[54]. Lodorva will be described hereafter.
[55]. [The above series of legends of the Bhatti settlement in the desert is a mass of fiction. “We are told that Sālivāhan founded the city of Sālbāhanpur in Vikrama Sambat 72, or about A.D. 16; that the third in succession to him, Mangal Rāo, was driven southward into the desert, and that Mangal Rāo’s grandson, Kehar, laid the foundations of a castle called Tanot (still in Jaisalmer territory), which was completed in A.D. 731; or, in other words, that Sālivāhan and his five immediate successors reigned for more than seven hundred years. Again, it is said that in Sālivāhan’s time the coconut, an offer of marriage, came from Rāja Jaipāl Tonwar of Delhi, whereas the Tonwar dynasty ruled at Delhi for just a century from about A.D. 1050.” This Sālivāhana cannot be the hero who is said to have conquered the Indo-Scythians, but some of the many legends connected with him may have suggested the fictions of the Bhatti bards (Erskine iii. A. 96).]
[56]. Mulraj had three sons, Rajpal, Lohwa, and Chubar. The elder son had two sons, Rana and Giga; the first of whom had five sons, Dhukur, Pohor, Budh, Kulru, Jaipal, all of whom had issue, and became heads of clans. The descendants of Giga bore the name of Khengar (qu. chiefs of Girnar?). The annals of all these States abound with similar minute genealogical details, which to the Rajputs are of the highest importance in enabling them to trace the affinities of families, but which it is imperative to omit, as they possess no interest for the European reader. I have extracted the names of the issue of Mulraj to show this. The Khengars were famed in the peninsula of Surashtra—nine of them ruled in Junagarh Girnar; and but for this incidental relation, their origin must have ever remained concealed from the archaeologist, as the race has long been extinct. On some future day I hope to present a sketch of Khengar’s palace, on the sacred mount Girnar, to the public. [The famous well, at least, is attributed to Rāo Khengār II. (A.D. 1098-1125) (BG, viii. 444).]
[57]. The remains of this once famous town, the ancient capital of the upper valley of the Indus, I had the happiness to discover by means of one of my parties, in 1811. It is the Alor of Abu-l-fazl, the capital of Raja Siharas, whose kingdom extended north to Kashmir, and south to the ocean; and the Azour of D’Anville, who, on the authority of Ebn Haukal, says, “Azour est presque comparable à Multan pour la grandeur.” He adds, that Azizi places it “trente parasanges de Mansora.” If Mansura is the ancient Bakhar (capital of the Sogdoi), we should read three instead of thirty. See [Map], Vol. I[Vol. I].[Mansūra was near Bāhmanābād.]
[58]. Panjnad is the name which the Indus bears immediately below the point of confluence of the five streams (panj-nadi). The mere mention of such terms as the Panjnad, and the ancient Aror, stamps these annals with authenticity, however they may be deformed by the interpolations and anachronisms of ignorant copyists. Of Aror, or the Panjnad, excepting the regular kasids, or messengers, perhaps not an individual living in Jaisalmer could not speak.
[59]. [This is another anachronism. The Deora sept of the Chauhāns, of which the Rāja of Sirohi is head, did not come into existence until the thirteenth century, and Jālor was then held by the Paramāras, who kept possession till they were ousted by the Chauhāns at the end of the twelfth century (Erskine iii. A. 10).]
[60]. This shows that the Baraha tribe was of the same faith with the Yadu Bhatti; in fact ‘the star of Islam’ did not shine in these regions for some time after, although Umar, in the first century, had established a colony of the faithful at Bakhar, afterwards Mansura. The Barahas are mentioned by Pottinger in his travels in Balochistan.
[61]. There are but six descents given from Salbahan, the leader of the Yadu colony from Zabulistan into the Panjab, and Kehar, the founder of their first settlement in the desert of India. The period of the first is S. 72, of the other S. 787. Either names are wanting, or the period of Salbahan is erroneous. Kehar’s period, namely, S. 787, appears a landmark, and is borne out by numerous subsequent most valuable synchronisms. Were we to admit one hundred years to have elapsed between Salbahan and Kehar, it would make the period of expulsion from Zabulistan about S. 687, which is just about the era of Muhammad.
[62]. See “Essay on the Hindu and Theban Hercules,” Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii.
[63]. [Sīstān is Sakastēnē, “The Saka country”.]