History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.19

v2.c28.19

We have tried in our first volume to refute many of these arguments. We have shown in that volume how Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar’s theory that the Gujars are foreigners (Khizars) who came along with the Huns in the beginning of the fifth century is baseless, inasmuch as it is admitted by even Smith that there is no historical evidence either of native tradition or foreign record to suggest, much less to prove that the Gujars came into India from outside about this time and further because we find that the history of the Khizars proves that they never left their own country. We also showed that the characters of the two people are diametrically opposed. While the Khizars are stationary in habits and traders by profession, the Gujars are of roving habits and cattle-grazers by profession. It was also shown that the Gujars of India are distinctly Aryan by features, that their noses are more prominent than the noses of even Parisans, that in short the whole theory based on the premiss that Gujars are foreigners is mistaken for the Gujars are not foreigners and Scythians but are distinctly Aryans. We will, therefore, not repeat in this volume what we have urged already in refutation of this theory. We have also shown that foreigners like the Huns and the Śakas could not have left many descendants behind, that ruling races generally disappear when their rule is gone. We will, however, address ourselves in this volume to the second part of Mr. Bhandarkar’s theory accepted by Sir Vincent Smith and Mr. William Crooke that it is established on good evidence that the Rajputs are the descendants of Gujars. In fact we may say that while we have refuted the second premiss of Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar’s argument in our first volume, we will in this volume try to refute his first premiss. For Dr. Bhandarkar’s argument may be stated thus: "1st The Rajputs are the descendants of Gujars; 2nd the Gujars are foreigners. Therefore, 3rd the Rajputs are the descendants of foreigners." We have already shown that the Gujars are not foreigners but are true Aryans; and hence even if the Rajputs are descendants of Gujars they cannot be classed as Non-Aryans. But we go further and will prove in this volume that the Rajputs are not descended from Gujars but from Kshatriyas who may well be believed to be the representatives of the Vedic Kshatriyas. Dr. Bhandarkar’s theory has been elucidated principally in his papers on the Gujars (J. Bom. R. A. S. 1903) and on Foreign Elements in the Indian Population (Ind. Ant. 1911). Many of his arguments advanced in these papers have been accepted by historians like Smith and Crooke from whom we have quoted above at length. These arguments have always derived a strong support from the tradition relating to the Agnikulas current among the Rajputs themselves. It is here that we see the immense value of research. For research has already established that this tradition or myth of Agnikulas is indeed a myth, a creation and a modern creation of a poet’s brain; and we see here how false traditions once set up by poets and accepted in popular belief not only delude the people themselves but even historians like Smith and Crooke and researchers like Bhandarkar and Johnson. Indeed one can demonstrate the value and usefulness of historical research by the example of this very baseless myth of fire-born races which has so strongly supported the theory of the foreign descent of the Rajputs.