portant
of the fire-born clans, and Colonel Tod says that he was the most
valiant of the Agnikulas, and it may be asserted not of them only but
of the whole Rajput race; and though the swords of the Rahtors would
be ready to contest the point, impartial decision must assign to the
Chauhan the van in the long career of arms. [517] General Cunningham
shows that even so late as the time of Prithwi Raj in the twelfth
century the Chauhans had no claim to be sprung from fire, but were
content to be considered descendants of a Brahman sage Bhrigu. [518]
Like the other Agnikula clans the Chauhans are now considered to have
sprung from the Gurjara or White Hun invaders of the fifth and sixth
centuries, but I do not know whether this is held to be definitely
proved in their case. Sambhar and Ajmer in Rajputana appear to have
been the first home of the clan, and inscriptions record a long
line of thirty-nine kings as reigning there from Anhul, the first
created Chauhan. The last but one of them, Vigraha Raja or Bisal Deo,
in the middle of the twelfth century extended the ancestral dominions
considerably, and conquered Delhi from a chief of the Tomara clan. At
this time the Chauhans, according to their own bards, held the line
of the Nerbudda from Garha-Mandla to Maheshwar and also Asirgarh,
while their dominions extended north to Hissar and south to the
Aravalli hills. [519] The nephew of Bisal Deo was Prithwi Raj, the
most famous Chauhan hero, who ruled at Sambhar, Ajmer and Delhi. His
first exploit was the abduction of the daughter of Jaichand, the
Gaharwar Raja of Kanauj, in about A.D. 1175. The king of Kanauj had
claimed the title of universal sovereign and determined to celebrate
the Ashwa-Medha or horse-sacrifice, at which all the offices should
be performed by vassal kings. Prithwi Raj alone declined to attend
as a subordinate, and Jaichand therefore made a wooden image of
him and set it up at the gate in the part of doorkeeper. But when
his daughter after the tournament took the garland of flowers to
bestow it on the chief whom she chose for her husband, she passed
by all the assembled nobles and threw the garland on the neck of
the wooden image. At this moment Prithwi Raj dashed in with a few
companions, and catching her up, escaped with her from her father's
court. [520] Afterwards, in 1182, Prithwi Raj defeated the Chandel
Raja Parmal and captured Mahoba. In 1191 Prithwi Raj was the head of
a confederacy of Hindu prince