History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.25

v1.c8.25

The next remark to make about the Kshatriyas is that they had not come to assign much importance to the three great Vanśas to which they now invariably trace their descent. For none of the epigraphic records of this time mention the Vanśa of the Kshatriya family. The Surya Vamśa, the Chandra Vamśa and the Agni Vamśa are yet not met with in grants and inscriptions. The Valabhi grants even do not mention that the Senāpati family to which the Sisodiyas, the premier Surya-Vamśi Rajputs of the present day trace their origin was of the Solar race. No doubt the Solar and Lunar races distinction rather the Aila and Aikshvāka race is mentioned in the Mahābhārata in the Sabhā Parva, where Krishna says that there were 101 families then in India belonging to the Solar and Lunar races. The idea thus of these two races must be taken to be at least as old as the 3rd century B. C. the undoubted date of the last edition of the Mahābhārata. But it seems probable that when in the interval between 300 B. C. and 600 A. D. various families of kings belonging to the Vaiśya and Śūdra castes and of foreign races ruled in India, the mention of the solar or lunar Vamśa must have become of less importance and hence the neglect to mention the Vamśa in inscriptions and grants. The grants of Valabhi kings of undoubted Kshatriya caste do not thus mention the race. But it does not follow that the Solar and Lunar lineage was forgotten. Some families did take pride even then in their Solar and Lunar race (H. C. p. 98 कथयतं यदि सोमवंशसंभवो सूर्यवंशसंभवो वा युवां भूपतिभूदेवंविशः). But they were apparently in the back-ground. The Pushyabhūti family of Thanesar belonged neither to the Solar nor Lunar race and the Vaiśya kings apparently did not deem the Vamśa important or could not trace the origin of their families to kings famous in the Purāṇas.* In grants of the Badāmi Chālukyas the gotra of the family is mentioned as Mānavya and the kings are also called Hārīti-putras. This Mānavya gotra is described in some grants as born of the first Svāyambhuva Manu and thus does not belong to the present solar race. How the two ancient lineages, namely, Solar and Lunar, grew later into importance and how the subsequent addition of the third Agni Kula was made hereafter, we shall have to discuss in our next volume.