Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s4: Chapter 6
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s4
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Chapter 6
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Rajputs and Mongols.—Having thus brought down the genealogical history of the ancient martial races of India, from the earliest period to Yudhishthira and Krishna, and thence to Vikramaditya and the present day, a few observations on the races invading India during that time, and now ranked amongst the thirty-six royal races of Rajasthan, affording scope for some curious analogies, may not be inopportune.
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The tribes here alluded to are the Haihaya or Aswa, the Takshak, and the Jat or Getae; the similitude of whose theogony, names in their early genealogies, and many other points, with the Chinese, Tatar, Mogul, Hindu, and Scythic races, would appear to warrant the assertion of one common origin.
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Though the periods of the passage of these tribes into India cannot be stated with exactitude, the regions whence they migrated may more easily be ascertained.
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Mongol Origin.—Let us compare the origin of the Tatars and Moguls, as given by their historian, Abulghazi, with the races we have been treating of from the Puranas.
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Mogol was the name of the Tatarian patriarch. His son was Aghuz,² the founder of all the races of those northern regions, called Tatars and Mogol [57]. Aghuz had six sons.³ First, Kun,⁴ ‘the sun,’ the Surya of the Puranas; secondly, Ai,⁵ ‘the moon,’
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² Query, if from Mogol and Aghuz, compounded, we have not the Magog, son of Japhet, of Scripture?
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³ The other four sons are the remaining elements, personified: whence the six races of Tatars. The Hindus had long but two races, till the four Agnikula made them also six, and now thirty-six!
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⁴ In Tatar, according to Abulghazi, the sun and moon.
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⁵ De Guignes.
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the Indu of the Puranas. In the latter, Ai, we have even the same name [Ayus] as in the Puranas for the lunar ancestor. The Tatars all claim from Ai, ‘the moon,’ the Indus of the Puranas. Hence with them, as with the German tribes, the moon was always a male deity. The Tatar Ai had a son, Yulduz. His son was Hyu, from whom¹ came the first race of the kings of China. The Puranic Ayus had a son, Yadu (pronounced Jadon); from whose third son, Haya, the Hindu genealogist deduces no line, and from whom the Chinese may claim their Indu¹ origin. Il Khan (ninth from Ai) had two sons: first, Kian; and secondly, Nagas; whose descendants peopled all Tatary. From Kian, Jenghiz Khan claimed descent.² Nagas was probably the founder of the Takshak, or Snake race³ of the Puranas and Tatar genealogists, the Tak-i-uk Moguls of De Guignes.
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¹ Sir W. Jones says the Chinese assert their Hindu origin; but a comparison proves both these Indu races to be of Scythic origin. [Yadu was son of Yayāti, and Haya was Yadu’s grandson, not son. The comparison of Mongol with Hindu tradition is of no value.]
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² [For the Mongol genealogy see Howorth, History of the Mongols, Part i.
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³ Naga and Takshak are Sanskrit names for a snake or serpent, the emblem of Budha or Mercury. The Naga race, so well known to India, the Takshaks or Takiuks of Scythia, invaded India about six centuries before Christ.
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Such are the comparative genealogical origins of the three races. Let us compare their theogony, the fabulous birth assigned by each for the founder of the Indu race.
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Mongol and Hindu Traditions.—1. The Puranic. “Ila (the earth), daughter of the sun-born Ikshwaku, while wandering in the forests was encountered by Budha (Mercury), and from the rape of Ila sprung the Indu race.”
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2. The Chinese account of the birth of Yu (Ayu), their first monarch. “A star⁴ (Mercury or Fo) struck his mother while journeying. She conceived, and gave to the world Yu, the founder of the first dynasty which reigned in China. Yu divided China into nine provinces, and began to reign 2207⁵ years before Christ” [58].
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⁴ De Guignes, Sur les Dynasties des Huns, vol. i. p. 7.
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⁵ Nearly the calculated period from the Puranas.
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Thus the Ai of the Tatars, the Yu of the Chinese, and the Ayus of the Puranas, evidently indicate the great Indu (Lunar) progenitor of the three races. Budha (Mercury), the son of Indu (the moon), became the patriarchal and spiritual leader; as Fo, in China; Woden and Teutates,¹ of the tribes migrating to Europe. Hence it follows that the religion of Buddha must be coeval with the existence of these nations; that it was brought into India Proper by them, and guided them until the schism of Krishna and the Suryas, worshippers of Bal, in time depressed them, when the Buddha religion was modified into its present mild form, the Jain.²
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³⁵ Abu-l Fazl (Akbarnāma, trans. H. Beveridge, i. 171 f.) gives the names as follows: Aghūz Khān, whose sons were—Kūn (Sun); Ai (Moon); Yūlduz (Star); Kok or Gok (Sky); Tāgh (Mountain); Tangīz (Sky)].
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¹ Tauth, 'father' in Sanskrit [? tāta]. Qu. Teuths, and Toth, the Mercury of Egypt?
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² [The author seems to confuse Budha (Mercury) with Gautama Buddha, the teacher. Buddhism arose in India, not in Central Asia, and Jainism was not a milder form of it, but an independent, and probably earlier, religion.]
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Scythian Traditions.—Let us contrast with these the origin of the Scythic nations, as related by Diodorus;³ when it will be observed the same legends were known to him which have been handed down by the Puranas and Abulghazi.
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³ Diodorus Siculus book ii.
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"The Scythians had their first abodes on the Araxes.⁴ Their origin was from a virgin born of the earth⁵ of the shape of a woman from the waist upwards, and below a serpent (symbol of Budha or Mercury); that Jupiter had a son by her, named Scythes,⁶ whose name the nation adopted. Scythes had two sons, Palas and Napas (qu. the Nagas, or Snake race, of the Tatar genealogy?), who were celebrated for their great actions, and who divided the countries; and the nations were called after them, the Palians (qu. Pali?)⁷ and Napians. They led their forces as far as the Nile on Egypt, and subdued many nations. They enlarged the empire of the Scythians as far as the Eastern ocean, and to the Caspian and lake Moeotis. The nation had many kings, from whom the Sacans (Sakae), the Massagetae (Getae or Jats), the Ari-aspians (Aswas of Aria), and many other races. They overran Assyria and Media¹ [59], overturning the empire, and transplanting the inhabitants to the Araxes under the name of Sauro-Matians.” ²
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⁴ The Arvarma of the Puranas; the Jaxartes or Sihun. The Puranas thus describe Sakadwipa or Scythia. Diodorus (lib. ii.) makes the Hemodus the boundary between Saka-Scythia and India Proper.
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⁵ Ila, the mother of the Lunar race, is the earth personified. Ertha of the Saxons; ἕρα of the Greeks; ard in Hebrew [?].
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⁶ Scythes, from Sakatai, 'Sakadwipa,' and is, 'Lord': Lord of Sakatai, or Scythia [?].
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⁷ Qu. Whether the Scythic Pali may not be the shepherd invaders of Egypt [?]. The Pali character yet exists, and appears the same as ancient fragments of the Buddha inscriptions in my possession: many letters assimilate with the Coptic.
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¹ The three great branches of the Indu (Lunar) Aswa bore the epithet of Midia (pronounced Mede), viz. Urumidha, Ajamidha, and Dvimidha. Qu. The Aswa invaders of Assyria and Media, the sons of Bajaswa, expressly stated to have multiplied in the countries west of the Indus, emigrating from their paternal seats in Panchalaka? [Midha means ‘ pouring out seed, prolific,’ and has no connexion with Mede, the Madai of Genesis x. 2; the Assyrian Mada.]
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² Sun-worshippers, the Suryavansa.
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As the Sakae, Getae, Aswa, and Takshak are names which have crept in amongst our thirty-six royal races, common with others also to early civilization in Europe, let us seek further ancient authority on the original abodes.
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Strabo ³ says : “ All the tribes east of the Caspian are called Scythic. The Dahae ⁴ next the sea, the Massagetae (great Gete) and Sakae more eastward ; but every tribe has a particular name. All are nomadic : but of these nomads the best-known are the Asii,⁵ the Pasiani, Tochari, Sacarauli, who took Bactria from the Greeks. The Sakae ⁶ (‘ races ’) have made in Asia irruptions similar to those of the Cimmerians ; thus they have been seen to possess themselves of Bactria, and the best district of Armenia, called after them Sakasenae.” ⁷
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³ Strabo lib. xi. p. 511.
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⁴ Dahya (one of the thirty-six tribes), now extinct.
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⁵ The Asii and Tochari, the Aswa and Takshak, or Turushka races, of the Puranas, of Sakadwipa [?]. “ C’est vraisemblablement d’après le nom de Tachari, que M. D’Anville aura cru devoir placer les tribus ainsi dénommées dans le territoire qui s’appelle aujourdhui Tokarist’han, situé, dit ce grand géographe, entre les montagnes et le Gihon ou Ameu ” (Note 3, liv. xi. p. 254, Strabon).
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⁶ Once more I may state Sakha in Sanskrit has the aspirate : literally, the ‘ branches ’ or ‘ races.’ [Saka and Sākha have no connexion ; see Smith, EHI, 226.]
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⁷ “ La Sacasene étoit une contrée de l’Arménie sur les confins de l’Albanie ou du Shirvan ” (Note 4, tome i. p. 191, Strabon). “ The Sacasenae were the ancestors of the Saxons ” (Turner’s History of the Anglo-Saxons).
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Which of the tribes of Rajasthan are the offspring of the Aswa and Medes, of Indu race, returned under new appellations, we shall not now stop to inquire, limiting our hypothesis to the fact of invasions, and adducing some evidence of such being simultaneous with migrations of the same bands into Europe. Hence the inference of a common origin between the Rajput and early races of Europe; to support which, a similar mythology, martial manners and poetry, language, and even music and architectural ornaments, may be adduced.¹
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¹ Herodotus (iv. 12) says: “The Cimmerians, expelled by the Massagetae, migrated to the Crimea.” Here were the Thyssagetae, or western Getae [the lesser Getae, Herodotus iv. 22]; and thence both the Getae and Cimbri found their way to the Baltic. Rubruquis the Jesuit, describing the monuments of the Comani in the Dasht-i Kipchak, whence these tribes, says: “Their monuments and circles of stones are like our Celtic or Druidical remains” (Bell’s Collection). The Khumān are a branch of the Kāthi tribe of Saurashtra, whose paliyas, or funeral monumental pillars, are seen in groups at every town and village. The Chatti were one of the early German tribes. [Needless to say, the German Chatti had no connexion with the Kāthi of Gujarāt.]
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Of the first migrations of the Indu-Scythic Getae, Takshak, and Asii, into India, that of Sheshnag (Takshak), from Sheshnagdes (Tocharistan ?) or Sheshnag, six centuries, by calculation, before Christ, is the first noticed by the Puranas.² About this period a grand irruption of the same races conquered Asia Minor, and [60] eventually Scandinavia; and not long after the Asii and Tochari overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria, the Romans felt the power of the Asi,³ the Chatti, and Cimbri, from the Baltic shore.
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² [The reference, again, is to the Saisunāga dynasty, p. 64 above.]
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³ Asi was the term applied to the Getes, Yeuts, or Juts, when they invaded Scandinavia and founded Yeutland or Jutland (see ‘Edda,’ Mallet’s Introduction).
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“If we can show the Germans to have been originally Scythae or Goths (Getes or Jits), a wide field of curiosity and inquiry is open to the origin of government, manners, etc.; all the antiquities of Europe will assume a new appearance, and, instead of being traced to the bands of Germany, as Montesquieu and the greatest writers have hitherto done, may be followed through long descriptions of the manners of the Scythians, etc., as given by Herodotus. Scandinavia was occupied by the Scythae five hundred years before Christ. These Scythians worshipped Mercury (Budha), Woden or Odin, and believed themselves his progeny. The Gothic mythology, by parallel, might be shown to be Grecian, whose gods were the progeny of Coelus and Terra (Budha and Ella).¹ Dryads, satyrs, fairies, and all the Greek and Roman superstition, may be found in the Scandinavian creed. The Goths consulted the heart of victims, had oracles, had sibyls, had a Venus in Freya, and Parcae in the Valkyrie.” ²
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¹ Mercury and earth. ² Pinkerton, *On the Goths*, vol. ii. p. 94. [All this is obsolete.] ³ Camari was one of the eight sons of Japhet, says Abulghazi: whence the Camari, Cimmerii, or Cimbri. *Kamari* is one of the tribes of Saurashtra. [Kymry = fellow-countrymen (Rhys, *Celtic Britain*, 116).] ⁴ The Suiones, Suevi, or Su. Now the Su, Yueh-chi, or Yuti, are Getes, according to De Guignes. Marco Polo calls Cashgar, where he was in the sixth century, the birthplace of the Swedes; and De la Croix adds, that in 1691 Sparvenfeldt, the Swedish ambassador at Paris, told him he had read in Swedish chronicles that Cashgar was their country. When the Huns were chased from the north of China, the greater part retired into the southern countries adjoining Europe. The rest passed directly to the Oxus and Jaxartes; thence they spread to the Caspian and Persian frontiers. In Mawaru-l-nahr (Transoxiana) they mixed with the Su, the Yueh-chi, or Getes, who were particularly powerful, and extended into Europe. One would be tempted to regard them as the ancestors of those Getes who were known in Europe. Some bands of Su might equally pass into the north of Europe, known as the Suevi. [The meaning of Suevi is uncertain, but the word has no connexion with that of any Central Asian tribe.]
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The Scythian Descent of the Rajputs.—Ere we proceed to trace these mythological resemblances, let us adduce further opinions in proof of the position assumed of a common origin of the tribes of early Europe and the Scythic Rajput.
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The translator of Abulghazi, in his preface, observes: “Our contempt for the Tatars would lessen did we consider how nearly we stand related to them, and that our ancestors originally came from the north of Asia, and that our customs, laws, and way of living were formerly the same as theirs. In short, that we are no other than a colony of Tatars.
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“It was from Tatary those people came, who, under the successive names of Cymbrians,³ Kelts, and Gauls, possessed all the northern part of Europe. What were the Goths, Huns, Alans, Swedes, Vandals, Franks, but swarms of the same hive? The Swedish chronicles bring the Swedes ⁴ from Cashgar, and [61] the affinity between the Saxon language and Kipchak is great; and the Keltick language still subsisting in Britany and Wales is a demonstration that the inhabitants are descended from Tatar nations.”
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From between the parallels of 30° and 50° of north latitude, and from 75° to 95° of east longitude, the highlands of Central Asia, alike removed from the fires of the equator and the cold of the arctic circle, migrated the races which passed into Europe and within the Indus. We must therefore voyage up the Indus, cross the Paropanisos, to the Oxus or Jihun, to Sakatai¹ or Sakadwipa, and from thence and the Dasht-i Kipchak conduct the Takshaks, the Getae, the Kamari, the Chatti, and the Huns, into the plains of Hindustan.
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¹ Mr. Pinkerton’s research had discovered Sakatai, though he does not give his authority (D’Anville) for the Sakadwipa of the Puranas! “Sakitai, a region at the fountains of the Oxus and Jaxartes, styled Sakita from the Sacae” (D’Anville, Anc. Geog.). The Yadus of Jaisalmer, who ruled Zabulistan and founded Ghazni, claim the Chagatais as of their own Indu stock: a claim which, without deep reflection, appeared inadmissible; but which I now deem worthy of credit.
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We have much to learn in these unexplored regions, the abode of ancient civilisation, and which, so late as Jenghiz Khan’s invasion, abounded with large cities. It is an error to suppose that the nations of Higher Asia were merely pastoral; and De Guignes, from original authorities, informs us that when the Su invaded the Yueh-chi or Jats, they found upwards of a hundred cities containing the merchandise of India, and with the currency bearing the effigies of the prince.
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Such was the state of Central Asia long before the Christian era, though now depopulated and rendered desert by desolating wars, which have raged in these countries, and to which Europe can exhibit no parallel. Timur’s wars, in more modern times, against the Getic nation, will illustrate the paths of his ambitious predecessors in the career of destruction.
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If we examine the political limits of the great Getic nation in the time of Cyrus, six centuries before Christ, we shall find them little circumscribed in power on the rise of Timur, though twenty centuries had elapsed [62].
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Jāts and Getae.—At this period (A.D. 1330), under the last prince of Getic race, Tughlak Timur Khan, the kingdom of Chagatai² was bounded on the west by the Dasht-i Kipchak, and on the south by the Jihun, on which river the Getic Khan, like Tomyris, had his capital. Kokhand, Tashkent, Utrar,¹ Cyropolis, and the most northern of the Alexandrias, were within the bounds of Chagatai.
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² Chagatai, or Sakatai, the Sakadwipa of the Puranas (corrupted by the Greeks to Scythia), “whose inhabitants worship the sun and whence is the river Arvarma.” [For the Chagatai Mongols see Elias-Ross, History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, Introd. 28 ff.]
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¹ Utrar, probably the Uttarakuru of ancient geography: the uttara (northern) kuru (race); a branch of Indu stock.
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The Getae, Jut, or Jat, and Takshak races, which occupy places amongst the thirty-six royal races of India, are all from the region of Sakatai. Regarding their earliest migrations, we shall endeavour to make the Puranas contribute; but of their invasions in more modern times the histories of Mahmud of Ghazni, and Timur abundantly acquaint us.
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From the mountains of Jud² to the shores of Makran,³ and along the Ganges, the Jat is widely spread; while the Takshak name is now confined to inscriptions or old writings.
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² Jadu ka dang, the Joudes of Rennell's map; the Yadu hills high up in the Panjab, where a colony of the Yadu race dwelt when expelled Saurashtra. [The Salt Range in the Jhelum, Shāhpur, and Miānwāli districts of the Panjāb, was known to ancient historians as Koh-i-Jūd, or ‘the hills of Jūd,’ the name being applied by the Muhammadans to this range on account of its resemblance to Mount Al-Jūdi, or Ararat. The author constantly refers to it, and suggests that the name was connected with the Indian Yadu, or Yādava tribe (IGI, xxi. 412; Abu-l Fazl, Akbarnāma, i. 237; Elliot-Dowson, ii. 235, v. 561; Āīn, ii. 405; ASR, ii. 17; Hughes, Dict. of Islām, 23).]
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³ The Numri, or Lumri (foxes) of Baluchistan, are Jats [?]. These are the Nomardies of Rennell. [They are believed to be aborigines (IGI, xvi. 146; Census Report, Baluchistan, 1911, i. 17).]
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Inquiries in their original haunts, and among tribes now under different names, might doubtless bring to light their original designation, now best known within the Indus; while the Takshak or Takiuk may probably be discovered in the Tajik, still in his ancient haunts, the Transoxiana and Chorasmia of classic authors; the Mawaru-n-nahr of the Persians; the Turan, Turkistan, or Tocharistan of native geography; the abode of the Tochari, Takshak, or Turushka invaders of India, described in the Puranas and existing inscriptions.
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The Getae had long maintained their independence when Tomyris defended their liberty against Cyrus. Driven in successive wars across the Sutlej, we shall elsewhere show them preserving their ancient habits, as desultory cavaliers, under the Jat leader of Lahore, in pastoral communities in Bikaner, the Indian desert and elsewhere, though they have lost sight of their early history. The transition from pastoral to agricultural pursuits is but short, and the descendant of the nomadic Getae of Transoxiana is now the best husbandman on the plains of Hindustan ¹ [63].
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¹ [There is no evidence, beyond resemblance of name, to connect the Jats with the Getae.] ² Royal pastors [?]. ³ [iv. 59.] The sun was their ‘ great deity,’ though they had in Xamolxis a lord of terror, with affinity to Yama, or the Hindu Pluto. “ The chief divinity of the Fenns, a Scythic race, was Yammalu ” (Pinkerton’s Hist. of the Goths, vol. ii. p. 215). ⁴ iv. 45 [Asia probably means ‘ land of the rising sun.’] ⁵ Āsa, ‘ hope.’ ⁶ Sakambhari : from sakham, the plural of sakha, ‘ branch or race,’ and ambhar, ‘ covering, protecting.’ [The word means ‘ herb nourishing.’] ⁷ Mata, ‘ mother.’ ⁸ Aswa and haya are synonymous Sanskrit terms for ‘ horse ’; asp in Persian; and as applied by the prophet Ezekiel [xxxviii. 6] to the Getic invasion of Scythia, A.C. 600 : “ the sons of Togarmah riding on horses ”; described by Diodorus, the period the same as the Takshak invasion of India.
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The invasion of these Indu-Scythic tribes, Getae, Takshaks, Asii, Chatti, Rajpali,² Huns, Kamari, introduced the worship of Budha, the founder of the Indu or Lunar race.
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Herodotus says the Getae were theists,³ and held the tenets of the soul’s immortality; so with the Buddhists.
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Before, however, touching on points of religious resemblance between the Asii, Getae, or Jut of Scandinavia (who gave his name to the Cimbric Chersonese) and the Getae of Scythia and India, let us make a few remarks on the Asii or Aswa.
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The Aswa.—To the Indu race of Aswa (the descendants of Dvimidha and Bajaswa), spread over the countries on both sides the Indus, do we probably owe the distinctive appellation of Asia. Herodotus ⁴ says the Greeks denominated Asia from the wife of Prometheus; while others deduce it from a grandson of Manes, indicating the Aswa descendants of the patriarch Manu. Asa,⁵ Sakambhari,⁶ Mata,⁷ is the divinity Hope, ‘ mother-protectress of the Sakha,’ or races. Every Rajput adores Asapurna, ‘ the fulfiller of desire ’; or, as Sakambhari Devi (goddess protectress), she is invoked previous to any undertaking.
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The Aswas were chiefly of the Indu race; yet a branch of the Suryas also bore this designation. It appears to indicate their celebrity as horsemen.⁸ All of them worshipped the horse, which they sacrificed to the sun. This grand rite, the Asvamedha, on the festival of the winter solstice, would alone go far to exemplify their common Scythic origin with the Getic Saka, authorising the inference of Pinkerton, “ that a grand Scythic nation extended from the Caspian to the Ganges.”
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The Asvamedha. — The Asvamedha was practised on the Ganges and Sarju by the Solar princes [64], twelve hundred years before Christ, as by the Getae in the time of Cyrus ; “ deeming it right,” says Herodotus [i. 216] “ to offer the swiftest of created to the chief of uncreated beings ” : and this worship and sacrifice of the horse has been handed down to the Rajput of the present day. A description of this grand ceremony shall close these analogies.
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The Getic Asii carried this veneration for the steed, symbolic of their chief deity the sun, into Scandinavia : equally so of all the early German tribes, the Su, Suevi, Chatti, Sucimbri, Getae, in the forests of Germany, and on the banks of the Elbe and Weser. The milk-white steed was supposed to be the organ of the gods, from whose neighing they calculated future events ; notions possessed also by the Aswa, sons of Budha (Woden), on the Yamuna and Ganges, when the rocks of Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic were yet untrod by man. It was this omen which gave Darius Hystaspes¹ (hīnsna, ‘ to neigh,’ aspa, ‘ a horse ’) a crown. The bard Chand makes it the omen of death to his principal heroes. The steed of the Scandinavian god of battle was kept in the temple of Upsala, and always “ found foaming and sweating after battle.” “ Money,” says Tacitus, “ was only acceptable to the German when bearing the effigies of the horse.”²
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¹ [Hystaspes is from old Persian, Vishtāspa, ‘ possessor of horses.’ The author derives it from a modern Hindi word hīnsna, ‘ to neigh,’ possibly from recollection of the story in Herodotus iii. 85.]
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² [He possibly refers to the statement (Germania, v.), that their coins bore the impress of a two-horse chariot.]
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In the Edda we are informed that the Getae, or Jats, who entered Scandinavia, were termed Asi, and their first settlement As-gard.³
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³ Asirgarh, ‘ fortress of the Asi ’ [IGI, vi. 12].
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Pinkerton rejects the authority of the Edda and follows Torfaeus, who “ from Icelandic chronicles and genealogies concludes Odin to have come into Scandinavia in the time of Darius Hystaspes, five hundred years before Christ.”
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This is the period of the last Buddha, or Mahavira, whose era is four hundred and seventy-seven years before Vikrama, or five hundred and thirty-three before Christ.
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The successor of Odin in Scandinavia was Gotama; and Gautama was the successor of the last Buddha, Mahavira,¹ who as Gotama, or Gaudama, is still adored from the Straits of Malacca to the Caspian Sea.
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¹ The great (maha) warrior (vir). [Buddha lived 567–487 B.C. : Mahāvīra, founder of Jainism, died about 527 B.C.]
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“Other antiquaries,” says Pinkerton, “assert another Odin, who was put as the supreme deity one thousand years before Christ” [65].
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Mallet admits two Odins, but Mr. Pinkerton wishes he had abided by that of Torfaeus, in 500 A.C.
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It is a singular fact that the periods of both the Scandinavian Odins should assimilate with the twenty-second Buddha [Jain Tirthakara], Neminath, and twenty-fourth and last, Mahavira; the first the contemporary of Krishna, about 1000 or 1100 years, the last 533, before Christ. The Asii, Getae, etc., of Europe worshipped Mercury as founder of their line, as did the Eastern Asi, Takshaks, and Getae. The Chinese and Tatar historians also say Buddha, or Fo, appeared 1027 years before Christ. “The Yuchi, established in Bactria and along the Jihun, eventually bore the name of Jeta or Yetan,² that is to say, Getae. Their empire subsisted a long time in this part of Asia, and extended even into India. These are the people whom the Greeks knew under the name of Indo-Scythes. Their manners are the same as those of the Turks.³ Revolutions occurred in the very heart of the East, whose consequences were felt afar.”⁴
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² Yeutland was the name given to the whole Cimbric Chersonese, or Jutland (Pinkerton, On the Goths).
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³ Turk, Turushka, Takshak, or ‘Taunak, fils de Turc’ (Abulghazi, History of the Tatars).
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⁴ Histoire des Huns, vol. i. p. 42.
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The period allowed by all these authorities for the migration of these Scythic hordes into Europe is also that for their entry into India.
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The sixth century is that calculated for the Takshak from Sheshnagdesa; and it is on this event and reign that the Puranas declare, that from this period “no prince of pure blood would be found, but that the Sudra, the Turushka, and the Yavan, would prevail.”
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All these Indu-Scythic invaders held the religion of Buddha : and hence the conformity of manners and mythology between the Scandinavian or German tribes and the Rajputs increased by comparing their martial poetry.
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Similarity of religious manners affords stronger proofs of original identity than language. Language is eternally changing—so are manners; but an exploded custom or rite traced to its source, and maintained in opposition to climate, is a testimony not to be rejected.
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Personal Habits, Dress.—When Tacitus informs us that the first act of a German on rising was ablution, it will be conceded this habit was not acquired in [66] the cold climate of Germany, but must have been of eastern¹ origin; as were “the loose flowing robe; the long and braided hair, tied in a knot at the top of the head”; with many other customs, personal habits, and superstitions of the Scythic Cimbri, Juts, Chatti, Suevi, analogous to the Getic nations of the same name, as described by Herodotus, Justin, and Strabo, and which yet obtain amongst the Rajput Sakhae of the present day.
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¹ Though Tacitus calls the German tribes indigenous, it is evident he knew their claim to Asiatic origin, when he asks, “Who would leave the softer abodes of Asia for Germany, where Nature yields nothing but deformity?”
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Let us contrast what history affords of resemblance in religion or manners. First, as to religion.
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Theogony.—Tuisto (Mercury) and Ertha (the earth) were the chief divinities of the early German tribes. Tuisto² was born of the Earth (Ila) and Manus (Manu). He is often confounded with Odin, or Woden, the Budha of the eastern tribes, though they are the Mars and Mercury of these nations.
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² In an inscription of the Geta or Jat Prince of Salindrapur (Salpur) of the fifth century, he is styled “of the race of Tusta” (qu. Tuisto?). It is in that ancient nail-headed character used by the ancient Buddhists of India, and still the sacred character of the Tatar Lamas: in short, the Pali. All the ancient inscriptions I possess of the branches of the Agnikulas, as the Chauhan, Pramara, Solanki, and Parihara, are in this character. That of the Jat prince styles him “Jat Kathida” (qu. of (da) Cathay?). From Tuisto and Woden we have our Tuesday and Wednesday. In India, Wednesday is Budhwar (Dies Mercurii), and Tuesday Mangalwar (Dies Martis), the Mardi of the French.
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Religious Rites.—The Suiones or Suevi, the most powerful Getic nation of Scandinavia, were divided into many tribes, one of whom, the Su (Yueh-chi or Jat), made human sacrifices in their consecrated groves ¹ to Ertha (Ila), whom all worshipped, and whose chariot was drawn by a cow.² The Suevi worshipped Isis (Isa, Gauri, the Isis and Ceres of Rajasthan), in whose rites the figure of a ship is introduced ; “ symbolic,” observes Tacitus, “ of its foreign origin.”³ The festival of Isa, or Gauri, wife of Iswara, at Udaipur, is performed on the lake, and appears to be exactly that of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, as described by Herodotus. On this occasion Iswara (Osiris), who is secondary to his wife, has a stalk of the onion in blossom in his hand ; a root detested by the Hindus generally, though adored by the Egyptians.
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¹ Tacitus, *Germania*, xxxviii.
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² The gau, or cow, symbolic of Prithivi, the earth. On this see note, p. 33.
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³ [*Germania*, ix.]
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Customs of War.—They sung hymns in praise of Hercules, as well as Tuisto or Odin, whose banners and images they carried to the field ; and fought in clans, using the feram or javelin, both in close and distant combat. In all maintaining [67] the resemblance to the Harikula, descendants of Budha, and the Aswa, offspring of Bajaswa, who peopled those regions west of the Indus, and whose redundant population spread both east and west.
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The Suevi, or Suiones, erected the celebrated temple of Upsala, in which they placed the statues of Thor, Woden, and Freya, the triple divinity of the Scandinavian Asii, the Trimurti of the Solar and Lunar races. The first (Thor, the thunderer, or god of war) is Hara, or Mahadeva, the destroyer ; the second (Woden) is Budha,⁴ the preserver ; and the third (Freya) is Uma, the creative power.
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⁴ Krishna is the preserving deity of the Hindu triad. Krishna is of the Indu line of Budha, whom he worshipped prior to his own deification.
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The grand festival to Freya was in spring, when all nature revived ; then boars were offered to her by the Scandinavians, and even boars of paste were made and swallowed by the peasantry.
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As Vasanti, or spring personified, the consort of Hara is worshipped by the Rajput, who opens the season with a grand hunt,¹ led by the prince and his vassal chiefs, when they chase, slay, and eat the boar. Personal danger is disregarded on this day, as want of success is ominous that the Great Mother will refuse all petitions throughout the year.
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¹ ‘ Mahurat ka shikar.’ ² The Siebi of Tacitus. ³ Sammes’s Saxon Antiquities. ⁴ Hara is the Thor of Scandinavia ; Hari is Budha, Hermes, or Mercury. ⁵ Mallet derives it from kempfer, ‘ to fight.’ [The name is said to mean ‘ comrades’ (Rhys, Celtic Britain, 116). Irmansūl means ‘ a colossus,’ and has no connexion with Skr. sūla (Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, i. 115).] ⁶ Ku is a mere prefix, meaning ‘ evil’; ‘ the evil striker (Mar).’ Hence, probably, the Mars of Rome. The birth of Kumar, the general of the army of the gods, with the Hindus, is exactly that of the Grecians, born of the goddess Jahnavi (Juno) without sexual intercourse. Kumāra is always accompanied by the peacock, the bird of Juno. [Kumāra probably means ‘ easily dying’; there is no connexion with Mars, originally a deity of vegetation.] ⁷ For a drawing of the Scandinavian god of battle see Sammes.
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Pinkerton, quoting Ptolemy (who was fifty years after Tacitus), says there were six nations in Yeutland or Jutland, the country of the Juts, of whom were the Sablingii (Suevi,² or Suiones), the Chatti and Hermandri, who extended to the estuary of the Elbe and Weser. There they erected the pillar Irmansul to “ the god of war,” regarding which Sammes ³ observes : “ some will have it to be Mars his pillar, others Hermes Saul, or the pillar of Hermes or Mercury ” ; and he naturally asks, “ how did the Saxons come to be acquainted with the Greek name of Mercury ? ”
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Sacrificial pillars are termed Sula in Sanskrit ; which, conjoined with Hara,⁴ the Indian god of war, would be Harsula. The Rajput warrior invokes Hara with his trident (trisula) to help him in battle, while his battle-shout is ‘ mar! mar!’ The Cimbri, one of the most celebrated of the six tribes of Yeutland, derive their name from their fame as warriors [68].⁵
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Kumara ⁶ is the Rajput god of war. He is represented with seven heads in the Hindu mythology : the Saxon god of war has six.⁷ The six-headed Mars of the Cimbri Chersonese, to whom was raised the Irmansul on the Weser, was worshipped by the Sakasenae, the Chatti, the Siebi or Suevi, the Jotae or Getae, and the Cimbri, evincing in name, as in religious rites, a common origin with the martial warriors of Hindustan.
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Rajput Religion.—The religion of the martial Rajput, and the rites of Hara, the god of battle, are little analogous to those of the meek Hindus, the followers of the pastoral divinity, the worshippers of kine, and feeders on fruits, herbs, and water. The Rajput delights in blood : his offerings to the god of battle are sanguinary, blood and wine. The cup (kharpara) of libation is the human skull. He loves them because they are emblematic of the deity he worships ; and he is taught to believe that Hara loves them, who in war is represented with the skull to drink the foeman's blood, and in peace is the patron of wine and women. With Parbati on his knee, his eyes rolling from the juice of the phul (ardent spirits) and opium, such is this Bacchanalian divinity of war. Is this Hinduism, acquired on the burning plains of India ? Is it not rather a perfect picture of the manners of the Scandinavian heroes ?
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The Rajput slays buffaloes, hunts and eats the boar and deer, and shoots ducks and wild fowl (kukkut) ; he worships his horse, his sword, and the sun, and attends more to the martial song of the bard than to the litany of the Brahman. In the martial mythology and warlike poetry of the Scandinavians a wide field exists for assimilation, and a comparison of the poetical remains of the Asi of the east and west would alone suffice to suggest a common origin.
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Bards.—In the sacred Bardai of the Rajput we have the bard of our Saxon ancestry ; those reciters of warlike poetry, of whom Tacitus says, “ with their barbarous strains, they influence their minds in the day of battle with a chorus of military virtue.”
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A comparison, in so extensive a field, would include the whole of their manners and religious opinions, and must be reserved for a distinct work.¹ The Valkyrie [69], or fatal sisters of the Suevi or Siebi, would be the twin sisters of the Apsaras, who summon the Rajput warrior from the field of battle, and bear him to “ the mansion of the sun,” equally the object of attainment with the children of Odin in Scandinavia, and of Budha and Surya in the plains of Scythia and on the Ganges, like the Elysium¹ of the Heliadae of Greece.
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¹ I have in contemplation to give to the public a few of the sixty-nine books of the poems of Chand, the last great bard of the last Hindu emperor of India, Prithwiraja. They are entirely heroic : each book a relation of one of the exploits of this prince, the first warrior of his time. They will aid a comparison between the Rajput and Scandinavian bards, and show how far the Provençal Troubadour, the Neustrienne Trouveur, and Minnesinger of Germany, have anything in common with the Rajput Bard. [For Rajput bards on horseback, drunk with opium, singing songs to arouse warriors' courage, see Manucci ii. 437 f.]
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¹ Ἠλύσιος, from Ἥλιος, ‘the sun’; also a title of Apollo, the Hari of India. [The two words, from the accentuation, can have no connexion.]
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In the day of battle we should see in each the same excitements to glory and contempt of death, and the *dramatis personae* of the field, both celestial and terrestrial, move and act alike. We should see Thor, the thunderer, leading the Siebi, and Hara (Siva) the Indian Jove, his own worshippers (Sivseva); in which Freya, or Bhavani, and even the preserver (Krishna) himself, not unfrequently mingle.
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**War Chariots.**—The war chariot is peculiar to the Indu-Scythic nations, from Dasaratha,² and the heroes of the Mahabharata, to the conquest of Hindustan by the Muhammadans, when it was laid aside. On the plains of Kurukshetra, Krishna became charioteer to his friend Arjun; and the Getic hordes of the Jaxartes, when they aided Xerxes in Greece, and Darius on the plains of Arbela,³ had their chief strength in the war chariot.
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² This title of the father of Rama denotes a ‘charioteer’ [‘having ten chariots.’ Harsha (A.D. 612-647) discarded the chariot (Smith, *EHI*, 339)].
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³ The Indian satrapy of Darius, says Herodotus [iii. 94], was the richest of all the Persian provinces, and yielded six hundred talents of gold. Arrian informs us that his Indo-Scythic subjects, in his wars with Alexander, were the élite of his army. Besides the Sakasenae, we find tribes in name similar to those included in the thirty-six Rajkula; especially the Dahae (Dahya, one of the thirty-six races). The Indo-Scythic contingent was two hundred war chariots and fifteen elephants, which were marshalled with the Parthii on the right, and also near Darius’s person. By this disposition they were opposed to the cohort commanded by Alexander in person. The chariots commenced the action, and prevented a manœuvre of Alexander to turn the left flank of the Persians. Of their horse, also, the most honourable mention is made; they penetrated into the division where Parmenio commanded, to whom Alexander was compelled to send reinforcements. The Grecian historian dwells with pleasure on Indo-Scythic valour: “there were no equestrian feats, no distant fighting with darts, but each fought as if victory depended on his sole arm.” They fought the Greeks hand to hand [Arrian, *Anabasis*, iii. 15]. But the loss of empire was decreed at Arbela, and the Sakae and Indo Scythae had the honour of being slaughtered by the Yavans of Greece, far from their native land, in the aid of the king of kings.
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The war chariot continued to be used later in the south-west of India than elsewhere, and the Kathi,⁴ Khuman, Kumari of Saurashtra have to recent times retained their Scythic habits, as their monumental stones testify, expressing their being slain from their cars [70].
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⁴ The Kathi are celebrated in Alexander’s wars. The Kathiawar Kathi can be traced from Multan (*the ancient abode*) [*mūlasthāna*, ‘principal place’].
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Position of Women.—In no point does resemblance more attach between the ancient German and Scandinavian tribes, and the martial Rajput or ancient Getae, than in their delicacy towards females.
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“The Germans,” says Tacitus [*Germania*, viii.], “deemed the advice of a woman in periods of exigence oracular.” So does the Rajput, as the bard Chand often exemplifies; and hence they append to her name the epithet *Devi* (or contracted *De*), ‘god-like.’ “To a German mind,” says Tacitus, “the idea of a woman led into captivity is insupportable”; and to prevent this the Rajput raises the poignard against the heart which beats only for him, though never to survive the dire necessity. It is then they perform the sacrifice ‘johar,’ when every *sakha* (branch) is cut off: and hence the Rajput glories in the title of *Sakha-band*, from having performed the *sakha*; an awful rite, and with every appearance of being the *sacaea* of the Scythic Getae, as described by Strabo.¹
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¹ The Sakae had invaded the inhabitants on the borders of the Pontic Sea: whilst engaged in dividing the booty, the Persian generals surprised them at night, and exterminated them. To eternize the remembrance of this event, the Persians heaped up the earth round a rock in the plain where the battle was fought, on which they erected two temples, one to the goddess Anaïtis, the other to the divinities Omanus and Anandate, and then founded the annual festival called *Sacaea*, still celebrated by the possessors of Zela. Such is the account by some authors of the origin of *Sacaea*. According to others it dates from the reign of Cyrus only. This prince, they say, having carried the war into the country of the Sakae (Massagetae of Herodotus) lost a battle. Compelled to fall back on his magazines, abundantly stored with provisions, but especially wine, and having halted some time to refresh his army, he departed before the enemy, feigning a flight, and leaving his camp standing full of provisions. The Sakae, who pursued, reaching the abandoned camp stored with provisions, gave themselves up to debauch. Cyrus returned and surprised the inebriated and senseless barbarians. Some, buried in profound sleep, were easily massacred; others occupied in drinking and dancing, without defence, fell into the hands of armed foes: so that all perished. The conqueror, attributing his success to divine protection, consecrated this day to the goddess honoured in his country, and decreed it should be called ‘the day of the *Sacaea*.’ This is the battle
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The Dahya (Dahae), Johya (the latter Hunnish), and Kathi are amongst the thirty-six races. All dwelt, six centuries ago, within the five streams and in the deserts south of the Ghara. The two last have left but a name.
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Gaming.—In passion for play at games of chance, its extent and dire consequences, the Rajput, from the earliest times, has evinced a predilection, and will stand comparison with the Scythian and his German offspring. The German staked his personal liberty, became a slave, and was sold as the property of the winner. To this vice the Pandavas owed the loss of their sovereignty and personal liberty, involving at last the destruction of all the Indu [71] races; nor has the passion abated. Religion even consecrates the vice; and once a year, on ‘the Festival of Lamps’ (Diwali), all propitiate the goddess of wealth and fortune (Lakshmi) by offering at her shrine.
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Destitute of mental pursuits, the martial Rajput is often slothful or attached to sensual pleasures, and when roused, reckless on what he may wreak a fit of energy. Yet when order and discipline prevail in a wealthy chieftainship, there is much of that patriarchal mode of life, with its amusements, alike suited to the Rajput, the Getae of the Jihun, or Scandinavian.
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Omens, Auguries.—Divination by lots, auguries, and omens by flights of birds, as practised by the Getic nations described by Herodotus, and amongst the Germans by Tacitus, will be found amongst the Rajputs, from whose works ¹ on this subject might have been supplied the whole of the Augurs and Aruspices, German or Roman.
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¹ I presented a work on this subject to the Royal Asiatic Society, as well as another on Palmistry, etc.
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Love of Strong Drink.—Love of liquor, and indulgence in it to excess, were deep-rooted in the Scandinavian Asi and German tribes, and in which they showed their Getic origin; nor is the
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related by Herodotus, to which Strabo alludes, between the Persian monarch and Tomyris, queen of the Getae. Amongst the Rajput Sakha, all grand battles attended with fatal results are termed sakha. When besieged, without hope of relief, in the last effort of despair, the females are immolated, and the warriors, decorated in saffron robes, rush on inevitable destruction. This is to perform sakha, where every branch (sakha) is cut off. Chitor has to boast of having thrice (and a half) suffered sakha. *Chitor sakha ka pap*, ‘by the sin of the sack of Chitor,’ the most solemn adjuration of the Guhilot Rajput. If such the origin of the festival from the slaughter of the Sakae of Tomyris, it will be allowed to strengthen the analogy contended for between the Sakae east and west the Indus. [For the Sacaea festival see Sir J. Frazer, *The Golden Bough, The Dying God*, 113 ff. It has no connexion with the Rajput Sākha, ‘a fight,’ which, again, is a different word from Sākha, ‘a branch, clan.’]
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Rajput behind his brethren either of Scythia or Europe. It is the free use of this and similar indulgences, prohibited by ordinances which govern the ordinary Hindu, that first induced me to believe that these warlike races were little indebted to India.
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The Rajput welcomes his guest with the *munawwar piyala*, or ‘cup of request,’ in which they drown ancient enmities. The heroes of Odin never relished a cup of mead more than the Rajput his *madhu*;¹ and the bards of Scandinavia and Rajwara are alike eloquent in the praise of the bowl, on which the Bardai exhausts every metaphor, and calls it ambrosial, immortal.² “The bard, as he sipped the ambrosia, in which sparkled the ruby seed of the pomegranate, rehearsed the glory of the race of the fearless.³ May the king live for ever, alike bounteous in gifts to the bard and the foe!” Even in the heaven of Indra, the Hindu warrior’s paradise, akin to Valhalla [72], the Rajput has his cup, which is served by the Apsaras, the twin sister of the celestial Hebe of Scania. “I shall quaff full goblets amongst the gods,” says the dying Getic warrior;⁴ “I die laughing”: sentiments which would be appreciated by a Rajput.
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¹ *Madhu* is intoxicating drink, from *madhu*, ‘a bee,’ in Sanskrit [*madhu*, ‘anything sweet’]. It is well known that mead is from honey. It would be curious if the German mead was from the Indian *madhu* (bee); then both cup (*kharpara*) and beverage would be borrowed. [*Madhu* does not mean ‘a bee’ in Sanskrit.]
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² *Amrita* (immortal), from the initial privative and *mrit*, ‘death.’ Thus the *Immurthal*, or ‘vale of immortality,’ at Neufchatel, is as good Sanskrit as German [?].
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³ Abhai Singh, ‘the fearless lion,’ prince of Marwar, whose bard makes this speech at the festal board, when the prince presented with his own hand the cup to the bard.
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⁴ Regner Lodbrog, in his dying ode, when the destinies summon him.
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A Rajput inebriated is a rare sight: but a more destructive and recent vice has usurped much of the honours of the ‘invitation cup,’ which has been degraded from the pure ‘flower’⁵ to an infusion of the poppy, destructive of every quality. Of this pernicious habit we may use the words which the historian of German manners applies to the tribes of the Weser and Elbe, in respect to their love of strong drink: “Indulge it, and you need not employ the terror of your arms; their own vices will subdue them.”
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⁵ Phūl, the flower of the mahua tree, the favourite drink of a Rajput. Classically, in Sanskrit it is *madhūka*, of the class Polyandria Monogynia [*Bassia latifolia*] (see *As. Res.* vol. i. p. 300).
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The cup of the Scandinavian worshippers of Thor, the god of battle, was a human skull, that of the foe, in which they showed their thirst of blood; also borrowed from the chief of the Hindu Triad, Hara, the god of battle, who leads his heroes in the ‘red field of slaughter’ with the *khopra*¹ in his hand, with which he gorges on the blood of the slain.
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¹ A human skull; in the dialects pronounced *khopar*: *Qu.* cup in Saxon? [Cup, in Low Latin *cuppa*.]
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Hara is the patron of all who love war and strong drink, and is especially the object of the Rajput warrior’s devotion: accordingly blood and wine form the chief oblations to the great god of the Indus. The Gosains,² the peculiar priests of Hara, or Bal, the sun, all indulge in intoxicating drugs, herbs, and drinks. Seated on their lion, leopard, or deer skins, their bodies covered with ashes, their hair matted and braided, with iron tongs to feed the penitential fires, their savage appearance makes them fit organs for the commands of the blood and slaughter. Contrary, likewise, to general practice, the minister of Hara, the god of war, at his death is committed to the earth, and a circular tumulus is raised over him; and with some classes of Gosains, small tumuli, whose form is the frustrum of a cone, with lateral steps, the apex crowned with a cylindrical stone [73].³
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² The Kanphara [or Kanphata] Jogis, or Gosains, are in great bodies, often in many thousands, and are sought as allies, especially in defensive warfare. In the grand military festivals at Udaipur to the god of war, the scymitar, symbolic of Mars, worshipped by the Guhilots, is entrusted to them [*IA*, vii. 47 ff.; *BG*, ix. part i. 543].
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³ An entire cemetery of these, besides many detached, I have seen, and also the sacred rites to their manes by the disciples occupying these abodes of austerity, when the flowers of the *ak* [Calatropis gigantea] and leaves of evergreen were strewed on the grave, and sprinkled with the pure element.
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Funeral Ceremonies.—In the last rites for the dead, comparison will yield proofs of original similarity. The funeral ceremonies of Scandinavia have distinguished the national eras, and the ‘age of fire’ and ‘the age of hills,’⁴ designated the periods when the warrior was committed to mother earth or consumed on the pyre.
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⁴ *Mallet’s Northern Antiquities*, chap. xii.
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Odin (Budha) introduced the latter custom, and the raising of tumuli over the ashes when the body was burned; as also the practice of the wife burning with her deceased lord. These manners were carried from Sakadwipa, or Saka Scythia, “ where the Geta,” says Herodotus [v. 5], “ was consumed on the pyre or burned alive with her lord.” With the Getae, the Siebi or Suevi of Scandinavia, if the deceased had more than one wife, the elder claimed the privilege of burning.¹ Thus, “ Nanna was consumed in the same fire with the body of her husband, Balder, one of Odin’s companions.” But the Scandinavians were anxious to forget this mark of their Asiatic origin, and were not always willing to burn, or to make “ so cruel and absurd a sacrifice to the manes of their husbands, the idea of which had been picked up by their Scythian ancestors, when they inhabited the warmer climates of Asia, where they had their first abodes.” ²
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Linked texts (5)
- מְלָכִים א — Hebrew
- יְחֶזְקֵאל — Hebrew
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Purāṇa — Sanskrit
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit