Mewar: Legend of Kanaksen
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Mewar: Legend of Kanaksen
By what route Kanaksen, the first emigrant of the solar race, found his way into Saurashtra from Lohkot, is uncertam : he, however, wrested dominion from a prince of the Pramara race, and founded Birnagara in the second century (a.d. 144). Four generations afterwards, Vijayasen. whom the prince of Amber calls Nushirwan, founded Vijayapur, supposed to be where Dholka now stands, at the head of the Saurashtra peninsula.^ Vidarba was also founded by him, the name of which was afterwards changed to Sihor. But the most celebrated was the capital, Valabhipura, which for years baffled all search, till it was revealed in its now humbled condition as Walai, ten miles west [217] of Bhaunagar. The existence of this city was confirmed by a celebrated Jain work, the Satrunjaya Mahatma.^ The want of satisfactory proof of the Rana's emigra tion from thence was obviated by the most unexpected discovery of an inscription of the twelfth century, in a ruined temple on the tableland forming the eastern boundary of the Rana'? present territory, which appeals to the ' walls of Valabhi ' for the truth of the action it records. And a work written to commemorate the reign of Rana Raj Singh opens with these words : "In the west is Sorathdes,^ a country well known : the barbarians invaded it, and conquered Bal-ka-nath ; * all fell in the sack of Valab hipura, except the daughter of the Pramara." And the Sandrai
the time-worn branches of which monsters and demi-gods are perched, whose claims of affinity are held in high estimation by thesfe ' children of the sun,' who would deem it criminal to doubt that the loin-robe (dhoti) of their great founder, Bapa Rawal, was less than five hundred cubits in circum ference, that his two-edged sword (khanda), the gift of the Hindu Proserpine, weighed an ounce less than sixty-four pounds, or that he was an inch under twenty feet in height.
1 [Vijayapur has been doubtfully identified with Bijapur in the Alima dabad district (BG, i. Part i. 110).]
2 Presented to the Royal Asiatic Society of London.
3 Sorath or Saurashtra. 4 The ' lord of Bal.' roll thus commences : " When the city of Valabhi was sacked, the inhabitants fled and founded Bali, Sandrai, and Nadol in Mordar des." ^ These are towns yet of consequence, and in all the Jain religion is still naaintained, which was the chief worship of Valabhipura when sacked by the ' barbarian.' The records preserved by the Jains give s.b. 205 (a.d. 524) as the date of this event.^
The tract about Valabhipura and northward is termed Bal, probably from the tribe of Bala, which might have been the designation of the Rana's tribe prior to that of Grahilot ; and most probably Multan, and all these regions of the Kathi, Bala, etc., were dependent on Lohkot, whence emigrated Kanaksen ; thus strengthening the surmise of the Scythic descent of the Ranas, though now installed in the seat of Rama. The sun was the deity of this northern tribe, as of the Rana's ancestry, and the remains of numerous temples to this grand object of Scj'thic homage are still to be found scattered over the peninsula ; whence its name, Saurashtra, the coimtry of the Sauras, or Sun-worship pers ; the Surastrene or Syrastrene of ancient geographers ; its inhabitants, the Suros (2t'/pwv) of Strabo.'
Besides these cities, the MSS. give Gayni * as the last refuge
1 Marwar.
2 [The date of the fall of Valabhi is very uncertain (Smith, EH I, 315, note). It is said to* have been destroyed in the reign of Siladitya VI., the last of the dynasty, about a.d. 776 (Duff, Chronology of India, 31, G7, 308).]
3 [There is possibly a confusion with the Soras of Aehan (xv. 8) which has been identified by Caldwell {Dravidian Grammar, 17) with the ^Qpat of Ptolemy, and with the Chola kingdom of Southern India. Surashtra or Saurashtra, ' land of the Sus,' was afterwards Sanskritized into ' goodly country ' (Monier Williams, Skt. Diet. s.v. ; BG, i. Part i. 6).]
4 Gaini, or Gajni, is one of the ancient names of Cambay (the port of Valabhipura), the ruins of which are about three miles from the modern city. Other sources indicate that these princes held possessions in the southern continent of India, as well as in the Saurashtra peninsula. Tala talpur Patau, on the Godavari, is mentioned, which tradition asserts to be the city of Deogir ; but which, after many years' research, I discovered in Saurashtra, it being one of the ancient names of Kandala. In after times, when succeeding dynasties held the title of Balakarae, though the capital was removed inland to Anhilwara Patau, they still held possession of the western shore, and Cambay continued the chief port. [For the identifica tion of Gajni with Cambay see I A, iv. 147 ; BG, vi. 213 note. The site of Devagiri has been identified with Daulatabad (BG, i. Part ii. 136 ; Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, ii. 255, note).] of the family [218] when expelled Saurashtra. One of the poetic chronicles thus commences : " The barbarians had captured Gajni. The house of Siladitya was left desolate. In its defence his heroes fell ; of his seed but the name remained."
