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
On the sack of Valabhi thirty thousand families abandoned this ‘city of
a hundred temples,’ and led by their priests found a retreat for
themselves and their faith [230] in Mordardes (Marwar), where they
erected the towns of Sandrai and Bali, in which latter we recognise the
name of the city whence they were expelled. The religion of Valabhi, and
consequently of the colonists, was the Jain; and it was by a priest
descended from the survivors of this catastrophe, and still with their
descendants inhabiting those towns, that these most important documents
were furnished to the author. The Sandrai roll assigns the year 305
(Valabhi era) for the destruction of Valabhi: another, also from Jain
authority, gives 205; and as there were but nine princes from Vijayasen,
the founder, to its fall, we can readily believe the first a numerical
error. Therefore 205 + 375 = 580 S. Vikrama (A.D. 524), for the invasion
of Saurashtra by ‘the barbarians from the north,’ and sack of
Valabhipura.
Now if from 770, the date of the Mori tablet, we deduct 580, there
remains 190; justifying the pertinacity with which the chroniclers of
Mewar adhered to the date given in their annals for the birth of Bappa,
viz. 191: though they were ignorant that this period was dated from the
flight from Valabhipura.
Bappa, when he succeeded to the Mori prince, is said to have been
fifteen years old; and his birth being one year anterior to the Mori
inscription of 770 + 14 = S.V. 784 (A.D. 728),[4.2.32] is the period for
the foundation of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar: since which, during a
space of eleven hundred years, fifty-nine princes lineally descended
from Bappa have sat on the throne of Chitor.
Though the bards and chroniclers will never forgive the temerity which
thus curtails the antiquity of their founder, he is yet placed in the
dawn of chivalry, when the Carlovingian dynasty was established in the
west, and when Walid, whose bands planted ‘the green standard’ on the
Ebro, was ‘commander of the faithful.’
From the deserted and now forgotten ‘city of the sun,’ Aitpur, the abode
of wild beasts and savage Bhils, another memorial[4.2.33] of the princes
of Mewar was obtained. It relates to the prince Sakti Kumar. Its date is
S. 1024 (A.D. 968), and it contains the names of fourteen of his
ancestors in regular succession. Amongst these is Bappa, or Saila. When
compared with the chronicles and [231] family archives, it was highly
gratifying to find that, with the exception of one superfluous name and
the transposition of others, they were in perfect accordance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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