Asapurna of the Chauhan.
Gajan Mata of the Parihar.
Keonj Mata of the Solanki.
Sancher Mata of the Pramara.[[9]]
“When the Daityas were slain, shouts of joy rent the sky; ambrosial showers were shed from heaven; and the gods drove their cars (vahan) about the firmament, exulting at the victory thus achieved.
“Of all the Thirty-six Royal Races (says Chand, the great bard of the Chauhans), the Agnikula is the greatest: the rest were born of woman; these were created by the Brahmans![[10]]—Gotracharya of the Chauhans, Sama Veda, Somvansa, Madhuvani sakha, Vacha gotra, Panch parwar janeo, Laktankari nikas, Chandrabhaga Nadi, Brighu nishan, Ambika-Bhavani, Balan Putra, Kalbhairon, Abu Achaleswar Mahadeo, Chaturbhuja Chauhan.”
The period of this grand convocation of the gods on Mount Abu, to regenerate the warrior race of Hind, and to incite them against ‘the infidel races who had spread over the land,’ is dated so far back as the opening of the second age of the Hindus: a point which we shall not dispute. Neither shall we throw a doubt upon the chronicles which claim Prince Salya, one of the great heroes of the Mahabharata, as an intermediate link between Anhal Chauhan and Satpati, who founded Mahishmati, and conquered the Konkan; while another son, called Tantar Pal, conquered Asir and Gualkund (Golkonda), planted his garrisons in every region, and possessed nine hundred elephants to carry pakhals, or water-skins [442].
Let us here pause for a moment before we proceed with the chronicle, and inquire who were these warriors, thus regenerated to fight the battles of Brahmanism, and brought within the pale of their faith. They must have been either the aboriginal debased classes, raised to moral importance, by the ministers of the pervading religion, or foreign races who had obtained a footing amongst them. The contrasted physical appearance of the respective races will decide this question. The aborigines are dark, diminutive, and ill-favoured; the Agnikulas are of good stature, and fair, with prominent features, like those of the Parthian kings. The ideas which pervade their martial poetry are such as were held by the Scythian in distant ages, and which even Brahmanism has failed to eradicate; while the tumuli, containing ashes and arms, discovered throughout India, especially in the south about Gualkund, where the Chauhans held sway,[[11]] indicate the nomadic warrior of the north as the proselyte of Mount Abu.
Of the four Agnikula races, the Chauhans were the first who obtained extensive dominions. The almost universal power of the Pramaras is proverbial; but the wide sway possessed by the Chauhans can only be discovered with difficulty. Their glory was on the wane when that of the Pramaras was in the zenith; and if we may credit the last great bard of the Rajputs, the Chauhans held in capite of the Pramaras of Telingana, in the eighth century of Vikrama, though the name of Prithiraj threw a parting ray of splendour upon the whole line of his ancestry, even to the fire-fountain on the summit of classic Abu.
The facts to be gleaned in the early page of the chronicle are contained in a few stanzas, which proclaim the possession of paramount power, though probably of no lengthened duration. The line of the Nerbudda, from Mahishmati, Maheswar, was their primitive seat of sovereignty, comprehending all the tracts in its vicinity both north and south. Thence, as they multiplied, they spread over the peninsula, possessing Mandu, Asir, Golkonda, and the Konkan;[[12]] while to the north, [443] they stretched even to the fountains of the Ganges. The following is the bard’s picture of the Chauhan dominion:—