Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/262

 254 KHE of the Sauras, or worshippers of the sun, most probably the generic name of the tribe as well as of the peninsula. " By a natural catastrophe, or as the Hindu superstitious chroniclers will have it as a punishment for the piracies of the prince of Deo, the element whose privilege he abused rose and overwhelmed his capital. “At all events, the prince of Deo laid the foundation of Anbalwara Patan in Samvat 802 (A.D. 746), which henceforth became the capital city of this portion of India in lieu of Balabhipoora, which gave the title of Balicaraes to its princes, the Balbara of the earlier Arabian travellers, and following them, the geographers of Europe. "This ancient connexion between the Sooryavansi chiefs and the Chawuras or Sauras, of Saurashtra, is still maintained after a lapse of more than one thousand years; for although an alliance with the Rana's family is deemed the highest that Hindu prince can obtain, as being the first in rank in Rajasthan, yet is the humble Chawura sought out, even at the foot of fortune's ladder, whence to carry on the blood of Rama. The present beir apparent of a line of one hundred kings, the prince Javana Singh, is the off- spring of a Chawura mother, the daughter of a petty chieftain of Guzzerat." Local tradition declares that the inroads of the Musalmans compelled these brothers to leave their country and seek a refuge further east. The dates do not correspond with this. Muhammad Qasim, the leader of the first great Musalman invasion, captured Alor, 712 A.D. (93 A.H.); from thence he spread his forces nortlu and south. Deo or Deobuzder was then the capital of the Cháwars; they very probably abandoned it shortly after Qasim's idroad, as they established the great Šáh dynasty of Anhal- wára Patan in Saurashtra, which lasted from 746 to 931 A.D. Now between Sopi and the members of the family now living seventy-six gencra- tions intervenc, according to the more reliable genealogical tree furnished by the Musalman branch of the family, the Hindu branch entering 94 as the number of generations. This discrepancy, of course, throws doubt upon both, but even seventy-six generations, allowing 22 years to each, would carry us back 1670 years or to 200 A.D. At this date the city of Anhal- wára Patan did not exist, or at any rate the Cháwars had notbing to say to it. But as already remarked, tradition is very apt to confuse the events which occurred in different ages to the same family. Even if the exiles had abandoned the country of their forefathers before the nation settled in Anhalwára Patan, still an occasional intercourse with those who remained behind would serve to familiarize them with the new residence of their kindred, while they would naturally be fond and proud of claiming a connexion with the great Balhara race, the supreme monarchs of India, which reigned from Cambay to China. I am disposed to believe confi- dently in the general accuracy of the statement that the Albans are Cháwars and did come from Saurashtra; very possibly there were two emigrations--one in early times from Deobander, another from Anhalwára. After the overturn of the Cháwar dynasty (932 A.D.*) successive waves Tod's Western India.