The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s2.93

v3.c29.s2.93

The founder of the Rāthor dynasty of Mārwār was Siāhjī, whom the bards of the Rājputs represent as a prince of the Gaharwār house of Kunauj, who escaped when the rest of the family was slain, and, fleeing, established himself in Mārwār, where his tribe received the name of Rāthor. This they explain as a corruption of Rāshtrakūta, alleging that the Gaharwārs were Rāshtrakūtas from the Deccan, but there is little doubt that the whole story is fiction. The Gaharwār line was certainly extinguished, and there is no evidence that any escaped; there is no reason to believe that the Gaharwārs were Rāshtrakūtas; and an inscription dated A.D. 997, found in a town in the Jodhpur State, names four Rāthor Rajas who reigned there in the tenth century. It was probably from these local chieftains that Siāhjī was descended. He established himself, with a small number of followers, first in the north of Mārwār, where he received, as the price of assistance rendered to a Solankī chieftain, a bride with a dower. On a pilgrimage to Dwārkā he encountered and slew the brigand from whom he had delivered the Solankī. The exploit enhanced his reputation and, about 1212, he took up his abode in the fertile region watered by the Lūnī river, west of the Arāvallī Mountains. Here, by violence combined with treachery, he obeyed the Rājput maxim, 'Get land.' One Rājput chief and his followers he slew at a feast, another he defeated and killed in the field. The Brāhmans of Pālī besought his aid against the Mers and Mīnas who ravaged their lands. He drove off the marauders and, having settled at Pālī on land granted to him by the grateful Brāhmans, slew the leaders of the community and appropriated their lands. His son and successor, Asvatthāma, established his brother Soning in Īdar, a principality of the Dābhi Rājputs, by treacherously slaying the members of that clan while they were mourning for one of their princes; and Aja, another brother, invaded Okhamandal, in the extreme west of Kāthiāwār, and established himself there by murdering the Chāvada ruler of the country. His descendants bear the surname which he assumed, and are still known as Vādhel, 'the Slayers.'