There is nothing more perplexing to the reader

Appellations
of the Rájpúts
at this time.

of oriental history than the variety of names by which individuals are in different places designated; and this practice has been a fruitful source of error, from the period when Greek historians first made known to us the history of Persia, even to the present day. An acute discrimination of the analogy and differences of historical facts, and an exten­sive knowledge of the several revolutions and rise of kingdoms which took place, can alone guard us against the commission of mistakes in this matter. In no part of oriental research will such be found more necessary than in our inquiries after the early history of the Hindús; when individuals are sometimes designated by the appellation of their tribe, at others by their religious or military titles; and, as synonymous terms are indiscriminately used for the last, the causes for confusion are numerous, and their effect not easily prevented. Rájáputras had at this time the appellation of Verma, or Varman, which was the customary designation for the military tribe, as that of Sarman* pointed out the Bráhmans, or sacerdotal class. The former, at the present day, is used to distinguish the Arracanese Buddhists of Kshatrya or Rájpút origin, as Dr. Leyden informs us:* and this similarity of appellation, among tribes west and east of the Brahmaputra river, is one of many facts, which go to establish their common origin. These Rájpúts, called “Verma Ksha­trya,” in a Sanskrit grant* by Jaya Chandra, the last Hindú ruler of Kanauj, were sometimes entitled Bhúmihara Bráhmans,* or lords of the soil. Among the Rihans, or Burmese priests, they are called Biammas, and are thought to be the first inhabitants of the earth.

A member of the Silhára tribe of Rájpúts,

A.D. 1058.
Conquests in
the Dekhun.

having the appellation of Gonka Rájá, had conquered Kirhata Kúndí Desh, Múta Konkun Desh, and the country about Merij.* His son Mara Sinha Rájá, who appears to be the same as Marichand of Dekhan tra­dition,* reigned at Panala, and is styled Maha Mandala Ishwar, or master of an extensive region, and lord of the city of Tagara. About fifty years subsequent to this, the Rájás who ruled over the Gantúr and Palnad districts, near the mouth of the Krishna, were also styled Gonka;* and, though these had the additional appellation of Chóla, the probability is in favour of their relationship with the earlier Rájás, who ruled further west on the banks of that river.

The Chalukya, or Solanki tribe of Rájpúts,

A.D. 1078.
Chalukyas of
Kalyani.

had been established in Gujarát and Khándesh some time prior to the destruction of Somnáth. A branch of this family had come from the westward at that time; and, not long after, one of them conquered the terri­tory of Kuntala* desa, or the country about Kal­yani and Banawasi. The person who made these conquests was Víra Raya, who had also the appel­lation of Bhuvana Malla Víra; and was, as the inscription tells us, the foe of the kings of Chóla.* The reign of one of this family is remarkable for a revolution in the Jaina religion of the Dekhan; by which the well known sectaries and followers of Siva, who are called Lingayats, were first established in the country. Vijala Raya, the individual then reigning, endeavouring to repress the extension of this belief, was put to death by the enraged followers of its founder, Chenna Básava.*

Mohammedan conquests had so disorganized

Rahtore family
established at
Kauauj.

the petty principalities on the banks of the Jumna and Ganges, and so upset the constitution of Hindú society, that a favourable opportunity was left for a military adventurer to establish a new dynasty in the Doab. The last of the Koráh family, who ruled Kanauj, had drawn on himself the hatred of the neighbouring Rájás by accepting a Mohammedan alliance, and was put to death as unworthy of the Hindúname. This was the cause of Mahmúd of Ghazní's ninth expedition to India. From that time the vacant throne of Kanauj was to become the prize of any one who had the inclination and power to contend for it. A candidate at length appeared in the person of Srí Chandra Deva; who, only six years prior to the revolution which extin­guished the Jaina religion in the Dekhan, “conquered by his own arm the unequalled kingdom of Kanyákubja or Kanauj.”* His grandfather, Srí Pál, otherwise named Yaso­vigraha, claimed descent from the solar race:* from which we learn that the appellation of Rahtore, by which this family became celebrated in the annals of India, could not have been assumed prior to the conquest of Kanauj by Srí Chandra Deva. This prince visited the holy places of Kási, Kúsika, and northern Kosala, which are now known to us by the names of Benares, the Kúsi river in Bahar, and the modern Fyzabad in Oude. Conquest could not have been the object of these visits, as the power of the recently acquired sovereignty was curbed, on the south-east, by the Pál princes of Benares; and the evidence of grants seems to establish that, while the conquests of the latter were extended to the south, along the sea coast, those of the former were carried westward into Málwá.