Note 39 — Chapter XI · THE RÁSHṬRAKÚṬAS (a.d. 743–974.)

The question remains were the southern Raṭṭas or Ráshṭrakúṭas connected with the northern Ráthoḍs or Ráshṭrakúṭas. If so what was the nature of the connection and to what date does it belong. The fact that, while the later southern Ráshṭrakúṭas Chapter XI. The Ráshṭrakúṭas, a.d. 743–974. call themselves Yádavas of the Lunar race, the northerners claim descent either from Kuśa the son of Ráma or from Hiraṇyakaśipu would seem to prove no connection did not Abhimanyu’s fifth century grant show that in his time the southern Ráshṭrakúṭas had not begun to claim Yádava descent. That the Márwár Ráthoḍs trace their name to the ráht or spine of Indra (Tod’s Annals, II. 2), and in a closely similar fashion the Ráth or Rattu Játs of the Sutlej (Ibbetson’s 1881 Census, page 236) explain their name as stronghanded, and the Raṭṭas of Bijápur (Bijápur Stat. Account, 145) trace their name to the Kánarese raṭṭa right arm, may imply no closer connection than the common attempt to find a meaning for the name Raṭṭa in a suitable word of similar sound. A legend preserved in the Rájputána Gazetteer (III. 246), but not noted by Tod, tells how Sevji, after (a.d. 1139) the Musalmáns drove his father Jaichand out of Kanauj (Tod’s Annals, I. 88) took Khergad from the Gehlots and went to the Karṇáṭak. where the Ráthoḍs had ruled before they came to Kanauj. From the Karṇáṭak Sevji brought the image of the Ráhtoḍ Ráshṭraśyena which is now in the temple of Nágána in Meváḍ. The account quoted in the text from Tod (Annals, I. 88) that the Ráthoḍs who rose to power in Márwár in the thirteenth century belonged to a royal family who had held Kanauj since the fifth century has not stood the test of recent inquiry. It is now known that about a.d. 470 Kanauj was in the hands of the Guptás. That about a.d. 600, according to the contemporary Śríharshacharita it was ruled by the Maukhari Grahavarmán who was put to death by a Málwa chief and was succeeded by Harsha. About a.d. 750, according to the Rájátaraṅginí, Kanauj was held by Yaśovarmán, and, in the next century, as inscriptions prove by the family of Bhoja. It was not till about a.d. 1050 that Kanauj was occupied by the Gáhadavála or Gáharwála family from whom the Ráthoḍs of Márwár claim descent.39 If the legendary connection of the Márwár Ráthoḍs with Kanauj must be dismissed can the Márwár Ráthoḍs be a branch of the southern Ráshṭrakúṭas who like the Maráthás some 800 years later spread conquering northwards? Such a northern settlement of the southern Ráshṭrakúṭas might be a consequence of the victories of the great Ráshṭrakúṭa Dhruva who according to received opinions about a.d. 790 conquered as far north as Allahábád. It is beyond question that southerners or Karṇáṭas were settled in North India between the seventh and the eleventh centuries. Still the latest information makes it improbable that Dhruva’s conquests extended further north than Gujarát. Nor has any special connection been traced between the southern Ráshṭrakúṭas and the middle-age settlements of southerners or Karṇáṭas in North India.40 Must therefore the North Indian tribe of Ráthoḍs be admitted to have its origin Chapter XI. The Ráshṭrakúṭas, a.d. 743–974. as late as the twelfth century, and further is the North Indian name Ráthoḍ not tribal but derived from the title head of a district. Several considerations make both of these solutions unlikely if not impossible. First there is the remarkably widespread existence of the name Ráhtor, Ratha, or Ratti, and endless variations of these names, in almost all parts of the Panjáb, among all castes from the Bráhman to the Baluch, among all religions Musalmán, Sikh, Jain, and Bráhmanic.41 No doubt the practice of a waning tribe adopting the name of a waxing tribe has always been common. No doubt also the fame of the name during the last 600 years must have tempted other classes to style themselves Ráthoḍ. Still it is to be noted: first that (Ibbetson, page 240) the Ráthoḍs of the Panjáb though widespread are not numerous: and second that the list of sub-caste-names has this merit that with a few exceptions the holders of the sub-name are not known by it but by some general or craft name. The evidence of these sub-caste or tribal names seems therefore to support the view that some very large section of the Panjáb population represent an important tribe or nation of whom the least mixed remnant are perhaps the Ráthis or lower class Rájputs of Kángra and Chamba (Ibbetson, pages 219 and 251) and from some connection with whom the Márwár Ráthoḍs of the thirteenth century may have taken their name. Among other traces of northern Ráshṭras in the middle ages may be mentioned the twelfth and thirteenth century Ráshṭrakúṭas of Badaun in the North-West Provinces (Kielhorn in Epigraphia Indica, I. 61 and 63) and (a.d. 1150) in the Kumárapála-Charitra (Tod’s Western India, 182) the mention of Ráshṭra-deśa near the Sawálak hills. Among earlier and more doubtful references are the Aratrioi whom probably correctly (since at that time a.d. 247 one main Roman trade route to Central Asia passed up the Indus) the author of the Periplus (McCrindle, 120) places between Abhiria or lower Sindh and Arachosia or south-east Afghanistán that is in north Sindh or south Panjáb. Another earlier and still more doubtful reference is Pliny’s (a.d. 77) Oraturæ (Hist. Nat. VI. 23) whom Vivien de St. Martin (Geog. Greque et Latine de l’Inde, 203) identifies with the Ráthoḍs. The fact that while claiming descent from Ráma the Márwár Ráthoḍs (Tod’s Annals, II. 2 and 5) preserved the legend that their founder was Yavanaśwa from the northern city of Paralipur supports the view that the tribe to which they belonged was of non-Indian or Central Asian origin, and that this is the tribe of whom traces remain in the Ráthi Rájputs of the Kángra hill country and less purely in the widely spread Ráts, Rattas, and Rátis of the Panjáb plains. The examples among Panjáb caste names Rora for Arora (Ibbetson’s 1881 Census, page 297), Her for Ahir (Ditto, 230–275), and Heri for Aheri (Ditto, 310) suggest that the Panjáb Ráthors or Raṭṭas may be the ancient Araṭṭas whom the Mahábhárata (Chap. VII. Verse 44. J. Bl. Soc. VI. Pt. I. 387 and Vivien de St. Martin Geog. Greque et Latine de l’Inde, 149) ranks with Prasthalas, Madras, and Gandháras, Panjáb and frontier tribes, whose identification with the Báhikas (Karṇaparvan, 2063ff.) raises the probability of a common Central Asian origin. Remembering that the evidence (Kshatrapa Chapter, pages 22 and 33) favours the view that the Kshatrapa family who ruled the Panjáb between b.c. 70 and a.d. 78 were of the same tribe as Nahápana, and also that Sháhi is so favourite a prefix in Samudra Gupta’s (a.d. 380) list of Kushán tribes, the suggestion may be offered that Kshaharáta is the earlier form of Sháharaṭṭa and is the tribe of foreigners afterwards known in the Panjáb as Araṭṭas and of which traces survive in the present widespread tribal names Ráta, Ratta, Ratha, and Ráthor.]