Agnivansha

In Indian culture, the Agnivanshi Rajputs are people who claim descent from Agni, the Vedic god of fire. The Agnivanshi lineage or Agnivansha is one of the three lineages into which the Rajput clans are divided, the others being the Suryavanshi (descended from Surya, the sun god) and the Chandravanshi (descended from Chandra, the moon god). There are four clans claiming Agnivanshi descent, being the Chauhans (Chahamanas), Parihars (Parhars or Pratihars), Parmars (Paramaras) and Solankis (Chalukyas).[1][lower-alpha 1]

Legend

The Agnikunda legend, of which there are several versions, gives an account of the origin of the Agnivanshi Rajputs.

The Bhavishya Purana version of the legend begins with the puranic legend wherein Parashurama, an avatar of Vishnu, exterminated the traditional Rajputs of the land. Later, the legend says, sage Vasishta performed a great Yajna or fire-sacrifice, to seek from the gods a provision for the defense of righteousness on earth. In answer to his prayer, a youth arose from the Agnikunda or fire-altar—the first Agnivanshi Rajput. According to different versions of the legend, Rajput clans originated from the Agnikunda.

The Pratiharas established the first Rajput kingdom in Marwar in southwestern Rajasthan in the 6th century the greatest kingdom after Ashoka and Harshvardhan, the Chauhans at Ajmer in central Rajasthan, the Solankis in Gujarat, and the Paramaras in Malwa Rahevar "Rever" Tarangagadh - Rajasthan.

The Bhavishya Purana text, as available today, is regarded to have later additions, some as late as 1850 CE.[2]

The Agnikunda story was first given in Nava-sahasanka-charita of Padmagupta, a fictional romance where the hero is identifiable as Sindhuraj. In Nava-sahasanka-charita the progenitor Paramara is created from fire by Vashishtha.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ There are numerous variant spellings of these clan names.

Citations

  1. ↑ Jaswant Lal Mehta (1980), Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, pp. 34–, ISBN 978-81-207-0617-0
  2. ↑ Bhavishya Purana, B.K. Chaturvedi, Diamond Books (P) Ltd.

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.