History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.12

v1.c8.12

Though these names, it must be admitted, came into use or prominence at this time, this cannot be an argument to hold that they were new races come into India at or a little before this time. New names arise from various causes as we shall find in later history; and it need not surprise us that the names Jat, Gujar and Maratha came into use in the sixth or sometime before the seventh century. The word Jat is found, first in Chandra's grammar, where he uses the word in the sentence अजय-जटों हूणान् given to illustrate the use of the Imperfect. Gurjara and Mahārāshtra are words used by Hiuen Tsang to denote two kingdoms. Bāṇa also uses the word Gurjara as the name of a people or king in the word गुर्जरप्रजागर. As already shown the word Gurjara appears in a grant of Dadda also. Mahārāshtra is a name which we do not find used earlier, though the language Mahārāshtri is mentioned even by Vararuchi of the first century A. D. As applied to the present Maratha country Mahārāshtra is used by Hiuen Tsang only, previous Indian writers such as Varāha Mihira using other names to denote it.* The word Mahārāshtra is a Sanskrit word which can well be interpreted as denoting a people or a country but what do the words Jat and Gujar or their Sanskrit originals Jarta and Gurjara mean? They are probably the names of peoples and not countries according to any view. There were different castes among the Jats except Brahmins. So also among the Gujars some were Brahmins, some Kshatriyas, some Vaiśyas and so on, much in the same way as there are Maratha Brahmins, Maratha Kshatriyas and Maratha Vaiśyas. This subject is of a controversial character and we leave it to be discussed in a note, but we may mention here that there is a caste of Brahmins in Ujjain which styles itself Gújar Gaud. They do not call themselves Gujaratis as Gujarati Brahmins do but Gujars, and it is well known that among the many sub-sections of Rajputs, there is at present a section by the name of Gújars. The mention by Hiuen Tsang of a Kshatriya king in Gurjara need not therefore surprise us.