Page:Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan Vol 3.djvu/225

Rh the bard has recourse to celestial interposition in order to support Manika Rae in his adversity. The goddess Sakambhari appears to him, while seeking shelter from the pursuit of this merciless foe, and bids him establish himself in the spot where she manifested herself, guaranteeing to him the possession of all the ground he could encompass with his horse on that day; but commanded him not to look back until he had returned to the spot where he left her. He commenced the circuit, with what he deemed his steed could accomplish, but forgetting the injunction, he was surprised to see the whole space covered as with a sheet. This was the desiccated sar, or salt-lake, which he named after his patroness Sakambhari, whose statue still exists on a small island in the lake, now corrupted to Sambhar.

However jejune these legends of the first days of Chauhan power, they suffice to mark with exactness their locality; and the importance attached to this settlement is manifested in the title of 'Sambhari Rao,' maintained by Prithiraj, the descendant of Manika Rae, even when emperor of all Northern India.

Manika Rae, whom we may consider as the founder of the Chauhans of the north, recovered Ajmer. He had a numerous progeny, who established many petty dynasties throughout Western Rajwara, giving birth to various tribes, which are spread even to the Indus. The Khichi, the Hara, the Mohil, Nirwana, Bhadauria, Bhaurecha, Dhanetia, and Baghrecha, are all descended from him. The Khichis were established in the remote Duab, called Sind-Sagar, comprising all the tract between the Behat and the Sind, a space of sixty-eight coss, whose capital was Khichpur-Patan. The Haras obtained or founded Asi (Hansi) in Hariana; while another tribe held Gualkund, the celebrated Golkonda, now Haidarabad, and when thence expelled, regained Asir. The Mohils had the tracts round Nagor. The