Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
“The Jats inhabited the country on the borders of Multan, along the
river that runs by the mountains of Jud.[2.7.118] When Mahmud reached
Multan, finding the Jat country defended by great rivers, he built
fifteen hundred boats,[2.7.119] each armed with six iron spikes
projecting from their prows, to prevent their being boarded by the
enemy, expert in this kind of warfare. In each boat he placed twenty
archers, and some with fire-balls of naphtha to burn the Jat fleet. The
monarch having determined on their extirpation, awaited the result at
Multan. The Jats sent their wives, children, and effects to Sind
Sagar,[2.7.120] and launched four thousand, or, as others say, eight
thousand boats well armed to meet the Ghaznians. A terrible conflict
ensued, but the projecting spikes sunk the Jat boats while others were
set on fire. Few escaped from this scene of terror; and those who did,
met with the more severe fate of captivity.”[2.7.121]
Many doubtless did escape; and it is most probable that the Jat
communities, on whose overthrow the State of Bikaner was founded, were
remnants of this very warfare [109].
Not long after this event the original empire of the Getae was
overturned, when many fugitives found a refuge in India. In 1360
Togultash Timur was the great Khan of the Getae nation; idolaters even
to this period. He had conquered Khorasan, invaded Transoxiana (whose
prince fled, but whose nephew, Amir Timur, averted its subjugation),
gained the friendship of Togultash, and commanded a hundred thousand
Getae warriors. In 1369, when the Getic Khan died, such was the
ascendancy obtained by Timur over his subjects, that the Kuriltai, or
general assembly, transferred the title of Grand Khan from the Getic to
the Chagatai Timur. In 1370 he married a Getic princess, and added
Khokhand and Samarkand to his patrimony, Transoxiana. Rebellions and
massacres almost depopulated this nursery of mankind, ere the Getae
abandoned their independence; nor was it till 1388, after six invasions,
in which he burnt their towns, brought away their wealth, and almost
annihilated the nation, that he felt himself secure.[2.7.122]
In his expedition into India, having overrun great part of Europe,
“taken Moscow, and slain the soldiers of the barbarous Urus,” he
encountered his old foes “the Getae, who inhabited the plains of Tohim,
where he put two thousand to the sword, pursuing them into the desert
and slaughtering many more near the Ghaggar.”[2.7.123]
Still the Jat maintained himself in the Panjab, and the most powerful
and independent prince of India at this day is the Jat prince of Lahore,
holding dominion over the identical regions where the Yueh-chi colonized
in the fifth century, and where the Yadus, driven from Ghazni,
established themselves on the ruins of the Taks. The Jat cavalier
retains a portion of his Scythic manners, and preserves the use of the
chakra or discus, the weapon of the Yadu Krishna in the remote age of
the Bharat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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