Note 59 — Chapter VIII · THE VALABHIS (a.d. 509–766.)

This explanation is hardly satisfactory. The name Gehlot seems to be Guhila-putra from Gobhila-putra an ancient Bráhman gotra, one of the not uncommon cases of Rájputs with a Bráhman gotra. The Rájput use of a Bráhman gotra is generally considered a technical affiliation, a mark of respect for some Bráhman teacher. It seems doubtful whether the practice is not a reminiscence of an ancestral Bráhman strain. This view finds confirmation in the Aitpur inscription (Tod’s Annals, I. 802) which states that Guhadit the founder of the Gohil tribe was of Bráhman race Vipra kula. Compare the legend (Rás Málá, I. 13) that makes the first Śíláditya of Valabhi (a.d. 590–609) the son of a Bráhman woman. Compare (Elliot, I. 411) the Bráhman Chách (a.d. 630–670) marrying the widow of the Sháhi king of Alor in Sindh who is written of as a Rájput though like the later (a.d. 850–1060) Shahiyas of Kábul (Alberuni, Sachau II. 13) the dynasty may possibly have been Bráhmans.60 The following passage from Hodgson’s Essays (J. A. Soc. Bl. II. 218) throws light on the subject: Among the Khás or Rájputs of Nepál the sons of Bráhmans by Khás women take their fathers’ gotras. Compare Ibbetson’s Panjáb Census 1881 page 236. ↑