History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s5.6

v3.c34.s5.6

The reasons which are alleged as going against this conclusion are according to our view, of no great validity. The gotra of Gaharwars is now no doubt Kāśyapa, but it is likely that the Gāhadavāla direct descendants being deprived of their greatness could not maintain regular Purohits as kings do and can, and gradually lost memory of their gotra. When on rare occasions the gotrotohāra becomes necessary, to those who do not recollect their gotra, the Kāśyapa gotra is usually assigned. Or more probably the Gaharwars took other Purohitas in their days of adversity and following the dictum of Vijnāneśvara that Kshatriyas have no gotras of their own but have to take the gotras of their Purohitas adopted a new gotra, viz. Kāśyapa. Perhaps the descendants of Sihaji in Jodhpur may have adopted a new gotra (Gautama) similarly, the original gotra of the Gāhadavāls being Kāśyapa; but the probability is otherwise for in the Rambhā-manjarī drama of Nayachandra king Jaichand addresses his queen as 'ornament of the Kāśyapa gotra'. (Among Rajput kings it is usual to address queens by their paternal gotra or kula as Chauhāni &c.). The inscriptions of the Gāhadavālas do not unfortunately mention their gotra; indeed inscriptions of the Rajput families of the time do not usually mention their gotras. We personally made careful enquiries at Kanauj to find out, from some Brahmin family, this gotra or to discover some old paper relating to the much-talked-of Rājasūya sacrifice performed by Jaichand at which the ancestors of noted Kanaujia Brahmin families acted as priests but no clue could be got to the gotra of Jaichand. The difference of gotra for the above reasons does not, in our view, invalidate the conclusion we have arrived at.