05-01-2006, 05:02 PM
This idea of everyone carrying saka blood is utter nonsense, used by European authors like Colonel Todd and others to claim everything good India from "phoren". Jats and Rajputs almost always marry within their jatis, then how is it that they look nothing like scythians, they should have retained their original features if they always married like that, on the other hand the Ahoms retained most of their original features, so we know that they arrived late into Assam. Yashwant had made a post before exposing the fallacy of this arguement of claiming that many Rajputs have scythian/hun blood, I am reproducing it here:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mr. Yashwant Malaiya's writings
Were Parmaras a branch of the Rashtrakuta clan?
A theory that has been taken for granted is the view that the Rajputs are descendants of Huns etc, and the "agnikunda" of Abu, represented a rite by which the Brahmins elevated them to Kshatriyas, needs critical examination.
The view was presented by Tod in his "Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan" written in 1832, and through repeated uncritical acceptance by generations of historians, it is now taken for granted.
Since the work of Tod, a great deal of archaeological evidence has become available, which clearly show that Rajputs did not originate through the "Agnikunda" ceremony, and that some of the major Rajputs clans actually originated from the Karnataka region. However the established view is part of the text-books, and earlier historians are often cited to support the theory.
Let us see how the historians have themselves added to a myth which has gradually evolved.
As an example let us consider Basham. In "The wonder that was India", 1954, he writes:
"Hunas destroyed or dispersed the older marital tribes of Rajasthan and their place was taken by newcomers, probably acclimatized invaders, from whom most of the rajput clans of the middle ages were descended. ... and the Rajputs, in later times, the kshatriays par excellence, were no doubt largeley descended from such invaders."
I noticed that in "Early India - From The Origins to AD 1300" Romilla Thapar does not question the view even though it came out in 2002. Let me identify the phases of this myth in reverse chronological order.
1. In the current phase, the view is that the Rajputs are descendants of the Huns etc, and agnikunda of Abu represented a purification ceremony.
2. The view represented by Bhavishya Purana is that FOUR rajput clans were created from the agni-kunda of Abu: Pramar (Paramar), Chapuhani (Chahaman or Chauhan), Shukla (Chalukya or Solanki) and Parihar. It says that they were created to annihilate the Buddhists during the time of Ashoka. It is not really possible to date Bhavisha Purana with any degree of certainly, but some part of it are of very late origin.
3. The view in Prathviraj Raso that Vasishtha created THREE rajput clans from the agni-kunda, Pratihar, Chalukya and Panwar (Parwar). The date of Prathviraj Raso as it is available to day, is very controversial, the language is too modern to be the composition of Chandabaradai during Pratviraj's period.
4. Going back further, we come to the Udaipur prashasti and some of the later records. The Udaipur prashasti (from Udaipur, Vidisha) which gives the geneology of the Parmars of Malava, mentions the legend that is frequently mentioned later in Parmara records. Accroding to this, Vishwamitra had taken the cow belonging to Vasishtha. Vasishtha created a warrior from the agnikund at Abu, who was named "Paramar" because he was to kill the others, to get the cow back. This undated prashasti is from the period of Parmar Udayaditya who ruled during 1070 1093. The same legend is given in Vasantgarh inscription of 1042 AD. Thus the original version of the legend applied ONLY to Parmars. It should be noted that Vasistha was the gotra of the Parmars.
5. We then come to the very origin of the Abu agnikunda legend. Padmagupta, who wrote Navasahasanka-charita in about 1005, in praise of his patron, Parmar Sindhuraj (about 995-1055), the predecessor of the famous Bhojadeva (about 1000-1055). There is no mention of the legend before Padmagupta. In fact, Parmar records prior to Sindhuraj point to another view of the origin of Parmars. I will mention about this view soon.
The Parmar copperplates and inscriptions are available in "Inscriptions of the Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchhapaghatas and two minor Dynasties", which is part 2 of the 3-part Vol III of Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, edited in 1974 by H.V. Trivedi (published in1991).
We have seen that Padmagupta in his Navasahasanka-charita (about 1005) was the first to present the myth about creation of "Paramara", the ancestor of Paramaras, by Vasishtha through the Agnikunda at Abu. Later the legend started appearing in Paramara inscriptions started with the 1042 inscriptions at Vasantagarh.
What do the earlier Parmara records tell us?
The earliest Parmara records are the two grants of Siyaka, each inscribed on two plates, found at Harsola in Gujarat. Both of them mention the same date in 949 AD. One grants a village to a Brahmin Lallopadhayaya, the second to his son Nina
Dikshita. Much of the text is the same.
They mention Akalavarsha (with titles Prathvivallabha Shrivallabha), son of Amoghavarsha. They then mention "tasmin-kule ... jaatah vappaiya rajeti nrapah...", and mention Vairisimha and Siyaka. Simple meaning of this text would be that Vakpatiraj was born in the family of the Amoghavarsha and Akalavarsha. These are obviously Rastrakuta soverigns of Manyakheta, either Amoghavarsha I (814-878) and Krishna II (878-914), or Amoghavarsha III (934-939) and Krishna III (939-966). Apparently at this time Siyaka was a mandalika (a feudatory) of the Rashtrakutas. Thus would make the Paramaras a branch of the Rashtrakitas. That is the view of some of the historians. Others have found the text too disconcerting and have proposed that there is a lacuna in the text and that tasmin-kule refers to some other family, mention of which was left out by mistake of the engraver.
However these are two nearly identical copper-plates with the same initial text. The second copper-plate is obviously in a different hand (I will provide a photograph). It is not likely that two engravers would make exactly the same mistake. We must take the text as it is.
The view that initially the Paramaras regarded themselves to be a branch of the Rashtrakutas is supported by the copper-plate grants of Vakpatiraja. His grants found in vicinities of Dhar (975) and Ujjain (980,982,986) give Vakpatiraj the
titles Prathvivallabha and Shrivallabha and gives Amoghavarsha as his other name (amoghavarsha- parabhidhana-shrimat-vakpatiraj).
A question arises - if the Paramaras were descendants of the Rashtrakutas, why would they give up a famous lineage and start accepting the legend given by Padmagupta?
Before we examine the chronology of the Rashtrakuta-Paramara interaction, we should consider the fact that both Chalukyas (Solanki) and Rasthrakutas (Rathor) who settled in North, eventually forgot their southern origin, even though they kept
their original names. Mularaja established the Chalukya branch at Anahilapatan in 943. The Rashtrakutas under Krishna II had reconquered Gujarat and Indra III made land grants from Navasari in 914. However to the people in the north, the rulers of Karnataka were just obscure houses, not mentioned in any important texts, their memoty did not add any glory. The bards trace the origin of Rathors (houses of Jodhpur and Bikaner) from Kannauj, and Solankis from the the agni- kunda of Abu, which is the prevailing popular view.
The Rashtrakuta king Krishna III dies in 967 causing internal weakness. Paramara Siyaka exploted the opportunity to expand. He invaded the kingdom of Rashtrakuta Khottiga (967-972) and even plundered Manyakheta. In 973, the Chalukyas of Kalyani defeated the Rashtrakutas. The last Rashtrakuta king Indra III retired to Shravanbelgola where he died in sallekhana meditation in 982.
Since the imperial house of Rashtrakutas did not exist, Parmara Vakpatiraja regarded himself as the successor to the Rastrakuta house and took their titles. However the glory of imperial Rashtrakutas was soon forgotten in North making way for creation of the Abu agnikunda myth based on the name "Paramar".
I think there is no need to imagine a lacuna in the Harsola grants.
http://indiaforumarchives.blogspot.com/200...an-history.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mr. Yashwant Malaiya's writings
Were Parmaras a branch of the Rashtrakuta clan?
A theory that has been taken for granted is the view that the Rajputs are descendants of Huns etc, and the "agnikunda" of Abu, represented a rite by which the Brahmins elevated them to Kshatriyas, needs critical examination.
The view was presented by Tod in his "Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan" written in 1832, and through repeated uncritical acceptance by generations of historians, it is now taken for granted.
Since the work of Tod, a great deal of archaeological evidence has become available, which clearly show that Rajputs did not originate through the "Agnikunda" ceremony, and that some of the major Rajputs clans actually originated from the Karnataka region. However the established view is part of the text-books, and earlier historians are often cited to support the theory.
Let us see how the historians have themselves added to a myth which has gradually evolved.
As an example let us consider Basham. In "The wonder that was India", 1954, he writes:
"Hunas destroyed or dispersed the older marital tribes of Rajasthan and their place was taken by newcomers, probably acclimatized invaders, from whom most of the rajput clans of the middle ages were descended. ... and the Rajputs, in later times, the kshatriays par excellence, were no doubt largeley descended from such invaders."
I noticed that in "Early India - From The Origins to AD 1300" Romilla Thapar does not question the view even though it came out in 2002. Let me identify the phases of this myth in reverse chronological order.
1. In the current phase, the view is that the Rajputs are descendants of the Huns etc, and agnikunda of Abu represented a purification ceremony.
2. The view represented by Bhavishya Purana is that FOUR rajput clans were created from the agni-kunda of Abu: Pramar (Paramar), Chapuhani (Chahaman or Chauhan), Shukla (Chalukya or Solanki) and Parihar. It says that they were created to annihilate the Buddhists during the time of Ashoka. It is not really possible to date Bhavisha Purana with any degree of certainly, but some part of it are of very late origin.
3. The view in Prathviraj Raso that Vasishtha created THREE rajput clans from the agni-kunda, Pratihar, Chalukya and Panwar (Parwar). The date of Prathviraj Raso as it is available to day, is very controversial, the language is too modern to be the composition of Chandabaradai during Pratviraj's period.
4. Going back further, we come to the Udaipur prashasti and some of the later records. The Udaipur prashasti (from Udaipur, Vidisha) which gives the geneology of the Parmars of Malava, mentions the legend that is frequently mentioned later in Parmara records. Accroding to this, Vishwamitra had taken the cow belonging to Vasishtha. Vasishtha created a warrior from the agnikund at Abu, who was named "Paramar" because he was to kill the others, to get the cow back. This undated prashasti is from the period of Parmar Udayaditya who ruled during 1070 1093. The same legend is given in Vasantgarh inscription of 1042 AD. Thus the original version of the legend applied ONLY to Parmars. It should be noted that Vasistha was the gotra of the Parmars.
5. We then come to the very origin of the Abu agnikunda legend. Padmagupta, who wrote Navasahasanka-charita in about 1005, in praise of his patron, Parmar Sindhuraj (about 995-1055), the predecessor of the famous Bhojadeva (about 1000-1055). There is no mention of the legend before Padmagupta. In fact, Parmar records prior to Sindhuraj point to another view of the origin of Parmars. I will mention about this view soon.
The Parmar copperplates and inscriptions are available in "Inscriptions of the Paramaras, Chandellas, Kachchhapaghatas and two minor Dynasties", which is part 2 of the 3-part Vol III of Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, edited in 1974 by H.V. Trivedi (published in1991).
We have seen that Padmagupta in his Navasahasanka-charita (about 1005) was the first to present the myth about creation of "Paramara", the ancestor of Paramaras, by Vasishtha through the Agnikunda at Abu. Later the legend started appearing in Paramara inscriptions started with the 1042 inscriptions at Vasantagarh.
What do the earlier Parmara records tell us?
The earliest Parmara records are the two grants of Siyaka, each inscribed on two plates, found at Harsola in Gujarat. Both of them mention the same date in 949 AD. One grants a village to a Brahmin Lallopadhayaya, the second to his son Nina
Dikshita. Much of the text is the same.
They mention Akalavarsha (with titles Prathvivallabha Shrivallabha), son of Amoghavarsha. They then mention "tasmin-kule ... jaatah vappaiya rajeti nrapah...", and mention Vairisimha and Siyaka. Simple meaning of this text would be that Vakpatiraj was born in the family of the Amoghavarsha and Akalavarsha. These are obviously Rastrakuta soverigns of Manyakheta, either Amoghavarsha I (814-878) and Krishna II (878-914), or Amoghavarsha III (934-939) and Krishna III (939-966). Apparently at this time Siyaka was a mandalika (a feudatory) of the Rashtrakutas. Thus would make the Paramaras a branch of the Rashtrakitas. That is the view of some of the historians. Others have found the text too disconcerting and have proposed that there is a lacuna in the text and that tasmin-kule refers to some other family, mention of which was left out by mistake of the engraver.
However these are two nearly identical copper-plates with the same initial text. The second copper-plate is obviously in a different hand (I will provide a photograph). It is not likely that two engravers would make exactly the same mistake. We must take the text as it is.
The view that initially the Paramaras regarded themselves to be a branch of the Rashtrakutas is supported by the copper-plate grants of Vakpatiraja. His grants found in vicinities of Dhar (975) and Ujjain (980,982,986) give Vakpatiraj the
titles Prathvivallabha and Shrivallabha and gives Amoghavarsha as his other name (amoghavarsha- parabhidhana-shrimat-vakpatiraj).
A question arises - if the Paramaras were descendants of the Rashtrakutas, why would they give up a famous lineage and start accepting the legend given by Padmagupta?
Before we examine the chronology of the Rashtrakuta-Paramara interaction, we should consider the fact that both Chalukyas (Solanki) and Rasthrakutas (Rathor) who settled in North, eventually forgot their southern origin, even though they kept
their original names. Mularaja established the Chalukya branch at Anahilapatan in 943. The Rashtrakutas under Krishna II had reconquered Gujarat and Indra III made land grants from Navasari in 914. However to the people in the north, the rulers of Karnataka were just obscure houses, not mentioned in any important texts, their memoty did not add any glory. The bards trace the origin of Rathors (houses of Jodhpur and Bikaner) from Kannauj, and Solankis from the the agni- kunda of Abu, which is the prevailing popular view.
The Rashtrakuta king Krishna III dies in 967 causing internal weakness. Paramara Siyaka exploted the opportunity to expand. He invaded the kingdom of Rashtrakuta Khottiga (967-972) and even plundered Manyakheta. In 973, the Chalukyas of Kalyani defeated the Rashtrakutas. The last Rashtrakuta king Indra III retired to Shravanbelgola where he died in sallekhana meditation in 982.
Since the imperial house of Rashtrakutas did not exist, Parmara Vakpatiraja regarded himself as the successor to the Rastrakuta house and took their titles. However the glory of imperial Rashtrakutas was soon forgotten in North making way for creation of the Abu agnikunda myth based on the name "Paramar".
I think there is no need to imagine a lacuna in the Harsola grants.
http://indiaforumarchives.blogspot.com/200...an-history.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->