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CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
about this time, and this led to the theory that they were foreigners, who entered India in company with or about the same time as the Hūņas, settled in the areas which they were later found occupying, and became rapidly Hinduised.-(T. Bạrrow, The History of the Gurjara-Pratiharas, 1959; Foreword, p. v, vi ).
The foreign origin theory of the Gurjaras has received support from many scholars who on the evidence of similar endings-Khazar and Gujar, are supposed to be foreigners, associated with the Hüņas in their march towards India. Other scholars have suggested the Indian origin of the Gurjaras; but it has not been possible for them to locate their original home nor to account for the absence of their names in Indian literature, Some even have doubted the Gurjara origin of the Pratihāra rulers of Kanauj.
The foreign origin theory, however, has been considered afresh; and the probable home of the Gurjaras in the region round about Mount Abu, which is connected with the origin of several other families as well, has been suggested as the probable home of the Gurjaras. Regarding the association of the Gurjaras with the Hūņas, as supposed by Hoernle and others, it must not be forgotten that the Hūņas, could not be assimilated into Hindu society till the with Century A.D., but, for the Gurjaras, it is rather strange that the dust raised by their inroad took no time to settle down, and they were easily absorbed, as we find references to Gurjara Brāhmaṇas in the 6th Century A.D.; such a thing would have been an utter impossibility if they had been foreigners. In fact, they were very probably tribal people who remained in obscurity for long and were formerly known as the Ārbudas. The absence of their name in early Indian chronicles is no ground for doubting their Indian origin. Here an analogy is suggested. The Kharaparikas and Sanakānikasthe tribal peoples mentioned in the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta-would have been unknown to Indian history except for this solitary reference.---(Baija Nath Puri, The History of the Gurjara-Pratihāras, 1959, Preface, p. vii).
The earliest Gurjara kingdom, known so far, is that founded by Haricandra in the modern Jodhpur State in Rajputana, about the middle of the 6th century A.D. Haricandra was a Brāhmin, versed in the Vedas and other Šāstras. He had two wives. The sons born of the Brāhmin wife became Pratihāra Brāhmins, while those born of his Kşatriya wife became the founders of the royal line of the Pratihāras. Though a man of peaceful pursuits in his early life, when after the fall of the Gupta empire and the empires of Mihirakula and Yasodharman, Northern India presented a favourable field for military enterprise, Haricandra gave up Šāstras ( scriptures ) for the Šastras (arms) and founded a kingdom. He had four sons by queen Bhadrā, viz. : Bhogabhat, Kakka, Rājjila and Dadda. They conquered and fortified Māņdavyapura ( Maņdor, five miles north to Jodhpur) which became their capital. The third son (there is no information about his first two sons) Rājjila who ruled from here, was succeeded by his son Narabhata and latter by his son Nägabhața, who fixed his permanent capital at Medantaka (Mertā, 70 miles NE of Jodhpur). Hericandra and his three successors, probably ruled between C. 550 and 640 A.D.-(Jodhpur Inscription of Pratihāra Bāuka', EI. XVIII, 87 ff.).
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