History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.26

v2.c28.26

This story of Chand being so misinterpreted gained popular credence from the 16th century A. D. along with his now generally accepted Epic so much so that these four clans forgot that their ancestors in their historical records on stone represented themselves nowhere as Agnikulas but as solar and lunar race Kshatriyas. And their bards too forgot the fact so completely that a new Chand viz., Surajmal Bhata of Bundikota wrote another Hindi epic poem in glorification of his patron's family the Chāhamāna clan in which he completed the mischief caused by this misinterpretation of Chand, by assigning five Vamśas for the Kshatriyas. In this Vamśa-Bhāskara by Sūrajamal of Boondi we find the story of the Yajnakunda of Vasiṣṭha given with greater detail, nay with the exact date when the first Chāhamāna warrior was created from the fire (the date comes to about 6632 B. C. being 3531 years before Kali began) and the following verse gives the five Kshatriya Vamśas which now for the first time were enumerated as भुजभव, मनुभव, अर्कभव, ससिभव, छत्र वंश । है चउतिम, श्चैवंवंस हुव पंचम प्रथितशंस. The Hādās of Boondi-Kotā accepted the new Vamśa assigned to them by their poet and thus the myth of Agni-Vamśa which at the earliest commenced in about 1200 A. D. became a logical fact in about 1700 A. D. when the four clans themselves accepted a new Vamśa for themselves. Col. Tod could not but believe in this tradition and he set his final seal upon it by his well-known history of the Rajputs.