Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.232

v3.c43.t1.232

I discovered in the remains of a marble *bawari*, or reservoir, at Kachaura, two large tablets, containing the pedigree of the Solanki family, which will require time to decipher. Tradition, however, is busy with the name of Raja Bhim, and his son Baran of Anhilwara, from whom many tribes branched off; and although, from the first, only royal houses were founded, the other claims a greater celebrity from originating a heterogeneous breed, which descended into the third and fourth great classes, the Vaisya and Sudra. From him the Bagherwal Mahajans,² who became converts to the Jain faith, claim descent, as well as the Gujars of Sont-Katoria; the Sunars, or goldsmiths, of Bonkan; the Bhil communities of Oghna-Panarwa (or Mewar); and likewise those of Mau-Maidana, in Kotah. Whether from Baran and his degenerate offspring originated the name of baran-shankar, applied to the mixed classes, I am not informed.¹ The Bagherwal is one of the “twelve and a half (sarha barah niyat) castes of Mahajans,” or mercantile tribes, subdivided into innumerable families, the greater portion of whom profess the Jain creed, and nearly all are of Rajput ancestry: an important fact in the pedigree of this considerable part of the population. The lineal descendant of the Toda Rao resides at Basai in a small village; and two other branches, who held large possessions at Todri and Jahazpur, retain the villages of Mirchiakhera and Bhatwara, both in Chitor; they have preserved the title of Rao amidst all the revolutions that have deprived them of their estates; nor would any prince of Rajwara deem himself degraded by their alliance [680]. Such is the virtue of pedigree in these regions. I should imagine that the Balnots held of the Ranas of Mewar, as Mandalgarh has been an integral portion of that State during the most flourishing period of the Anhilwara dynasty, although the inscription of Chitor savours of conquest; in which case we have at once a solution of the question, and proof that the Balnot was inducted into Mandalgarh by his superior, Kumarpal.²