History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.16

v1.c8.s1.16

History and tradition, therefore, does not contradict the inference drawn from the features of the Marathas that they are Aryo-Davidians. There can be no Scythian blood in their veins and their Aryan blood is prominent. Sir R.G. Bhandarkar has shown that the ancient Aryans settled and founded kingdoms in Mahārāshtra, that there was one incursion of the Scythian or Śakas about the beginning of the Christian era but within a few years Gautamīputra defeated and drove them away and ‘left no rumnant of the race of Khagārāta’. Inscriptional records of the Chālukyās, the Rāṣṭrakūtas and the Yādavas show that they belonged to the Solar or Lunar races of Kshatriyas, and the modern representatives of these Maratha families the Jādhavas, the Chālkes or Salankhis, the Kadams, the Bhaleraos and others still maintain the same tradition of race We are justified in holding that a tradition continuing after so many centuries must be accepted and it proves in our view indisputably that the Marathas are Aryans. If there is any mixture in their blood it is of the original people belonging to the Nāga vamśa or the Dravidian race.