Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 persons enumerated
in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rathor Telis.

Rajput, Sesodia

_Rajput, Sesodia, Gahlot, Aharia_.--The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally
admitted to be the premier Rajput clan. Their chief is described by
the bards as "The Suryavansi Rana, of royal race, Lord of Chitor,
the ornament of the thirty-six royal races." The Sesodias claim
descent from the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rama
of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewar
consisted of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have
founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurashtra or Kathiawar,
where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi
dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Siladitya, who was killed by
an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohaditya, ruled
in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west of Mewar. From him
the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar,
however, from a detailed examination of the inscriptions relating
to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of
the line were Nagar Brahmans from Vadnagar in Gujarat, the first
of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its
name of Gahlot [566] The family were also connected with the ruling
princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes,
and also the Nagar Brahmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who,
like the Gujars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the
fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar's account really agrees quite
closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, except
that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nagar Brahman of Valabhi,
and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied to the Huns, while the
bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia,
who migrated to Surat and established the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest
prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is
Sila, A.D. 646, and he was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may
therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bapa,
the founder of the Gahlot clan in Mewar, was, according to tradition,
sixth in descent from Gohaditya, and he had his capital at Nagda,
a few miles to the north of Udaipur city. [567] A tradition quoted by
Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bapa was the son of Grahadata. He succ