History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c14.s6.13

v1.c14.s6.13

The Gurjaras appear to be worshippers of the sun from their grants. This is not strange. There was a temple of the sun in Bhinmal also But this worship of the sun need not indicate the foregin origin of the Gurjaras. In fact sun-worship in India is as old as the Vedas and the most sacred prayer of the Brahmins, the Gāyatri, is addressed to the sun. In later times the worship of Śiva and Vishnu no doubt became predominant, but sun-worship was never entirely supplanted. As early as 400 B. C. Ktesias mentions that there was a place fifteen days' journey from mount Abū where the people worshipped the sun and the moon. (This place must apparently be somewhere in Marwar. Bombay Gaz. Guj. p. 532). Thus we have a mention of sun-worship even before there was any conquest of India by Persians. The temple of the sun in Marwar probably at Bhinmal we may thus look upon as very old. (The worship of the moon at Prabhāsa is also very old). Kings, therefore, are often described to be great worshipers of the sun, and such kings are found in the Vardhana family at Thanesar and the Valabhi family in Kathiawar. Sometimes this family worship is changed in individual kings and some are hence described as Māheśvaras or Bhāgavatas. Sun-worship is even now recognised as a part of the orthodox worship in the Pañchāyatana. That the Magas were specially respected appears simply due to the fact that they were worshippers of the sun only and in a peculiar way and hence they have gained an access to and a position in the Hindu society. But this does not indicate that every sun-worshipper in India is a Maga or foreigner from Persia. The Gurjaras were, as we have shown before, the ancient Aryans of the second horde of invaders i.e. of the moon race and were mostly Vaiśyas i.e. those whose avocation was agriculture and cow-breeding the Kṛishi and Gorakshya of the Gīta. How they moved from the Pañjāb their original home to Bhinmal we shall discuss when speaking of that country.