, both in close and distant combat. In all maintaining [67] the resem- blance to the Harikula, descendants of Budha, and the Aswa, offspring of Bajaswa, who peopled those regions west of the Indus, and whose redundant population spread both east and west.
The Suevi, or Suiones, erected the celebrated temple of Upsala, in which they placed the statues of Thor, Woden, and Freya, the triple divinity of the Scandinavian Asii, the Trimurti of the Solar and Lunar races. The first (Thor, the thunderer, or god of war) is Hara, or Mahadeva, the destroyer ; the second (Woden) is Budha,4 the preserver ; and the third (Freya) is Uma, the creative power.
The grand festival to Freya was in spring, when all nature revived ; then boars were offered to her by the Scandinavians, and even boars of paste were made and swallowed by the peasantry.
As Vasanti, or spring personified, the consort of Hara is worshipped by the Rajput, who opens the season with a grand 1 Tacitus, Germania, xxxviii. 2 The gau, or cow, symbolic of Prithivi, the earth. On this see note, p. 33. 3 [Germania, ix.] 4 Krishna is the preserving deity of the Hindu triad. Krishna is of the lndu line of Budha, whom he worshipped prior to his own deification.
Hunt,1 led by the prince and his vassal chiefs, when they chase, slay, and eat the boar. Personal danger is disregarded on this day, as want of success is ominous that the Great Mother will refuse all petitions throughout the year.
Pinkerton, quoting Ptolemy (who was fifty years after Tacitus), says there were six nations in Yeutland or Jutland, the country of the Juts, of whom were the Sablingii (Suevi,2 or Suiones), the Chatti and Hermandri, who extended to the estuary of the Elbe and Weser. There they erected the pillar Irmansul to " the god of war," regarding which Sammes 3 observes : " some will have it to be Mars his pillar, others Hermes Saul, or the pillar of Hermes or Mercury " ; and he naturally asks, " how did the Saxons come to be acquainted with the Greek name of Mercury ? "
Sacrificial pillars are termed Sula in Sanskrit ; which, con- joined with Hara,4 the Indian god of war, would be Harsula. The Rajput warrior invokes Hara with his trident (trisula) to help him in battle, while his battle-shout is ' mar ! mar ! ' The Cimbri, one of the most celebrated of the six tribes of Yeutland, derive their name from their fame as warriors [68].5
Kumara 6 is the Rajput god of war. He is represented with seven heads in the Hindu mythology : the Saxon god of war has six.' The six-headed Mars of the Cimbri Chersonese, to whom was raised the Ii'mansul on the Weser, was worshipped by the Sakasenae, the Chatti, the Siebi or Suevi, the Jotae or Getae, and the Cimbri, evincing in name, as in religious rites, a common origin with the martial warriors of Hindustan.
