[7]. The Hindu genealogist, in ignorance of the existence of Aghuz Khan, the Tatar patriarch, could not connect the chain of Chagatai with Chandra. The Brahman, better read, supplied the defect, and with his doctrine of the metempsychosis animated the material frame of the beneficent Akbar with the ‘good genius’ of a Hindu; and that of their mortal foe, Aurangzeb, with one of evil destiny, being that of Kalayavana, the foe of Krishna. They gravely assert that Akbar visited his ancient hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, and excavated the implements of penance used by him in his former shape, as one of the sages of ancient times; while such is their aversion to Aurangzeb, that they declare the final avatar, Time (Kal), on his white steed, will appear in his person. The Jaisalmer annals affirm that the whole Turkish (Turushka) race of Chagatai are of Yadu stock; while the Jam Jareja of Cutch traces his descent from the Persian Jamshid, contemporary with Solomon. These are curious claims, but the Rana’s family would consider such vanity criminal.
[8]. [For legends of women impregnated by the sun see Frazer, Golden Bough, Part vii. vol. i. 74 ff.]
[9]. This is probably the Siladitya of the Satrunjaya Mahatma, who repaired the temple on Satrunjaya in S. 477 (A.D. 421). [A mere folk etymology—Sīlāditya, from sil, ‘to worship,’ āditya, ‘the sun.’]
[10]. In perusing this fragment we are struck by the similarity of production of these Hindu Heliadae and that of the celebrated Tatar dynasty from which Jenghiz Khan was descended. The Niruns, or ‘children of light,’ were from an amour of the sun with Alung Goa, from which Jenghiz was the ninth in descent. Authorities quoted by Petis de la Croix, in his life of this conqueror, and likewise by Marigny, in his History of the Saracens, affirm Jenghiz Khan to be a descendant of Yazdegird, the last Sassanian prince. Jenghiz was an idolater, and hated the very name of Muhammadan [see Howorth, Hist. of the Mongols, i. 37 ff.]. A courtier telling Aurangzeb of his celestial ancestry, gravely quoting the affair of the mother of the race of Timur with the sun, the bigoted monarch coarsely replied, “Mama qahba bud,” which we will not translate.
[11]. Akbar commenced his reign A.D. 1556, and had been forty years on the throne when the ‘Institutes’ were composed by the Abu-l Fazl. [The translation of Gladwin in the original text has been replaced by that of Jarrett, Āīn, ii. 268.]
[12]. Orme [Historical Fragments, Notes, p. xxii] was acquainted with this passage, and shows his knowledge of the Hindu character by observing that it was a strange pedigree to assign a Hindu prince, for Khusru, of the religion of Zoroaster, though compelled to many abstinences, was not restrained from eating beef: and Anquetil du Perron says of the Parsis, their descendants, that they have refrained since their emigration from slaying the cow merely to please the Hindu.
[13]. The cryptographic date is contained in the numerical value of the letters which compose the title:
| B. S. A. T. a. l. G. N. A. E. M. 2. 60. 1. 9. 1. 9. 1000. 50. 1. 10. 40. | } | As the total is only 1183, either the date is wrong, or a deficient value given to the numerals. |
[14]. Wilford, who by his indefatigable research and knowledge of Sanskrit had accumulated extensive materials, unhappily deteriorated by a too credulous imagination, yet containing much valuable matter available to those sufficiently familiar with the subject to select with safety, has touched on this, and almost on every other point in the circle of Hindu antiquities. Ali Ibrahim, a learned native of Benares, was Wilford’s authority for asserting the Rana’s Persian descent, who stated to him that he had seen the original history, which was entitled, Origin of the Peishwas from the Ranas of Mewar. (Ibrahim must have meant the Satara princes, whose ministers were the Peshwas.) From this authority three distinct emigrations of the Guebres, or ancient Persians, are recorded, from Persia into Gujarat. The first in the time of Abu Bakr, A.D. 631; the second on the defeat of Yazdegird, A.D. 651; and the third when the descendants of Abbas began to prevail, A.D. 749. Also that a son of Noshirwan landed near Surat with eighteen thousand of his subjects, from Laristan, and were well received by the prince of the country. Abu-l Fazl confirms this account by saying, "the followers of Zoroaster, when they fled from Persia, settled in Surat," the contracted term for the peninsular of Saurashtra, as well as the city of this name [Āīn, ii. 243].
[15]. The names are obliterated in the original. Ferishta [i. Introd. lxxix] informs us that Ramdeo Rathor, sovereign of Kanauj, was made tributary by Firoz ‘Sassan’; and that Partap Chand, who usurped the throne of Ramdeo, neglecting to pay this tribute, Noshirwan marched into India to recover it, and in his progress subdued Kabul and the Panjab. From the striking coincidence of these original and decisive authorities, we may rest assured that they had recourse to ancient records, both of the Guebres and the Hindus, for the basis of their histories, which research may yet discover.