History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.67

v2.c28.s1.67

Having examined the evidence which is supposed to prove that the Pratihāra and other Rajput tribes were Gujars originally, and found it insufficient to establish the conclusion that these tribes are foreigners, we will proceed to sketch the evidence which goes to show that the Rajputs are the descendants of Vedic Aryans. And the first item of evidence which presents itself to us is the fact that the Rajputs have the same gotras and Pravaras as those laid down in the Vedic Sūtras and have carefully preserved their memory to this day. The gotra and Pravara system as laid down in the several Sutras of the Vedas preserves among Indo-Aryans the memory of descent in a manner not to be witnessed anywhere else in the world. The Indian Aryans who profess the Vedic faith have to recite at every religious ceremony, their gotra and Pravara before beginning the ceremony and in this way the memory of the Vedic ancestors from whom the reciter is descended is kept alive from day to day and generation to generation. The Brahmins of India have thus kept up the memory of their descent for at least 3000 years i. e. from the time when the Vedic Sūtras were mostly composed and possibly for 5000 years, before which time the Vedas were probably composed. The Kshatriyas or Rajputs too have kept up the memory of their gotras religiously and tenaciously. In fact epigraphic evidence extending over two thousand years shows that the Kshatriyas and the Rajputs were careful and proud to record their gotras in their inscriptions. And the gotras of the principal Rajput families of the present day are the same as those mentioned in their ancient records on stone and copper and we may, therefore, well believe that the Rajputs are the descendants of the Vedic Kshatriyas. Thus the gotras of the supposed Agnikula clans are from their gotrochchāra recorded by Col. Tod, (the word gotrāchāra is probably wrongly used here by Tod; it should have been gotrochchāra which means the recital of one's gotra) are as follows : the Chāhamānas are of the Vatsa gotra with five pravaras ; the Chālukyas are of the Bhāradvāja gotra with three pravaras and the Paramāras are of the Vasiṣṭha gotra with three pravaras. (The Pratihāra's gotra has not yet been ascertained from inquiry or from record.) Now the same gotras are mentioned in ancient inscriptions of these tribes as we have already shown. The gotra of the Paramāras is thus mentioned in the Udepur Praśasti and in many other records, notably for instance in the following line-वसिष्ठ-गो-त्रोद्भव एष लोके ख्यातस्तदादौ परमारवंशः ॥ in the Pātanārāyaṇa inscription (Ind. Ant. XLV) ; and the Paramāras all over India whether in the Deccan or in Rajputana still possess the same gotra. The gotra of the Chālukyas again is mentioned in the Haihaya record already noticed while the gotra of the Chāhamānas is mentioned in the Bijolia inscription (J. Ben. R. A. S. Vol. LV. p. 41) in the line विप्र श्रीवत्सगोत्रेऽभूदिहिच्छत्रपुरे पुरा ॥. The gotra of the Rāthodas is Gautama while that of the Guhilots is Baijavāpāyana as mentioned in their records. The gotras thus mentioned in ancient records are still the gotras professed by these Rajput clans and it may, therefore, well be inferred that both the possession of gotras and their continual recital and remembrance to this day go to support if not to establish their descent from Vedic ancestors.