Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s1.13

v1.c20.s1.13

Further to develop these claims of Persian descent, we shall commence with an extract from the Upadesa Prasād, a collection of historic fragments in the Magadhi dialect. “In Gujardes (Gujarat) there are eighty-four cities. In one of these, Kaira, resided the Brahman Devaditya, the expounder of the Vedas. He had an only child, Subhaga (of good fortune) by name, at once a maiden and a widow. Having learned from her preceptor the solar incantation, incautiously repeating it, the sun appeared and embraced her, and she thence became pregnant.¹ The affliction of her father was diminished when he discovered the parent; nevertheless [as others might be less charitable] he sent her with a female attendant to Valabhipura, where she was delivered of twins, male and female. When grown up the boy was sent to school; but being eternally plagued about his mysterious birth, whence he received the nickname of Ghaibi (‘concealed’), in a fit of irritation he one day threatened to kill his mother if she refused to disclose the author of his existence. At this moment the sun revealed himself: he gave the youth a pebble, with which it was sufficient to touch his companions in order to overcome them. Being carried before the Balhara prince, who menaced Ghaibi, the latter slew him with the pebble, and became himself sovereign of Saurashtra, taking the name of Siladitya ² (from sila, ‘a stone or pebble,’ and aditya, ‘the sun’): his sister was married to the Raja of Broach.” Such is the literal translation of a fragment totally unconnected with the history of the Rana’s family, though evidently bearing upon it. The father of Siladitya, according to the Sandrai roll and other authorities of that period, is Suraj (the sun) Rao, though two others make a Somaditya intervene ³ [235].