The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c34.10.1

v2.c34.10.1

Scholars are unanimous that there are some elements of truth in this tradition. For instance, it is accepted that the ancestors of the Guhila-putras originally migrated from Gujarat. The close association of the early founders with the Brāhmans is also taken to be true. But while one school is still trying to prove the descent of the family from the kings of Valabhī,⁴ others⁵ have pointed out literary and epigraphic evidence to show their origin from the Brāhmans of Ānandapura⁶ in Gujarat. The difficulty of connecting the origin of the Guhila-putras with the death of Sīlāditya VII of Valabhī is obvious. For the latest known date for the latter is A.D. 766,⁷ and we have an inscription dated in A.D. 646 for Sīla,⁸ the fifth prince of the Guhila-putra family. Assigning a period of twenty years for each reign, we must place Guhadatta or Guhila, the first prince, to about the middle of the 6th century A.D., clearly two centuries before his supposed father. The attempt to connect the reigning family of Mewar with Śīlāditya VII and the fall of Valabhī must therefore be given up. In the Atpur inscription of Śaktikumāra, dated in V. S. 1034 (*c.* 977 A.D.), his ancestor Guhadatta is described as a *Mahīdeva* and *Vipra-kula-nandana*, who had emigrated from Ānandapura.¹ It will be observed that this Ānandapura, which is the modern Vadnagar in Baroda State, is quite close to Idar, which according to bardic tradition was the original seat of power of Guhila.