History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c48.32

v2.c48.32

The claim to Rajput descent of the Sonpur-Patna family entered into a new phase in the last quarter of the century from the present day. This attempt was headed by a respectable scholar, Mr. B. C. Mazumdar, formerly a lawyer of Sambalpur and at present a lecturer in the Post- Graduate Department in Arts of the Calcutta University and a Vakil of the Calcutta High Court. Mr. Mazumdar’s first work on this subject was published in 1911 and is entitled “Sonpur in the Sambalpur tract.” In Chapter VI Mr. Mazumdar says: “The legendary account of the Chohan Rajas is that one Humeru of the family of Prithviraj of Delhi, having lost his position at Mainpuri in in Upper India during the time of the Mahomedan rulers, came with his queens to the borders of Patna State and established a little principality. How this Rajput adventurer came upon this far-off tract after travelling many hundred miles through rugged hills and dense forests is not now easy to ascertain.” (p. 44-45). This account differs from the previous “Informations” supplied to the compiler of the Bengal Gazatteers, of Sambalpur, and the Orissa Feudatory States, in the fact that the pilgrim of an unknown caste described by Motte in 1766 who had become a Chauhan of Sambhal near Mainpuri in Impey’s report of 1863 and Grant’s Gazetteer in 1870, and who had gone up at least three hundred years anterior in date than the date given by Motte, now becomes a member of the family of Prithviraja. Mr. Mazumdar perhaps does not know that the Chahamanas continued to rule over the North-Eastern portion of Rajputana after the fall of Delhi and Ajmer in 1192-93. So it became convenient to make Humeru, and Hitambar Sing, come to Orissa instead of following the fortunes of Hari Singh or Hammira I of Ranastambhapur or Ranthambhor in the Jaipur State. It also became convenient for Mr. Mazumdar through the accommodation of Messrs. Cobden-Ramsay and O’Malley to assert that Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar once acknowledged the suzerainty of the Chauhan Rajas of Patna and Sambalpur. He says on p. 48 : “some old records disclose the fact that the Chauhan Rajas of Patna and Sambalpur issued orders of demand of revenue upon some chiefs of Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj. It is to be regretted that no trace of these records can now be obtained, though they were inspected either by Sir A. Grant himself or by his responsible assistants some time previous to 1862.”¹