History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c29.s1.14.3

v2.c29.s1.14.3

The case of the Chāhamāna is distinctly in point. While certain inscriptions give an independent origin, the Bijolia inscription says that there was a Brahmin in Ahichchhatra of the Vatsa gotra from whom was born the Chāhamāna king Sāmanta. Now the Chāhamānas from ancient times have professed this gotra and this legend tries to explain the gotra by supposing that the progenitor of the Chāhamānas was a Brahmin of the Vatsa gotra. But if the Chāhamānas were represented as Solar Kshatriyas in other inscriptions how can they be born of a Brahmin of the Vatsa gotra living in Ahichchhatra? This idea changed into another idea and another origin of the Vatsa gotra of the Chāhamānas is given in the Sunda hill inscription of Chāchagadeva of Samvat 1319 and therefore of the same period as the Chitoregai and Achaleśvara inscriptions. It says that the first Chāhamāna hero was born from the eyes of Vatsa Rishi himself when he threw out tears of joy. Now all these attempts are fanciful attempts to explain the gotras of Rajput families which were being made from about the tenth century and later. And it is no wonder if like the ancestor king Sāmanta of the Chāhamāna Rajputs who was said to be born of a Vatsa gotra Brahmin of Ahichchhatra, the chief ancient town of the Chāhamānas, so Bappā Rāwal was believed in the thirteenth century A. D. to be born of a Brahmin of the Baijavpā gotra of Anandpura, the chief town of the Guhilots.