Early Chauhan Dynasties

There is no better theme for history than the determined struggle of a brave people for the maintenance of its liberty, religion and culture. According to all our accounts, old as well as new, the eponymous hero, Chahamāna or Chauhāna, was created to fight for and defend all that is best in the Indian values of life. His descendants, Arņorāja, Vigraharāja IV, Prithvīrāja III, Kelhaṇa, Kīrtipāla, Hammīra, Sātala and, Känhaḍadeva, to name only the best known among them, did much to fulfill this mission; and that their example remained neither un admired nor un imitated can be seen from something akin to national resistance that Alä-ud-din Khalji had to en counter in the desert State of Jailor. Early Chauhan Dynasties

A detailed history of the Chauhans and the life in their dominions has long been overdue; and this thesis, which was approved for the award of the D.Litt. degree by the University of Agra and is published here in a slightly revised form¹ may in some measure supply this desideratum. I have utilized some newly discovered Chauhan inscriptions and old manuscripts, not available to Dr. J. Kielhorn, Dr. D.R. Bhandarkar, and Mahāmahopādhyāya Dr. G.H. Ojha, and reinterpreted some of the old records, literary as well as epigraphic, discarding even generally accepted interpretations, if they either went against Sanskrit grammar or well-known facts of history. Praise has been given where it is due; but I have not failed to point out also the political blunders of Chauhan leaders like Prthvi rāja III and Hammira.

Part I (Chapters I-XX) deals with political history. Part II (Chapters XXI-XXVII), which occupies almost as much space as the first one, gives the first systematic account of the religious, social, economic, literary and educational conditions in the Chauhän dominions from c. 800 to 1300 A.D. In the last chapter I have discussed the causes of Chauhan failure in their fight against the Muslims. Early Chauhan Dynasties