Gujrat: The Legacy of a Forgotten Past

South Asia is among the most ancient and diverse regions of this world. It's history has witnessed the rise, and fall, of many empires. This article is about one such forgotten empire, whose legacy is still preserved in the names of many places, like the Indian state of Gujarat, the Pakistani cities of Gojra, Gujjar Khan, Gujranwala, and Gujrat, etc.

It is said that the Gurjaras, Gurjars, or Gujjars, came to India during the Kushan invasions of South Asia. General Alexander Cunningham, the founder of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), wrote that Gujjars are the only numerous tribe of  "foreign origin", besides the Jatts, who are known to have been powerful in India during the early medieval times. He said, the Kushanas were a powerful "foreign" people widespread over India, who seem to have become weak around the early medieval period due to the rising of the Gupta empire. However, with the fall of the Gupta empire, the Kushanas again came to power under the banner of Gurjaras, who stayed as the masters of North-India until the Muslim conquests of Mahmud Ghaznavi. He further wrote that the oldest and most numerous clan of the Gujjars is known as Kasana, which is an another strong validation that Gujjars are in fact the ancient Kushanas. He also noted that the word Gusur (pronounced "Guzar"), a well known variation of the name Gujjar, is used in the Rabatak inscription to denote the tribe or family of Kushana king Kanishka.

Kushan Empire 200 A.D.

According to Sir Herbert Hope Risley (who conducted research on the physical type of Indian tribes), the North-Indian tribes such as Jatts, Rajputs, and Gujjars have the Aryan physical type (meaning they share looks with Afghans and Persians or Iranians) while the Central-Asians have the Brachycephalic physical type (meaning they share looks with Chinese and Mongolians). So if the Gujjars are indeed Kushans, then it implies that Kushans were of the Aryan physical type as well. 

According to the ancient Indian literature, the Kushans (known as Yuezhis or Yueh-ti in the Chinese records) are the same people as Rishikas and Kambojas, the Arya Kshtriyas of Central-Asia. The Rishikas were scholarly people (Rishis) of the Kambojas, and both were the same people. The Kambojas are further related by the ancient Indian literature with the Shakas (Scythians), Yavanas (Greeks), and Pahlavas (Persians). The ancient books of India called Manusmriti and Mahabharata, also mention that the above mentioned Central-Asian tribes were originally noble Kshatriyas, who were later termed as Mleechas because they abandoned the practices of their forefathers, the Kshatriyas. The Mahabharta even refers to a Kamboja prince as one of the foremost Kshatriya princes present at the inauguration ceremony for the royal palace of the Pandava king Yudhisthira. Another legend in the Shantiparva of Mahabharata, called "Daivi Khagda" or "Divine Sword", also clearly calls the Kambojas as one of the most "Noble Kshtriyas". In light of this information, several historians have concluded that the Yuezhis were the same people as Rishikas and Kambojas. 

The modern linguists have also argued that the Sanskrit (Indian), Avesta (Persian), and Latin (Greek) are related languages, and have joined them together as "Indo-European" languages. This implies that the "Indo-European" languages are all branches of one ancient language, called "proto-indo-european". This in turn implies that the early speakers of these languages were inhabiting the same land at some time. 

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The Arabs made their first military conquest in India by conquering the region of Sindh, which was the kingdom of a Brahman ruler at that time. After establishing themselves in Sindh, the Arabs had come face to face with the Gujjar empire, and eventually they invaded the territories of Gujjars. This resulted in the famous battle of Rajasthan, where the Gujjars so conclusively defeated the Arabs that the Arabs even lost some of their previous territories in Sindh. The famous Arab traveller and geographer Sulaiman who wrote in 815 A.D. had the following to say about the Gujjar king Raja Bhoj:

"This king maintains numerous forces, and no other Indian prince has so fine a cavalry (horsemen warriors). He is unfriendly to the Arabs, still he acknowledges that the king of the Arabs is the greatest of kings. Among the princes of India there is no greater foe of the Muhammadan faith than he. His territories form a tongue of land. He has got riches, and his camels and horses are numerous. Exchange are carried on in his states with silver (and gold) in dust, and there are said to be mines' (of these metals) in the country. There is no country in India more safe from robbers." [1]

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The Prakit languages, like Hindi and Urdu have originated from Apabhramsa, which had an important division known as Gurjara-Apabhramsa. The Rajasthani and Gujarati  languages have descended from Gurjara-Apabhramsa, which is sometimes written as, Maru-Gujjar or Old Rajasthani. The Gujjars refer to their ancestral language as Gujjri (alternatively, Gojri, Gujri), which is the same language as Gurjara-Apabhramsa, and still spoken by Gujjars in Kashmir and Rajasthan. Gujjri was the official language of the Gujjar empire. Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding fathers of India and Pakistan, both hailed from Gujarat and spoke the Gujarati language. 

The Gujjars were also great patrons of knowledge and arts. The first mathematician who wrote the rules on using the number zero, whose name was Brahmagupta, served as the court mathematician of a Gujjar king called Vyaghramukha. Furthermore, the oldest instance of the decimal system being used also comes from the inscription of a Gujjar king. Both of these discoveries are crucial to our present civilization, which came from Gurjaratra. 

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Gurjaratra, or "Gujjar Kingdom", was completely destroyed by the invading armies of the Afghans and the Mughals. The invaders demolished pretty much all the palaces and cities built by the Gujjars, all that has survived are a few temples and courtyards. Among the very few remnants, Gwalior fort is the foremost one, built by the Gujjar king Raja Man Singh Tomar. The palace also contains a courtyard which the king especially built for his queen, and called it Gujjari Mahal. The Gwalior fort is also famous for its distinguished musicians, known as the Gwalior school of music. The musicians of the Gwalior fort are the oldest Gharana of all the Khayal Gharanas. In fact, the greatest khayal singer, Tansen, was the chief court musician of Gwalior fort. Abu Fazl, a famous muslim historian, writes that "the like of Tansen had not been heard in a thousand years".

The Gwalior Fort

The Tughlaqabad fort was erected at the ruin of a Gujjar palace. The famous saint Nizamudin Auliya is known to have cursed Tughluq for building this fort in these words "Ya Basay Gujjar, Ya Rahay Ujjar" ("Either the Gujjars inhabit it, or it shall always remain barren"). As destiny would have it, the words of the great saint came true, the Gujjars captured the fort after the fall of Delhi Sultanat, but then they again lost the fort, and today the place is barely distinguished from a barren mound of mud and stones. 

Tughlaqabad Fort

The Chaturbhuj Temple, built by the Pratihara Gujjars in the 8th century A.D. is another great remnant of the Gujjar country. It is located in Orchha, Madhya Pardesh, India. The temple was built in the honour of Shree Vishnu. It has beautiful architecture, which stands as a testimony to the Gujjar country's skilful architects. 

Chaturbhuj Temple

This was a brief glimpse of the legacy of Gurjaratra. It is an extensive subject and will take time to be covered in full detail. Therefore, visit this article regularly, as it will be updated often. __________________________________________________________________

[1] History of Kanauj: To the Moslem Conquest. By Rama Shankar Tripathi. Pg. 246-247. Google Books
[2] The Martial Races of Undivided India. By, Vidya Prakash Tyagi. Google Books