Mewar as Focus of Guhila State (Part-XVI)

The Guhila royal family negotiated with all the local non-Guhila Rajput families at political, military and social levels and accomplished political integration under the Guhila leadership. — Prof. Nandini Kapur Sinha

Bardic traditions such as Suryavamsavali, Sri Ränâji ri bät, Räjäve Bahi and Badvädevidän Khyat refer to three Hädä queens of the Guhi kings of the period, two for Ranã Khetä and one for Ränä Kumbha (Rao Bagji’s daughter). Possibly, Rana Kheta’s Hädä queens came from the Hädä families of eastern Mewar, for social links with the Häd were politically far more important for the Guhilas to ensure contra over strategic fortresses located east and north-east of Chittaurgarh.

The Solamkis (Balnotes) of Mandalgarh

The annals of Mewar make it amply clear that Mandalgarh, a fort tract with mining potential, had been predominated by the Bälnotes branch of the Caulukyas or Solamkis, in the fifteenth century. The local legends attribute the building of Mandalgarh to the Bal notes a trace their ancestry to the Caulukyas of Anhilwärä. Their associate with Mandalgarh is so long that this tract is also popularly known Balnote.

Their association with Mandalgarh is also suggested by the fact many other important social groups of Mewar and adjacent region particularly some of the Jain mercantile families, trace their desk from the Bälnotes or Solamkis of Mandalgarh. However, more imp aptly, two inscriptions (unpublished) containing the genealogy the local Solamkis tracing ancestry from the Anhilwara Cauluk have been discovered at Kachaura, Mandalgarh.” These inscriptional records certainly substantiate the Solamki claim over the Mandalgarh tract.

Actual political integration of the Solamkis (Balnotes) of Mandalgarh seems to have materialized only in Ränä Kumbha’s reign (in the latter half of the fifteenth century), for the Kumbhalgarh Prasasti refers to Kumbha’s conquest of Mandalgarh twice and the Ranakpur” Prasasti mentions it in the list of Kumbha’s conquests. However, the Solamkis of Mandalgarh seem to have been confined to a small tract, for unlike the reference to the Hâdâs, the Guhila inscriptions never mention the Solamkis or the Balnotes in the context of Mandalgarh. Mandalgarh was perhaps better controlled by the Guhilas than the Hädä forts. Although it is difficult to prove the social linkages of the Guhilas with the Solamkis of Mandalgarh, it is significant that Badvadevidän Khyat lists two Solamki queens of the Guhila kings of the fifteenth century. One married to Mokal and the other to Raimalla.” Given the strategic importance of Mandalgarh, the Guhilas might have made matrimonial alliances with the Solamkis of Mandalgarh in the fifteenth century.

The Paramaras of Bhainsrorgarh

Being strategically situated on the banks of the Chambal and on the trade route to central India,” the fortress of Bhainsrorgarh (defended by a cliff with a sharp descent to the river) could act both as a second line of defence and a line of supplies and provisions to Mewar. The trading importance of Bhainsrorgarh is evident from local popular tales that associate the town with itinerant traders called banjaras.”

A thirteenth-century inscription discovered by Tod at Bhainsrorgarh points towards Paramara occupation of the locality, for the land charter is executed in the Paramâra style of Malwa (Sasan Udayaditya).” The predominance of the Paramaras in the Bhainsrorgarh locality in the fourteenth century is further corroborated by royal and private inscriptions in neighbouring Sontra (Sutrawändurga). A private record dated AD 1390 records that in the castle of Sontra the Paramâra Uda, Kull, Bhoona sold their existence (indicating slavery?) along with the cattle, wives, brahmanas, and putra Coda.” A royal record of AD 1314 registers some construction work by a scion of the ruling Paramâras of Sutrawändurga tracing his ancestry from Dhär, Malwa.” But significantly, the Paramara records from Bhainsrorgarh do not date to the period beyond the late fourteenth century (AD 1390).” It is also important to note that unlike Mandalgarh, the fortress of Bhainstorgarh is not even mentioned in fifteenth-century Guhila records. As it was situated close to Chittaurgarh, Guhila silence over its conquest perhaps suggests its effective incorporation and hence, the integration of the Paramâra chiefs of Bhainsrorgarh into the political structure of the Guhila state by the early fifteenth century. 

As far as Guhila matri- monial alliances with the Paramaras are concerned, there is once again no reference to them in contemporary official records. Bardic traditions refer to only one such alliance. Suryavamsavali, Rajavali Bahl and Badvädevidän Khyat mention a Sänkhli (a branch of the Paramâras) queen for Mahârânâ Mokal.”

Rathaurs in Mewar

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the political structure of Mewar in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the growing strength of the Räthaurs in the Guhila court. Sources for the study of the early period of their rise include medieval texts and bardic traditions such as Muhanot Nainsi ri Khyat, Jodhpur Rajya ki Khyat, Tod’s Annals, etc. Rão Siha was the founder of the ruling house of the Rathaurs of Marwar.

According to tradition, one of the early Rathaurs of Marwar, Rão Ranamal, brought the Rathaurs into Mewar. Accounts seem to indicate that kinship pressures may have forced Rão Ranamal to settle outside his paternal state in the early fifteenth century. Ränä Lakha is known to have welcomed him and to have granted him an estate. Rão Ranamal is stated to have reciprocated by leading Rand’s army and bringing Ajmer under Mewar. Besides, the Rathaurs probably functioned as an effective check against locally entrenched non-Guhila Rajput families such as the Hädas of eastern Mewar. These politico-military factors seem to have greatly helped the Rathaurs in quickly gaining control and in acquiring a progressively higher status in the royal court of Mewar in the early fifteenth century. 

The Räthaur-Guhila alliance is likely to have been politically significant, for bardic traditions narrate at length the matrimonial alliance sought by the Rathaurs with the Guhilas in the early fifteenth century.” Rana Lakha is known to have married a Rathaur Princess Hansâbi, Ranamal’s sister. The marriage took place under the understanding that a son by the Rathaur princess was to succeed to the throne of Mewar, superseding the elder prince. Thus, the Guhila-Rathaur marriage alliance led to the famous abdication of the throne of Mewar by its heir, Prince Cunda (Ränä Läkha’s eldest son), and the influx of many more Räthaurs into Mewar.    

(to be continued...)

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