Rajput 05: Genealogies continued - Revision history

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This page is an extract from <br/>
ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES <br/>
OF <br/>
'''RAJASTHAN '''<br/>

OR THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN <br/>
RAJPUT STATES OF INDIA <br/>

By <br/>
LIEUT.-COL. JAMES TOD <br/>
Late Political Agent to the Western Rajput States <br/>

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by <br/>
WILLIAM CROOKE, CIE. <br/>
Hon. D.Sc. Oxon., B.A., F.R.A.l. <br/>
Late of the Indian Civil Service <br/>

In Three Volumes <br/>
VOL. II: HISTORY OF THE RAJPUT TRIBES<br/>
[The Annals were completed in 1829]<br/>

HUMPHREY MILFORD <br/>
Oxford University Press <br/>
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York <br/>
Toronto Melbourne Bombay <br/>
1920 [The edition scanned] <br/>
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=Rajput 05: Genealogies continued=

==Princes of the Solar Line==

Vyasa gives but fifty-seven princes
of the Solar line, from Vaivaswata Manu to Rama ; and no list
which has come under my observation exhibits more than fifty-
eight, for the same period, of the Lunar race. How different
from the Egyptian priesthood, who, according to Herodotus,
gave a list up to that period of three hundred and thirty 1
sovereigns from their first prince, also the ' sun-born 2 Menes ! '
Ikshwaku was the son of Manu, and the first who moved to
the eastward, and founded Ayodhya.

Budha (Mercury) founded the Lunar line ; but we are not told
who established their first capital, Prayag,3 though we are author-
ized to infer that it was founded by Puru, the sixth in descent
from Budha [33].

A succession of fifty-seven princes occupied Ayodhya from
Ikshwaku to Rama. From Yayati's sons the Lunar races descend
each side, fed by the parent stream, returned the waters again into it ; one
through the city of Delhi, the other on the opposite side. [Cunningham
(ASR, i. 207 ff.) proved that the true site of the ancient city, Siri, was the
old ruined fort to the north-east of Rai Pithora's stronghold, which is at
present called Shahpur. This identification has been disputed by C. J.
Campbell (JASB, 1866, p. 206). But Cunningham gives good reasons for
maintaining his opinion. The place took its name from Sher Shah and his
son Islam or Salim Shah. See also Carr Stephens, Archaeological and
Monumental Remains of Delhi (1876), pp. 87 f., 190.]
1 Herodotus ii. 99, 100.
2 The Egyptians claim the sun, also, as the first founder of the kingdom
of Egypt.
3 The Jaisalmer annals give in succession Prayag, Mathura, Kusasthala,
Dwaraka, as capitals of the Indu or Lunar race, in the ages preceding the
Bharat or Great War. Hastinapur was founded twenty generations after
these, by Hastin, from whom ramified the three grand Sakha, viz. Ajamidha,

Vimidha, and Purumidha, which diversified the Yadu race.
in unequal lengths. The lines from Yadu,1 concluding with
Krishna and his cousin Kansa, exhibit fifty-seven and fifty-nine
descents from Yayati ; while Yudhishthira,2 Salya,3 Jarasandha,4
and Vahurita,5 all contemporaries of Krishna and Kansa, are
fifty-one, forty-six, and forty-seven generations respectively, from
the common ancestor Yayati.

==Solar and Lunar Genealogies==

There is a wide difference
between the Solar and the Yadu branches of the Lunar lines ;
yet is that now given fuller than any I have met with. Sir
William Jones's lists of the Solar line give fifty-six, and of the
Lunar (Budha to Yudhishthira) forty-six, being one less in each
than in the tables now presented ; nor has he given the important
branch terminating with Krishna. So close an affinity between
lists, derived from such different authorities as this distinguished
character and myself had access to, shows that there was some
general source entitled to credit.

Mr. Bentley's 6 lists agree with Sir William Jones's, exhibiting
fifty-six and forty-six respectively for the last-mentioned Solar
and Lunar races. But, on a close comparison, he has either
copied them or taken from the same original source ; afterwards
transposing names which, though aiding a likely hypothesis,
will not accord with their historical belief.

Colonel Wilford's 7 Solar list is of no use ; but his two dynasties
of Puru and Yadu of the Lunar race are excellent, that part of the
line of puru, from Jarasandha to Chandragupta, being the only
correct one in print.

It is surprising Wilford did not make use of Sir William Jones's
Solar chronology ; but he appears to have dreaded bringing
down Rama to the period of Krishna, as he is known to have
preceded by four generations ' the Great War ' of the Yadu races.

It is evident that the lunar line has reached us defective. It
is supposed so by their genealogists ; and Wilford would have
1 See Table I. [not reprinted].
2 of delhi-Indraprastha.
3 Salya, the founder of Aror on the Indus, a capital I had the good
fortune to discover. Salya is the Siharas of Abu-1 Fazl. [Ain, ii. 343.]
4 Jarasandha of Bihar.
5 Vahoorita, unknown yet. [? Bahuratha.]
6 Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 341.
7 Ibid. vol. V. p. 241.
increased the error by taking it as the standard, and reducing
the Solar to conform thereto.

Mr. Bentley's method is therefore preferable ; namely, to
suppose eleven princes omitted in the Lunar between Janmejaya
and Prachinvat. But as there is no [34] authority for this, the
Lunar princes are distributed in the tables collaterally with the
Solar, preserving contemporaneous affinity where synchronisms
will authorise. By this means all hypothesis will be avoided, and
the genealogies will speak for themselves.

There is very little difference between Sir William Jones's and
Colonel Wilford's lists, in that main branch of the Lunar race,
of which Puru, Hastin, Ajamidha, Kuru, Santanu, and Yud-
hishthira are the most distinguished links. The coincidence is
so near as to warrant a supposition of identity of source ; but
close inspection shows Wifford to have had a fuller supply, for
he produces new branches, both of Hastin's and Kuru's progeny.
He has also one name (Bhimasena) towards the close, which is in
my lists, but not in Sir William Jones's ; and immediately follow-
ing Bhimasena, both these lists exhibit Dilipa, wanting in my
copy of the Bhagavat, though contained in the Agni Purana :
proofs of the diversity of the sources of supply, and highly grati-
fying when the remoteness of those sources is considered. There
is also in my lists Tansu, the nineteenth from Budlia, who is not
in the lists either of Sir William Jones or Wilford. Again ;
Wilford has a Suhotra preceding Hastin, who is not in Sir William
Jones's genealogies. 1

Again ; Jahnu is made the successor to Kuru ; whereas the
Purana (whence my extracts) makes Parikshit the successor,
who adopts the son of Jahnu. This son is Viduratha, who has a
place in all three. Other variations are merely orthographical.

A comparison of Sir William Jones's Solar genealogies with my
tables will yield nearly the same satisfactory result as to original
authenticity. I say Sir William Jones's list, because there is no
other efficient one. We first differ at the fourth from Ikshwaku.
In my list this is Am-Prithu, of which he makes two names,
Anenas and Prithu. Thence to Purukutsa, the eighteenth, the
difference is only in orthography. To Irisuaka, the twenty-third
in mine, the twenty-sixth in Sir William Jones's list, one name is
above accounted for ; but here are two wanting in mine, Trasa-
1 I find them, however, in the Agni Purana.

dasyu and Haryaswa. There is, also, considerable difference in
the orthography of those names which we have in common.
Again ; we differ as to the successors of Champa, the twenty-
seventh, the founder of Champapur in Bihar. In Sir William's,
Sadeva succeeds, and he is followed by Vijaya ; but my authorities
state these both to be sons of Champa, and that Vijaya, the [35]
younger, was his successor, as the elder, Sadeva, took to religious
austerity. The thirty-third and thirty-sixth, Kesi and Dilipa,
are not noticed by Sir William Jones ; but there is a much more
important person than either of these omitted, who is a grand
link of connexion, and affording a good synchronism of the
earliest history. This is Ambarisha, the fortieth, the contem-
porary of Gadhi, who was the founder of Gadhipura or Kanauj.
Nala, Sarura, and Dilipa (Nos. 44, 45, 54 of my lists) are all
omitted by Sir William Jones.

This comparative analysis of the chronologies of both these
grand races cannot fail to be satisfactory. Those which I furnish
are from the sacred genealogies in the library of a prince who
claims common origin with them, and are less liable to inter
polation. There is scarcely a chief of character for knowledge
who cannot repeat the genealogy of his line. The Prince of
Mewar has a peculiarly retentive memory in this way. The pro-
fessed genealogists, the Bhats, must have them graven on their
memory, and the ChaBanas (the* encomiasts) ought to be well
versed therein.

The first table exhibits two dynasties of the Solar race of
Princes of Ayodhya and Mithila Des, or Tirhut, which latter I have
seen nowhere else. It also exhibits four great and three lesser
dynasties of the Lunar race ; and an eighth line is added, of the
race of Yadu, from the annals of the Bhatti tribe at Jaisalmer.

Ere quitting this halting-place in the genealogical history of
the ancient races, where the celebrated names of Rama, Krishna,
and Yudhishthira close the brazen age of India, and whose issue
introduce the present iron age, or Kali Yuga, I shall shortly refer
to the few synchronic points which the various authorities admit.

Of periods so remote, approximations to truth are the utmost
to be looked for ; and it is from the Ramayana and the Puranas
these synchronisms are hazarded.

==Harischandra==

The first commences with a celebrated name of
the Solar line, Harischandra, son of Trisanku, still proverbial for
his humility.1 He is the twenty-fourth,2 and declared contem-
porary of Parasurama, who slew the celebrated Sahasra-Arjuna 3
of [36] the Haihaya (Lunar) race, Prince of Mahishniati on the
Nerbudda. This is confirmed by the Ramayana, which details
the destruction of the military class and assumption of political
power by the Brahmans, under their chief Parasurama, marking
the period when the military class ' lost the umbrella of royalty,'
and, as the Brahmans ridiculously assert, their purity of blood.
This last, however, their own books sufficiently contradict, as the
next synchronism will show.

==Sagara==

This synchronism we have in Sagara, the thirty-
second prince of the Solar line, the contemporary of Talajangha, of
the Lunar line, the sixth in descent from Sahasra Arjuna, who had
five sons preserved from the general slaughter of the military class
by Parasurama, whose names are given in the Bhavishya Purana.

Wars were constantly carried on between these great rival
races, Surya and Indu, recorded in the Puranas and Ramayana.
The Bhavishya describes that between Sagara and Talajangha
1 [The tragical story of Harischandra is told by J. Muir, Original Sanskrit
Texts, i. 88 ff.]

2 Sahyadri Khanda of the Skanda Purana.

3 In the Bhavishya Purana this prince, Sahasra-Arjuna, is termed a
Chakravartin, or paramount sovereign. It is said that iie conquered Kar-
kotaka of the Takshak, Turushka, or Snake race, and brought with him the
population of Mahishmati, and founded Hemanagara in the north of India,
on his expulsion from his dominions on the Nerbudda. Traditionary legends
yet remain of this prince on the Nerbudda, where be is styled Sahasrabahu,
or ' with a thousand arms,' figurative of his numerous progeny.

The
Takshak, or Snake race, here alluded to, will hereafter engage our attention.
The names of animals in early times, planets, and things inanimate, all
furnished symbolic appellations for the various races. In Scripture we have
the fly, the bee, the ram to describe the princes of Egypt, Assyria, and
Macedonia ; here we have the snake, horse, monkey, etc. The Snake or
Takshak race was one of the most extensive and earliest of Higher Asia,
and celebrated in all its extent, and to which I shall have to recur hereafter.
[By the Takshak race, so often referred to, the author seems to mean a body
of Scythian snake-worshippers. There are instances of a serpent barrow,
and of the use of the snake as a form of ornament among the Scythians ;
but bej'ond this the evidence of worship of the serpent is scanty (E. H.
Minns, Scythians and Greeks, 328 f., 66 note, 294, 318, 323, etc.). It was
really the Takka, a Panjab tribe (Beal, Si-yu-ki, i. 165 ff". ; Cunningham,
Ancient Geography of India, 148 ff. ; Stein, Rajatarangini, i. 204 f.).]

In the Ramayana it is stated that the sacrificial horse was stolen by " a
serpent (Takshak) assuming the form of Ananta."
"to resemble that of their ancestors, in which the Haihayas
suffered as severely as before." But that they had recovered all
their power since Parasuraina is evident from their having com
pletely retaliated on the Suryas, and expelled the father 1 of
Sagara from his capital of Ayodhya. Sagara and Talajangha
appear to have been contemporary with Hastin of Hastinapura,
and with Anga, descended from Budha, the founder of Angadesa,2
or Ongdesa, and the Anga race.

==Ambarisha==

The Ramayana affords another synchronism ;
namely, that Ambarisha of Ayodhya, the fortieth prince of the
Solar line, was the contemporary of Gadhi, the foimder of Kanauj,
and of Lomapada the Prince of Angadesa.

==Krishna==

The last synchronism is that of Krishna and Yud-
hishthira, which terminates the [37] brazen, and introduces the Kali
Yuga or iron age. But this is in the Lunar line ; nor have we
any guide by which the difference can be adjusted between the
appearance of Rama of the Solar and Krishna of the Lunar races.

Thus of the race of Krostu we have Kansa, Prince of Mathura,
the fifty-ninth, and his cousin Krishna, the fifty-eighth from
Budha ; while of the line of Puru, descending through Ajamidha
and Dvimidha, we have Salya, Jarasandha, and Yudhishthira.
the fifty-first, fifty-third, and fifty-fourth respectively.
The race of Anga gives Prithusena as one of the actors and
survivors of the Mahabharata, and the fifty-third from Budha.

Thus, taking an average of the whole, we may consider fifty
five princes to be the number of descents from Budha to Krishna
1 " Asita, the father of Sagara, expelled by hostile kings of the Haihayas,
the Talajanghas, and the Sasa-vindus, fled to the Himavat mountains, where
he died, leaving his wives pregnant, and from one of these Sagara was born "
(Ramayana, 1. 41). It was to preserve the Solar race from the destruction
which threatened it from the prolific Lunar race, that the Brahman Parasu-
rama armed : evidently proving that the Brahmanicai faith was held by
the Solar race ; while the religion of Budha, the great progenitor of the
Lunar, still governed his descendants. This strengthened the opposition
of the sages of the Solar line to Vishvamitra's (of Budha's or the Lunar
line) obtaining Brahmanhood. That Krishna, of Lunar stock, prior to
founding a new sect, worshipped Budha, is susceptible of proof.

2 Angdcs, Ongdes, or Undes adjoins Tibet. The inhabitants call them
selves Hungias, and appear to be the Hong-niu of the Chinese authors, the
Huns (Huns) of Europe and India, which prove this Tartar race to be Lunar,
and of Budha. [Anga, the modern Bhagalpur, is confounded with Hundes
or Tibet.]

and Yudhishthira ; and, admitting an average of twenty years
for each reign, a period of eleven hundred years ; which being
added to a. like period calculated from thence to Vikramaditya,
who reigned fifty-six years before Christ, I venture to place the
establishment in India Proper of these two grand races, distinct-
ively called those of Surya and Chandra, at about 2256 years
before the Christian era ; at which period, though somewhat
later, the Egyptian, Chinese, and Assyrian monarchies are gener-
ally stated to have been established,1 and about a century and
a half after that great event, the Flood.

Though a passage in the Agni Purana indicates that the line of
Surya, of which Ikshwaku was the head, was the first colony
which entered India from Central Asia, yet we are compelled to
place the patriarch Budha as his contemporary, he being stated
to have come from a distant region, and married to Ila, the sister
of Ikshwaku.

Ere we proceed to make any remarks on the descendants of
Krishna and Arjuna, who carry on the Lunar line, or of the
Kushites and Lavites, from Kusa and Lava, the sons of Rama,
who carry on that of the Sun, a few observations on the chief
kingdoms established by their progenitors on the continent of
India will be hazarded in the ensuing Chapter [38].