Vol. V, No. 6.] Guhilois. 185 
[N.S.] 
each other in their letters as Mehars.! This is perhaps an in- 
dication of the Maitrakas or Mers originally having pertained 
to the Girjara stock. Maitrakas? thus appear to have 
first penetrated India early in the sixth century. When 
the second swarm of the tribe but with the name Mihira 
poured into India, the a seems to have been merged 
plains why no name derived from Maitraka is now traceable 
in any one of the present tribes. The Mers, on the other hand, 
are numerous, and are found both in Rajputan and Kathiawar, 
as stated above. * There is a tract of land called Mervada near 
Ajmer, which goes by the name of this “ite In Kathiawar 
the Mers are still found in large numbers round the Barda hills, 
while the Porbander chiefs, who are known as Jethvas, are 
Pa, Senet as the head of the tribe. Mera or Mehra is a common 
name among both Khojahs and Memans, the two special classes 
of Kathiawar, converts to Islam. Mehr, Mihr, and Mahar are 
also used as titles of respect. The Khant Kolis of Girnar still 
honour their leaders with the name Mer.’ If Mer or Mehr, which 
is a tribal name, is to this da ay used as a surname, it is perfectly 
intelligible that the Brahmana grantees of the Alina copper-plate 
ch to above ‘used, as a sort of surname after 
their individual names, their tribal name Mitra, which, like 
Mihira the Sanskritised form of Mer or Mehr,*® denotes the sun 
and is thus identical in meaning, and is, as said above, but 
Kae name of the same tri ibe. 
I have shown in my paper on the Girjaras that they 
1 This information I received from several intelligent Gajars, whom 
I met with during my travels in Rajputané. Even so recently as the 
close of January last when my camp was at a in Marwar, I foun 
another Gujar who c rrobora this informatio 
— north (History of Dap eg ga the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, 
s pt. ty De 140, n 
or the inscciptions of the Mihiras, vide Ind. Ant., vol. xv, P. 
360 and Dr. Fleet’s interesting note thereon. 
5 History of Gujarat in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, 
vol. i, ae i, p. 141, note 1. 
8 Jour, . Aa, Soe., vol. v, p. 3; Ind, Ant., vol. xv, p- 361. 
