India - Gujarat - Early History
The first settlers in the State of Gujarat were Gujjars, an ethnic group of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although their originis remain uncertain, the clan appeared in northern India and in Saurashtra about the time of the Huna invasion. The name of the tribe was ‘sanskritized’ to ‘Gurjara’ who followed the main religions of Hinduism, Islam, Sikkism and Christianity.
The earliest Archeological evidence indicate the Indus Valley Civilization as historical relics with the stone age settlements are found in Gujarat around Sabarmati and Mahi rivers. Its roots are also in the Harappan traces found at Lothal, Rampur, Amri and other places. The southern limit is uncertain. History somewhat doubtfully places it at the Tapti. Language carries Gujarat about a hundred miles further to Balszir and Pardi where wild forest covered hills from the north end of the Sahyadri range stretch west almost to the sea.
The exaggerated notions of chronology among the people, and the pretended antiquity of their gods, have led to the blind endeavour of adapting their domestic history to the fabulous ages of the world, and tended to involve both in almost impenetrable darkness. Other sources of exaggeration will be found in their traditions; of which the most constant is confounding individual revolutions with the general history of India. Such may be discovered most frequently in traditionary accounts of provinces, where the history of the native princes is ignorantly blended with that of their foreign conquerors.
By sea probably came some of the half-mythic Yadavas (BC 1500-500); contingents of Yavanas (BC 300-AD 100). The Gujars seem to have been a tribe of cattle-rearers husbandmen and soldiers who accompanied some conqueror and subsequently were pushed or spread forwards as occasion arose or necessity compelled. In the absence of better authority the order and locality of their settlements suggest that their introduction into India took place during the rule of the Skytbian or Kushzin emperor Kanerkes or Kanishka (AD 78-106) in whose time they seem to have settled as far east as Mathura to which the territory of Kanishka is known to have extended. Subsequently along with the Guptas, who rose to power about two hundred years later (AD 300), the Gujars settled in East Rajputzina, Malwa, and Gujarat,
Ancient Gujarat was ruled by the Maurya Dynasty. Emperor Chandragupta Maurya conquered a number of states in Gujarat while his grandson, King Ashoka extended his domain in Gujarat. The reigns of the first three Mauryas were significant but with Ashoka’s death in 232 BC the Mauryan empire began to crumble, leading to political defragmentation. The Shungas who succeeded the Mauryas tried, unsuccessfully, to uphold the semblance of political unity.
After the fall of the Maurya Empire, the Sakas or Scynthians controlled the region from AD 130 to 390. Under Rudra-daman, their empire contained Malwa (in Madhya Pradesh), Saurashtra, Kutchh and Rajasthan. During the 300s and 400s, the area formed a part of the Gupta Empire which in turn was succeeded by the Maitraka Dynasty. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that the great Chinese traveler and philosopher Huien Tsang visited India in 640 AD.
Between the decline of the Mauryan power and the coming of Saurashtra under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, there was a Greek incursion into Gujarat led by Demetrius.
Three royal dynasties of Hindus successively ruled over, namely, the Chawura, Solanki', and Baghilah. The total number of individuals belonging to the tribes who held power amounted to twenty-three, and they retained possession of the country for 575 - previous to the period when Gujarat became subject to the Mohammedans. The Chawura tribe ruled 196 after which the power passed into the hands of the Solankhi tribe.
It was during the AD 900s that the Solanki Dynasty came to power. Under the Solanki Dynasty, Gujarat reached to its greatest extent. It is believed that the Gujjars belonged to this Solanki Dynasty because Pratiharas, the Paramaras and the Solankis were imperial Gujjars. Ancient Gujarat’s last Hindu rulers were the Solanki clan of Rajputs from 960 AD to 1243 AD. Karandev of the Vaghela dynasty was the last Hindu ruler of Gujarat and he was overthrown by the superior forces of Allauddin Khilji from Delhi in 1297.
The constitution of Hindu society rendered the Rájpúts inferior in war. The Mohammedans, stimulated by religious zeal and elated by the success of conquest, had triumphantly carried their arms and their faith from the shores of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Jaxartes. Every successive conquest had enriched their leaders; and the secret springs of avarice and ambition equally impelled the soldier and his chief to support fatigue or encounter danger. The whole were, consequently, a devoted band of warriors, consecrated to the support of a common cause, and had been long accustomed to exertion.
The Hindus, on the contrary, though bound together by religious faith, viewed it more with superstitious awe than worldly enthusiasm; and, though ready to sacrifice their lives on the funeral pile, when fortune forsook them, were more disposed to propitiate her favor by vain ceremonies than secure success by daring efforts. Other causes were not wanting to destroy unanimity, and paralyse their spirit; of which deliberative councils of war, to which the priesthood were admitted, and the inferior equipment of their cavalry, were the principal.
Multiplicity of opinion is no where more inimical to success than in war. One brave and active commander, who has mastered the affections of his soldiers, and can control their wishes, leads them against an enemy with a confident daring that can do all but ensure victory; while a confederated body, without any singleness of effort, wastes the time in frivolous discussions, or finds the bravery of its numbers rendered nugatory through the jealousy or caprice of its leaders.
Even so late as the Mohammedan invasion, under Mahmud of Ghazní, the prevailing system of faith, in the provinces of Gujarát, Khándesh, Aurangabad, Bijapir, and the Konkans, appears to have been the heterodox one of Hindúism, or the Jaina religion.
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