Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s5.t2.228

v1.c17.s5.t2.228

Dahima.—The Dahima has left but the wreck of a great name.³ Seven centuries have swept away all recollection of a tribe who once afforded one of the proudest themes for the song of the bard. The Dahima was the lord of Bayana, and one of the most powerful vassals of the Chauhan emperor, Prithwiraja. Three brothers of this house held the highest offices under this monarch, and the period during which the elder, Kaimas, was his minister, was the brightest in the history of the Chauhan: but he fell a victim to a blind jealousy. Pundir, the second brother [120], commanded the frontier at Lahore. The third, Chawand Rae, was the principal leader in the last battle, where Prithwiraja fell, with the whole of his chivalry, on the banks of the Ghaggar. Even the historians of Shihabu-d-din have preserved the name of the gallant Dahima, Chawand Rae, whom they style Khandirai; and to whose valour, they relate, Shihabu-d-din himself nearly fell a sacrifice. With the Chauhan, the race seems to have been extinguished. Rainsi, his only son, was by this sister of Chawand Rae, but he did not survive the capture of Delhi. This marriage forms the subject of one of the books of the bard, who never was more eloquent than in the praise of the Dahima.¹