The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c31.s9.19

c31.s9.19

A familiar legend appearing in the *Chand Rāīsā* and other late documents in variant forms groups together four Rājpūt clans—the Pawār (Pramāra), Parihār (Pratīhāra), Chauhān (Chāhumāna), and Solankī or Chaulukya—as being *Agnikula*, or 'fire-born', originating from a sacrificial fire-pit at Mount Ābū in Southern Rājputāna. The myth seems to express the historical truths that the four clans named are related, and all arose in Southern Rājputāna; and further, as Mr. Crooke justly observes, it 'represents a rite of purgation by fire, the scene of which was in Southern Rājputāna, whereby the impurity of the foreigners was removed and they became fitted to enter the Hindu caste system'.¹