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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL. II: HISTORY OF THE RAJPUT TRIBES<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
</div>
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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, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com] your help will be gratefully acknowledged.


=Rajput 09: The dynasties that succeeded Rama and Krishna=
 

Having investigated the line from Ikshwaku to Rama, and that 
from Budha (the parent and first emigrant of the Indu1  race,  
from Saka Dwipa, or Scythia, to Hindustan) to Krishna and 
Yudhishthira, a period of twelve hundred years, we proceed to
the second division and second table of the genealogies. 

==The Suryavansa or Solar Line==

From Rama all the tribes 
termed Suryavansa, or ' Race of the Sun,' claim descent, as the 
present princes of Mewar, Jaipur, Marwar, Bikaner, and their 
numerous clans ; while from the Lunar (Indu) line of Budha and 
Krishna, the families of Jaisalmer and Cutch (the Bhatti 2  and 
Jareja races), extending throughout the Indian desert from the 
Sutlej to the ocean, deduce their pedigrees. 

Rama preceded Krishna : but as their historians, Valmiki and 
Vyasa, who wrote the events they witnessed, were contemporaries, 
it could not have been by many years [46]. 

The present table contains the dynasties which succeeded these 
great beacons of the Solar and Lunar races, and are three in 
number.3  
1. The Suryavansa, descendants of Rama 
2. The Induvansa, descendants of Pandu through Yudhish-
thira. 
3. The Induvansa, descendants of Jarasandha, monarch of 
Rajagriha. 

The Bhagavat and Agni Puranas are the authorities for the 
1 Indu, Som, Chandra, in Sanskrit ' the moon ' ; hence the Lunar race 
is termed the Chandravansa, Somvansa, or Induvansa, most probably the 
'root of Hindu. [Pers. hindu. Skr. sindhu.] 
2 The isolated and now dependent chieftainship of Dhat, of which 
Umarkot is the capital, separates the Bhattis from the Jarejas. Dhat is 
now amalgamated with Sind ; its prince, of Pramara race and Sodha tribe, 
ancient lords of all Sind. 

3 A fourth and fifth might have been given, but imperfect. First the 
descendants of Kusa, second son of Rama, from whence the princes of 
Narwar and Amber : secondly, the descendants of Krishna, from whom 

[the princes of Jaisalmer. 
lines from Rama and Jarasandha ; while that of Pandu is from 
the Raja Tarangini and Rajavail. 

The existing Rajput tribes of the Solar race claim descent from 
Lava and Kusa, the two elder sons of Rama ; nor do I believe 
any existing tribes trace their ancestry to his other children, or 
to his brothers. 

From the eldest son, Lava, the ranas of Mewar claim descent : 
so do the Bargujar tribe, formerly powerful within the confines 
of the present Amber, whose representative now dwells at Anup-
shahr on the Ganges. 

From Kusa descend the Kachhwaha 1 princes of Narwar and 
Amber, and their numerous clans. Amber, though the first in 
power, is but a scion of Narwar, transplanted about one thousand 
years back, whose chief, the representative of the celebrated 
Prince Nala, enjoys but a sorry district 2  of all his ancient pos-
sessions. 

The house of Marwar also claims descent from this stem, which 
appears to originate in an error of the genealogists, confounding 
the race of Kusa with the Kausika of Kanauj and Kausambi. 
Nor do the Solar genealogists admit this assumed pedigree. 
The Amber prince in his genealogies traces the descent of the 
Mewar ^ family from Rama to Sumitra, through Lava, the eldest 
brother, and not through Kusa,* as in some copies of the Puranas, 
and in that whence Sir William Jones had his lists [47J. 

Mr. Bentley, taking this genealogy from the same authority 
as Sir William Jones, has mutilated it by a transposition, for 
1 In modem times always written and pronounced Kutchwaha. 
2 It is in the plateau of Central India, near Shahabad. 
3 Whatever dignity attaches to this pedigree, whether true or false, 
every prince, and every Hindu of learning, admit the claims of the princes 
of Mewar as heir to ' the chair of Rama ' ; and a degree of reverence has 
consequently attached, not only to his person, but to the seat of his power. 
When Mahadaji Sindhia was called by the Rana to reduce a traitorous 
noble in Chitor, such was the reverence which actuated that (in other 
respects) little scrupulous chieftain, that he could not be prevailed on to 
point his cannon on the walls within which consent established ' the throne 
of Rama.' The Rana himself, then a jouth, had to break the ice, and fired 
a cannon agauist his own ancient abode. 

4  Bryant, in his Analysis, mentions that the children of the Cushite 
Ham used his name in salutation as a mark of recognition. ' Ram, Ram,' 
is the common salutation in these Hindu countries ; the respondent often 
joining Sita's name with that of her consort Rama, ' Sita Ram.' 

which his reasons are insufficient, and militate against every 
opinion of the Hindus. Finding the names Vrihadbala and 
Vridasura, declared to be princes contemporary with Yudhish-
thira, he transposes the whole ten princes of his list intervening 
between Takshak 1 and Bahuman.2 

Bahuman,3 or ' the man witli arms ' (Darazdasht or Longi-
manus) is the thirty-fourth prince from Rama ; and his reign 
must be placed nearly intermediate between Rama and Sumitra, 
or his contemporary Vikrama, and in the sixth century from 
either. 

Sumitra concludes the line of Surya or Rama from the Bhaga-
vat Purana. Thence it is connected with the present line of 
Mewar, by Jai Singh's authorities ; which list has been compared 
with various others, chiefly Jain, as will be related in the annals 
of Mewar. , 

It will be seen that the line of Surya exhibits fifty-six princes,  
from Lava, the son of Rama, to Sumitra, the last prince given in  
the Puranas. Sir William Jones exhibits fifty-seven. 

To these fifty-six reigns I should be willing to allow the average 
of twenty years, which would give 1120 from Rama to Sumitra, 
who preceded by a short period Vikramaditya ; and as 1100 have 
been already calculated to have preceded the era of Rama and 
Yudhishthira, the inference is, that 2200 years elapsed from 
Ikshwaku, the founder of the Solar line, to Sumitra. 

==Chandravansa or the Lunar Line==

From the Raja Tarangini  
and Rajavali the Induvansa family (descendants of Pandu  
through Yudhishthira) is supplied. These works, celebrated in 
Rajwara as collections of genealogies and historical facts, by the  
1 Twenty-eighth prince from Rama in Mr. Bentley's list, and twenty-  
fifth in mine. 
2 Thirty-seventh in Mr. Bentley's list and thirty-fourth in mine ; but 
the intervening names being made to follow Rama, Bahuman (written by 
him Banumat) follows Takshak. 
3 The period of time, also, would allow of their grafting the son of 
Artaxerxes and father of Darius, the worshipper of Mthras, on the stem 
of the adorers of Surya, while a curious notice of the Raja Jai Singh's on a 
subsequent name on this list which he calls Naushirwan, strengthens the 
coincidence. Bahuman (see article ' Bahaman,' D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient.) 
actually carried his arms into India, and invaded the kingdoms of the Solar 
race of Mithila and Magadha. The time is appropriate to the first Darius 
and his father ; and Herodotus [iii. 94] tells us that the richest and best of 
the satrapies of his empire was the Hindu, 

Pandils Vidyadhara and Raghunatli, were compiled under the 
eye of the most learned prince of his period, Sawai Jai Singh of 
Amber, and give the various dynasties which ruled at Indra-
prastha, or Delhi, from Yudhishthira to Vikramaditya ; and 
although barren of events, may be considered of value in filling up 
a period of entire darkness [48]. 

The Tarangini commences with Adinath 1 or Rishabhdeva,2 
being the Jain 3 theogony. Rapidly noticing the leading princes 
of the dynasties discussed, they pass to the birth of the kings 
Dhritarashtra and Pandu, and their offspring, detailing the 
causes of their civil strife, to that conflict termed the Mahabharata 
or Great War. 

==The Pandava Family==

The origin of every family, whether 
of east or west, is involved in fable. That of the Pandu 4 is 
entitled to as much credence as the birth of Romulus, or other 
founders of a race. 

Such traditions 5 were probably invented to cover some great 
disgrace in the Pandu family, and have relation to the story 
already related of Vyasa, and the debasement of this branch of 
the Harikulas. Accordingly, on the death of Pandu, Duryo
dhana, nephew of Pandu (son of Dhritarashtra, who from blindness 
could not inherit), asserted their illegitimacy before the assembled 
kin at Hastinapura. With the aid, however, of the priesthood, 
and the blind Dhritarashtra, his nephew, Yudhishthira, elder son 
of Pandu, was invested by him with the seal of royalty, in the 
capital, Hastinapura. 

Duryodhana's plots against the Pandu and his partisans were 
1 First lord. 
2 lord of the Bull.
3 Vidhyadhar was a Jain. 
4 Pandu not being blessed with progeny, his queen made use of a charm 
by which she enticed the deities from their spheres. To Dharma Raj 
(Minos) she bore Yudhishthira ; by Pavan (Aeolus) she had Bhima ; by 
Indra (Jupiter Coelus) she had Arjuna, who was taught by his sire the use 
of the bow, so fatal in the Great War ; and Nakula and Sahadeva owed 
their birth to Aswini Kumar (Aesculapius) the physician of the gods. 

5  We must not disregard the intellect of the Amber prince, who allowed 
these ancient traditions to be incorporated with the genealogy compiled 
under his eye. The prince who obtained De Silva from Emmanuel III. of 
Portugal, who combined the astronomical tables of Europe and Asia, and 
raised these monuments of his scientific genius in his favourite pursuit 
(astronomy) in all the capital cities of India, while engrossed in war and 
politics, requires neither eulogy nor defence. 

so numerous that the five brothers determined to leave for a 
while their ancestral abodes on the Ganges. They sought shelter 
in foreign countries about the Indus, and were first protected by 
Drupada, king of Panchala, at whose capital, Kampilanagara, 
the surrounding princes had arrived as suitors for the hand of his 
daughter, Draupadi.1 But the prize was destined for the exiled 
Pandu, and the skill of Arjuna in archery obtained him the fair, 
who " threw round his neck the (barmala) garland of marriage." 
The disappointed princes indulged their resentment against the 
exile ; but by Arjuna's bow they suffered the fate of Penelope's 
suitors, and the Pandu brought home his bride, who became the 
wife in common of the five brothers : manners 2 decisively 
Scythic [49]. 

The deeds of the brothers abroad were bruited in Hastinapura 
and the blind Dhritarashtra's influence effected their recall. To 
stop, however, their intestine feuds, he partitioned the Pandu 
sovereignty ; and while his son, Duryodhana, retained Hastina-
pura, Yudhishthira founded the new capital of Indraprastha ; but 
shortly after the Mahabharata he abdicated in favour of his grand
nephew, Parikshita, introducing a new era, called after himself, 
which existed for eleven hundred years, when it was overturned, 
and Indraprastha was conquered by Vikramaditya Tuar of Ujjain, 
of the same race, who established an era of his own. 

On the division of the Pandu sovereignty, the new kingdom 
of Indraprastha eclipsed that of Hastinapura. The brothers 
reduced to obedience the surrounding 3 nations, and compelled 
their princes to sign tributary engagements {paenama)4 
Yudhishthira, firmly seated on his throne, determined to
 
1 Drupada was of the Aswa race, being descended from Bajaswa (or 
Hyaswa) of the line of Ajamidha. 
2 This marriage, so inconsistent with Hindu delicacy, is glossed over. 
Admitting the polyandry, but in ignorance of its being a national custom, 
puerile reasons are interpolated. In the early annals of the same race, 
predecessors of the Jaisalmer family, the younger son is made to succeed : 
also Scythic or Tatar. The manners of the Scythae described by Herodotus 
are found still to exist among their descendants : "a pair of slippers at the 
wife's door " is a signal well understood by all Eimauk husbands (Elphin
stone's Caubul, vol. ii. p. 251). 
3 Tarangini. 
4 Paenama is a [Persian] word pecuharly expressive of subserviency to 
paramount authority, whether the engagement be in money or service : 
from pae, ' the foot.' 
signalize his reign and paramount sovereignty, by the imposing 
and solemn rites of Asvamedha 1 and Rajasuya.
 
==The Asvamedha==


In these magnificent ceremonies, in which 
princes alone officiate, every duty, down to that of porter, is per-
formed by royalty. 

The ' Steed of Sacrifice ' was liberated under Arjuna's care, 
having wandered whither he listed for twelve months ; and none 
daring to accept this challenge of supremacy, he was reconducted 
to Indraprastha, where, in the meanwhile, the hall of sacrifice was 
prepared, and all the princes of the land were summoned to 
attend. 

The hearts of the Kurus 2  burned with envy at the assumption 
of supremacy by the Pandus, for the Prince of Hastinapura's 
office was to serve out the sacred food [50]. 

The rivalry between the races burst forth afresh ; but Duryo
dhana, who so often failed in his schemes against the safety of his 
antagonists, determined to make the virtue of Yudhishthira the 
instrument of his success. He availed himself of the national 
propensity for play, in which the Rajput continues to preserve 
his Scythic 3 resemblance. Yudhishthira fell into the snare 
prepared for him. He lost his kingdom, his wife, and even his 
personal liberty and that of his brothers, for twelve years, and 
became an exile from the plains of the Yamuna. 

The traditional history  of these wanderers during the term of 
probation, their many lurking places now sacred, the return 
to their ancestral abodes, and the grand battle (Mahabharata) 
which ensued, form highly interesting episodes in the legends of 
Hindu antiquity. 

To decide this civil strife, every tribe and chief of fame, from 
the Caucasus to the ocean, assembled on Kurukshetra, the field 
1 Sacrifice of the horse to the sun, of which a full description is given 
hereafter. 
2 Duryodhana, as the elder branch, retained his title as head of the 
Kurus ; while the junior, Yudhishthira, on the separation of authority, 
adopted his father's name, Pandu, as the patronymic of his new dynasty. 
The site of the great conflict (or Mahabharata) between these rival clans, is 
called Kurukshetra, or ' Field of the Kurus.' 
3 Herodotus describes the ruinous passion for play amongst the Scythic 
hordes, and which may have been carried west by Odin into Scandinavia 
and Germany. Tacitus tells us that the Germans, like the Pandus, staked 
even iiersonal liberty, and were sold as slaves by the winner [Germania, 24]. 
on which the empire of India has since more than once been 
contested 1  and lost. 

This combat was fatal to the dominant influence of the " fifty-
six tribes of Yadu." On each of its eighteen days' combat, myriads 
were slain ; for " the father knew not the son, nor the disciple his 
preceptor." 

Victory brought no happiness to Yudhishthira. The slaughter 
of his friends disgusted him with the world, and he determined 
to withdraw from it ; previously performing, at Hastinapura, 
funeral rites for Duryodhana (slain by the hands of Bhima), 
whose ambition and bad faith had originated this exterminating 
war. " Having regained his kingdom, he proclaimed a new era, 
and placing on the throne of Indraprastha, Parikshita, grandson 
to Arjuna, retired to Dwarka with Krishna and Baldeva : and 
since the war to the period of writing, 4638 years have elapsed." 2 

Yudhishthira, Baldeva, and Krishna, having retired with the 
wreck of this ill-fated struggle to Dwarka, the two former had 
soon to lament the death of Krishna, slain by one of the aboriginal 
tribes of Bhils ; against whom, from their shattered condition, 
they were luiable to contend. After this event, Yudhishthira, 
with [51] Baldeva and a few followers, entirely withdrew from 
India, and emigrating northwards, by Sind, to the Himalayan 
mountains, are there abandoned by Hindu traditional history, 
and are supposed to have perished in the snows.' 

1  On it the last Hindu monarch, Prithwiraja, lost his kingdom, his liberty, 
and life. 
2 Rajatarangini. The period of writing was A.D. 1740. ; 
3 Having ventured to surmise analogies between the Hercules of the east 
and west, I shall carry them a point further. Amidst the snows of Caucasus, 
Hindu legend abandons the Harikulas, under their leaders Yudhishthira 
and Baldeva : yet if Alexander established his altars in Panchala, amongst 
the sons of Puru and the Harikulas, what physical impossibility exists that 
a colony of them, under Yudhishthira and Baldeva, eight centuries anterior, 
should have penetrated to Greece ? Comparatively far advanced in science 
and arms, the conquest would have been easy.
 
When Alexander attacked 
the ' free cities ' of Panchala, the Purus and Harikulas who opposed him 
evinced the recollections of their ancestor, in carrying the figure of Hercules 
as their standard. Comparison proves a common origin to Hindu and 
Grecian mythology ; and Plato says the Greeks had theirs from Egypt and 
the East. May not this colony of the Harikulas be the Herachdae, who pene
trated into the Peloponnesus (according to Volney) 1078 years before Christ, 
sufficiently near our calculated period of the Great War ? The Herachdae 
claimed from Atreus : the Harikulas claim from Atri. Eurysthenes was 
From Parikshita, who succeeded Yudhishthira, to Vikrama-
ditya, four 1 dynasties are given in a continuous chain, exhibiting 
sixty-six princes to Rajpal, who, invading Kumaon, was slain by 
Sukwanti. The Kumaun conqueror seized upon Delhi, but was 
soon dispossessed by Vikramaditya, who transferred the seat of 
imperial power from Indraprastha to Avanti, or Ujjain, from 
which time it became the first meridian of the Hindu astronomy. 

Indraprastha ceased to be a regal abode for eight centuries, 
when it was re-established by Anangpal,2 the founder of the Tuar 
race, claiming descent from the Pandus. Then the name of Delhi 
superseded that of Indraprastha. 

the first king of the Heraclidae : Yudhishthira has sufficient affinity in 
name to the first Spartan king not to startle the etymologist, the d and 
r being always permutable in Sanskrit. The Greeks or lonians are de-
scended from Yavan, or Javan, the seventh from Japhet. The Harikulas 
are also Yavans claiming from Javan or Yavan, the thirteenth in descent 
from Yayati, the third son of the primeval patriarch. The ancient Hera
clidae of Greece asserted they were as old as the sun, and older than the 
moon. May not this boast conceal the fact that the Heliadae (or Surya-
vansa) of Greece had settled there anterior to the colony of the Indu (Lunar) 
race of Harikula ? In all that relates to the mythological history of the 
Indian demi-gods, Baldeva (Hercules), Krishna or Kanhaiya (Apollo), and 
Budha (Mercury), a powerful and almost perfect resemblance can be traced 
))etween those of Hindu legend, Greece, and Egypt. Baldeva (the god of 
strength) Harikula, is still worshipped as in the days of Alexander ; his 
shrine at Baldeo in Vraj (the Surasenoi of the Greeks), his club a plough
share, and a lion's skin his covering. A Hindu intaglio of rare value 
represents Hercules exactly as described by Arrian, with a monogram con-
sisting of two ancient characters now unknown, but which I have found 
wherever tradition assigns a spot to the Harikulas ; especially in Saurashtra, 
where they were long concealed on their exile from Delhi. This we may 
at once decide to be the exact figure of Hercules which Arrian describes 
his descendants to have carried as their standard, when Porus opposed 
Alexander. The intaglio will appear in the Trans. R.A.S. [The specula
tions in this note have no authority.] 

1 The twenty-eighth prince, Khemraj, was the last in lineal descent from 
Parikshita, the grand-nephew of Yudhishthira. The first dynasty lasted 
1 864 years. The second dynasty was of Visarwa, and consisted of fourteen 
princes ; this lasted five hundred years. The third dynasty was headed by 
Mahraj, and terminated by Antinai, the fifteenth prince. The fourth 
dynasty was headed by Dudhsen, and terminated by Rajpal, the ninth and 
last king (Rajatarangini). 

2 The Rajatarangini gives the date A.v. 848, or a.v. 792, for this ; and 
adds : " Princes from Siwalik, or northern hills, held it during this time, 
and it long continued desolate until the Tuars."
 
"Sukwanti, a prince from the northern mountains of Kumaun, 
ruled fourteen [52] years, when he was slain by Vikramaditya ; 1 
and from the Bharat to this period 2915 years have elapsed." 2 
Such a period asserted to have elapsed while sixty-six princes 
occupied the throne, gives an average of forty-four years to each ; 
which is incredible, if not absolutely impossible. 

In another passage the compiler says : " I have read many 
books (shastras), and all agreed to make one hundred princes, 
all of Khatri 3  race, occupy the throne of Delhi from Yudhishthira 
to Pritliwiraja, a period of 4100 years,4 after which the Ravad 5 
race succeeded." 

It is fortunate for these remnants of historical data that they 
have only extended the duration of reigns, and not added more 
heads. Sixty-six links are quite sufficient to connect Yudhishthira 
and Vikramaditya. 

We cannot object to the " one hundred princes " who fill the 
space assigned from Yudhishthira to Prithwiraja, though there 
is no proportion between the number which precedes and that 
which follows Vikramaditya, the former being sixty-six, the latter 
only thirty-four princes, although the period cannot differ half 
a century.
 
let us apply a test to these one hundred kings, from Yudhish 
thira to Prithwiraja : the result will be 2250 years. 
This test is derived from the average rate of reigns of the chief 
dynasties of Rajasthan, during a period of 633  6 to 663 7 years, 
or from Prithwiraja to the present date. 

1 .50 B.C. [Cunningham remarks that the defeat of Raja Pal of Delhi  
By Sukwanti, Sukdati, or Sukaditya, Raja of Kumaun, must be assigned to 
A.D. 79 : but he has little confidence in such. traditions, unless supported by 
independent evidence (ASR, i. 1.38).] 
2  Raghunath. 
3 Rajput, or Kshatriya. 
4 This period of 4100 years may have been arrived at by the compiler 
taking for granted the number of years mentioned by Raghunath as having 
elapsed from the Mahabharata to Vikrainaditya, namely 291.5, and adding 
thereto the well-authenticated period of Prithwiraja, who was born in 
Samvat 1215 : for if 2915 be subtracted from 4100, it leaves 1185, the period 
within thirty years of the birth of Prithwiraja, according to the Chauhan 
chronicles. 
5 Solar. 
6  From S. 1250, or A.D. 1194, captivity and dethronement of Prithwiraja. 
7  From S. 1212, a.d. 1516, the founding of Jaisalmer by Jaisal, to the 
accession of Gaj Singh, the present prince, in S. 1876, or a.d. 1820.
 
Of Mewar . . 34  1  princes, or 19 years to each reign. 
Of Marwar . . 28 princes, or 23 1/4  „ ,, 
Of Amber . . 29 princes, or 22 1/2 ,, ,, 
Of Jaisalmer . . 28 princes, or 23 1/4 ,, ,, 
giving an average of twenty-two years for each reign [53]. 

It would not be proper to ascribe a longer period to each reign, 
and it were perhaps better to give the minimum, nineteen, to 
extended dynasties ; and to the sixty-six princes from Yudhish-
thira and Vikramaditya not even so much, four revolutions 2  and 
usurpations marking this period.