Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.13

v3.c43.t1.13

Temple of Māmā Devi.—My Yati friend returned from Palod, where I had sent him to copy an inscription in a temple dedicated to Mama-devi, the mother of the gods; but he was disappointed, and brought back only the following traditional legend. The shrine, erected by a wealthy Jain disciple, was destined to receive the image of one of their pontiffs; but on its completion, Mama-devi appeared in *propriâ personâ* to the founder, and expressed so strongly her desire to inhabit it, that, heretic as he was, he could not deny the goddess' suit. He stoutly refused, however, to violate the rules of his order: "By my hands the blood neither of goats or buffaloes can be shed," said the Jain. But, grateful for the permission that a niche should be set apart for her *sarup* (form), she told him to go to the Sonigira chief of Chitor, who would attend to the rites of sacrifice. The good Jain, with easy faith, did as he was commanded, and erecting another temple, succeeded at length in enshrining Parsvanath. My old friend, however, discovered in a temple to Mataji, 'the universal mother,'¹ an inscription of great importance, as it fixes the period of one of the most conspicuous kings of the Solanki dynasty of Nahrvala, or correctly, Anhilwara Patan; and, in conjunction with another of the same prince (which I afterwards discovered in Chitor), also bearing the very same date,¹ demonstrates that the Solanki had actually made a conquest of the capital of the Guhilots. The purport is simply that "Kumarpal Solanki and his son Sohanpal, in the month of Pus (the precise day illegible), S. 1207 (winter of A.D. 1151), came to worship the Universal Mother in her shrine at Palod."² The Sesodias try to get rid of this difficulty by saying, that during the banishment [619] of Kumarpal by Siddha-raja, he not only enjoyed *saran* (refuge) at Chitor,³ but held the post of prime minister to Rawal Samarsi, the friend and brother-in-law of the Chauhan emperor of Delhi; but the inscription (given in the first volume), which I found in the temple built by Lakha Rana, is written in the style of a conqueror, “who planted his standard even in Salpur,” the city of the Getae in the Panjab. At all events, it is one more datum in the history of Rajputana.