Captain Tod's Comments on a Sanscrit Inscription. 137 



element of fire ; as the others have, figuratively given to them, the greater 

 luminous orbs for progenitors. Hereafter 1 may embody some distinct 

 remarks on the martial races of India, and attempt an approach to the 

 origin of some. It will involve some speculative notions, and without, per- 

 haps, much solid foundation. The restless migratory hordes of Higher Asia, 

 never found the Attok to be the Rubicon, which the more modern Hindu 

 wished it to be considered, to keep him from the impure contact of the 

 barbarian (Mlech'ha) to the westward ; and the plains of Hindust'hdn have 

 been often trod by swarms of the same race, who deluged Europe under 

 the names of Kimbri, Goths, Huns, Juts, &c. The colony of Getse, or 

 Juts, led by Odin into Scandinavia, gave their name, Jutland, to what is 

 termed the Cimbric Chersonese. They were still celebrated as a nation in 

 the time of Jangiz Khan, and even in that of Timur, who carried on suc- 

 cessive wars of extirpation against them. A grand colony of them, settled 

 where the Malli opposed Alexander, combated Mahmud of Ghizni, in a 

 novel warfare on the waters of the Indus, but were slaughtered and driven 

 across the Setlej. The Geta', or Jits, have a place amongst the thirty-six 

 races ; and I have an Inscription, in an ancient character, recording the 

 power of a Jit prince in the fifth century ; his capital, Scilpur, doubtless that 

 situated high in the Penjdb, mentioned in the twelfth century as being 

 amongst the conquests of Cumara-pala, of Nehrrcdld Pattan, and perhaps 

 the Si/akote of our modern geography. What I mean to surmise is, that 

 these, and many others of the tribes now assimilated as Hindus, have an 

 appearance (from their manners and mythology, and the unsatisfactory de- 

 tails of their first appearance) foreign to the aboriginal inhabitants of the 

 plains of India. The remark is more particularly extended to the peninsula 

 of Saurdshtra, which comprehends tribes, with every appearance (though 

 for ages settled there) of foreign and of northerly origin. 



Though the tribe, of which Prithwiraja was head, is classically written 

 Chdhamdna, its invariable pronunciation by themselves is ChoMn.* How- 



* The orthography of names of persons and places, purporting to represent the pronuncia- 

 tion, is not uniform in manuscripts of tlie vernacular language. In the same copy of Chand's 

 poems, entitled Prat'hirdj-Clidhdn-rdsa, the hero's name is generally written Prat'hira'j ; 

 but sometimes Prit'hira'j ; at other times Prit'hira'j ; making, in the last instance, a near 

 approach to the Sanscrit equivalent Prit'hwJra'ja. His family appellation is variously written, 

 Cholian, Chauhan, Chuhuvdn, or Chahuun : the Sanscrit of which also varies, Chuhamdna, 



Vol. I. T Chdhumdna, 



