History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.2

v3.c34.2

One of the famous Rajput clans of the preceding sub-period which still flourished in this sub-period and indeed attained to greater glory was the Chāhamānas of Sāmbhar. We have given the history of their rise in our second volume chapter III Book IV (pp. 90-97) and shown that the first king who established a kingdom in Sāmbhar, otherwise called the Sapādalaksha territory (of 1¼ lakh villages), was Sāmanta and he became famous by his vigorous opposition to the invading Arabs from Sind about 750 or 778 A. D. His successors down to the last Prithvīrāja had constant fights with Mahomedans and maintained the struggle with great vigour and obstinacy. We have also given in Volume II the genealogy of the Chāhamānas of Sāmbhar from Gūvaka I, the next important king, to Durlabha whose Harsha stone inscription dated V. E. 1030 (A. D. 973) has been found. In this volume we will give the genealogy of the Chāhamānas from Durlabha onwards to Prithvīrāja their last king and emperor of India. The whole genealogy is given in the Bijolia inscription published by Kavirāja Shyāmaldas in J. R. A. S. Bengal I. V. and the same is examined by Kielhorn in Ep. Ind. Vol. VIII and also discussed by Rai Bahadur Gaurishankar Ojha in his Hindi edition of Tod's Rājastan (p. 394). The value of Prithvīrāja Rāsā as history is almost nil according to most scholars, as has been proved by many inscriptions found since Tod wrote his great history. The Chāhamāna genealogy, therefore, and also the dates given by Tod mainly from Pṛithvīrāja Rāsā are naturally incorrect and we have to rely for corrrect genealogy and dates on inscriptions and such dates as can be guessed for particular kings by calculation. The Rajputana Gazetteer Vol. III B (page 65) gives a genealogy of the Chāhamānas based on the Bijolia inscription but there appear to be a few inaccuracies therein which according to our view require to be corrected. We will here give the genealogy of the Chāhamānas of Sāmbhar from Durlabha onwards down to Pṛithvīrāja as we conceive it to be, with probable dates, side by side with the genealogy given in the Rajputana Gazetteer for comparison.