________________
LXXXVI
Kavyanusasana that is, on his guard against Gurjars. This will carry us to the latter half of the sixth century A. D. - the period of Harsha being 606 A. D. to 647 A. D. According to Smith the Gurjaras whom Prabhākaravardhana defeated were " probably those of Rajputānā, but possibly those of the Gurjara kingdom in the Punjab, now represented by Gujarāt and Gujaranwala Districts.” (p. 336 E. H. I.). If the Gurjaras were those of Bhinnamāla we can say that they were ruling there in the sixth century, and if they were those of the Punjab we may guess that some of them might have been compelled to leave the Punjab and come to Bhinnamāla in the latter half of the sixth century.
The generally accepted view about the origin of Gurjaras is that 'they were foreign immigrants and were closely associated with, and possibly allied in blood to the white Huns' (p. 321, E. H. I. ).* Pandit Gaurishankara Oza - the great historian of Rajputānā, has very ably controverted the prevalent view about the foreign origin of the mediaeval royal dynasties of India, including that of Gurjara dynasty in his ‘History of Rajputana Part 1 (pp. 36 - 67 and 133 - 134 ). We cannot enter into the merits of his arguments here, but this much may be said that from a strictly logical point of view, the question is still unanswered and some of the arguments of the learned Pandita are unanswerable. One strong argument, however, in favour of the foreign origin and late advent of Gurjaras into India is that they are
* Cunningham connects Huns with Yuechi that is Kuşadas while Dr. Devadatta Bhandarkar following Sir James Campbell connects them with the Khajara tribe.)
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
