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Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s3: Chapter 4

Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s3

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Chapter 4

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Ayodhya.—Ayodhya² was the first city founded by the race of Surya. Like other capitals, its importance must have risen by slow degrees; yet, making every allowance for exaggeration, it must have attained great splendour long anterior to Rama. Its site is well known at this day under the contracted name of Oudh, which also designates the country appertaining to the titular wazir of the Mogul empire; which country, twenty-five years ago, nearly marked the limits of Kosala, the pristine kingdom of the Surya race. Overgrown greatness characterized all the ancient Asiatic capitals, and that of Ayodhya was immense. Lucknow, the present capital, is traditionally asserted to have been one of the suburbs of ancient Oudh, and so named by Rama, in compliment to his brother Lakshman.

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² The picture drawn by Valmiki of the capital of the Solar race is so highly coloured that Ayodhya might stand for Utopia, and it would be difficult to find such a catalogue of metropolitan embellishments in this, the iron age of Oudh. "On the banks of the Surayu is a large country called Kosala, in which is Ayodhya, built by Manu, twelve yojans (forty-eight miles) in extent, with streets regular and well watered. It was filled with merchants, beautified by gardens, ornamented with stately gates and high-arched porticoes, furnished with arms, crowded with chariots, elephants, and horses, and with ambassadors from foreign lands; embellished with palaces whose domes resembled the mountain tops, dwellings of equal height, resounding with the delightful music of the tabor, the flute, and the harp.

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Mithila.—Nearly coeval in point of time with Ayodhya was Mithila,¹ the capital of a country of the same name, founded by Mithila, the grandson of Ikshwaku.

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¹ Mithila, the modern Tirhut in Bengal [including the modern districts of Darbhanga, Champāran, and Muzaffarpur].

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The name of Janaka,² son of Mithila, eclipsed that of the founder and became the patronymic of this branch of the Solar race.

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² Kusadhwaja, father of Sita (spouse of Rama), is also called Janaka; a name common in this line, and borne by the third prince in succession after Suvarna Roma, the ‘golden-haired’ chief Mithila.

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Other Kingdoms.—These are the two chief capitals of the kingdoms of the Solar line described in [39] this early age; though there were others of a minor order, such as Rohtas, Champapura,³ etc., all founded previously to Rama.

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³ [Rohtās in the modern Shāhābād district; Champapura in Bhāgalpur.]

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By the numerous dynasties of the Lunar race of Budha many kingdoms were founded. Much has been said of the antiquity of Prayag; yet the first capital of the Indu or Lunar race appears

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It was surrounded by an impassable moat, and guarded by archers. Dasaratha was its king, a mighty charioteer. There were no atheists. The affections of the men were in their consorts. The women were chaste and obedient to their lords, endowed with beauty, wit, sweetness, prudence, and industry, with bright ornaments and fair apparel; the men devoted to truth and hospitality, regardful of their superiors, their ancestors, and their gods.

“There were eight councillors; two chosen priests profound in the law, besides another inferior council of six. Of subdued appetites, disinterested, forbearing, pleasant, patient; not avaricious; well acquainted with their duties and popular customs; attentive to the treasury; impartially awarding punishment even on their own sons; never oppressing even an enemy; not arrogant; comely in dress; never confident about doubtful matters; devoted to the sovereign.”

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to have been founded by Sahasra Arjuna, of the Haihaya tribe. This was Mahishmati on the Nerbudda, still existing in Maheswar.¹ The rivalry between the Lunar race and that of the Suryas of Ayodhya, in whose aid the priesthood armed, and expelled Sahasra Arjuna from Mahishmati, has been mentioned. A small branch of these ancient Haihayas ² yet exist in the line of the Nerbudda, near the very top of the valley at Sohagpur, in Baghelkhand, aware of their ancient lineage; and, though few in number, are still celebrated for their valour.³

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¹ Familiarly designated as Sahasra Bahu ki Basti, or ‘the town of the thousand-armed.’ [In Indore State (IGI, xvii. 8).]

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² The Haihaya race, of the line of Budha, may claim affinity with the Chinese race which first gave monarchs to China [?].

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³ Of this I have heard the most romantic proofs in very recent times.

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Dwarka.—Kusasthali Dwarka, the capital of Krishna, was founded prior to Prayag, to Surpur, or Mathura. The Bhagavat attributes the foundation of the city to Anrita, the brother of Ikshwaku, of the Solar race, but states not how or when the Yadus became possessed thereof.

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The ancient annals of the Jaisalmer family of the Yadu stock give the priority of foundation to Prayag, next to Mathura, and last to Dwarka. All these cities are too well known to require description; especially Prayag, at the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganges. The Prasioi were the descendants of Puru ⁴ of Prayag, visited by Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucus, and the principal city of the Yadus, ere it sent forth the four branches from Satwata. At Prayag resided the celebrated Bharat, the son of Sakuntala.

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⁴ Puru became the patronymic of this branch of the Lunar race. Of this Alexander’s historians made Porus. The Suraseni of Methoras (descendants of the Sursen of Mathura) were all Purus, the Prasioi of Megasthenes [see p. 37, n.]. Allahabad yet retains its Hindu name of Prayag, pronounced Prag.

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In the Ramayana the Sasavindus ⁵ (another Yadu race) are inscribed as allied with the Haihayas in the wars with the race of Surya; and of this race was Sisupal ⁶ (the founder of Chedi ⁷), one of the foes of Krishna [40].

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⁵ The Hares. Sesodia is said to have the same derivation. [From Sesoda in Mewâr.]

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⁶ The princes of Ranthambhor, expelled by Prithwiraja of Delhi, were of this race.

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⁷ The modern Chanderi [in the Gwalior State, IGI, x. 163 f.] is said to be

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Surpur.—We are assured by Alexander’s historians that the country and people round Mathura, when he invaded India, were termed Surasenoi. There are two princes of the name of Sursen in the immediate ancestry of Krishna; one his grandfather, the other eight generations anterior Which of these founded the capital Surpur,¹ whence the country and inhabitants had their appellation, we cannot say Mathura and Cleisobara are mentioned by the historians of Alexander as the chief cities of the Surasenoi. Though the Greeks sadly disfigure names, we cannot trace any affinity between Cleisobara and Surpur.

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¹ I had the pleasure, in 1814, of discovering a remnant of this city, which the Yamuna has overwhelmed. [The ancient Sūryapura was near Batesar, 40 miles south-east of Agra city. Sir H. Elliot (Supplemental Glossary, 187) remarks that it is strange that the Author so often claims the credit of discovery when its position is fixed in a set of familiar verses. For Sūryapura see A. Führer, Monumental Antiquities and Inscriptions, 69.] The sacred place of pilgrimage, Batesar, stands on part of it. My discovery of it was doubly gratifying, for while I found out the Surasenoi of the Greeks, I obtained a medal of the little known Apollodotus, who carried his arms to the mouths of the Indus, and possibly to the centre of the land of the Yadus. He is not included by Bayer in his lists of the kings of Bactria, but we have only an imperfect knowledge of the extent of that dynasty. The Bhagavat Purana asserts thirteen Yavan or Ionian princes to have ruled in Balichdes [?] or Bactria, in which they mention Pushpamitra Dvimitra. We are justified in asserting this to be Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, but who did not succeed his father, as Menander intervened. Of this last conqueror I also possess a medal, obtained amongst the Surasenoi, and struck in commemoration of victory, as the winged messenger of heavenly peace extends the palm branch from her hand. These two will fill up a chasm in the Bactrian annals, for Menander is well known to them. Apollodotus would have perished but for Arrian, who wrote the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea in the second century, while commercial agent at Broach, or classically Brigukachchha, the Barugaza of the Greeks. [The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was written by an unknown Greek merchant of first century A.D. (McCrindle, Commerce and Navigation, Introd. p. 1.)]

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this capital, and one of the few to which no Englishman has obtained entrance, though I tried hard in 1807. Doubtless it would afford food for curiosity; for, being out of the path of armies in the days of conquest and revolution, it may, and I believe does, retain much worthy of research. [The capital of the Chedi or Kalachuri dynasty was Tripura or Karanbel, near Jabalpur (IGI, x. 12.)]

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Without the notice this writer has afforded us, my Apollodotus would have lost half its value. Since my arrival in Europe I have also, been made acquainted with the existence of a medal of Demetrius, discovered in Bokhara, and on which an essay has been written by a savant at St. Petersburg.

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Hastinapura.—The city of Hastinapura was built by Hastin a name celebrated in the Lunar dynasties. The name of this city is still preserved on the Ganges, about forty miles south of Hardwar,¹ where the Ganges breaks through the Siwalik mountains and enters the plains of India. This mighty stream, rolling its masses of waters from the glaciers of the Himalaya, and joined by many auxiliary streams, frequently carries destruction before it. In one night a column of thirty feet in perpendicular height has been known to bear away all within its sweep, and to such an occurrence the capital of Hastin is said to have owed its ruin.² As it existed, however, long after the Mahabharata, it is surprising it is not mentioned by the historians of Alexander, who invaded India probably about eight centuries after that event. In this abode of the sons of Puru resided Porus, one of the two princes of that name, opponents of Alexander, and probably Bindusara the son of Chandragupta, surmised to be the Abisares³ and Sandrakottos of Grecian authorities. Of the two princes named Porus mentioned by Alexander's [41] historians, one resided in the very cradle of the Puru dynasties; the abode of the other bordered on the Panjab: warranting an assertion that the Pori of Alexander were of the Lunar race, and destroying all the claims various authors⁴ have advanced on behalf of the princes of Mewar.⁵

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¹ The portal of Hari or Hara, whose trisula or trident is there.

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² Wilford says this event is mentioned in two Puranas as occurring in the sixth or eighth generation of the Great War. Those who have travelled in the Duab must have remarked where both the Ganges and Jumna have shifted their beds.

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³ [Abisares is Abhisāra in the modern Kashmīr State (Smith, EHI, 59.)]

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⁴ Sir Thomas Roe; Sir Thomas Herbert; the Holstein ambassador (by Olearius); Della Valle; Churchill, in his collection: and borrowing from these, D’Anville, Bayer, Orme, Rennell, etc.

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⁵ The ignorance of the family of Mewar of the fact would by no means be a conclusive argument against it, could it be otherwise substantiated; but the race of Surya was completely eclipsed at that period by the Lunar and new races which soon poured in from the west of the Indus, and in time displaced them all.

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Hastin sent forth three grand branches, Ajamidha, Dvimidha, and Purumidha. Of the two last we lose sight altogether; but Ajamidha’s progeny spread over all the northern parts of India, in the Panjab and across the Indus. The period, probably one thousand six hundred years before Christ.

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From Ajamidha,¹ in the fourth generation, was Bajaswa, who obtained possessions towards the Indus, and whose five sons gave their name, Panchala, to the Panjab, or space watered by the five rivers. The capital founded by the younger brother, Kampila, was named Kampilnagara.²

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¹ Ajamidha, by his wife Nila, had five sons, who spread their branches (Sakha) on both sides the Indus. Regarding three the Puranas are silent, which implies their migration to distant regions. Is it possible they might be the origin of the Medes? These Medes are descendants of Yayati, third son of the patriarch Manu; and Madai, founder of the Medes, was of Japhet's line. Ajamidha, the patronymic of the branch of Bajaswa, is from Aja, ‘a goat.’ The Assyrian Mede, in Scripture, is typified by the goat. [These speculations are worthless.]

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² Of this house was Draupadi, the wife, in common, of the five Pandava brothers: manners peculiar to Scythia.

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The descendants of Ajamidha by his second wife, Kesini, founded another kingdom and dynasty, celebrated in the heroic history of Northern India. This is the Kausika dynasty.

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Kanauj.—Kusa had four sons, two of whom, Kusanabha and Kusamba, are well known to traditional history, and by the still surviving cities founded by them. Kusanabha founded the city of Mahodaya on the Ganges, afterwards changed to Kanyakubja, or Kanauj, which maintained its celebrity until the Muhammadan invasion of Shihabu-d-din (A.D. 1193), when this overgrown city was laid prostrate for ever. It was not unfrequently called Gadhipura, or the ‘city of Gadhi.’ This practice of multiplying names of cities in the east is very destructive to history. Abu-l Fazl has taken from Hindu authorities an account of Kanauj; and could we admit the authority of a poet on such subjects, Chand, the bard of Prithwiraja,³ would afford materials. Ferishta states it in the early ages to have been twenty-five coss [42] (thirty-five miles) in circumference, and that there were thirty thousand shops for the sale of the areca or beetle-nut only;⁴ and this in the sixth century, at which period the Rathor dynasty, which terminated with Jaichand, in the twelfth, had been in possession from the end of the fifth century.

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³ King of Delhi.

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⁴ [Briggs i. 57. The accounts of the size of the city are extravagant (Elphinstone, HI, 332 note; Cunningham, ASR, i. 279 ff.).]

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Kusamba also founded a city, called after his own name Kausambi.¹ The name was in existence in the eleventh century; and ruins might yet exist, if search were made on the shores of the Ganges, from Kanauj southward.

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¹ An inscription was discovered at Kara on the Ganges, in which Yaspal is mentioned as prince of the realm of Kausambi (As. Res. vol. ix. p. 440). Wilford, in his Essay on the Geography of the Purans, says "Causambi, near Alluhabad" (As. Res. vol. xiv.). [The site is uncertain (Smith, EHI, 293, note).]

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The other sons built two capitals, Dharmaranya and Vasumati; but of neither have we any correct knowledge.

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Kuru had two sons, Sudhanush and Parikhshita. The descendants of the former terminated with Jarasandha, whose capital was Rajagriha (the modern Rajmahal) on the Ganges, in the province of Bihar.² From Parikhshita descended the monarchs Santanu and Balaka: the first producing the rivals of the Great War, Yudhishthira and Duryodhana; the other the Balakaputras.

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² [Rājgīr in Patna District.]

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Duryodhana, the successor to the throne of Kuru, resided at the ancient capital, Hastinapura; while the junior branch, Yudhishthira, founded Indraprastha, on the Yamuna or Jumna, which name in the eighth century was changed to Delhi.

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The sons of Balaka founded two kingdoms: Palibothra, on the lower Ganges; and Aror,³ on the eastern bank of the Indus, founded by Sahl [43].

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³ Aror, or Alor, was the capital of Sind in remote antiquity: a bridge over the stream which branched from the Indus, near Dara, is almost the sole vestige of this capital of the Sogdoi of Alexander. On its site the shepherds of the desert have established an extensive hamlet; it is placed on a ridge of siliceous rock, seven miles east of the insular Bakhar, and free from the inundations of the Indus. The Sodha tribe, a powerful branch of the Pramara race, has ruled in these countries from remote antiquity, and to a very late period they were lords of Umarkot and Umrasumra, in which divisions was Aror. Sahl and his capital were known to Abu-l Fazl, though he was ignorant of its position, which he transferred to Debal, or Dewal, the modern Tatta. This indefatigable historian thus describes it: "In ancient times there lived a raja named Siharas (Sahl), whose capital was Alor, and his dominions extended north to Kashmir and south to the ocean" [Āīn, ii. 343]. Sahl, or Sahr, became a titular appellation of the country, its princes, and its inhabitants, the Sehraes. [See p. 21 above.] Alor appears to have been the capital of the kingdom of Sigerdis, conquered by Menander of Bactria. Ibn Haukal, the Arabian geographer, mentions it; but a superfluous point in writing has changed Aror into Azor, or Azour, as translated by Sir W. Ouseley. The illustrious D'Anville mentions it; but, in ignorance of its position, quoting Abulfeda, says, in grandeur "Azour est presque comparable à Mooltan." I have to claim the discovery of

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One great arm of the tree of Yayati remains unnoticed, that of Uru or Urvasu, written by others Turvasu. Uru was the father of a line of kings who founded several empires. Virupa, the eighth prince from Uru, had eight sons, two of whom are particularly mentioned as sending forth two grand shoots, Druhyu and Bhabru. From Druhyu a dynasty was established in the north. Aradwat, with his son Gandhara, is stated to have founded a State: Prachetas is said to have become king of Mlecchhades, or the barbarous regions. This line terminated with Dushyanta, the husband of the celebrated Sakuntala, father of Bharat, and who, labouring under the displeasure of some offended deity, is said by the Hindus to have been the cause of all the woes which subsequently befell the race. The four grandsons of Dushyanta, Kalanjar, Keral, Pand, and Chaul, gave their names to countries.

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Kalanjar.—Kalanjar is the celebrated fortress in Bundelkhand, so well known for its antiquities, which have claimed considerable notice.

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Kerala.—Of the second, Kerala, it is only known that in the list of the thirty-six royal races in the twelfth century, the Kerala makes one, but the capital is unknown.¹

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¹ [The Chera or Kerala kingdom comprised the Southern Konkans or Malabar coast, the present Malabar district with Travancore and Cochin, the dynasty being in existence early in the Christian era (Smith, *EHI*, 447; *IGI*, x. 192 f.).]

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several ancient capital cities in the north of India: Surpur, on the Jumna, the capital of the Yadus; Alor, on the Indus, the capital of the Sodhas; Mandodri, capital of the Pariharas; Chandravati, at the foot of the Aravalli mountains; and Valabhipura, in Gujarat, capital of the Balaka-raes, the Balharas of Arab travellers. The Bala Rajput of Saurashtra may have given the name to Valabhipura, as descendants of Balaka, from Sahl of Aror. The blessing of the bard to them is yet, Tatta Multān ka Rāo (‘lord of Tatta and Multān,’ the seats of the Balaka-putras): nor is it improbable that a branch of these under the Indian Hercules, Balaram, who left India after the Great War, may have founded Balich, or Balkh, emphatically called the ‘mother of cities.’ The Jaisalmer annals assert that the Yadu and Balaka branches of the Indu race ruled Khorasan after the Great War, the Indo-Scythic races of Grecian authors. Besides the Balakas, and the numerous branches of the Indo-Medes, many of the sons of Kuru dispersed over these regions: amongst whom we may place Uttara Kuru (*Northern Kurus*) of the Puranas, the Ottorokorrhai of the Greek authors. Both the Indu and Surya races were eternally sending their superfluous population to those distant regions, when probably the same primeval religion governed the races east and west of the Indus. [Much of this is incorrect.]

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Pandya.—The kingdom founded by Pand may be that on the coast of Malabar, the Pandu-Mandal of the Hindus, the Regia Pandiona of the geographers of the west, and of which, probably, Tanjore is the modern capital.¹

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¹ [The Pāndya kingdom included the Madura and Tinnevelly districts, with parts of Trichinopoly, and sometimes Travancore, its capitals being Madura, or Kūdal, and Korkai (Smith, op. cit. 449 f.; IGI, xix. 394 f.).]

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Chaul.—Chaul ² is in the Saurashtra peninsula, and on the coast, towards Jagat Khunt, ‘the world’s end,’ and still retains its appellation.

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² From Chaul on the coast, in journeying towards Junagarh, and about seven miles from the former, are the remains of an ancient city.

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Anga.—The other shoot from Bhabru became celebrated. The thirty-fourth prince, Anga, founded the kingdom of Angadesa, of which Champapuri ³ was the [44] capital, established about the same time with Kanauj, probably fifteen hundred years before Christ. With him the patronymic was changed, and the Anga race became famous in ancient Hindu history; and to this day Un-des still designates the Alpine regions of Tibet bordering on Chinese Tartary.

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³ From the description in the Ramayana of King Dasaratha proceeding to Champamalina, the capital of Lomapada, king of Anga (sixth in descent from the founder), it is evident that it was a very mountainous region, and the deep forests and large rivers presented serious obstructions to his journey. From this I should imagine it impossible that Angadesa should apply to a portion of Bengal, in which there is a Champamalina, described by Colonel Francklin in his Essay on Palibothra. [The Anga kingdom, with its capital at Champapuri, near Bhāgalpur, corresponded to the modern districts of North Monghyr, North Bhāgalpur, and Purnea west of the Mahananda river (IGI, v. 373).]

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Prithusena terminates the line of Anga; and as he survived the disasters of the Great War, his race probably multiplied in those regions, where caste appears never to have been introduced.

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Recapitulation.—Thus have we rapidly reviewed the dynasties of Surya and Chandra, from Manu and Budha to Rama, Krishna, Yudhishthira, and Jarasandha; establishing, it is hoped, some new points, and perhaps adding to the credibility of the whole.

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The wrecks of almost all the vast cities founded by them are yet to be traced in ruins. The city of Ikshwaku and Rama, on the Sarju; Indraprastha, Mathura, Surpura, Prayag on the Yamuna; Hastinapura, Kanyakubja, Rajagriha on the Ganges; Maheswar on the Nerbudda; Aror on the Indus; and Kusasthali Dwarka on the shore of the Indian Ocean. Each has left some memorial of former grandeur : research may discover others.

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There is yet an unexplored region in Panchala ; Kampilanagara its capital, and those cities established west of the Indus by the sons of Bajaswa.

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Traces of the early Indo-Scythic nations may possibly reward the search of some adventurous traveller who may penetrate into Transoxiana, on the sites of Cyropolis, and the most northern Alexandria ; in Balkh, and amidst the caves of Bamian.

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The plains of India retain yet many ancient cities, from whose ruins somewhat may be gleaned to add a mite to knowledge ; and where inscriptions may be found in a character which, though yet unintelligible, will not always remain so in this age of discovery. For such let the search be general, and when once a key is obtained, they will enlighten each other. Wherever the races of Kuru, Uru, and Yadu have swayed, have been found ancient and yet undeciphered characters.

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Much would reward him who would make a better digest of the historical and geographical matter in the Puranas. But we must discard the idea that the history of Rama, the Mahabharata of Krishna and the five Pandava¹ brothers, are [45] mere allegory : an idea supported by some, although their races, their cities, and their coins still exist. Let us master the characters on the columns of Indraprastha, of Prayag and Mewar, on the rocks of Junagarh,² at Bijolli, on the Aravalli, and in the Jain temples scattered over India, and then we shall be able to arrive at just and satisfactory conclusions.

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¹ The history and exploits of the Pandavas and Harikulas are best known in the most remote parts of India : amidst the forest-covered mountains of Saurashtra, the deep woods and caves of Hidimba and Virat (still the shelter of the savage Bhil and Koli), or on the craggy banks of the Charmanvati (Chambal). In each, tradition has localized the shelter of these heroes when exiled from the Yamuna ; and colossal figures cut from the mountain, ancient temples and caves inscribed with characters yet unknown, attributed to the Pandavas, confirm the legendary tale.

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² The ‘ancient city,’ par eminence, is the only name this old capital, at the foot of, and guarding, the sacred mount Girnar, is known by. Abu-l Fazl says it had long remained desolate and unknown, and was discovered by mere accident. [Āīn, ii. 245. For a description of the place see BG, viii. 487 ; E. C. Bayley, Local Muhammadan Dynasties, Gujarāt, 182 ff.] Tradition even being silent, they gave it the emphatic appellation of Juna (old) Garh (fortress). I have little doubt that it is the Asaldurga, or Asalgarh, of the Guhilot annals ; where it is said that prince Asal raised a fortress, called after him, near to Girnar, by the consent of the Dabhi prince, his uncle.

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HAVING investigated the line from Ikshwaku to Rama, and that from Budha (the parent and first emigrant of the Indu¹ race, from Saka Dwipa, or Scythia, to Hindustan) to Krishna and Yudhishthira, a period of twelve hundred years, we proceed to the second division and second table of the genealogies.

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¹ Indu, Som, Chandra, in Sanskrit ‘the moon’; hence the Lunar race is termed the Chandravansa, Somvansa, or Induvansa, most probably the root of Hindu. [Pers. hindū, Skr. sindhu.]

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The Suryavansa or Solar Line.—From Rama all the tribes termed Suryavansa, or ‘Race of the Sun,’ claim descent, as the present princes of Mewar, Jaipur, Marwar, Bikaner, and their numerous clans; while from the Lunar (Indu) line of Budha and Krishna, the families of Jaisalmer and Cutch (the Bhatti² and Jareja races), extending throughout the Indian desert from the Sutlej to the ocean, deduce their pedigrees.

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² The isolated and now dependent chieftainship of Dhat, of which Umarkot is the capital, separates the Bhattis from the Jarejas. Dhat is now amalgamated with Sind; its prince, of Pramara race and Sodha tribe, ancient lords of all Sind.

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Rama preceded Krishna: but as their historians, Valmiki and Vyasa, who wrote the events they witnessed, were contemporaries, it could not have been by many years [46].

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The present table contains the dynasties which succeeded these great beacons of the Solar and Lunar races, and are three in number.³

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³ A fourth and fifth might have been given, but imperfect. First the descendants of Kusa, second son of Rama, from whence the princes of Narwar and Amber: secondly, the descendants of Krishna, from whom the princes of Jaisalmer.

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1. The Suryavansa, descendants of Rama

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2. The Induvansa, descendants of Pandu through Yudhishthira.

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3. The Induvansa, descendants of Jarasandha, monarch of Rajagriha.

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The Bhagavat and Agni Puranas are the authorities for the lines from Rama and Jarasandha; while that of Pandu is from the Raja Tarangini and Rajavali.

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The existing Rajput tribes of the Solar race claim descent from Lava and Kusa, the two elder sons of Rama; nor do I believe any existing tribes trace their ancestry to his other children, or to his brothers.

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From the eldest son, Lava, the Ranas of Mewar claim descent: so do the Bargujar tribe, formerly powerful within the confines of the present Amber, whose representative now dwells at Anupshahr on the Ganges.

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From Kusa descend the Kachhwaha¹ princes of Narwar and Amber, and their numerous clans. Amber, though the first in power, is but a scion of Narwar, transplanted about one thousand years back, whose chief, the representative of the celebrated Prince Nala, enjoys but a sorry district² of all his ancient possessions.

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¹ In modern times always written and pronounced Kutchwāha. ² It is in the plateau of Central India, near Shahabad. ³ Whatever dignity attaches to this pedigree, whether true or false, every prince, and every Hindu of learning, admit the claims of the princes of Mewar as heir to ‘the chair of Rama’; and a degree of reverence has consequently attached, not only to his person, but to the seat of his power. When Mahadaji Sindhia was called by the Rana to reduce a traitorous noble in Chitor, such was the reverence which actuated that (in other respects) little scrupulous chieftain, that he could not be prevailed on to point his cannon on the walls within which consent established ‘the throne of Rama.’ The Rana himself, then a youth, had to break the ice, and fired a cannon against his own ancient abode. ⁴ Bryant, in his Analysis, mentions that the children of the Cushite Ham used his name in salutation as a mark of recognition. ‘Ram, Ram,’ is the common salutation in these Hindu countries; the respondent often joining Sita’s name with that of her consort Rama, ‘Sita Ram.’

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The house of Marwar also claims descent from this stem, which appears to originate in an error of the genealogists, confounding the race of Kusa with the Kausika of Kanauj and Kausambi. Nor do the Solar genealogists admit this assumed pedigree.

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The Amber prince in his genealogies traces the descent of the Mewar³ family from Rama to Sumitra, through Lava, the eldest brother, and not through Kusa,⁴ as in some copies of the Puranas, and in that whence Sir William Jones had his lists [47].

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Mr. Bentley, taking this genealogy from the same authority as Sir William Jones, has mutilated it by a transposition, for which his reasons are insufficient, and militate against every opinion of the Hindus. Finding the names Vrihadbala and Vridasura, declared to be princes contemporary with Yudhishthira, he transposes the whole ten princes of his list intervening between Takshak¹ and Bahuman.²

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¹ Twenty-eighth prince from Rama in Mr. Bentley’s list, and twenty-fifth in mine.

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² Thirty-seventh in Mr. Bentley’s list and thirty-fourth in mine; but the intervening names being made to follow Rama, Bahuman (written by him Banumat) follows Takshak.

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Bahuman,³ or ‘the man with arms’ (Darazdasht or Longimanus) is the thirty-fourth prince from Rama; and his reign must be placed nearly intermediate between Rama and Sumitra, or his contemporary Vikrama, and in the sixth century from either.

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³ The period of time, also, would allow of their grafting the son of Artaxerxes and father of Darius, the worshipper of Mithras, on the stem of the adorers of Surya, while a curious notice of the Raja Jai Singh’s on a subsequent name on this list which he calls Naushirwan, strengthens the coincidence. Bahuman (see article ‘Bahaman,’ D’Herbelot’s Bibl. Orient.) actually carried his arms into India, and invaded the kingdoms of the Solar race of Mithila and Magadha. The time is appropriate to the first Darius and his father; and Herodotus [iii. 94] tells us that the richest and best of the satrapies of his empire was the Hindu.

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Sumitra concludes the line of Surya or Rama from the Bhagavat Purana. Thence it is connected with the present line of Mewar, by Jai Singh’s authorities; which list has been compared with various others, chiefly Jain, as will be related in the annals of Mewar.

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It will be seen that the line of Surya exhibits fifty-six princes, from Lava, the son of Rama, to Sumitra, the last prince given in the Puranas. Sir William Jones exhibits fifty-seven.

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To these fifty-six reigns I should be willing to allow the average of twenty years, which would give 1120 from Rama to Sumitra, who preceded by a short period Vikramaditya; and as 1100 have been already calculated to have preceded the era of Rama and Yudhishthira, the inference is, that 2200 years elapsed from Ikshwaku, the founder of the Solar line, to Sumitra.

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Chandravansa or the Lunar Line.—From the Raja Tarangini and Rajavali the Induvansa family (descendants of Pandu through Yudhishthira) is supplied. These works, celebrated in Rajwara as collections of genealogies and historical facts, by the Pandits Vidyadhara and Raghunath, were compiled under the eye of the most learned prince of his period, Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, and give the various dynasties which ruled at Indraprastha, or Delhi, from Yudhishthira to Vikramaditya; and although barren of events, may be considered of value in filling up a period of entire darkness [48].

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The Tarangini commences with Adinath¹ or Rishabhdeva,² being the Jain³ theogony. Rapidly noticing the leading princes of the dynasties discussed, they pass to the birth of the kings Dhritarashtra and Pandu, and their offspring, detailing the causes of their civil strife, to that conflict termed the Mahabharata or Great War.

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¹ First lord.

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² Lord of the Bull.

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³ Vidhyadhar was a Jain.

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The Pandava Family.—The origin of every family, whether of east or west, is involved in fable. That of the Pandu⁴ is entitled to as much credence as the birth of Romulus, or other founders of a race.

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⁴ Pandu not being blessed with progeny, his queen made use of a charm by which she enticed the deities from their spheres. To Dharma Raj (Minos) she bore Yudhishthira; by Pavan (Aeolus) she had Bhima; by Indra (Jupiter Coelus) she had Arjuna, who was taught by his sire the use of the bow, so fatal in the Great War; and Nakula and Sahadeva owed their birth to Aswini Kumar (Aesculapius) the physician of the gods.

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Such traditions⁵ were probably invented to cover some great disgrace in the Pandu family, and have relation to the story already related of Vyasa, and the debasement of this branch of the Harikulas. Accordingly, on the death of Pandu, Duryodhana, nephew of Pandu (son of Dhritarashtra, who from blindness could not inherit), asserted their illegitimacy before the assembled kin at Hastinapura. With the aid, however, of the priesthood, and the blind Dhritarashtra, his nephew, Yudhishthira, elder son of Pandu, was invested by him with the seal of royalty, in the capital, Hastinapura.

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⁵ We must not disregard the intellect of the Amber prince, who allowed these ancient traditions to be incorporated with the genealogy compiled under his eye. The prince who obtained De Silva from Emmanuel III. of Portugal, who combined the astronomical tables of Europe and Asia, and raised these monuments of his scientific genius in his favourite pursuit (astronomy) in all the capital cities of India, while engrossed in war and politics, requires neither eulogy nor defence.

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Duryodhana’s plots against the Pandu and his partisans were so numerous that the five brothers determined to leave for a while their ancestral abodes on the Ganges. They sought shelter in foreign countries about the Indus, and were first protected by Drupada, king of Panchala, at whose capital, Kampilanagara, the surrounding princes had arrived as suitors for the hand of his daughter, Draupadi.¹ But the prize was destined for the exiled Pandu, and the skill of Arjuna in archery obtained him the fair, who “ threw round his neck the (barmala) garland of marriage.” The disappointed princes indulged their resentment against the exile ; but by Arjuna’s bow they suffered the fate of Penelope’s suitors, and the Pandu brought home his bride, who became the wife in common of the five brothers : manners ² decisively Scythic [49].

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¹ Drupada was of the Aswa race, being descended from Bajaswa (or Hyaswa) of the line of Ajamidha.

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² This marriage, so inconsistent with Hindu delicacy, is glossed over. Admitting the polyandry, but in ignorance of its being a national custom, puerile reasons are interpolated. In the early annals of the same race, predecessors of the Jaisalmer family, the younger son is made to succeed : also Scythic or Tatar. The manners of the Scythae described by Herodotus are found still to exist among their descendants : “ a pair of slippers at the wife’s door ” is a signal well understood by all Eimauk husbands (Elphinstone’s Caubul, vol. ii. p. 251).

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The deeds of the brothers abroad were bruited in Hastinapura and the blind Dhritarashtra’s influence effected their recall. To stop, however, their intestine feuds, he partitioned the Pandu sovereignty ; and while his son, Duryodhana, retained Hastinapura, Yudhishthira founded the new capital of Indraprastha ; but shortly after the Mahabharata he abdicated in favour of his grand-nephew, Parikshita, introducing a new era, called after himself, which existed for eleven hundred years, when it was overturned, and Indraprastha was conquered by Vikramaditya Tuar of Ujjain, of the same race, who established an era of his own.

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On the division of the Pandu sovereignty, the new kingdom of Indraprastha eclipsed that of Hastinapura. The brothers reduced to obedience the surrounding ³ nations, and compelled their princes to sign tributary engagements (paenama).⁴

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³ Tarangini.

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⁴ Paenama is a [Persian] word peculiarly expressive of subserviency to paramount authority, whether the engagement be in money or service : from pae, ‘ the foot.’

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Yudhishthira, firmly seated on his throne, determined to signalize his reign and paramount sovereignty, by the imposing and solemn rites of Asvamedha ¹ and Rajasuya.

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¹ Sacrifice of the horse to the sun, of which a full description is given hereafter.

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The Asvamedha.—In these magnificent ceremonies, in which princes alone officiate, every duty, down to that of porter, is performed by royalty.

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The ‘Steed of Sacrifice’ was liberated under Arjuna’s care, having wandered whither he listed for twelve months; and none daring to accept this challenge of supremacy, he was reconducted to Indraprastha, where, in the meanwhile, the hall of sacrifice was prepared, and all the princes of the land were summoned to attend.

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The hearts of the Kurus ² burned with envy at the assumption of supremacy by the Pandus, for the Prince of Hastinapura’s office was to serve out the sacred food [50].

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² Duryodhana, as the elder branch, retained his title as head of the Kurus; while the junior, Yudhishthira, on the separation of authority, adopted his father’s name, Pandu, as the patronymic of his new dynasty. The site of the great conflict (or Mahabharata) between these rival clans, is called Kurukshetra, or ‘Field of the Kurus.’

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The rivalry between the races burst forth afresh; but Duryodhana, who so often failed in his schemes against the safety of his antagonists, determined to make the virtue of Yudhishthira the instrument of his success. He availed himself of the national propensity for play, in which the Rajput continues to preserve his Scythic ³ resemblance. Yudhishthira fell into the snare prepared for him. He lost his kingdom, his wife, and even his personal liberty and that of his brothers, for twelve years, and became an exile from the plains of the Yamuna.

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³ Herodotus describes the ruinous passion for play amongst the Scythic hordes, and which may have been carried west by Odin into Scandinavia and Germany. Tacitus tells us that the Germans, like the Pandus, staked even personal liberty, and were sold as slaves by the winner [Germania, 24].

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The traditional history of these wanderers during the term of probation, their many lurking places now sacred, the return to their ancestral abodes, and the grand battle (Mahabharata) which ensued, form highly interesting episodes in the legends of Hindu antiquity.

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To decide this civil strife, every tribe and chief of fame, from the Caucasus to the ocean, assembled on Kurukshetra, the field on which the empire of India has since more than once been contested ¹ and lost.

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¹ On it the last Hindu monarch, Prithwiraja, lost his kingdom, his liberty, and life.

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This combat was fatal to the dominant influence of the “fifty-six tribes of Yadu.” On each of its eighteen days’ combat, myriads were slain; for “the father knew not the son, nor the disciple his preceptor.”

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Victory brought no happiness to Yudhishthira. The slaughter of his friends disgusted him with the world, and he determined to withdraw from it; previously performing, at Hastinapura, funeral rites for Duryodhana (slain by the hands of Bhima), whose ambition and bad faith had originated this exterminating war. “Having regained his kingdom, he proclaimed a new era, and placing on the throne of Indraprastha, Parikshita, grandson to Arjuna, retired to Dwarka with Krishna and Baldeva: and since the war to the period of writing, 4636 years have elapsed.” ²

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² Rajatarangini. The period of writing was A.D. 1740.

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Yudhishthira, Baldeva, and Krishna, having retired with the wreck of this ill-fated struggle to Dwarka, the two former had soon to lament the death of Krishna, slain by one of the aboriginal tribes of Bhils; against whom, from their shattered condition, they were unable to contend. After this event, Yudhishthira, with [51] Baldeva and a few followers, entirely withdrew from India, and emigrating northwards, by Sind, to the Himalayan mountains, are there abandoned by Hindu traditional history, and are supposed to have perished in the snows.³

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³ Having ventured to surmise analogies between the Hercules of the east and west, I shall carry them a point further. Amidst the snows of Caucasus, Hindu legend abandons the Harikulas, under their leaders Yudhishthira and Baldeva: yet if Alexander established his altars in Panchala, amongst the sons of Puru and the Harikulas, what physical impossibility exists that a colony of them, under Yudhishthira and Baldeva, eight centuries anterior, should have penetrated to Greece? Comparatively far advanced in science and arms, the conquest would have been easy. When Alexander attacked the ‘free cities’ of Panchala, the Purus and Harikulas who opposed him evinced the recollections of their ancestor, in carrying the figure of Hercules as their standard. Comparison proves a common origin to Hindu and Grecian mythology; and Plato says the Greeks had theirs from Egypt and the East. May not this colony of the Harikulas be the Heraclidae, who penetrated into the Peloponnesus (according to Volney) 1078 years before Christ, sufficiently near our calculated period of the Great War? The Heraclidae claimed from Atreus: the Harikulas claim from Atri. Eurysthenes was

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From Parikshita, who succeeded Yudhishthira, to Vikramaditya, four ¹ dynasties are given in a continuous chain, exhibiting sixty-six princes to Rajpal, who, invading Kumaon, was slain by Sukwanti. The Kumaun conqueror seized upon Delhi, but was soon dispossessed by Vikramaditya, who transferred the seat of imperial power from Indraprastha to Avanti, or Ujjain, from which time it became the first meridian of the Hindu astronomy.

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¹ The twenty-eighth prince, Khemraj, was the last in lineal descent from Parikshita, the grand-nephew of Yudhishthira. The first dynasty lasted 1864 years. The second dynasty was of Visarwa, and consisted of fourteen princes ; this lasted five hundred years. The third dynasty was headed by Mahraj, and terminated by Antinai, the fifteenth prince. The fourth dynasty was headed by Dudhsen, and terminated by Rajpal, the ninth and last king (Rajatarangini).

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Indraprastha ceased to be a regal abode for eight centuries, when it was re-established by Anangpal,² the founder of the Tuar race, claiming descent from the Pandus. Then the name of Delhi superseded that of Indraprastha.

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² The Rajatarangini gives the date A.V. 848, or A.D. 792, for this ; and adds : " Princes from Siwalik, or northern hills, held it during this time, and it long continued desolate until the Tuars."

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the first king of the Heraclidae : Yudhishthira has sufficient affinity in name to the first Spartan king not to startle the etymologist, the *d* and *r* being always permutable in Sanskrit. The Greeks or Ionians are descended from Yavan, or Javan, the seventh from Japhet. The Harikulas are also Yavans claiming from Javan or Yavan, the thirteenth in descent from Yayati, the third son of the primeval patriarch. The ancient Heraclidae of Greece asserted they were as old as the sun, and older than the moon. May not this boast conceal the fact that the Heliadae (or *Suryavansa*) of Greece had settled there anterior to the colony of the Indu (Lunar) race of Harikula ? In all that relates to the mythological history of the Indian demi-gods, Baldeva (Hercules), Krishna or Kanhaiya (Apollo), and Budha (Mercury), a powerful and almost perfect resemblance can be traced between those of Hindu legend, Greece, and Egypt. Baldeva (the god of strength) Harikula, is still worshipped as in the days of Alexander ; his shrine at Baldeo in Vraj (the Surasenoi of the Greeks), his club a ploughshare, and a lion's skin his covering. A Hindu intaglio of rare value represents Hercules exactly as described by Arrian, with a monogram consisting of two ancient characters now unknown, but which I have found wherever tradition assigns a spot to the Harikulas ; especially in Saurashtra, where they were long concealed on their exile from Delhi. This we may at once decide to be the exact figure of Hercules which Arrian describes his descendants to have carried as their standard, when Porus opposed Alexander. The intaglio will appear in the *Trans. R.A.S.* [The speculations in this note have no authority.]

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“ Sukwanti, a prince from the northern mountains of Kumaun, ruled fourteen [52] years, when he was slain by Vikramaditya ; ¹ and from the Bharat to this period 2915 years have elapsed.” ²

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¹ 56 B.C. [Cunningham remarks that the defeat of Rāja Pāl of Delhi by Sukwanti, Sukdati, or Sukāditya, Rāja of Kumaun, must be assigned to A.D. 79 : but he has little confidence in such traditions, unless supported by independent evidence (ASR, i. 138).]

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² Raghunath.

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Such a period asserted to have elapsed while sixty-six princes occupied the throne, gives an average of forty-four years to each ; which is incredible, if not absolutely impossible.

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In another passage the compiler says : “ I have read many books (shastras), and all agreed to make one hundred princes, all of Khatri ³ race, occupy the throne of Delhi from Yudhishthira to Prithwiraja, a period of 4100 years,⁴ after which the Ravad ⁵ race succeeded.”

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³ Rājput, or Kshatriya.

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⁴ This period of 4100 years may have been arrived at by the compiler taking for granted the number of years mentioned by Raghunath as having elapsed from the Mahabharata to Vikramaditya, namely 2915, and adding thereto the well-authenticated period of Prithwiraja, who was born in Samvat 1215 : for if 2915 be subtracted from 4100, it leaves 1185, the period within thirty years of the birth of Prithwiraja, according to the Chauhan chronicles.

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⁵ Solar.

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It is fortunate for these remnants of historical data that they have only extended the duration of reigns, and not added more heads. Sixty-six links are quite sufficient to connect Yudhishthira and Vikramaditya.

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We cannot object to the “ one hundred princes ” who fill the space assigned from Yudhishthira to Prithwiraja, though there is no proportion between the number which precedes and that which follows Vikramaditya, the former being sixty-six, the latter only thirty-four princes, although the period cannot differ half a century.

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Let us apply a test to these one hundred kings, from Yudhishthira to Prithwiraja : the result will be 2250 years.

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This test is derived from the average rate of reigns of the chief dynasties of Rajasthan, during a period of 633 ⁶ to 663 ⁷ years, or from Prithwiraja to the present date.

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⁶ From S. 1250, or A.D. 1194, captivity and dethronement of Prithwiraja.

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⁷ From S. 1212, A.D. 1516, the founding of Jaisalmer by Jaisal, to the accession of Gaj Singh, the present prince, in S. 1876, or A.D. 1820.

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Of Mewar . . . 34 ¹ princes, or 19 years to each reign. Of Marwar . . . 28 princes, or 23¼ ,, ,, Of Amber . . . 29 princes, or 22½ ,, ,, Of Jaisalmer . . 28 princes, or 23¼ ,, ,,

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¹ Many of its early princes were killed in battle; and the present prince's father succeeded his own nephew, which was retrograding. ² The historians sanction the propriety of these changes, in their remarks, that the deposed were “deficient in [capacity for] the cares and duties of government.” ³ Rajagriha, or Rajmahal, capital of Magadhades, or Bihar. [In Patna district, IGI, xxi. 72.] ⁴ Figuratively, the country of the ‘head of the Snakes’; Nag, Tak, or Takshak, being synonymous: and which I conclude to be the abode of the ancient Scythic Tachari of Strabo, the Tak-i-uks of the Chinese, the Tajiks of the present day of Turkistan. This race appears to be the same with that of the Turushka (of the Puranas), who ruled on the Arvarma (the Araxes), in Sakadwipa, or Scythia. [This is a confused reference to the Saisunāga dynasty, which took its name from its founder, Sisunāga, and comprised roughly the present Patna and Gaya districts, its capital being

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giving an average of twenty-two years for each reign [53].

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It would not be proper to ascribe a longer period to each reign, and it were perhaps better to give the minimum, nineteen, to extended dynasties; and to the sixty-six princes from Yudhishthira and Vikramaditya not even so much, four revolutions ² and usurpations marking this period.

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Jarasandha.—The remaining line, that of Jarasandha, taken from the Bhagavat, is of considerable importance, and will afford scope for further speculation.

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Jarasandha was the monarch of Rajagriha,³ or Bihar, whose son Sahadeva, and grandson Marjari, are declared to have been contemporaries of the Mahabharata, and consequently coeval with Parikshita, the Delhi sovereign.

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The direct line of Jarasandha terminates in twenty-three descents with Ripunjaya, who was slain, and his throne assumed by his minister, Sanaka, whose dynasty terminated in the fifth generation with Nandivardandhana. Sanaka derived no personal advantage from his usurpation, as he immediately placed his son, Pradyota, on the throne. To these five princes one hundred and thirty-eight years are assigned.

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A new race entered Hindustan, led by a conqueror termed Sheshnag, from Sheshnagdesa,⁴ who ascended the Pandu throne, and whose line terminates in ten descents with Mahanandin, of spurious birth. This last prince, who was also named Baikyat, carried on an exterminating warfare against the ancient Rajput princes of pure blood, the Puranas declaring that since the dynasty of Sheshnag the princes were Sudras. Three hundred and sixty years are allotted to these ten princes.

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