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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(June, 1907.
The origin of the Paramaras, placed by the tradition of the bards, which reflects the above quoted verses xi. 64, 72, in the holy mountain Abu-Arbuda, the most southern arm of the Årávali chain, which rises on the boundary of Rajputânâ and Gujarat and in the grey far-off time when the great feud between the head Brahman Vasishtha and the Kshatriya intruder Vigvamitra was fought out. The bards also relate much of the early developed power of the Paramaras, of their manifold ramifications, and their great kingdom in Western and Southorn India. There is, bowever, no sure trace of them in Indian history,65 before the appearance of the dynasty of Malva. The ParamAras first come into power in the town of Dhârâ, which lies in the western part of the province, and from there they conquered the east of Málvå with the capital Ujjain. This proves with more certainty than the tradition of the bards that Padmagupta repeatedly (p. 159, above) calls Dhârá the family residence of the Paramaras. The period of the first development of their power cannot be fixed with certainty. It must, however, have been about 800 A.D. as will be shown further on.
As the Paramaras of Malva believe in the legend of the birth of their eponymous hero on Abų, this may lead to the supposition that they came from the north-west. The old Fort of Achalgedh on Abů, and the town of Chandravati sonth of Abû, have been for centuries in the possession of a Paramars family, who rendered homage to the Chaulukyas of Anbilvâd from the eleventh century. Somesvara's Prasasti of Vikrama Savat 1287, recounts an older line, Dhamaraja, Dhandhuka, Druvabhata, and others, also a later and entirely historical one which consists of Ramadeva, Yahodhavala, Dhårdvarsha, Prahladana, Somasimha and Krishnaraja. The last six kings may be recognised from other works and ruled between 1150 and 1231 A. D. This connection between the Paraméras and Monnt Abû makes clear that it and nothing else had been the foundation of the legend of the rise of Paramara from the Agaikunda there. Now, as the Paramaras of Dhara possess the same legend, it is easy to suppose that they are a branch of the ruling race of Achalgadh and Chandravati,
Upendre. The first king Upendra sung by Padmagupta was not the immediate predecessor of the next named Vakpatiraja I. Between them reigned other princes. The plural shows that there must have been three. On no consideration may the reign of Upendra be placed later than about the year 800 A. D. As the first king, for whose reign we possess several fixed dates, Vakpatirája II., died, as will be shown further on, between 994 and 997, the date of his first land-grant is the year 974. As his brother Sindhurâja reigned sometime after him, then the beginning of his own
J. Tod, Annals of Rajasthan, Vol. I. pp. 83-84. es Llegen, Ind. Alterthumsk. III. p. 822, thiuks that Ptolemæus mentions the ParamAras under the name Power and adds "Their name in this form comes nearer to the oldest (PramArn) than to that of the present time Panwar or Powar of which we get the socond in Puwargarh, i. e., Powargada, Fort of Powar; the name of Champanir, the old capital of distriot in north Gujarat." The identification of Porvarai with Paramára is, however, doubtful, as the first word means a people, the seconda Kshatriya family, which, so far as is known, has given its name to no district in India. Thus it is to be remarked that the prosent Powers or Paare certainly give themselves out as Paramarne, since a member of their family rulos Dhara, the modern Dher. They are, however, Marthes and not Rajpute. Their genealogical claims are oertainly officially recognired, but native scholars in Mály never speak of the story of the relationship of His Highness the Mahardja Avandrio with the Maharaja Bhoja without a meaning smile and do not believe in it. The grounds against the derivation are - 1st, that Powar or Paar do not agree well in sound with Paramårs ; 2nd, that in RajpntAnd and Malvå the real successors of the Paraméras call themselves Permirs, not Paars. The Puara sottled in Malvå and Bundelkhand might all be successors or relations of the Marktha Jouvant Rao Paar, who recived the title of king of Dhér in 1749 (conf. Mullcson, Native Sales of India, p. 207). Finally, as regards the naine of Powergarh, this is a reult of the Gilchristic method of transcription. The mountain fort which is not, as Lassen thinks, ideutical with Champknir, au, lies, not in northern, but in middle Gujarat, is called in Gujarati, Pavagadh, and in Sanskrit, according to an inscription of Saivat 1585 (Ind. Ant., Vol VI. p. 1 ff.) Påvakadurga, the Fort of the Påvaka, perbapa " the fire." The name has nothing to do with the Paramaras, who have never, so far as is kuowa, possessed Pavagadh.
66 Kirtikaumudi, App. pp. 4-6, 14-15, and K. Forbes, Ras Maia, pp. 210-211.
