The era[[44]] of Bhoj, the son of Munja, has been satisfactorily settled; and an [92] inscription[[45]] in the nail-headed character, carries it back a step further,[[46]] and elicits an historical fact of infinite value, giving the date of the last prince of the Pramaras of Chitor, and the consequent accession of the Guhilots.
The Nerbudda was no limit to the power of the Pramaras.[Pramaras.] About the very period of the foregoing inscription, Ram Pramar held his court in Telingana, and is invested by the Chauhan Bard, Chand, with the dignity of paramount sovereign of India, and head of a splendid feudal[[47]] association, whose members became independent on his death. The Bard makes this a voluntary act of the Pramaras; but coupled with the Guhilots’ violent acquisition of Chitor, we may suppose the successor of Ram was unable to maintain such supremacy.
While Hindu literature survives the name of Bhoj Pramara and ‘the nine gems’ of his court cannot perish; though it is difficult to say which of the three[[48]] princes of this name is particularly alluded to, as they all appear to have been patrons of science.[science.]
Chandragupta, the supposed opponent of Alexander, was a Maurya, and in the sacred genealogies is declared of the race of Takshak. The ancient inscriptions of the Pramars, of which the Maurya is a principal branch, declare it of the race of Tasta and Takshak, as does that now given from the seat of their power, Chitor.[[49]]
Salivahana, the conqueror of Vikramaditya, was a Takshak, and his era set aside that of the Tuar in the Deccan.
Not one remnant of independence exists to mark the greatness of the Pramaras: ruins are the sole records of their power. The prince of Dhat,[[50]] in the Indian [93] desert, is the last phantom of royalty of the race; and the descendant of the prince who protected Humayun, when driven from the throne of Timur, in whose capital, Umarkot, the great Akbar was born, is at the foot of fortune’s ladder; his throne in the desert, the footstool of the Baloch, on whose bounty he is dependent for support.
Among the thirty-five sakha of the Pramaras the Vihal was eminent, the princes of which line appear to have been lords of Chandravati, at the foot of the Aravalli. The Rao of Bijolia, one of the sixteen superior nobles of the Rana’s court, is a Pramara of the ancient stock of Dhar, and perhaps its most respectable representative.
Thirty-Five Sakha of the Pramaras
Mori [or Maurya].—Of which was Chandragupta, and the princes of Chitor prior to the Guhilot.
Sodha.—Sogdoi of Alexander, the princes of Dhat in the Indian desert.