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Introduction
LXXXVII
not mentioned in the tribal lists of the Mahābhārata or any other Samskrta work earlier than the Harshacharita.
Another important question is whether Chāpas, Chāvotakas or Chāvadas, Pratihāras of Bhinnamāla and later on of Kanauja, the Solankis and other ruling tribes of Gujarāta were of the Gurjara origin or that they were simply called Gurjaras because they ruled or belonged to the province which was already known as Gurjaradesa or Gurjaratrā-bhūmi. Pandita Oza holds the latter view. According to him the Gurjara rule had ended in Bhinnamāla before the coming of Yuan - Chang or before the completion of Brahmasphutasiddhānta of the astronomer Brahmagupta who is called Bhillamălikáchārya in the Saka Samvat 550 that is, 628 A. D.; because, the king who was ruling then in Bhinnamāla was one Vyāghramukha belonging to the Chāpa dynasty (Rājputānekā Itībūra part I pp. 132–133). If we accept this view we will have to assume that the Gurjara power spread over the whole of Gujarāta and part of Rajputānā before or by the beginning of the sixth century A. D.. For this, however, we have no corroborating evidence. Pandita Oza himself confesses that it is not certain when the rule of Gurjaras began and how long it lasted.' There is nothing improbable, however, in the Chápas, Pratihāras, etc. originally belonging to the wider Gurjara clan; and I think the simultaneous mention of Chāvođakas, Gurjaras etc. in inscriptions should not be made much of. It is not difficult to find wider clans and castes mentioned. with their sub-clans or sub-castes. For example, we know that the Vāghelas were a branch of the Solankis; yet we find Vāghelas and Solankis mentioned together.
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