Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 27

JANUARY, 1911.)
FOZEIGN ELEMENTS IN THE HINDU POPULATION.
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eclipsed the Gupta power, and occupied northern and central India. The two Huņa sovereigns, whose names have been preserved, are Toramana and his son Mihirakula.63 Both these dames are non-Indian. Mihirakula no doubt apparently looks like a Hindu name, but is, in reality, the Sanskritised form of the Persian Mihrgal "Rose of the Sun." We do not know whether Toramana had become a Hindu, but cerbain it is that Mihirakula had become a convert to Hinduism. On some of his coins we have, on the reverse, a ball—the emblem of Siva-with the legend jayatu vrishah," victorious be the ball !"66 Again, in a Mandasaur inscription, he is said to have bent his neck to none bat Siva.66 This is an unmistakable indication of his having become a Hindu and adopted the worship of the god Siva. When he was defeated aud driven out of north and central India by the conjoint effort of Narasimhagapta-Baladitya in the east and Yasodharman in the west, he, according to the Rdjatarangini, retired to Kashmir, established an empire there, and was the founder of the family, Huņa of course, which for long held that country and were staunch adherents of Bralimanism..
That the HQņas are Huns or White Ephthalites and consequently, foreiga barbarians is incontrovertible. And yet as early as the 11th century they had come to be regarded as Kshatriyas; and an inscription informę us that a Chedi king Yasahkarņa married a Huņa princess of the name of Aballade. The Hüqas have become so thoroughly Hinduised that they are looked upon as one of the thirty-six Rajput families believed to be genuine and pare. But so far as my inquiries go, they have no longer any separate existence as a clan like the Chavias, Pavars and so forth. Hûna is now-a-days found only as a family name in the Panjab, or as the name of a sub-division of such eastes es Rebbári.67
I have stated above that another foreign horde that came into India with the Hûņa was the Gajar, which has been Sanskritised into Gurjara or Gurjara. The modern province of Gajarit in the Bombay Presidency and the districts of Gujarat and Gujaranwâld in the Panjab are no doubt called after the Gjaras, who came and settled there. The name Gujarat is not a corruption of Gurjara-rashtra as is too commonly supposed, but of Gurjaratra. In inscriptions of about the 9th century found near Jodbpar, a province called Gurjaratrů is mentioned, and the Danlatparê copper-plate grant of Bhoja I and a Kalajara inscription enable us to infer that it embraced at least the modern districts of Didwûnê and Parbatsar of the Jodbpar State. A fourth Gujarat (i.c., Gurjarntrá) is mentioned by Al-Biruni (A.D. 970-1031). To the south-east of Kanauj, he says, lay Guzarât, the capital of which was Bazan, also known as Narayan, which is identified with Narayanpur in the north-easternmost part of the Jaipar territory. In fact, the Gujars still abound in this part of Jaipur, and the southern portion of the Alwar State. And this provinco was no doubt in old days held by a dynasty named Gurjare, Pratibára, as is shown by an inscription found at Rajor.70 Therein Mathanadeva, a prince of this family, is represented to have granted the village of Vyûghrapaçaks to the god Lachchhakeśvara named after his mother Lachohhuka. The fields of this village, it is said were cultivated by the Gurjaras, which shows that the Gojars had vocupied and settled in that country in the 10th centary at the latest. But it was in western Rajputânâ that they appear to have established themselves first. For, as informed by the Chinese pilgrim, Yuan-Ohwang, who came to India in the earlier part of the seventh century, that part of Rajputânå was & Gupta Ingers., by Fleet, pp. 159 and 162.
"Bombay Ganetter, Vol. 1., Pt. I., 75, note 6. Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian M oum, Calcutta, by V. A. Smith, p. 238. · Gupta Insors., by Floot, p. 143. Cons Report of the Jodhpur State (Hindi), for 1891. Vol. III., P. 570. « Jour. Bomb, 4s. Soc., VOL. XXL, PP. 414-5. • 4 Bruni, by Sachau, Vol. I, p. 302 ; Bombay Gassttoer, Vol. I., Pt. I., p. 520.- Ep. Ind., Vol. III, p. 208.