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<center>'''[[James Tod]]: [[Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan]], Volume I''',</center> 

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<center>'''Chapter 1 
:'''Genealogies of the [[Rajput]] princes — The Puranas — Connexion of the Rajputs with the [[Scythic tribes]]'''</center> 
----

== The Puranas == 

[p.23] Being desirous of epitomizing the chronicles of 
the martial races of Central and Western India, it was essential to 
ascertain the sources whence they draw, or claim to draw, their 
lineage. For this purpose I obtained from the library of the 
[[Rana]] of [[Udaipur]] their sacred volumes, the Puranas, and laid 
them before a body of pandits, over whom presided the learned 
'''Jati Gyanchandra'''. From these extracts were made of all the 
genealogies of the great '''races of [[Suryavanshi|Surya]] and [[Chandravanshi|Chandra]]''', and of facts 
historical and geographical. 

Most of the [[Puranas]] <sup>1</sup> contain portions of historical as well as 
geographical knowledge ; but the 
*[[Bhagavata Purana]], the 
*[[Skand Purana]], the  
*[[Agni Purana]], and the 
*[[Bhavishya Purana]] 

are the chief guides. It is rather fortunate than to be regretted that their chronologies do not perfectly agree. The number of princes in each line varies, and names are transposed ; but we recognize distinctly the principal 
features in each, affording the conclusion that they are the 
productions of various writers, borrowing from some common 
original source [21]. 
---- <small>
'''1''' " Every [[Purana]]," says the first authority existing in Sanskrit lore, 
" treats of five subjects : the creation of the universe ; its progress, and the 
renovation of the world ; the genealogy of gods and heroes ; chronology, 
according to a fabulous system ; and heroic history, containing the achievements of demi-gods and heroes. Since each purana contains a cosmogony, both mythological and heroic history, the works which bear that title may not unaptly be compared to the Grecian theogonies " ('Essay on the 
Sanskrit and Pracrit Languages,' by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. ; As. Res. 
vol. vii. p. 202). [On the age of the Puranas see Smith, EHI, 21 if.] 
</small>
----

== Deluge Legend == 
[p.24]:  
The Genesis <sup>1</sup>  of India commences with an event described in the history of almost all nations, the deluge, which, though treated with the fancy peculiar to the orientals, is not the less entitled to attention. The essence of the extract from the [[Agni Purana]] is this : " When ocean quitted his bounds 
and caused universal destruction by [[Brahma]]'s command, Vaivaswata <sup>2</sup>  Manu (Noah), who dwelt near the Himalaya <sup>3</sup>  mountains was giving water to the gods in the Kritamala river, when a small fish fell into his hand. A voice commanded him to preserve it. The fish expanded to an enormous size. Manu, with his sons and their wives, and the sages, with the seed of every living thing, entered into a vessel which was fastened to a horn on the head of 
the fish, and thus they were preserved." 

Here, then, the grand northern chain is given to which the abode of the great patriarch of mankind approximated. In the Bhavishya it is stated, that " Vaivaswata (sun-born) Manu ruled at the mountain Sumeru. Of his seed was Kakutstha Raja, who obtained sovereignty at [[Ayodhya]], <sup>4</sup>  and his descendants filled the land and spread over the earth." 

I am aware of the meaning given to Sumeru, that thus the Hindus designated the north pole of the earth. But they had also a mountain with this same appellation of pre-eminence of Meru, 'the hill,' with the prefix Su, 'good, sacred' : the Sacred Hill.

== [[Meru]], [[Sumeru]] ==
In the geography of the [[Agni Purana]], the term is used as a substantial geographical limit ; <sup>5</sup>  and some of 
---- <small>
1 Resolvable into Sanskrit, janarn, ' birth,' and is and iswar, ' lords ' 
[greek], Skr. root jan, ' to generate ']. 

2 Son of the sun. 

3 The snowy Caucasus. Sir William Jones, in an extract from a work 
entitled Essence of the Pooranas, says that this event took place at Dravira 
in the Deccan. 

4 The present Ajodhya, capital of one of the twenty-two satrapies constituting the Mogul Empire, and for some generations held by the titular 
Vizir, who has recently assumed the regal title. [Ghaziu-d-din Haidar in 
1819.] 

5 " To the south of Sumeru are the mountains Himavan, Hemakuta, 
and Nishadha ; to the north are the countries Nil, Sveta, and Sringi. 
Between Hemachal and the ocean the land is Bharatkhand, called Kukarma 
Bhumi (land of vice, opposed to Aryavarta, or land of virtue), in which the 
seven grand ranges are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Riksha, 
Vindhya, and Paripatra " ([[Agni Purana]]). 
</small>
---- 

[p. 25]: 

the rivers flowing from the mountainous ranges, whose relative 
position with Sumeru are there defined, still retain their ancient 
appellations. Let us not darken the subject, by supposing only 
allegorical meanings attached to explicit points. In the distribution of their seven dwipas, or continents, though they interpose 
seas of curds, milk, or wine, we should not reject strong and 
evident facts, because subsequent ignorant interpolators filled 
up the page with puerilities [22]. 

This sacred mountain ([[Sumeru]]) is claimed by the Brahmans 
as the abode of [[Mahadeva]], <sup>1</sup>  Adiswar, <sup>2</sup>  or Baghes <sup>3</sup>  ; by the Jains, as the abode of Adinath, <sup>4</sup>  the first Jiniswara, or Jain lord. Here they say he taught mankind the arts of agriculture and civilized life. The [[Greeks]] claimed it as the '''abode of [[Bacchus]]''' ; and hence the Grecian fable of this god being taken from the thigh of Jupiter, confounding rneros (thigh) with the meru (hill) of this Indian 
deity. In this vicinity the followers of Alexander had their 
Saturnalia, drank to excess of the wine from its indigenous vines, 
and bound their brows with ivy (vela) <sup>5</sup>  sacred to the Baghes of the east and west, whose votaries alike indulge in ' strong drink.' 

These traditions appear to point to one spot, and to one 
individual, in the early history of mankind, when the Hindu and 
the Greek approach a common focus ; for there is little doubt 
that Adinath, Adiswara, Osiris, Baghes, Bacchus, Manu, Menes 
designate the patriarch of mankind, Noah. 

The Hindus can at this time give only a very general idea of 
the site of Meru ; but they appear to localize it in a space of 
which Bamian, Kabul, and Ghazni would be the exterior points. 
The former of these cities is Known to possess remains of the 
---- <small>
1 The Creator, literally ' the Great God. 

2 The ' first lord.' 

3 Baghes, ' the tiger lord. He wears a tiger's or panther's hide ; which 
he places beneath him. So Bacchus did. The phallus is the emblem of 
each. Baghes has several temples in [[Mewar]]. [In identifying Bacchus with 
a Hindu tiger god the author depended on Asiatic Researches, i. 258, viii. 51. 
For the Greek story in the text see Quintus Curtius viii. 10; [[Diodorus]] iii. 63; 
Arrian, Anabasis, vii.] 

4 First lord. 

5 Vela is the general term for a climber, sacred to the Indian Bacchus 
(Baghes, Adiswara, or Mahadeva), whose priests, following his example, 
are fond of intoxicating beverages, or drugs. The amarbel, or immortal 
vela, is a noble climber. 

</small>

---- 

[p.26]:  
religion of [[Buddha]], in its caves and colossal statues. <sup>1</sup>  The 
Paropamisaa Alexandria is near [[Bamian]] ; but the [[Meru]] and 
[[Nyssa]] <sup>2</sup>  of [[Alexander]] are placed more to the eastward by the 
Greek writers, and according to the cautious [[Arrian]] between 
the [[Cophas]] and [[Indus]]. Authority localizes it between [[Peshawar]] 
and [[Jalalabad]], and calls it [[Merkoh]], or [[Markoh]], <sup>3</sup>  " a bare rock 2000 feet high [23] with caves to the westward, termed Bedaulat 
by the Emperor [[Humayun]] from its dismal appearance." <sup>4</sup>  This 
---- <small>
1 [" In the [[Tuman]] of [[Zohak]] and [[Bamian]], the fortress of Zohak is a 
monument of great antiquity, and in good preservation, but the fort of 
[[Bamian]] is in ruins. In the mountain -side caves have been excavated and 
ornamented with plaster and paintings. Of these there are 12,000 which 
are called Sumaj, and in former times were used by the people as winter 
retreats. Three colossal figures are here : one is the statue of a man, 
80 yards in height ; another that of a woman, 50 yards high, and the third 
that of a child measuring 15 yards. Strange to relate, in one of the caves 
is placed a coffin containing the body of one who reposes in his last sleep. 
The oldest and most learned of antiquarians can give no account of its 
origin, but suppose it to be of great antiquity. In days of old the ancients 
prepared a medicament with which they anointed corpses and consigned 
them to earth in a hard soil. The simple, deceived by this art, attribute 
their preservation to a miracle " (Ain, ii. 409 f., with Jarrett's notes). For 
[[Bamian]] see EB, iii. 304 f.] 

2 [[Nishadha]] is mentioned in the [[Purana]] as a mountain. If in the genitive 
case (which the final syllable marks), it would be a local term given from 
the city of [[Nissa]]. [Nysa has no connexion with Nishadha. It probably 
lay near [[Jalalabad]] or '''[[Koh-i Mor]]''' (Smith EHI, 53).] 

3 [[Meru]], Sanskrit, and Koh, Persian, for a ' hill.' 

4 Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 497. Wilford appears to have borrowed 
largely from that ancient store-house (as the Hindu would call it) of learning. 
Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World. He combines, however, much of 
what that great man had so singularly acquired and condensed, with what 
he himself collected, and with the aid of imagination has formed a curious 
mosaic. But when he took a peep into " the chorographical description of 
the Terrestrial Paradise," I am surprised he did not separate the nurseries 
of mankind before and after the flood. There is one passage, also, of Sir 
Walter Raleigh which would have aided his hypothesis, that Eden was in 
Higher Asia, between the common sources of the Jihun and other grand 
rivers : the abundance of the Ficus Indica, or bar-tree, sacred to the first 
lord, Adnath or Mahadeva. 

" Now for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, some men have presumed further ; especially Gorapius Bocanus, who giveth himself the honour 
to have found out the kind of this tree, which none of the writers of former 
times could ever guess at, whereat Gorapius much marvelleth." 

" Both together went Into the thickest wood ; there soon they chose 
</small>
---- 

[p. 27]: 

designation, however, of Dasht-i Bedaulat, or ' unhappy plain,' 
was given to the tract between the cities before mentioned [24]. 
The only scope of these remarks on Sumeru is to show that 
---- 
:The fig tree ; not that kind for fruit renowned. 
:But such as at this day, to Indians known 
:In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms 
:Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 
:The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
:About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade 
:High overarched, and echoing walks between. 
:There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
:Shelters in cool and tends his pasturing herds." 

:...." Those leaves 

:They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe." 

:Paradise Lost, Book ix. 1100 ff. 

Sir Walter strongly supports the Hindu hypothesis regarding the locality 
of the nursery for rearing mankind, and that " India was the first planted 
and peopled countrie after the flood " (p. 99). His first argument is, that 
it was a place where the vine and olive were indigenous, as amongst the 
Sakai [[Scythai]] (and as they still are, together with oats, between Kabul and 
[[Bamian]]) ; and that [[Ararat]] could not be in [[Armenia]], because the [[Gordian]] mountains on which the ark rested were in longitude 75°, and the Valley of 
Shinar 79° to 80°, which would be reversing the tide of migration. "As 
they journeyed from the East, they found a plain, in the land of Shinar, and 
they dwelt there " (Genesis, chap. xi. ver. 2). He adds, " Ararat, named 
by Moses, is not any one hill, but a general term for the great Caucasian 
range ; therefore we must blow up this mountain [[Ararat]], or dig it down 
and carry it out of [[Armenia]], or find it elsewhere in a warmer country, and 
east from Shinar." He therefore places it in [[Indo-Scythia]], in 140° of 
longitude and 35° to 37° of latitude, " where the mountains do build them- 
selves exceeding high " : and concludes, " It was in the plentiful warm East 
where [[Noah]] rested, where he planted the vine, where he tilled the ground 
and lived thereon. Placuit vero Noacho agriculturae studium in qua trac- 
tanda ipse omnium peritissimus esse dicitur ; ob eamque rem, sua ipsius 
lingua, Ish-Adamath : <sup>*</sup>  hoc est, Telluris Vir, appellatur, celebratusque est. 

The study of husbandry pleased [[Noah]] (says the excellent learned man, Arius 
Montanus) in the order and knowledge of which it is said that Noah excelled 
all men, and therefore was he called in his own language, a man exercised in 
the earth." The title, character, and abode exactly suit the description 

'''*''' In Sanskrit, Ish, ' Lord,' adi, ' the first,' matti, ' Earth.' [The derivation is absurd : matti, ' clay,' is modern Hindi.] Here the Sanskrit and 
Hebrew have the same meaning, ' first lord of the earth.' In these remote 
Rajput regions, where early manners and language remain, the strongest 
phrase to denote a man or human being is literally ' earth.' A chief describing a fray between his own followers and borderers whence death 
ensued, says, Meri matti mari, ' My earth has been struck ' : a phrase 
requiring no comment, and denoting that he must have blood in return. 

---- 

[p.28 
the Hindus themselves do not make India within the Indus the 
cradle of their race, but west, amidst the hills of [[Caucasus]], <sup>1</sup>  
whence the sons of Vaivaswata, or the ' sun-born,' migrated 
eastward to the Indus and Ganges, and founded their first establishment in [[Kosala]], the capital, [[Ayodhya]], or Oudh. 

Most nations have indulged the desire of fixing the source 
whence they issued, and few spots possess more interest than 
this elevated Madhya-Bhumi, or ' central region ' of Asia, where 
the [[Amu]], [[Oxus]], or [[Jihun]], and other rivers, have their rise, and in 
which both the Surya and Indu <sup>2</sup>  races (Sakha) claim the hill, <sup>3</sup>
---- 
<small>
the Jains give of their first Jiniswara, Adinath, the first lordly man, who 
taught them agriculture, even to " muzzling the bull in treading out the corn." 

Had Sir Walter been aware that the Hindu sacred books styled their 
country Aryavarta,* and of which the great Imaus is the northern boundary, 
he would doubtless have seized it for his Ararat. [Needless to say, these 
speculations are obsolete.] 

1 Hindu, or Indu-kush or koh, is the local appellation ; ' mountain of 
the moon.' [Hindu-kush is said to mean ' Hindu-slayer ' or ' Indian 
Caucasus.'] 

2 Solar and lunar. 

3 [[Meru]], ' the hill,' is used distinctively, as in Jaisalmer (the capital of the Bhatti tribe in the Western Desert), ' the hill of Jaisal ' ; Merwara, or the ' mountainous region ' ; and its inhabitants Meras, or ' mountaineers.' 
Thus, also, in the grand epic the [[Ramayana]] (Book i. p. 236), Mena is the 
mountain-nymph, the daughter of Meru and spouse of Himavat ; from 
whom sprung two daughters, the river goddess Ganga and the mountain- 
nymph Parbati. She is, in the [[Mahabharata]], also termed Saila, the daughter 
of Sail, another designation of the snowy chain ; and hence mountain 
streams are called in Sanskrit silletee [?]. Saila bears the same attributes 
with the Phrygian Cybele, who was also the daughter of a mountain of the 
same name ; the one is carried, the other drawn, by lions. Thus the Greeks 
also metamorphosed Parbat Pamer, or ' the mountain Pamer,' into Paropamisan, applied to the Hindu Koh west of Bamian : but the Parbat pat 
Pamer, or ' Pamer chief of hills,' is mentioned by the bard Chand as being 
far cast of that tract, and under it resided Hamira, one of the great feudatories of [[Prithwiraja]] of Delhi. Had it been Paropanisan (as some authorities write it), it would better accord with the locality where it takes up the name, being near to [[Nyssa]] and [[Meru]], of which Parbat or Pahar would be a version, 
and form Paronisan, ' the Mountain of Nyssa,' the range Nishadha of the 
Puranas. [The true form is Paropanisos : the suggested derivation is impossible.] 
</small>
----

'''*''' [[Aryavarta]], or the land of promise or virtue, cannot extend to the flat plains of India south of the Himavat ; for this is styled in the Puranas the very reverse, kukarma des, or land of vice. [Aryavarta is the land bounded 
by the Himalaya and Vindhya, from the eastern to the western seas (Manu, 
Laws, ii. 22).] 

---- 

[p. 29]: 

sacred to a great patriarchal ancestor, whence they migrated 
eastward.

== Connexion with the  [[Scythic]] habits  ==
The Rajput tribes could scarcely have acquired some of their 
still existing [[Scythic]] habits and warlike superstitions on the 
burning plains of Ind. It was too hot to hail with fervent adoration the return of the sun from his southern course to enliven the northern hemisphere. This should be the religion of a colder clime, brought from their first haunts, the sources of the [[Jihun]] and [[Jaxartes]]. The grand solstitial festival, the Aswamedha, or sacrifice of the horse (the type of the sun), practised by the children of [[Vaivaswata]], the ' sun-born,' was most probably simultaneously introduced from [[Scythia]] into the plains of Ind, and west, by the sons of [[Odin]], [[Woden]], or [[Budha]], into [[Scandinavia]], where it became the Hi-el or Hi-ul, <sup>1</sup>  the festival of the winter solstice ; the grand jubilee of northern nations, and in the first ages of Christianity, being so near the epoch of its rise, gladly used by the first fathers of the church to perpetuate that event. <sup>2</sup>   
---- <small>
1. [[Haya]] or Hi, in Sanskrit, ' horse ' — El, ' sun ' : whence [greek] and [greek]. [greek] appears to have been a term of Scythian origin for the sun ; and Hari, the Indian Apollo, is addressed as the sun. Hiul, or Jul, of northern nations (qu. Noel of France ?), is the Hindu Sankranti, of which more will be said 
hereafter. [The feast was known as Hvil, .Tnl, or Yule, and the suggested derivation is impossible.] 

2. Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
</small>
----
<center>'''End of Chapter 1 Genealogies'''
</center>
----
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