History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c29.5

v2.c29.5

Bappā Rāwal the reputed founder of the Mewad family was the Charles Martel of India against the rock of whose valour, as we have already said, the eastern tide of Arab conquest was dashed to pieces in India. He was further a contemporary of Charles Martel and strangely enough his life also resembles the life of that hero of the Franks who signally defeated the Arabs in the west and turned the tide of Mahomedan conquest in Western Europe in 732 A. D. Like Charles Martel who was a prince himself being Duke of Austria under the king of France. Bappā Rāwal was a minor prince under the Mori king of Chitore. He ruled in Nagada (Nagahrada) a small town a few miles to the north of Udaipur among Bhils whom he enlisted in his force just as Shivaji in later history enlisted the Mawlas in his fight against Bijapur. He was a small prince or Rāwal a term which does not mean, as Dr. Bhandarkar suggests, an ascetic of a particular sect. The word applied to such ascetics is simply by borrowed meaning for we know that even the word Mahārāja which really signifies a great king is applied to Brahmins and ascetics in a borrowed sense. Rāwal means a small Rao or prince and Bappā Rāwal ruled in Nagada among the hills and ravines inhabited by Bhils of the Aravalli range. He belonged to the Guhila family of Rajputs which was an offshoot from the royal family of Valabhi first established at Idar and subsequently taking refuge from Mahomedan inroads among the hills at Ahara, as usual among the Rajputs throughout their history. To this family belonged Bappā Rāwal a Rajput prince among Bhils with whom he freely associated and whom he disciplined and engaged in service for his own preferment.