136 Captain Tod's Comments on a Sanscrit inscription. 



Prithwiraja over the race of Dbda* by liis vassal chiefs Kilhan and 

 Hammir, names of great celebrity in the contests of that period; and, as a 

 text sufficient to expatiate on, is far beyond the limits which I must pre- 

 scribe to myself in a paper of this kind ; but they shall have some mention, 

 after noticing the foe over whom, in consequence of being victorious, tro- 

 phies were reared in the halls of A si. 



This tribe, Dbda, with many others of more transcendant lustre, have 

 long ceased to be conspicuous among the nations oiHind. Though it never 

 produced independent sovereigns, yet it was a highly respected tribe, even 

 on the invasion of Mahmud of Ghizni, and is noticed by the historians, 

 both of the Court of Nerwala and of Delhi, as one of the thirty-six royal 

 races of India. When the first grand calamity of foreign invasion occurred, 

 involving spiritual as well as temporal change to the Princes of India, all 

 rallied round vvliatappears to have contained the palladium of their liberties 

 and religion, Chitbr. The Dvda, from Kasbndi, is mentioned among the 

 princes who repaired to aid the descendant of RAmachandra on this occa- 

 sion. But no sucli place of any consequence now exists, though there are 

 several of the name in diffijrent parts of India, and one not a great way to 

 the westward of Ajamer. 



The race of Chdhamdna, of which PuixHwiRAjA was the head, as well as 

 sovereign of India, is still one of the most distinguished of the thirty-six royal 

 tribes of India : but to trace its origin satisfactorily, is a task of difficulty ; 

 though all the knowledge those belonging to it yet possess, either from 

 books or tradition, is not unfamiliar to me. At what period the limit was 

 fixed to thirljj-six, or rather amplified to this number, we must also remain 

 in ignorance ; but a glimpse is to be obtained, through a long vista of 

 obscurity, of a period when there were not more than six or eight grand 

 races ; the same number which, I believe, the Tartar and Chinese genea- 

 logists admit. The chief races are those termed Siiri/a and C/iandra, or tiie 

 Sun and Moon, which probably at one period comprehended the whole, as 

 the greater portion of the thirty-six are still resolvable into one or other of 

 these, and have every claim to be termed the most ancient of those belong- 

 ing to India. From these, however, the Chdhamdna is totally distinct, and, 

 with three other very conspicuous races in the annals of India, the Soldnki, 

 the Prumdra, and Parihdra, form the Agnicula, or race produced from the 



* Vulg. Ddre. 



