Stability of Mewār State.
Origin of the Rājputs.
The translator of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, following D’Anville,[[9]] makes Ozene (Ujjain) the capital of a Porus,[[10]] who sent an embassy to Augustus to regulate their commercial intercourse, and whom he asserts to be the ancestor of the Rana. But to show how guarded we should be in admitting verbal resemblance to decide such points, the title of Rana is of modern adoption, even so late as the twelfth century; and was assumed in consequence of the victorious issue of a contest with the Parihara prince of Mandor, who bore the title of Rana, and who surrendered it with his life and capital to the prince of Mewar. The latter substituted it for the more ancient appellation of Rawal;[[11]] but it was not till the thirteenth century that the novel distinction was generally recognized by neighbouring powers. Although we cannot for a moment admit the Rahmi, or even the Rhamnae of Ozene, to be connected with this family, yet Ptolemy appears to have given the real ancestor in his Baleokouroi, the Balhara monarchs of the Arabian travellers, the Valabhiraes of Saurashtra, who were the ancestors of the princes of Mewar.[[12]]
Before we proceed, it is necessary to specify the sources whence materials were obtained for the Annals of Mewar, and to give some idea of the character they merit as historical data [214].
Sources of the History.
The next in importance were the Rajvilas, in the Vraj Bhakha, by Man Kabeswara;[[14]] and the Rajratnakar,[[15]] by Sudasheo Bhat: both written in the reign of Rana Raj Singh, the opponent of Aurangzeb: also the Jaivilas, written in the reign of Jai Singh, son of Raj Singh. They all commence with the genealogies of the family, introductory to the military exploits of the princes whose names they bear.
The Mamadevi Prasistha is a copy of the inscriptions[[16]] in the temple of ‘the Mother of the Gods’ at Kumbhalmer. Genealogical rolls of some antiquity were obtained from the widow of an ancient family bard, who had left neither children nor kindred to follow his profession. Another roll was procured from a priest of the Jains residing in Sandrai, in Marwar, whose ancestry had enjoyed from time immemorial the title of Guru, which they held at the period of the sack of Valabhipura in the fifth century, whence they emigrated simultaneously with the Rana’s ancestors. Others were obtained from Jain priests at Jawad in Malwa. Historical documents possessed by several chiefs were readily furnished, and extracts were made from works, both Sanskrit and Persian, which incidentally mention the family. To these were added traditions or biographical anecdotes furnished in conversation by the Rana, or men of intellect amongst his chiefs [215], ministers, or bards, and inscriptions calculated to reconcile dates; in short, every corroborating circumstance was treasured up which could be obtained by incessant research during sixteen years. The Commentaries of Babur and Jahangir, the Institutes of Akbar, original grants, public and autograph letters of the emperors of Delhi and their ministers, were made to contribute more or less; yet, numerous as are the authorities cited, the result may afford but little gratification to the general reader, partly owing to the unpopularity of the subject, partly to the inartificial mode of treating it.
Kanaksen.
The country of which Ayodhya (now Oudh) was the capital, and Rama monarch, is termed, in the geographical writings of the Hindus, Kosala; doubtless from the mother of Rama, whose name was Kausalya.[[17]] The first royal emigrant from the north is styled, in the Rana’s archives, Kosala-putra, ‘son of Kosala.’