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 THE RASHTRARUTA DYNASTY.

July 5, 1872.]

205

most the same as in the Highlands; I say the Highlands—because a common surname im plies a sort of consanguinity, an identity in

ancestral seats, their retreat to the Dekhan, and subsequent return to their own, as Maratha com

The other surnames commonest

on their traditions, but I write far from authori

among Marāthas, the Smiths and Joneses of the Dekhan,—are Sindé (Scindia), Jädu, Bhojisla, Powār, and Chauhan. It will at once be re marked that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th on this list are the names of noble Rājput races, and the

ties. The Yadavas or Jādus hold barren princi palities both in the great desert and in the Dekhan. The traditions connecting the Royal house of Bhojisla with that of the Udépur Rånå are well known, and we find the family, when they first came into notice, established as Deshmukhs at

fact of tribe.

Bhojislas claim descent from the Sisodias of

Chitor, the oldest family in India. All the more respectable members of these clans wear the sacred thread, (“Bammans” to the contrary not withstanding,) and any one who has met with the heads of the Powār and Jādu families (the chiefs of Wadhgaum, Phaltan, and Malegaum) knows that, in the qualities attributed to high descent in India, they are inferior to no Rājput whatever. I shall, therefore, take up the rather

bold ground of asserting my belief that the Ma rātha clans inherit their names from common an cestors with Rājputs and other pure Aryan tribes of Central India. Taking this for granted, we find that there are Chauhans in Rājputana, Chauhan

princes of great antiquity in Garhā-Mandla, (Makawati) and Chauhan Marathas in the Dek han. There are also Powärs or Pramaras at Dhar

and Dewas in Central India, and Powärs in the

Dekhan. The expulsion of the Powärs from their

manders, is, I think, historical,—certainly based

Sind–Khera.

I think, therefore, that the most probable ex planation of the Gauli Rāj is this, that Gauli was the surname, or nickname, of a family of princes (and not of a nation) of Aryan race who established themselves in the valleys of the Tapti and Narmadā during the great migration southward which ended in the colonization of

the Dekhan by the Aryan Marathas. This is of course mere conjecture, but if it sets more learned men than myself on a new track it will have served my purpose. Of this I am quite sure, that any attempt to connect the Gauli Rāj with the scattered bands of herdsmen, themselves of various origin and language, that now roam through the pastures of India, would be hopeless, and equally vain any theory of an invasion of pastoral tribes, “Scythians” or what not, after the somewhat mythical Egyptian pattern.

–T

AN INSCRIPTION AT SALOTGI IN THE KALADGI DISTRICT, DATED ŠAKA 867 OR A.D. 945, WITH REMARKS. By PROF. SHANKAR PANDURANG PANDIT, M.A.

THE inscription, of which a translation is given

the lower castes of the Hindus are allowed to

below, is engraved on a stone pillar about 4 feet

enter within the outer walls of the temple, except on the occasion of an annual fair held in its honour on the full moon of Chaitra (April), when, within the walls, Brahman, Mahār, Mäng, and Musalmän, mingle together without scruple about contamination, and, as at the great Jagan nātha in Orissa, partake without caste dis

10 inches in height, 1 foot 2 inches thick, and 1 foot 9 inches broad. It is cut in Devanāgari characters on three of its four sides, and the letters are well preserved, except in one place,

where a slip is broken off, and eleven letters from an important part have unfortunately been lost. This pillar, and another, also bearing an inscription, when visited by me two years ago,

were put up at the end of a veranda before the village entrance-gate that the cattle might rub themselves against them.

Sālotgi is a village in the Indi Tāluka of the Kalādgi district, and is about forty miles from Solapur and twenty miles south of the Bhimã. It has a Hindu temple, built after the fashion of a Muhammadan rozah, in which is worshipped

a grave with a chaddar on it like the tomb of a Muhammadan.

Neither Muhammadans nor

tinction of food cooked for the occasion.

In

front and behind the temple there are two large wells, with steps descending to the water, and being entirely out of proportion to the size and importance of the present temple, attest the former existence of edifices which have disap

peared amidst the many religious and political revolutions that have passed over the land. Part of a very much larger well, by the side of the present one in front of the temple, is now filled up and a garden cultivated on it, but the outer edges of the old well are in some places