[40] Tod (An. of Ráj. I. 231) notices what is perhaps a reminiscence of this date (a.d. 766). It is the story that Bappa, who according to Mewáḍ tradition is the founder of Gehlot power at Chitor, abandoned his country for Irán in a.d. 764 (S. 820). It seems probable that this Bappa or Saila is not the founder of Gehlot power at Chitor, but, according to the Valabhi use of Bappa, is the founder’s father and that this retreat to Irán refers to his being carried captive to Mansúra on the fall either of Valabhi or of Gandhár. [↑]
[41] Reinaud’s Fragments, 143 note 1; Mémoire Sur l’Inde, 105; Sachau’s Alberuni, I. 193. The treachery of the magician Ranka is the same cause as that assigned by Forbes (Rás Málá, I. 12–18) from Jain sources. The local legend (Ditto, 18) points the inevitable Tower of Siloam moral, a moral which (compare Rás Málá, I. 18) is probably at the root of the antique tale of Lot and the Cities of the Plain, that men whose city was so completely destroyed must have been sinners beyond others. Dr. Nicholson (J. R. A. S. Ser. I. Vol. XIII. page 153) in 1851 thought the site of Valabhi bore many traces of destruction by water. [↑]
[42] Lassen (Ind. Alt. III. 533) puts aside Alberuni’s Arab expedition from Mansúra as without historical support and inadmissible. Lassen held that Valabhi flourished long after its alleged destruction from Mansúra. Lassen’s statement (see Ind. Alt. III. 533) is based on the mistaken idea that as the Valabhis were the Balharas the Balharas’ capital Mánkir must be Valabhi. So far as is known, except Alberuni himself (see below) none of the Arab geographers of the ninth, tenth or eleventh centuries mentions Valabhi. It is true that according to Lassen (Ind. Alt. 536) Masudi a.d. 915, Istakhri a.d. 951, and Ibn Háukal a.d. 976 all attest the existence of Valabhi up to their own time. This remark is due either to the mistake regarding Malkhet or to the identification of Bálwi or Balzi in Sindh (Elliot’s History, I. 27–34) with Valabhi. The only known Musalmán reference to Valabhi later than a.d. 750 is Alberuni’s statement (Sachau, II. 7) that the Valabhi of the era is 30 yojanas or 200 miles south of Aṇahilaváḍa. That after its overthrow Valabhi remained, as it still continues, a local town has been shown in the text. Such an after-life is in no way inconsistent with its destruction as a leading capital in a.d. 767. [↑]
[43] According to Alberuni (Sachau, I. 21) Al Mansúra, which was close to Bráhmanábád about 47 miles north-east of Haidarábád (Elliot’s Musalmán Historians, I. 372–374) was built by the great Muhammad Kásim about a.d. 713. Apparently Alberuni wrote Muhammad Kásim by mistake for his grandson Amru Muhammad (Elliot, I. 372 note 1 and 442–3), who built the city a little before a.d. 750. Reinaud (Fragments, 210) makes Amru the son of Muhammad Kásim. Masudi (a.d. 915) gives the same date (a.d. 750), but (Elliot, I. 24) makes the builder the Ummayide governor Mansúr bin Jamhur. Idrísi (a.d. 1137 Elliot, I. 78) says Mansúra was built and named in honour of the Khalif Abu Jáfar-al-Mansur. If so its building would be later than a.d. 754. On such a point Idrísi’s authority carries little weight. [↑]
[45] That the word read Barada by Elliot is in the lax pointless shikasta writing is shown by the different proposed readings (Elliot, I. 444 note 1) Nárand, Barand, and Barid. So far as the original goes Balaba is probably as likely a rendering as Barada. Reinaud (Fragments, 212) says he cannot restore the name. [↑]
[46] Though, except as applied to the Porbandar range of hills, the name Barada is almost unknown, and though Ghumli not Barada was the early (eighth-twelfth century) capital of Porbandar some place named Barada seems to have existed on the Porbandar coast. As early as the second century a.d., Ptolemy (McCrindle, 37) has a town Barda-xema on the coast west of the village Kome (probably the road or kom) of Sauráshṭra; and St. Martin (Geographie Grecque et Latine de l’Inde, 203) identifies Pliny’s (a.d. 77) Varetatæ next the Odomberæ or people of Kachh with the Varadas according to Hemachandra (a.d. 1150) a class of foreigners or mlechchhas. A somewhat tempting identification of Barada is with Beruni’s Bárwi (Sachau, I. 208) or Baraoua (Reinaud’s Fragments, 121) 84 miles (14 parasangs) west of Somanátha. But an examination of Beruni’s text shows that Bárwi is not the name of a place but of a product of Kachh the bára or bezoar stone. [↑]
[48] Compare Tod (Annals, I. 83 and 217). Gajni or Gayni another capital whence the last prince Śíláditya was expelled by Parthian invaders in the sixth century. [↑]
[49] Compare Reinaud (Fragments, 212 note 4) who identifies it with the Áin-i-Akbari Kandahár that is Gandhár in Broach. The identification is doubtful. Tod (Annals, I. 217) names the fort Gajni or Gayni and there was a fort Gajni close to Cambay. Elliot (I. 445) would identify the Arab Kandahár with Khandadár in north-west Káthiáváḍa.