Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.117

v3.c40.117

¹ Colonel Briggs, in his translation [iv. 406], writes it Hully Sa, and in this very place remarks on the “mutilation of Hindu names by the early Mahomedan writers, which are frequently not to be recognized”; or, we might have learned that the adjunct Sa to Hully (qu. Heri), the son of Sehris, was the badge of his tribe, Soda. The Roy-sahy, or Rae-sa of Abulfazil, means ‘Prince Sa’ or ‘Prince of the Sodas.’ Of the same family was Dahir, whose capital, in A.H. 99, was (says Abu-l fazil) “Alore or Debeil,” in which this historian makes a geographical mistake: Alore or Arore being the capital of Upper Sinde, and Debeil (correctly Dewul, the temple), or Tatta, the capital of Lower Sinde. In all probability Dahir held both. We have already dilated, in the Annals of Mewar, on a foreign prince named “Dahir Despati,” or the sovereign prince, Dahir, being amongst her defenders, on the first Mooslem invasion, which we conjectured must have been that of Mahomed Kasim, after he had subdued Sinde. Bappa, the lord of Cheetore, was nephew of Raja Maun Mori, shewing a double motive in the exiled son of Dahir to support Cheetore against his own enemy Kasim. The Moris and Sodas were alike branches of the Pramar (see Vol. I. p. 111). It is also worth while to draw attention to the remark elsewhere made (p. 286) on the stir made by Hejauje of Khorasan (who sent Kasim to Sinde) amongst the Hindu princes of Zabulist’han: dislocated facts, all demonstrating one of great importance, namely, the wide dominion of the Rajpoot race, previous to the appearance of Mahomed. Oriental literature sustained a loss which can scarcely be repaired, by the destruction of the valuable MSS. amassed by Colonel Briggs, during many years, for the purpose of a general history of the early transactions of the Mahomedans. [This note has been reprinted as it stands in the original text. Many statements must be received with caution. See Elliot-Dowson i. 120 ff.]