Post by admin on Feb 3, 2004 12:55:35 GMT -5
In Central Asia there are many communities such as Tajik, Uzbeck, Kirgis, Khazer etc etc, each having their sub-castes or tribes. Their tribal names do not even resemble with any subcaste of the Gujars, Pathans, Shina and Dard etc. the people on Southern side of the northen Mountains. I was surprised to note that Noor and Bostan Khan during talks called the whole population of Central Asia as Uzbeck meaning thereby uncivilised people. The word Uzbeck is used in the same sense in large areas around Delhi.
I have travelled in the whole Western part of the Sub-Continent, Gorakhpur to Chitral and Banaras to Zehidan and found that the Gujar have no tradition of their being originally foreigners. Morever, the Arabs and the Chinese travellers and their adversaries of the past and the Muslim historians in India during their centruries long rule had mentioned the Gujars to be the Indian people by origin. Now, the question arises why and how the theory of foreign origin of the Gurjars was profounded during British rule in India.
Abu Rehen Muhammad ibne Ahmad Aiberuni a native of Khiwa was born in 937 A.D. He is popularly known as Alberuni. He was eager to learn philosophy, astronomy and Sanskrit lliterature, so he came to India in life time of Mahmud of Ghazna. Going back, he wrote a book Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic. The book was translated into German and English by a German namely Dr. Edward. C.Sachau in two Volumes in 19th Century A.D. The books entitled Alberuni’s India in English have been reproduced by Sheikh Barkat Ali at Lahore in 1962.
Alberuno writes:
Ghazna was seized.... Supreme power fell to the lot of Nasir-Addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose the holy war as his calling and therfore called himself Al-Ghazi (warring on the road of Allah.) In the interest of his successor he constructred, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yami Addaula Mahmud marched into India during a period of 30 years and more. God the merciful to both father and son, Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed their wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus become like atoms of dust scattered in all direcrions. There scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards Muslim. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered, and have fled to Kashmir, Benaras and other places.
I do not wish to mention the brutality and tyrany of the invaders but I want to explain that all the books and records, (official and individual) were burnt to ashes.
Ghazna, Kabul, Pwshawar, Taxila, Beera, Mulsthan, Shakambhari, Bhinmal, Naran, Somnath, Kanauj, Ujjain and Kurukshetra etc, were not only worshipping places but were also centres of learning there were schools and colleges of all secieces which were levelled to the ground. Mahmud extended his domination upto Lahore. His ground Mahmud extended his domination upto Lahore. His successors, too, adopted the same policy of destruction Time to time, they crossed the River Satulaj and raided up to Hansi, Hisar and Vawera (modern Ajmer area) in 1192A.D. Mohammad Ghori won the battle of Taraori in district Karnal. As soon as the news spread, the whole population from Karnal to Agra
fled to all sides. Delhi become the pemanent seat of invaders. The whole Sub-Continent was under their direct control except Gurjar Desh.
In cities and towns the families of the foreigners settled holding all the lands around them. None of the natives had proprietory rights of land, they were only tenants,
slave cultivators who were given a scanty quantity of grains of the lowest kind, such as millet, jawar and barley. Moreover, it also depended on the willingness of the masters to give or not to give at all. K.M. Munshi in his book Glory That Was Gurjar Desa has rightly stated that many local famillies of high rank became out-law in the forests. Conversion to Islam did not help the people, the Shudas remain shadras. Kashatriya people became graziers and shepherds, anyone can see even today the Muslim Gurjars with their buffalos, cows, sheep and goats wandering from Dehra Doon to Swat. A mosque may be built jointly by the inhabitants of the whole village but the local.
Muslims were so poor that not a single mosque was built of burnt bricks. It is to be seen during to the period of foreing Muslim Rule.
Direct control was difficult over Gurjar Desa being a vast desert. So to suppress Kshatriyas it was handed over (in the early years of the Fouteenth Century A.D.) to those natives who cooperated with the foreigners. These native Jagiradars called Rajput found the new cities, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bundi etc during Musilim Rule in India. The forign Muslims wrote histry books using the word Rajput for the ancient Rulers of India, surely to degrade the Kshatriyas, elevated to high position, during Moghal period in the Seventreenth and Enghteenth Century A.D. the Rajputs got prepared their pedegree trees connecting them with ancient royal houses of Sialkot,
Ajmer, Bhatinda, Delhi, Multan, Kannauj, Khera, Ujjain, Bhilmal, Baroach and Anahilwara. The Gurjars had gone into obscurity.
The Foreign Origin Theory:
Such was the state of affairs in the country when the Britishers (East India Company) established an empire by fighting, negotiations or conspiracies. They never declared holy war. Genghiz Khan can repent and can have pity on the defeated, but a holy warrior cannot do, because he is blessed more and more by God on his most brutal and heinous exploits, infllicted on the defeated.
As such the Britishers did not dismantle the worship places of any relilgion, men were not made slaves and the women were respected. The local old books were searched out and were translated into English. The Britishers were men of larning and loved the learned.
In 1805 A.D. Colonel James Todd was appointed as Surveyor General in Gurjar Desa (present Rajasthan). There he took great interest in Archaeology. The Sanskrit inscriptions since sixth Century A.D. on ancient palaces, forts. Temple and baolies revealed that those buildings had been built by the Gurjars and not by the Rajputs as had been propagated by the foreign Muslims in India and the Rajputs as well, to such an extent that every Indian Ruler of the past and the present was being called Rajput throughout the Sub Continent, it puzzled Colonel Todd. As mentioned above, the poverty and illiteracy prevailed in the Indian Society so there were no local History book. Some famillies of the ancient past are common among the Gujars, Jats, Ahirs and the Rajputs. How to adjust in history the Rajputs, who then held the highest position in political fields among the Hindus? Perchance he got a book Prithvi Raj Raso written by a Bard Chand Bardai in 15th or 16th Century A.D having a story stating that the Parmar, Solanki, Pratihar and Chohan were born of a fire pit at Mount Abu. Haphazardly, it was supposed. There is no mention of Gurjars before sixth century in therefore, the Gurjars came with the Hunas, Scythians and Epithalites etc. Who in Sixth Century A.D. invaded. They were converted to Hindusim at Mount Abu. The higher ones were made Rajput and rank and file remained Gurjar and Ahirs.
This supposition or thought of Colonel James Todd in the book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan was readily accepted by the historians Europeans and Indians with further remarks. Some said they came from Gurjistan and others took them to be Khazers of Central Asia. General Cunningham stopped further and said.
There is Kushan family among the Gujars, so he fixed their arrival into India with Kushan, Yu-Chi and Tatars in the Ist Century A.D. when the Kushans emerged into history.Mr. C.V. Vaidaya was the first scholar who challenged this so called theory.
Honourble K.M. Munshi in 1944, first of all, called all the rulers of Gurjar Desa from 6th Century A.D. to 1300 A.D., by the Gurjar name. But he put forward a new theory, Gurjar primarily was the namae of a territory whose inhabitants were divided into four castes, Gurjar Brahman, Gurjar Kshatriya, Gurjar Vaishya and Gurjar Sudras (see Glory That was Gurjar Desa).
Sri Yatindra Kumar Verma challenged this theory in his Gurjar Itihas and proved that Gurjar was name of a Kshtriyan tribe. After him Dr Baij Nath Puri in his thesis-
“The Gurjar Pratiharas stated Gurjar was the name of a tribe and Gurjar Pratihars were Kshatriyas of Raghu family.
I have travelled in the whole Western part of the Sub-Continent, Gorakhpur to Chitral and Banaras to Zehidan and found that the Gujar have no tradition of their being originally foreigners. Morever, the Arabs and the Chinese travellers and their adversaries of the past and the Muslim historians in India during their centruries long rule had mentioned the Gujars to be the Indian people by origin. Now, the question arises why and how the theory of foreign origin of the Gurjars was profounded during British rule in India.
Abu Rehen Muhammad ibne Ahmad Aiberuni a native of Khiwa was born in 937 A.D. He is popularly known as Alberuni. He was eager to learn philosophy, astronomy and Sanskrit lliterature, so he came to India in life time of Mahmud of Ghazna. Going back, he wrote a book Kitab-ul-Hind in Arabic. The book was translated into German and English by a German namely Dr. Edward. C.Sachau in two Volumes in 19th Century A.D. The books entitled Alberuni’s India in English have been reproduced by Sheikh Barkat Ali at Lahore in 1962.
Alberuno writes:
Ghazna was seized.... Supreme power fell to the lot of Nasir-Addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose the holy war as his calling and therfore called himself Al-Ghazi (warring on the road of Allah.) In the interest of his successor he constructred, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yami Addaula Mahmud marched into India during a period of 30 years and more. God the merciful to both father and son, Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed their wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus become like atoms of dust scattered in all direcrions. There scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards Muslim. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered, and have fled to Kashmir, Benaras and other places.
I do not wish to mention the brutality and tyrany of the invaders but I want to explain that all the books and records, (official and individual) were burnt to ashes.
Ghazna, Kabul, Pwshawar, Taxila, Beera, Mulsthan, Shakambhari, Bhinmal, Naran, Somnath, Kanauj, Ujjain and Kurukshetra etc, were not only worshipping places but were also centres of learning there were schools and colleges of all secieces which were levelled to the ground. Mahmud extended his domination upto Lahore. His ground Mahmud extended his domination upto Lahore. His successors, too, adopted the same policy of destruction Time to time, they crossed the River Satulaj and raided up to Hansi, Hisar and Vawera (modern Ajmer area) in 1192A.D. Mohammad Ghori won the battle of Taraori in district Karnal. As soon as the news spread, the whole population from Karnal to Agra
fled to all sides. Delhi become the pemanent seat of invaders. The whole Sub-Continent was under their direct control except Gurjar Desh.
In cities and towns the families of the foreigners settled holding all the lands around them. None of the natives had proprietory rights of land, they were only tenants,
slave cultivators who were given a scanty quantity of grains of the lowest kind, such as millet, jawar and barley. Moreover, it also depended on the willingness of the masters to give or not to give at all. K.M. Munshi in his book Glory That Was Gurjar Desa has rightly stated that many local famillies of high rank became out-law in the forests. Conversion to Islam did not help the people, the Shudas remain shadras. Kashatriya people became graziers and shepherds, anyone can see even today the Muslim Gurjars with their buffalos, cows, sheep and goats wandering from Dehra Doon to Swat. A mosque may be built jointly by the inhabitants of the whole village but the local.
Muslims were so poor that not a single mosque was built of burnt bricks. It is to be seen during to the period of foreing Muslim Rule.
Direct control was difficult over Gurjar Desa being a vast desert. So to suppress Kshatriyas it was handed over (in the early years of the Fouteenth Century A.D.) to those natives who cooperated with the foreigners. These native Jagiradars called Rajput found the new cities, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bundi etc during Musilim Rule in India. The forign Muslims wrote histry books using the word Rajput for the ancient Rulers of India, surely to degrade the Kshatriyas, elevated to high position, during Moghal period in the Seventreenth and Enghteenth Century A.D. the Rajputs got prepared their pedegree trees connecting them with ancient royal houses of Sialkot,
Ajmer, Bhatinda, Delhi, Multan, Kannauj, Khera, Ujjain, Bhilmal, Baroach and Anahilwara. The Gurjars had gone into obscurity.
The Foreign Origin Theory:
Such was the state of affairs in the country when the Britishers (East India Company) established an empire by fighting, negotiations or conspiracies. They never declared holy war. Genghiz Khan can repent and can have pity on the defeated, but a holy warrior cannot do, because he is blessed more and more by God on his most brutal and heinous exploits, infllicted on the defeated.
As such the Britishers did not dismantle the worship places of any relilgion, men were not made slaves and the women were respected. The local old books were searched out and were translated into English. The Britishers were men of larning and loved the learned.
In 1805 A.D. Colonel James Todd was appointed as Surveyor General in Gurjar Desa (present Rajasthan). There he took great interest in Archaeology. The Sanskrit inscriptions since sixth Century A.D. on ancient palaces, forts. Temple and baolies revealed that those buildings had been built by the Gurjars and not by the Rajputs as had been propagated by the foreign Muslims in India and the Rajputs as well, to such an extent that every Indian Ruler of the past and the present was being called Rajput throughout the Sub Continent, it puzzled Colonel Todd. As mentioned above, the poverty and illiteracy prevailed in the Indian Society so there were no local History book. Some famillies of the ancient past are common among the Gujars, Jats, Ahirs and the Rajputs. How to adjust in history the Rajputs, who then held the highest position in political fields among the Hindus? Perchance he got a book Prithvi Raj Raso written by a Bard Chand Bardai in 15th or 16th Century A.D having a story stating that the Parmar, Solanki, Pratihar and Chohan were born of a fire pit at Mount Abu. Haphazardly, it was supposed. There is no mention of Gurjars before sixth century in therefore, the Gurjars came with the Hunas, Scythians and Epithalites etc. Who in Sixth Century A.D. invaded. They were converted to Hindusim at Mount Abu. The higher ones were made Rajput and rank and file remained Gurjar and Ahirs.
This supposition or thought of Colonel James Todd in the book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan was readily accepted by the historians Europeans and Indians with further remarks. Some said they came from Gurjistan and others took them to be Khazers of Central Asia. General Cunningham stopped further and said.
There is Kushan family among the Gujars, so he fixed their arrival into India with Kushan, Yu-Chi and Tatars in the Ist Century A.D. when the Kushans emerged into history.Mr. C.V. Vaidaya was the first scholar who challenged this so called theory.
Honourble K.M. Munshi in 1944, first of all, called all the rulers of Gurjar Desa from 6th Century A.D. to 1300 A.D., by the Gurjar name. But he put forward a new theory, Gurjar primarily was the namae of a territory whose inhabitants were divided into four castes, Gurjar Brahman, Gurjar Kshatriya, Gurjar Vaishya and Gurjar Sudras (see Glory That was Gurjar Desa).
Sri Yatindra Kumar Verma challenged this theory in his Gurjar Itihas and proved that Gurjar was name of a Kshtriyan tribe. After him Dr Baij Nath Puri in his thesis-
“The Gurjar Pratiharas stated Gurjar was the name of a tribe and Gurjar Pratihars were Kshatriyas of Raghu family.