1919. ] Bardic and Histl. Survey of Rajputana. 19 
three terms suggested above has its own advantages, which may 
make it seem preferable to the others in particular cases ; but 
as a generical term for all cases ‘‘ Rajasthani Chronicles” is the 
of bards and only because they are written in prose fall within 
the category of Prose Chronicles; and also the biographies and 
the brief accounts of particular facts—likewise known as vatas— 
too numerous to be easily reduced toa type; I shall confine 
myself to giving an idea, in these pages, of the two composi- 
tions which are the most important historically, namely : the 
chronicles proper and the genealogies. The former are generally 
kn in Rajputana under the name of Khyata f., a word 
etymologically connected with the Sanskrit khyati £. “fame 
re: ” T 
x) . -_ —). 
meaning “generations,” also pidhiyavalt ‘series of genera- 
tions,” and, more rarely, piriyavali “line of ancestors.”” They 
are, generally, in the form of lists of bare names—without 
dates—in which the names are given in a descending order, 
! In Dingala poetry one often meets the word akhiyata, which is used 
in the sense of ‘‘ wonder, marvellous feat, renown, etc.” (cfr. 
i re it is rendered with: ‘skhyatir aSca- 
Ly 
. 
From a e 
appears that the word is an adjective meaning ‘‘ wonderful, extraordin- 
ary,’ probably from Sanskrit a khy@ta ‘‘ untold,” hence “unh 
traordi 
extraordinary, tI 
poetical adjective akhiyata can be the prototype of the common word 
khy&ta; it seems much easier to connect the latter with a well-known 
term such as the Sanskrit khy@ti, or Gkhyati. 
