Mahavira Jain Vidyalaya Rajat Jayanti Mahotsava

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 213

56
KANTILAL D. KORA
M. 3. VIDYALAYA
thus : "In the reign of Sri Vyaghramukha of the Sri Căpa Dynasty, five hundred and fifty years after the saka kings having elapsed". This fact is supplemented by the fact that the temple erected in honour of Jaysekhara, the Cāvadā ruler was dedicated to him as the Gurjjar lord.” The stock name Căpa was sanscritized into Cãpotkața but this did not present the Cåvadā or Caura name to be used derisively. The Cauras mentioned in the Mahābharata as degraded are really Coras or Colás of the East coast of India and should not be confounded with Cāvadās.'
The Agnikula or fire-born tribes, who were raised by rebirth in a fire pit, were either the Gurjjaras or members of the great horde of which the Gurjjara was one of the prominent element. The case of the Capās, who had their original clan, sanscritized into the ruling tribe of the Cävadās, remove all difficulty from the suggestion that the Agnikula Rajputs are of the Gurjjar horde. The Valas or Balas of Vallabhi are not identified with the Cápās because they are Maitrakas, or Mhiras. But the Mhiras conquered Vallabhi before the close of the 5th century, and the bardic dates which establish the Cavadās at Bet, Dväraka and Somanāth when they are said to have founded a temple to the Sun. The Cāvadās settled at Diu in the 6th century, and at Wadhwan and Pancāsar during the 7th century and Anhilāpattana in the North and Campānir in Central Gujarāt, which as the legend relates was named after Capa, its founder in the 8th century." Căpa, the founder, the legend relates, was a Bhil and this is not true except in the sense of a strong bow. And this is shown by Siddharāja (A.D. 1094-1142) successor of Ra Khengär, committing the management of Sorath to a military officer named Sajan, a decendant of Jamba or Champa the companion of Vanarāja." The importance of Cāpās in Rajputāna is shown by six of the Mārwar chiefs claiming to be Campūvat. Traces of Capa rule seem to remain in the Happa tract of South Mārwār.
It is remarkable, that the Kachh Cāvadās claimed to be Agnikulas and they further acknowledged the fact that they came from the west of the Indus and settled at Okhamandal which included Dväraka, Pattana, Pañcāsar and
1. J.B.B.R.A.S., Vol. VIII, p. 27. 2. Udayaram, Forbes, Råsamālū, Vol. I, p. 32. 3. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. IX, Part I. p. 488 fn. 4.
4. Ibid., p. 480. 5. Tod, Travels in Western India, pp. 256, 437. Kathiawad Gazetteer, pp. 109 and
589.
6. Udayaram, Forbes Rasamäla, Vol. I, p. 232, fn. 7. Bombuy Gazetteer, Vol. IX, Part 1, p. 488.