Origin of Gujjar Pratihar

[AP Singh]

It is not only that most of the Gujjar clans belong to the Gujjar ruler of Great Kushana Empire but also the Word Gujjar is frequently reffered at many places.
It is reffered even in Rabatak inscription of Kanishka the Great.

The Word Gusur, Gusura or Gusara certainly stands for present day Gujjar which means as Kulputra or man or woman born in high family.

[SCAWANA]

DEAR AP HELLO,

HOW ARE U

DEAR U HAVE A GOOD KNGE ABOUT GURJAR HISTORY, AND U R DOING WELL.

WHY NOT U WRITTEN A BOOK ON GURJARS HISTORY ?

PL. THINK ABOUT IT

WHAT IS THE RELETION BETWEEN AWANA AND LOHMOD GOTRA,

IF U HAVE ANY INFORMATION PL PROVIDE
REGARDS

DR.S.C.AWANA

[AP Singh]

Mar 23, 2010 0:39:13 GMT 5.5 @SCAWANA said:

DEAR AP HELLO,

HOW ARE U

DEAR U HAVE A GOOD KNGE ABOUT GURJAR HISTORY, AND U R DOING WELL.

WHY NOT U WRITTEN A BOOK ON GURJARS HISTORY ?

PL. THINK ABOUT IT

WHAT IS THE RELETION BETWEEN AWANA AND LOHMOD GOTRA,

IF U HAVE ANY INFORMATION PL PROVIDE
REGARDS

DR.S.C.AWANA

Dear Dr. Awana,

I am in middle of writing a book on Gujjar history and collecting authentic information well supported with citations. It will not be just another book on Gujjar History but will cover points where the Gujjar history is altered at basic level and consequently were damaged at advanced level.
Since I am an IT professional and no historians, I am collecting the quotes of best historians for the book and only will further elaborate the comments of them with my additional knowledge about the various clans of Gujjar tribe.
I will certainly keep in mind your question and as and when l come accross any authentic information, will inform you.
Regards.
AP Singh

[SCAWANA]

Dear AP

Best of luck for your upcoming book on gurjars history.


regards

Dr. S.C.AWANA

[Ashok Harsana]

www.indianexpress.com/news/evidence-of-gurjar-pratihar-dynastys-rule-f/457199/

Rawat said this proved that while Maitraks are believed to have ruled over north Gujarat, there was also a Gurjar Pratihar who came from Bhinmaal, Rajasthan. Vadnagar lies almost in the areas bordering Rajasthan and the seal proves that Gurjar Pratihar had its own domains in a few areas of northern Gujarat where they had put seals and coins in circulation, he said


So it again proves that the Pratihars were an offshoots of Chap Gurjars, rulers of Bhinmal.
White Huns (hepthalites)>Tomars>Chapotkrisht (Chap)>Salumbare> Royal Pratihar Family

[AP Singh]

The Chaturbhuja Temples worshipped at Nagada by Gujjars belong to Lord Ram who is said to be incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The similar Chaturbhuja Statue was built at Gwalior fort during the reign of Gurjar Samrat Mihit Bhoja Mahan.

This proves the fact that the Original capital of Nagabhatta-I was Nagada and Pratihar, Nagari and Varajjara belong to same branch of Gujjars.

All the priests of the temples at Nagda ( Present day Udai Pur) since beginning belong to Gujjar community and are not Brahmins. Here Lord Ram is being worshipped as the ancestors of Gujjars and that is the reason Brahmins priests can not perform the Puja.

Padmasamhita, a Vaishnav text dating before 1000 A.D. clearly states that which says: That, when an image of Rama is installed independently in the Sanctum for the sake of worship, it should have four arms).

[Ashok Harsana]

Pratihars were just an offshoot of hepthalites (white Huns), There chief clan was Tomar. As per my last few posts the fleet of best arcers among these Tomar huns were called Chapotkrtisht in Sanskrit and Chapotkat in Prakrit (which simply means strong bowman). Later these Chap Gurjar gained supremacy over other Gurjars and ruled Shrimal (Bhinmal) during 5th to 7th century AD. They were contemporary to Harsha and ruled a kingdom second to only that of him. As per Huen Tsang's available records the King of Pilomolo (bhinmal) was of Kuchilo (gurjar) origin and was a Pure kshtriya while harsha was not a pure kshatriya (harsha was rather called a Vaishya by varna).

By the passage of time a branch of these chap Gurjars residing in Salumbar area went downwards to Ujjain under Dadda-1. The descendant of this clan, Dadda-3, dethroned the wekened Vallabhis and captured Bharoch. in 712 AD, Nagbhatta-2, Grandson of Dadda-3 repelled a massive attack of Arabs under Bin Qasim and restricted the Arabs till Sindh. For this achievement Nagbhatta-2 was designated the title of parambhattarka (The title earlier used by Maitrik (Vallabhi) Kings) becasue Nagbhatta-2 was the ruler of the same area which was earlier used by maitriks. Other Gurjar Kings accepted the overlordship of Nagabhatta-2 and gave him a new name Pratihar (the saviour). Later these Royal Pratihars (who loved to call themselves as "Salumbare" (one who hails from salumbar) ruled a large part of South asia and gained prominence over all other Kings of North India.


www.indianexpress.com/news/eviden....-rule-f/457199/

www.jstor.org/pss/25210708

www.jstor.org/pss/25210490


I have provided enough links to prove that Dadda was a chap gurjar who migrated from Rajasthan during 7th century AD. It was also clear by those links that Chaps were of Tomar origin and so were the Royal Pratihars.


And if u still have any doubts then please see the last link

books.google.co.in/books?id=TPgAA....page&q&f= false


on page no. 660 and 662, its clearly written that Anangpal the son of Trilochanpal, last Pratihar ruler, was a Tomar by gotra)

and BTW, we need to notice the entry of hepthalites into India and then suddenly there disappearance from the scenario. Almost all the historians have agreed that they were assimilated to the Indian population as kshatriyas.

Best Regards and keep researching...

[Ashok Harsana]

Now there is another point of view of the origin of Pratihars:

We know about Parthians.

www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/india_parthian_colony1.php

Pallavas, Pahlavas, Parthavas, Parthians or Persians

The Parthians ruled a vast part of mid asia during 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD.

During the 1st century they also ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gujarat.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Parthian_Kingdom

The famous Pallava kinggdom of South India was also established by these parthians (or indo parthians) only.

www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/parthian_colony.htm

stevenmcollins.com/WordPress/?p=272

These Parthians has a king named Mithradates or Mitraaditya (sanskrit word, which means Sun).

A group of these Parthians or pallabhs later migrated to South India and the remaining parthians (or indo parthians).

Their dresses, coinage, languages etc. have a striking resemblence to that of Parthians. The Indo parthian King named Gondophares was mentioned in many Pallava inscriptions as well.

Now lets talk about the remaining indo parthians who were subdued by the kushans and later by the white huns. These parthians had to enter Indian boundaries (Punjab and Gujarat) to save themselves from the intruding White Huns (hepthalites), Who themselves were forced to enter India during 454 to 470 AD due to the attack of Gokturks (gok means blue and blue means west here).
Note: The Hepthalites, following the command of their overlords i.e. Rourans, defeated the Gok-turks in 400 AD. The Gok-turks, who were, earlier a part of Rouran empires, but later migrated southwards due to a conflict between them and their Rouran Overlords, later settled the accounts with hepthalites by defeating them in 450 AD and vanishing the rest of their empire (Afghanistan and Pakistan) in 565 AD.

So the Parthians (or Indo Parthians) entered India at the same time with Huns. Soon after realising that their kins were ruling south India since 275 AD as pallavs, they established themselves in Present day Gujarat as Pallabhi Dynasty in 470 AD under Senaptai bhattaraka, and called themselves as Maitriks
(descendant of Mitraditya, Mithra is better knows as Mihir or mehr in India
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehr
).

But Rana Ali Hassan Chauhan in his splendid book "A Short history of Gujjars" have mentioned Mehrs or Maitriks as Gurjars. Mattriks were the forfathers of Guhils (sisodiyas) and these Guhils claim themselves to be from Gurjar tribe.

In fat the maitriks were called an offshoot of Kushans, and that makes a connection between the indo parthians and Gurjars. its like a Gujjar coming from punjab is called a punjabi and not a gujjar. Similarly the remaining Kushans of Afghanistan and Pakistan were called Indo parthians and Indo sassanins due to their adoption of the local languages and culture.

So that makes the Indo parthians as Gurjars.

The name Mihir was used by Gurjar pratihar ruler Great Bhoja (835 to 886 AD). The title bhattarak was used by Nagabhatta-1.

So now we can understand why they were called Pratihe because they were actually from the region called Parthia (Iran). Later the word parthia was adjusted to Sanskrit as Pratihar. And thats why the Pratihars, Guhils and Maitriks connnected themselves to Lord Ramchandra's family. See the following link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisodia

keywen.com/en/BAPPA_RAWAL#DYNASTY
See the second para "Dynasty".

[Ashok Harsana]

books.google.co.in/books?id=fHYnGde4BS4C&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=indo+parthava&source=bl&ots=qBZeIAdAJ-&sig=YLUUJ0Lt3R0uWdvZzKnzwewqA08&hl=en&ei=3hjES5i-LIa2rAfW94WzDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=indo%20parthava&f=false

See the second part of page no. 338 (Indo European Groups)

[Ashok Harsana]

These parthavas got their name after the Legendery pandav Warrior Arjuna (Who was called Partha by Sri Krisna). Thats the reason the Tomars claim descent from Pandavs and are consider themselves as Chandravanshi, (A Lunar race).

Parth-va simply means the Descendant of partha.
For Instance Pand-va means son/descendant of Pandu and Yada-va means descendant of Yadu, Mana-va means Descendant of Manu and so on.


But this makes the riddle even more complex. Tomars, being the descendant of Arjuna, were Chandravamshis, while Pratihars claimed to be Raghuvamshi (solar Clan).

But the answer lies in the 7th century. After migrating from the royal house of Bhinmal, Dadda (whose descent can be understood as Salumbare>Chap>Tomar>Hepthal>Parthians>Parthava) ruled a small area near Malva under the over-lordship of Maitriks of vallabhi (who were also of Parthian (Parthava) descent). There was a close relation between Dadda-1-2 and the Maitrik Kings. This could be understand easily as the weakened Vallabhi empire was never attacked by strong Chap Gujjar empire of bhinmal. Dadda-1, was supposed to help maitriks during the Harshawardhan-Vallabhi war in the second decade of 7th century (612 to 625 AD). So its clear that there was some kind of blood relation between the Chaps and Maitriks (the entered India at the same time with other hepthals).

Intermarriages among the royal houses were never uncommon in India, So any kind of infusion between Chaps and Maitriks makes the theory understandable. That must be the reason why Pratihars adopted this very name (Parthiar) and were called Raghuvamshi ever after being from Tomara (Chndravamshi) lineage. This also gives us an explanation of the first name "Mihir" and the title Bhattaraka.

Moreover "the Rashtrakutas" were yadavs and hence called themselves as Krisna Vanshi. Before the bhakti Kal (12th ce onwards) hindus had just two official avatars of God (Rama and Krisna). That forced the Pratihars to use the title Raghukul vamshi (to be at par with the Rashtrakutas) even after their Lunar clan descent.