Mewar 01: Origin of the Guhilot princes of Mewar
This page is an extract from OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN By Edited with an Introduction and Notes by In Three Volumes HUMPHREY MILFORD |
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, Indpaedia.com your help will be gratefully acknowledged.
Contents |
Mewar 01: Origin of the Guhilot princes of Mewar
We now proceed to the history of the States of Rajputana, and shall commence with the Annals of Mewar, and its princes.
Titles of Mewar Chiefs: Descent from the Sun
These are styled Ranas, and are the elder branch of the Suryavansi, or ' children of the sun.' Another patronymic is Raghuvansi, derived from a predecessor of Rama, the focal point of each scion of the solar race. To him, the conqueror of Lanka,1 the genea logists endeavour to trace the solar lines. The titles of many of these claimants are disputed ; but the Hindu tribes yield unani mous suffrage to the prince of Mewar as the legitimate heir to the throne of Rama, and style him Hindua Suraj, or ' Sun of the Hindus.2 He is universally allowed to be the first of the ' thirty six royal tribes ' ; nor has a doubt ever been raised respecting his purity of descent. Many of these tribes 3 have been swept away by time ; and the genealogist, who abhors a vacuum in his mystic page, fills up their place with others, mere scions of some ancient but forgotten stem.
Stability of Mewar State
With the exception of Jaisalmer, Mewar is the only dynasty of these races ' which has outlived eight centuries of foreign domination, in the same lands where
1 Said to be Cfeylon ; an idea scouted by the Hindus, who transfer Lanka to a very distant regfon. [The latter is certainly not the common belief.] 2 This descendant of one hundred kings shows himself in cloudy weather from the surya-gaukhra, or ' balcony of the sun.' 3 See History of the Tribes. [212] conquest placed them. The Rana still possesses nearly the same extent of territory which his ancestors held when the con queror from Ghazni first crossed the ' blue waters ' 1 of the Indus to invade India ; while the other families now ruling in the north west of Rajasthan are the relics of ancient dynasties driven from their pristine seats of power, or their junior branches, who have erected their own fortunes. This circumstance adds to the dignity of the Ranas, and is the cause of the general homage which they receive, notwithstanding the diminution of their power. Though we cannot give the princes of Mewar an ancestor in the Persian Nushirwan, nor assert so confidently as Sir Thomas Roe his claims to descent from the celebrated Porus,2 the opponent of Alexander, we can carry him into the regions of antiquity more remote than the Persian, and which would satisfy the most fastidious in respect to ancestry.
Origin of the Rajputs
In every age and clime we observe the same eager desire after distinguished pedigree, proceeding from a feeling which, though often derided, is extremely natural. The Rajaputras are, however, scarcely satisfied with discriminating their ancestors from the herd of mankind. Some plume them selves on a celestial origin, whilst others are content to be demi celestial ; and those who cannot advance such lofty claims, rather than acknowledge the race to have originated in the ordinary course of nature, make their primeval parent of demoniac extraction ; accordingly, several of the dynasties who cannot obtain a niche amongst the children of the sim or moon, or trace their descent from some royal saint, are satisfied to be considered the offspring of some Titan {Daily a). These puerilities are of modern fabrication, in cases where family documents have been lost, or emigration has severed branches from the parent stock ;' who, increasing in power, but ignorant of their birth, have had recourse to fable to supply the void. Various authors, borrowing from the same source, have assigned the seat of Porus to the Rana's family ; and coincidence of name has been the cause of the family being alternately elevated and depressed. Thus the incidental circumstance of the word Rhamnae being found in Ptolemy's geography, in countries bordering on Mewar, furnishes our ablest geographers 1 with a reason [213] for planting the family there in the second century ; while the commentators 2 on the geography of the Arabian travellers of the ninth and tenth centuries ' discover sufficient evidence in " the kingdom of Rahun, always at war with the Balhara sovereign," to consider him (not withstanding Rahun is expressly stated " not to be much con sidered for his birth or the antiquity of his kingdom ") as the prince of Chitor, celebrated in both these points.
The translator of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, following D'Anville,4 makes Ozene (Ujjain) the capital of a Porus 5 who sent an embassy to Augustus to regulate their commercial intercourse, and whom he asserts to be the ancestor of the Rana. But to show how guarded we should be in admitting verbal resemblance to decide such points, the title of Rana is of modern adoption, even so late as the twelfth century ; and was assumed in conse quence of the victorious issue of a contest with the Parihara prince of Mandor, who bore the title of Rana, and who surrendered it with his life and capital to the prince of Mewar. The latter substituted it for the more ancient appellation of Rawal ; 6 but it was not till the thirteenth century that the novel distinction was generally recognized by neighbouring powers.
1 D'Anville and Rennell. [The Rhamnae have been identified with the Brahui of Baluchistan (McCrindle, Ptolemy, 159). Lassen places them on the Nerbudda.] 2 Maurice and others. 3 Relations anciennes des voyageurs, par Renaudot. 4 D'Anville {Antiquites de I'Inde) quotes Nicolas of Damascus as his authority, who says the letter written by Porus, prince of Ozene, was in the Greek character. 5 This Porus is a corruption of Puar, once the most powerful and con spicuous tribe in India ; classically written Pramara, the dynasty which ruled at Ujjain for ages. [This is not certain (Smith, EHI, 60, note).] 6 Rawed, or Raul, is yet borne as a princely title by the Aharya prince of Dungarpur, and the Yadu prince of Jaisalmer, whose ancestors long ruled in the heart of Scjrthia. Raoul seems to have been titular to the Scandi navian chiefs of Scythic" origin. The invader of Normandy was Raoul, corrupted to Rollon or Rollo. [The words, of course, have no connexion : Rawal, Skt. rajakula, ' royal family.'] Although we cannot for a moment admit the Rahun, or even the Rhamnae of Ozene, to be connected with this family, yet Ptolemy appears to have given the real ancestor in his Baleokouroi, the Balhara monarchs of the Arabian travellers, the Valabhiraes of Saurashtra, who were the ancestors of the princes of Mewar.1 Before we proceed, it is necessary to specify the sources whence materials were obtained for the Annals of Mewar, and to give some idea of the character they merit as historical data [214].
Sources of the History
For many years previous to sojourn ing at the court of Udaipur, sketches were obtained of the genea logy of the family from the rolls of the bards. To these was added a chronological sketch, drawn up under the eye of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, with comments of some value by him, and which served as a ground-work. Free access was also granted to the Rana's library, and permission obtained to make copies of such MSS. as related to his history. The most important of these was the Khuman Raesa,2 which is evidently a modern work founded upon ancient materials, tracing the genealogy to Rama, and halting at conspicuous beacons in this long line of crowned heads, particu larly about the period of the Muhammadan irruption in the tenth century, the sack of Chitor by Alau-d-din in the thirteenth century, and the wars of Rana Partap with Akbar, during whose reign the work appears to have been recast.
The next in importance were the Rajvilas, in the Vraj Bhakha, by Man Kabeswara ; 3 and the Rajratnakar,4 by Sudasheo Bhat : both written in the reign of Rana Raj Singh, the oj^ponent of Aurangzeb : also the Jaivilas, written in the reign of Jai Singh, son of Raj Singh. They all commence with the genealogies of the 1 The Balhara kings, and their capital Nahrwala, or Anhilwara Patan, have given rise to much conjecture amongst the learned. We shall, before this work is closed, endeavour to condense what has been said by ancient and modern authorities on the subject ; and from manuscripts, ancient inscriptions, and the result of a personal visit to this ancient domain, to set the matter completely at rest. [See p. 122 above.] [" Hippokoura, the royal seat of Baleo Kouros " {Periplus, vhi. 83). Baleo Kouros has been identified with Vilivayakura, a name found on coins of the Andhra dynasty (BO, i. Part ii. 158 ; McCrindle, Ptolemy, 179).] 2 Khuman is an ancient title of the earlier princes, and still used. It was borne by the son of Bappa, the founder, who retired to Transoxiana, and there ruled and died : the very country of the ancient Scythic Khomani. 3 Lord of rhyme. 4 Sea of gems. family, introductory to the military exploits of the princes whose names they bear.
The Mamadevi Prasistha is a copy of the inscriptions 1 in the temple of ' the Mother of the Gods ' at Kumbhalmer. Genea logical rolls of some antiquity were obtained from the widow of an ancient family bard, who had left neither children nor kindred to follow his profession. Another roll was procured from a priest of the Jains residing in Sandrai, in Marwar, whose ancestry had enjoyed from time immemorial the title of Guru, which they held at the period of the sack of Valabhipura in the fifth century, whence they emigrated simultaneously with the Rana's ancestors. Others were obtained from Jain priests at Jawad in Malwa. Historical documents possessed by several chiefs were readily furnished, and extracts were made from works, both Sanskrit and Persian, which incidentally mention the family. To these were added traditions or biographical anecdotes furnished in con versation by the Rana, or men of intellect amongst his chiefs [215], ministers, or bards, and inscriptions calculated to reconcile dates ; in short, every corroborating circumstance was treasured up which could be obtained by incessant research during sixteen years. The Commentaries of Babur and Jahangir, the Institutes of Akbar, original grants, public and autograph letters of the emperors of Delhi and their ministers, were made to contribute more or less ; yet, numerous as are the authorities cited, the result may afford but little gratification to the general reader, partly owing to the unpopularity of the subject, partly to the inartificial mode of treating it.
