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AUGUST, 1914.]
THE PAHARI LANGUAGE
159
THE PAHARI LANGUAGE. BY SIR GEORGE A. GRIERSON, K. C. I. E.
(Continued from page 151.) While Sanskrit literatures commencing with the Mahâbhârata contains many references to the Khasas, until quite late times it is silent about the Gurjaras. They are not mentioned in the Mahabharata or in the Vishnu, Bhagavata, or Markantéya Purana. In fact the earliest known reference to them occurs in the Sriharshacharita, a work of the early part of the 7th century of our era.
According to the most modern theory, which has not yet been seriously disputed, but which has nevertheless not been accepted by all scholars, the Gurjaras entered India, together with the Hûyas and other marauding tribes, about the sixth century AD. They rapidly rose to great power, and founded the Râjpût tribes of Rajputana. The Gurjaras were in the main a pastoral people, but had their chiefs and fighting men. When the tribe rose to power in India, the latter were treated by the Brâhmaņs as equivalent to Kshatriyas and were called Rajpûts, and some were even admitted to equality with Brâhmang themselves, while the bulk of the people who still followed their pastoral avocations remained as a subordinate caste under the title of Gurjaras, or, in modern language, Gâjars, or in the Panjab, Gujars.
So powerful did these Gurjaras or Gûjars become that no less than four tracts of India received their name. In modern geography we have the Gujrât and Gujranwâla districts of the Panjab, and the Province of Gujarât in the Bombay Presidency. The Gujrat District is a Sub-Himalayan tract with a large proportion of Gujars. It is separated by the river Chinab from the Gujranwala District, in which Gujars are more few. In the Province of Gujarât there are now no members of the Gûjar caste, as a caste, but, as we shall see later on, there is evidence that Gujars have become absorbed into the general population, and have been distributed amongst various occupational castes. In addition to these three tracts Al-Birûni (A.D. 971-1039) mentions a Guzarât situated somewhere in Northern Rajputana.65
In ancient times, the Gurjara kingdom of the Panjab comprised territory on both sides of the Chinâb, more or less accurately corresponding with the existing Districts of Gujrât and Gujranwala. It was conquered temporarily by Sankaravarman of Kashmir in the 9th century.56 The powerful Gurjara kingdom in South-Western Rajputâna, as described by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang in the seventh century, had its capital at Bhinmal or Srîmâl, to the North-West of Mount Abu, now in the Jodhpur State, and comprised a considerable amount of territory at present reckoned to be part of Gujarât, -the modern frontier between thet Province and Rajputâna being purely artificial. In addition to this kingdom of Bhinmal, a southern and smaller Gurjara kingdom existed in what is now Gujarat from A.D. 589 to 735. Its capital was probably at or near Bharoch. Between these two Gurjara States intervened the kingdom of the princes of Valabhi, and these princes also seem to have belonged either to the Gurjaras or to a closely allied tribe.57
13 Authorities on the connexion of Rajputs and Gurjaras or Gajars :
Tod, J.,-Annale and Antiquities of Rajasthan, London, 1829-32. Introduction. Elliot, Sir H. M., K.C.B., --Memoirs on the History, Folklore and Distribution of the Races of the North-Western Provinces of India. Edited, eto, by John Beames. London, 1859. I, 99 ff., etc., (500 Index). Ibbetson, Sir Denzil, K.C.S.I.,Outlines of Panjab Ethnography. Calcutta, 1883, pp. 262 ff. (Jackson, A.M.T.).-Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Pt. I, App. III. (by A. M. T. J.), Account of Bhinmal, esp. pp. 463 ff. Smith, Vincent A.-The Cherjaras of Rajputana and Kanauj, J. R. A. S., 1909, pp. 63 ff. Bhandarkar, D. R. Foreign elements in the Hindu Population. Indian Antiquary, XIL. (1911), PP. 7 ff. esp. pp. 21 ff.
54 See Mr. V. Smith's doto below.
55 India (Sachau's translation, I, 202). Mr. Bhandarkar (I.c., p. 21) locates in the north-eastern part of the Jaipur territory and the south of the Alwar State. The Gujuri dialect spoken in the hills of the North West Frontier Province is closely connected with the Mêwâti spoken in Alwar at the present day. On the other hand, as stated in a private communication, Mr. Vincent Smith considera that it tast have been at or near Ajmer, about 180 miles to the North-East of the old capital Bhinmal
56 Rajatarangini, v. 143-150, and Stein's translation, I, 99. 5T Bombay Gazekteer (1896), Vol. I, Part I, pp. 3, 4.
