=Connexion of the Rānas with Persia.=—Historic truth has, in all
countries, been sacrificed to national vanity: to its gratification
every obstacle is made to give way; fictions become facts, and even
religious prejudices vanish in this mirage of the imagination. What but
this spurious zeal could for a moment induce any genuine Hindu to
believe that, only twelve centuries ago, ‘an eater of beef’ occupied the
chair of Rama, and enjoyed by universal acclaim the title of ‘Sun of the
Hindus’; or that the most ancient dynasty in the world could owe its
existence to the last of the Sassanian kings:[4.3.1] that a slip from
such a tree could be surreptitiously grafted on that majestic stem,
which has flourished from the golden to the iron age, covering the land
with its branches? That there existed a marked affinity in religious
rites between the Rana’s family and the Guebres, or ancient Persians, is
evident. With both, the chief object of adoration was the sun; each bore
the image of the orb on their banners. The chief day in the seven[4.3.2]
was dedicated to the sun; to it is sacred the chief gate of the city,
the principal bastion of every fortress. But though the faith of Islam
has driven away the fairy inhabitants from the fountains of Mithras,
that of Surya has still its devotees on the summit of Chitor, as at
Valabhi: and could we trace with accuracy their creeds to a distant age,
we might discover them to be of one family, worshipping the sun at the
fountains of the Oxus and Jaxartes.
The darkest period of Indian history is during the six centuries
following Vikramaditya, which are scarcely enlightened by a ray of
knowledge: but India was undergoing great changes, and foreign tribes
were pouring in from the north. To this period, the sixth century, the
genealogies of the Puranas are brought down, which expressly declare
(adopting the prophetic spirit to conceal [233] the alterations and
additions they then underwent) that at this time the genuine line of
princes would be extinct, and that a mixed race would rule conjointly
with foreign barbarians; as the Turushka, the Mauna,[4.3.3] the
Yavan,[4.3.4] the Gorind, and Garddhabin.[4.3.5] There is much of truth
in this; nor is it to be doubted that many of the Rajput tribes entered
India from the north-west regions about this period. Gor and Gardhaba
have the same signification; the first is Persian; the second its
version in Hindi, meaning the ‘wild ass,’ an appellation of the Persian
monarch Bahram, surnamed Gor from his partiality to hunting that animal.
Various authorities state Bahramgor being in India in the fifth century,
and his having there left progeny by a princess of Kanauj. A passage
extracted by the author from an ancient Jain MS. indicates that “in S.
523 Raja Gardhabela, of Kakustha, or Suryavansa, ruled in Valabhipura.”
It has been surmised that Gardhabela was the son of Bahramgor, a son of
whom is stated to have obtained dominion at Patan; which may be borne in
mind when the authorities for the Persian extraction of the Rana’s
family are given.[4.3.6]
The Hindus, when conquered by the Muhammadans, naturally wished to gild
the chains they could not break. To trace a common, though distant,
origin with the conquerors was to remove some portion of the taint of
dishonour which arose from giving their daughters in marriage to the
Tatar emperors of Delhi; and a degree of satisfaction was derived from
assuming that the blood thus corrupted once flowed from a common
fountain[4.3.7] [234].
Further to develop these claims of Persian descent, we shall commence
with an extract from the Upadesa Prasād, a collection of historic
fragments in the Magadhi dialect. "In Gujardes (Gujarat) there are
eighty-four cities. In one of these, Kaira, resided the Brahman
Devaditya, the expounder of the Vedas. He had an only child, Subhaga
(_of good fortune_) by name, at once a maiden and a widow. Having
learned from her preceptor the solar incantation, incautiously repeating
it, the sun appeared and embraced her, and she thence became
pregnant.[4.3.8] The affliction of her father was diminished when he
discovered the parent; nevertheless [as others might be less charitable]
he sent her with a female attendant to Valabhipura, where she was
delivered of twins, male and female. When grown up the boy was sent to
school; but being eternally plagued about his mysterious birth, whence
he received the nickname of Ghaibi (‘concealed’), in a fit of irritation
he one day threatened to kill his mother if she refused to disclose the
author of his existence. At this moment the sun revealed himself: he
gave the youth a pebble, with which it was sufficient to touch his
companions in order to overcome them. Being carried before the Balhara
prince, who menaced Ghaibi, the latter slew him with the pebble, and
became himself sovereign of Saurashtra, taking the name of
Siladitya[4.3.9] (from _sila_, ‘a stone or pebble,’ and _aditya_, ‘the
sun’): his sister was married to the Raja of Broach." Such is the
literal translation of a fragment totally unconnected with the history
of the Rana’s family, though evidently bearing upon it. The father of
Siladitya, according to the Sandrai roll and other authorities of that
period, is Suraj (the sun) Rao, though two others make a Somaditya
intervene[4.3.10] [235].
Let us see what Abu-l Fazl says of the descent of the Ranas from
Nushirwan: “The chief of the State was formerly called Rāwal, but for a
long time past has been known as Rāna. He is of the Ghelot clan, and
pretends to descent from Noshirwān the Just. An ancestor of this family
through the vicissitudes of fortune came to Berār and was distinguished
as the chief of Narnālah. About eight hundred years previous to the
present time[4.3.11] Narnālah was taken by the enemy and many were
slain. One Bāpa, a child, was carried by his mother from this scene of
desolation to Mewār, and found refuge with Rājah Mandalīkh, a
Bhīl.”[4.3.12]
The work which has furnished all the knowledge which exists on the
Persian ancestry of the Mewar princes is the _Maasiru-l-Umara_, or that
(in the author’s possession) founded on it, entitled _Bisatu-l-Ghanim_,
or ‘Display of the Foe,’ written in A.H. 1204[4.3.13] [A.D. 1789]. The
writer of this work styles himself Lachhmi Narayan Shafik Aurangabadi,
or ‘the rhymer of Aurangabad.’ He professes to give an account of
Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta empire; for which purpose he goes
deep into the lineage of the Ranas of Mewar, from whom Sivaji was
descended,[4.3.14] quoting at length the Maasiru-l-Umara, from which the
following is a literal translation: "It is well known that the Rajas of
Udaipur are exalted over all the princes of Hind. Other Hindu princes,
before they can succeed to the throne of their fathers, must receive the
khushka, or tilak of regality and investiture, from them. This type of
sovereignty is received with humility and veneration. The khushka of
these princes is made with human blood: their title is Rana, and they
deduce [236] their origin from Noshirwan-i-Adil (_i.e._ the Just), who
conquered the countries of ——,[4.3.15] and many parts of Hindustan.
During his lifetime his son Noshizad, whose mother was the daughter of
Kaiser of Rum,[4.3.16] quitted the ancient worship and embraced the
‘faith[4.3.17] of the Christians,’ and with numerous followers entered
Hindustan. Thence he marched a great army towards Iran, against his
father Noshirwan; who despatched his general, Rambarzin,[4.3.18] with
numerous forces to oppose him. An action ensued, in which Noshizad was
slain; _but his issue remained in Hindustan, from whom are descended the
Ranas of Udaipur_. Nushirwan had a wife from the Khakhan[4.3.19] of
China, by whom he had a son called Hormuz, declared heir to the throne
shortly before his death. As according to the faith of the
fire-worshippers[4.3.20] it is not customary either to bury or to burn
the dead, but to leave the corpse exposed to the rays of the sun, so it
is said the body of Nushirwan has to this day suffered no decay, but is
still fresh."
I now come to the account of Yazd, "the son of Shahriyar, the son of
Khusru Parves, the son of Hormuz, the son of Nushirwan.
"Yazd was the last king of Ajam. It is well known he fought many battles
with the Muhammadans. In the fifteenth year of the caliphat, Rustam, son
of Ferokh, a great chief, was slain in battle by Saad-bin-wakas, who
commanded for Omar, which was the death-blow to the fortunes of the
house of Sassan: so that a remnant of it did not remain in A.H. 31, when
Iran was seized by the Muhammadans. This battle had lasted four days
when Rustam Ferokzad was slain by the hand of Hilkal, the son of Al
Kumna, at Saad’s command [237]; though Firdausi asserts by Saad himself.
Thirty thousand Muslims were slain, and the same number of the men of
Ajam. To count the spoils was a torment. During this year (the
thirty-first), the sixteenth of the prophet,[4.3.21] the era of the
Hegira was introduced. In A.H. 17 Abu Musa of Ashur seized Hormuz, the
son of the uncle of Yazdegird, whom he sent with Yazdegird’s daughter to
Imam Husain, and another daughter to Abubakr.
"Thus far have I[4.3.22] extracted from the history of the
fire-worshippers. He who has a mind to examine these, let him do so. The
people of the religion of Zardusht have a full knowledge of all these
events, with their dates; for the pleasure of their lives is the
obtaining accounts of antiquity and astronomical knowledge, and their
books contain information of two and three thousand years. It is also
told, that when the fortunes of Yazdegird were on the wane, his family
dispersed to different regions. The second daughter, Shahr Banu, was
married to Imam Husain,[4.3.23] who, when he fell a martyr (shahid), an
angel carried her to heaven. The third daughter, Banu, was seized by a
plundering Arab and carried into the wilds of Chichik, thirty coss from
Yazd. Praying to God for deliverance, she instantly disappeared; and the
spot is still held sacred by the Parsis, and named ‘the secret abode of
perfect purity.’ Hither, on the twenty-sixth of the month Bahman, the
Parsis yet repair to pass a month in pilgrimage, living in huts under
indigenous vines skirting the rock, out of whose fissures water falls
into a fountain below: but if the unclean approach the spring, it ceases
to flow.
“Of the eldest daughter of Yazdegird, Maha Banu, the Parsis have no
accounts; but the books of Hind give evidence to her arrival in that
country, and that from her issue is the tribe Sesodia. But, at all
events, this race is either of the seed of Nushishad, the son of
Nushirwan, or of that of the daughter of Yazdegird.”[4.3.24]
Thus have we adduced, perhaps, all the points of evidence for the
supposed Persian origin of the Rana’s family. The period of the invasion
of Saurashtra by Nushishad, who mounted the throne A.D. 531, corresponds
well with the sack of Valabhi, A.D. 524 [238]. The army he collected in
Laristan to depose his father might have been from the Parthians, Getae,
Huns, and other Scythic races then on the Indus, though it is unlikely,
with such an object in view as the throne of Persia, that he would waste
his strength in Saurashtra. Khusru Parvez, grandson of Nushirwan the
great, and who assumed this title according to Firdausi, married Marian,
the daughter of Maurice, the Greek emperor of Byzantium. She bore him
Shirauah (the Siroes of the early Christian writers), who slew his
father. It is difficult to separate the actions of the two Nushirwans,
and still more to say which of them merited the epithet of _adil_, or
‘just.’
According to the ‘Tables’ in Moreri,[4.3.25] Nushishad, son of Khusru
the Great, reigned from A.D. 531 to 591. This is opposed to the
_Maasiru-l-Umara_, which asserts that he was slain during his rebellion.
Siroes, son of Khusru (the second Nushirwan) by his wife Marian,
alternately called the friend and foe of the Christians, did raise the
standard of revolt, and met the fate attributed to Nushishad; on which
Yazdegird, his nephew, was proclaimed. The crown was intended for
Shirauah’s younger brother, which caused the revolt, during which the
elder sought refuge in India.
These revolutions in the Sassanian house were certainly simultaneous
with those which occurred in the Rana’s, and no barrier existed to the
political intercourse at least between the princely worshippers of Surya
and Mithras. It is, therefore, curious to speculate even on the
possibility of such a pedigree to a family whose ancestry is lost in the
mists of time; and it becomes interesting when, from so many authentic
sources, we can raise testimonies which would furnish, to one even
untinctured with the love of hypothesis, grounds for giving ancestors to
the Ranas in Maurice of Byzantium and Cyrus (Khusru) of Persia [239]. We
have a singular support to these historic relics in a geographical fact,
that places on the site of the ancient Valabhi a city called Byzantium,
which almost affords conclusive proof that it must have been the son of
Nushirwan who captured Valabhi and Gajni, and destroyed the family of
Siladitya; for it would be a legitimate occasion to name such conquest
after the city where his Christian mother had had birth.[4.3.26]
Whichever of the propositions we adopt at the command of the author of
The Annals of Princes, namely, “that the Sesodia race is of the seed of
Nushishad, son of Nushirwan, or of that of Mahabanu, daughter of
Yazdegird,” we arrive at a singular and startling conclusion, viz. that
the ‘Hindua Suraj, descendant of a hundred kings,’ the undisputed
possessor of the honours of Rama, the patriarch of the Solar race, is
the issue of a Christian princess: that the chief prince amongst the
nations of Hind can claim affinity with the emperors of ‘the mistress of
the world,’ though at a time when her glory had waned, and her crown had
been transferred from the Tiber to the Bosphorus.
But though I deem it morally impossible that the Ranas should have their
lineage from any _male_ branch of the Persian house, I would not equally
assert that Mahabanu, the fugitive daughter of Yazdegird, may not have
found a husband, as well as sanctuary, with the prince of Saurashtra;
and she may be the Subhagna (mother of Siladitya), whose mysterious
amour with the ‘sun’[4.3.27] compelled her to abandon her native city of
Kaira. The son of Marian had been in Saurashtra, and it is therefore not
unlikely that her grandchild should there seek protection in the
reverses of her family.
The Salic law is here in full force, and honours, though never acquired
by the female, may be stained by her; yet a daughter of the noble house
of Sassan might be permitted to perpetuate the line of Rama without the
reproach of taint.[4.3.28]
We shall now abandon this point to the reader, and take leave of
Yazdegird,[4.3.29] the last of the house of Sassan, in the words of the
historian of Rome: “Avec lui, on voit périr pour jamais la gloire et
l’empire des Perses. Les rochers du Mazendaran et les sables du Kerman,
furent les seuls[4.3.30] asiles que les vainqueurs laissèrent aux
sectateurs de Zoroastre”[4.3.31] [240].
-----
Footnote 4.3.1:
Yezdegird died A.D. 651.
Footnote 4.3.2:
_Surajwar_, or _Adityawar_, Sun-day; and the other days of the week,
from the other planets, which Western nations have taken from the
East.
Footnote 4.3.3:
See _History of the Tribes_, pp. 123, 135, articles ‘Takshak,’ and
‘Jhala,’ or _Makwahana_, in all probability the _Mauna_ of the
_Puranas_ [?].
Footnote 4.3.4:
The Yavan, or Greek princes, who apparently continued to rule within
the Indus after the Christian era, were either the remains of the
Bactrian dynasty or the independent kingdom of Demetrius or
Apollodotus, who ruled in the Panjab, having as their capital Sagala,
changed by Demetrius to Euthymedia. Bayer says, in his _Hist. Reg.
Bact._, p. 84: “I find from Claudius Ptolemy, that there was a city
within the Hydaspes yet nearer the Indus, called Sagala, also
Euthymedia; but I scarcely doubt that Demetrius called it Euthydemia,
from his father, after his death and that of Menander. Demetrius was
deprived of his patrimony A.U.C. 562.” [The site of Sagala is
uncertain—Chiniot, Shāhkot, Siālkot (_IGI_, ii. 80 f.; McCrindle,
_Ptolemy_, 122 ff.).]
On this ancient city, Sagala, I have already said much; conjecturing
it to be the Salbhanpura of the Yadus when driven from Zabulistan, and
that of the Yuch-chi or Yuti, who were fixed there from Central Asia
in the fifth century, and if so early as the second century, when
Ptolemy wrote, may have originated the change of Yuti-media, the
‘Central Yuti.’ The numerous medals which I possess, chiefly found
within the probable limits of the Greek kingdom of Sagala, either
belong to these princes or the Parthian kings of Minnagara on the
Indus. The legends are in Greek on one side, and in the Sassanian
character on the reverse. Hitherto I have not deciphered the names of
any but those of Apollodotus and Menander; but the titles of ‘Great
King,’ ‘Saviour,’ and other epithets adopted by the Arsacidae, are
perfectly legible. The devices, however, all incline me to pronounce
them Parthian. It would be curious to ascertain how these Greeks and
Parthians gradually merged into the Hindu population [see _IGI_, ii.
137].
Footnote 4.3.5:
[The list in the Vishnu Purāna (474 f.) gives 7 Abhīras, 10
Garddhabas, 16 Sakas, 14 Tushāras, 13 Mundas, 11 Maunas. On the
impossibility of reducing the Purānic accounts to order see Smith,
_EHI_, 274.]
Footnote 4.3.6:
[Rawlinson (_Seventh Oriental Monarchy_, 298) regards the eastern
adventure of Bahrāmgor, Varahran V., as mythical. Sykes (_Hist. of
Persia_, i. 470) thinks they can hardly be authentic, “but I do not
reject it as entirely devoid of historical basis.”]
Footnote 4.3.7:
The Hindu genealogist, in ignorance of the existence of Aghuz Khan,
the Tatar patriarch, could not connect the chain of Chagatai with
Chandra. The Brahman, better read, supplied the defect, and with his
doctrine of the metempsychosis animated the material frame of the
beneficent Akbar with the ‘good genius’ of a Hindu; and that of their
mortal foe, Aurangzeb, with one of evil destiny, being that of
Kalayavana, the foe of Krishna. They gravely assert that Akbar visited
his ancient hermitage at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna, and
excavated the implements of penance used by him in his former shape,
as one of the sages of ancient times; while such is their aversion to
Aurangzeb, that they declare the final avatar, Time (_Kal_), on his
white steed, will appear in his person. The Jaisalmer annals affirm
that the whole Turkish (_Turushka_) race of Chagatai are of Yadu
stock; while the Jam Jareja of Cutch traces his descent from the
Persian Jamshid, contemporary with Solomon. These are curious claims,
but the Rana’s family would consider such vanity criminal.
Footnote 4.3.8:
[For legends of women impregnated by the sun see Frazer, _Golden
Bough_, Part vii. vol. i. 74 ff.]
Footnote 4.3.9:
This is probably the Siladitya of the Satrunjaya Mahatma, who repaired
the temple on Satrunjaya in S. 477 (A.D. 421). [A mere folk
etymology—Sīlāditya, from _sil_, ‘to worship,’ _āditya_, ‘the sun.’]
Footnote 4.3.10:
In perusing this fragment we are struck by the similarity of
production of these Hindu Heliadae and that of the celebrated Tatar
dynasty from which Jenghiz Khan was descended. The Niruns, or
‘children of light,’ were from an amour of the sun with Alung Goa,
from which Jenghiz was the ninth in descent. Authorities quoted by
Petis de la Croix, in his life of this conqueror, and likewise by
Marigny, in his _History of the Saracens_, affirm Jenghiz Khan to be a
descendant of Yazdegird, the last Sassanian prince. Jenghiz was an
idolater, and hated the very name of Muhammadan [see Howorth, _Hist.
of the Mongols_, i. 37 ff.]. A courtier telling Aurangzeb of his
celestial ancestry, gravely quoting the affair of the mother of the
race of Timur with the sun, the bigoted monarch coarsely replied,
“Mama qahba bud,” which we will not translate.
Footnote 4.3.11:
Akbar commenced his reign A.D. 1556, and had been forty years on the
throne when the ‘Institutes’ were composed by the Abu-l Fazl. [The
translation of Gladwin in the original text has been replaced by that
of Jarrett, _Āīn_, ii. 268.]
Footnote 4.3.12:
Orme [_Historical Fragments_, Notes, p. xxii] was acquainted with this
passage, and shows his knowledge of the Hindu character by observing
that it was a strange pedigree to assign a Hindu prince, for Khusru,
of the religion of Zoroaster, though compelled to many abstinences,
was not restrained from eating beef: and Anquetil du Perron says of
the Parsis, their descendants, that they have refrained since their
emigration from slaying the cow merely to please the Hindu.
Footnote 4.3.13:
The cryptographic date is contained in the numerical value of the
letters which compose the title:
┐ As the total is only 1183,
B. S. A. T. a. l. G. N. A. E. M. ├ either the date is wrong,
2. 60. 1. 9. 1. 9. 1000. 50. 1. 10. 40. │ or a deficient value
┘ given to the numerals.
Footnote 4.3.14:
Wilford, who by his indefatigable research and knowledge of Sanskrit
had accumulated extensive materials, unhappily deteriorated by a too
credulous imagination, yet containing much valuable matter available
to those sufficiently familiar with the subject to select with safety,
has touched on this, and almost on every other point in the circle of
Hindu antiquities. Ali Ibrahim, a learned native of Benares, was
Wilford’s authority for asserting the Rana’s Persian descent, who
stated to him that he had seen the original history, which was
entitled, Origin of the Peishwas from the Ranas of Mewar. (Ibrahim
must have meant the Satara princes, whose ministers were the Peshwas.)
From this authority three distinct emigrations of the Guebres, or
ancient Persians, are recorded, from Persia into Gujarat. The first in
the time of Abu Bakr, A.D. 631; the second on the defeat of Yazdegird,
A.D. 651; and the third when the descendants of Abbas began to
prevail, A.D. 749. Also that a son of Noshirwan landed near Surat with
eighteen thousand of his subjects, from Laristan, and were well
received by the prince of the country. Abu-l Fazl confirms this
account by saying, "the followers of Zoroaster, when they fled from
Persia, settled in _Surat_," the contracted term for the peninsular of
Saurashtra, as well as the city of this name [_Āīn_, ii. 243].
Footnote 4.3.15:
The names are obliterated in the original. Ferishta [i. Introd. lxxix]
informs us that Ramdeo Rathor, sovereign of Kanauj, was made tributary
by Firoz ‘Sassan’; and that Partap Chand, who usurped the throne of
Ramdeo, neglecting to pay this tribute, Noshirwan marched into India
to recover it, and in his progress subdued Kabul and the Panjab. From
the striking coincidence of these original and decisive authorities,
we may rest assured that they had recourse to ancient records, both of
the Guebres and the Hindus, for the basis of their histories, which
research may yet discover.
Footnote 4.3.16:
Maurice, emperor of Byzantium. [Sykes (_Hist. of Persia_, ii. 495)
calls the son of Nushirwān Nushishad, and mentions his rebellion
against his father. There seems to be no evidence that Nushishad
reached India: he was slain after he revolted (Malcolm, _Hist.
Persia_, 2nd ed. i. 112 ff.).]
Footnote 4.3.17:
_Din-i-Tarsar._ See Ebn Haukal, art. ‘Serir,’ or Russia; whose king, a
son of Bahram Chassin, whom he styles a _Tersar_ or Christian, first
possessed it about the end of the sixth century.
Footnote 4.3.18:
The _Verames_ of Western historians [Malcolm, _op. cit._ i. 113].
Footnote 4.3.19:
_Khakhan_ was the title of the kings of Chinese Tartary. It was held
by the leader of the Huns, who at this period held power on the
Caspian: it was also held by the Urus, Khuzr, Bulgar, Serir, all terms
for Russia, before its _Kaisar_ was cut down into _Tzar_, for the
original of which, the kings of Rome, as of Russia, were indebted to
the Sanskrit _Kesar_, a ‘lion’ [Lat. Caesar] (_vide_ Ibn Haukal, art.
‘Khozr’).
Footnote 4.3.20:
Din-i-Majusi; literally, ‘faith of the Magi.’
Footnote 4.3.21:
Muhammad, born A.D. 578; the Hegira, or flight, A.D. 622.
Footnote 4.3.22:
It must be borne in mind that it is the author of the
_Maasiru-l-Umara_, not the rhymer of Aurungabad, who is speaking.
Footnote 4.3.23:
[This is the Persian tradition (Sykes, _op. cit._ ii. 44).]
Footnote 4.3.24:
For the extract from “The Annals of Princes (_Maasiru-l-Umara_)” let
us laud the memory of the rhymer of Aurungabad. An original copy,
which I in vain attempted to procure in India, is stated by Sir
William Ouseley to be in the British Museum. We owe that country a
large debt, for we have robbed her of all her literary treasures,
leaving them to sleep on the shelves of our public institutions.
[There is no real evidence of the Persian descent of the Rānas, and it
has been suggested that the story is based on the fire symbols on the
coinage found in Kāthiawār and Mewār, these, though in the main
Indo-Scythic, betraying from about sixth century a more direct
Sassanian influence (_BG_, i. Part i. 102). At the same time recent
discoveries indicate Persian influence in N. India.]
Footnote 4.3.25:
Vide _Grand Dictionnaire Historique_.
Footnote 4.3.26:
[Byzantium cannot have been a Greek colony, the name apparently
representing Vijayanta, now Vijayadurga, the southern entrance of the
Vāghotan River in Ratnagiri (McCrindle, _Ptolemy_, 47; _BG_, i. Part
ii. 174 f.).]
Footnote 4.3.27:
It will be recollected that the various authorities given state Raja
Suraj (_sun_), of Kakustha race, to be the father of Siladitya.
_Kakustha_ is a term used synonymously with _Suryavansa_, according to
the Solar genealogists. Those who may be inclined to the Persian
descent may trace it from _Kaikaus_, a well-known epithet in the
Persian dynasties. I am unacquainted with the etymology of Kakustha;
but it may possibly be from _ka_, ‘of or belonging to,’ _Kusa_ (Cush),
the second son of Rama [?]. I have already hinted that the Assyrian
Medes might be descendants of Hyaspa, a branch of the Indu-Mede of the
family of Yayati which bore the name of _Kausika_. [The reference in
the text may be to Kakutstha, grandson of Ikshwāku, who is said to
have taken his name because he stood on the hump (_Kukuda_) of Indra
when he was turned into a bull (Wilson, _Vishna Purāna_, 361).]
Footnote 4.3.28:
“The moral consequence of a pedigree,” says Hume, “is differently
marked by the influence of law and custom. The male sex is deemed more
noble than the female. The association of our ideas pursues the
regular descent of honour and estates from father to son, and their
wives, however essential, are considered only in the light of foreign
auxiliaries” (_Essays_, vol. ii. p. 192). Not unlike the Rajput axiom,
though more coarsely expressed; “It is, who planted the tree, not
where did it grow,” that marks his idea of the comparative value of
the side whence honours originate; though purity of blood in both
lines is essential.
Footnote 4.3.29:
A new era had commenced, not of Yazdegird’s accession, as is supposed,
which would have been vain indeed, when the throne was tottering under
him, but consequent to the completion of the grand cycle of 1440
years. He was slain at Merv in A.D. 651, the 31st of the Hegira; on
the eleventh year of which, or A.D. 632 (according to Moreri), he
commenced his reign.
Footnote 4.3.30:
Gibbon was wrong. India afforded them an asylum, and their issue
constitutes the most wealthy, the most respected, and the most
enlightened part of the native community of Bombay and the chief towns
of that presidency.
Footnote 4.3.31:
Gibbon, _Miscellaneous Works_, ‘Sur la Monarchie des Mèdes,’ vol. iii.
-----