History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s6.10

v1.c14.s6.10

The names of countries are sometimes inexplicable. England is called after the Angles, though they are an insignificant part of its people, the Britons, the Saxons, the Normans, the Danes being all ignored. India is known now by all its inhabitants as Hindustan and yet this name is not the one which the people gave it. It is a name given by foreigners. The people themselves called it originally Bharata Khanda a name now not used or only rarely used. Panjab again is a foreign name, the original name being Panchanada which remains now only in the Vedas and the Mahābhārata. So it seems that Gujarat is a name given by foreigners and then adopted by the people as Gurjaratrā. But the Gurjaras have left nothing in Gujarat. The common people are not Gurjara by descent, being totally different in character and features from the Gurjaras of the north. The Brahmins are not Gurjaras. The Nāgars are not Gurjaras, though antiquarians tell them that they are Gurjaras and foreigners. The Bhārgavas are also not Gurjaras, nor are the Audichyas Gurjaras for they are declared late-comers and northerners. The Gujarat Brahmins both Nāgars and Bhārgavas are treated as southern Brahmins by themselves. The Kshatriyas too of Gujarat are not Gurjaras. Neither the Valas nor Chāvadas, neither Guhelots nor Jadejas, neither Solankhis nor Chudāsamas call themselves, or believe that they are, Gurjaras. Of course Indian savants call all these people Gurjaras and foreigners in spite of their repudiation, their traditions and history. But their own traditions, as we shall show hereafter, are correct and historical. In fine neither the Kshatriyas nor the Brahmins are or believe themselves to be of Gurjara origin; nor are the common people Gurjaras by ethnology or history. And yet this country has received the name of Gujarat simply because a Gurjara dynasty which in its grants declared itself to be Gurjaras ruled in this part of the country for 200 years from about 550 to 720 A. D. They have left their name supplanting older names viz: Ānarta and Lāta. Their administration seems to have been successful and their rule happy like that of the Valabhis. In fact the very circumstance that there are no details in their history to be recorded shows the happy uneventful character of their rule and hence perhaps the continuous remembrance of their rule as enshrined in the name of the country.