3. Ancient History of Roh Desh:
The original home of the Rohillas is Roh Desh; and after their advent into India they became known Rohilla Rajputs. About five thousand years ago, the Aryans entered India and, in course of time, set up their settlements and establishment kingdoms all over Northern India. Tradition begins with a myth how, after the ebbing away of the flood, the Primaeval King Vai Vasvant Manu established his kingdom with its capital at Ayodhia. He had nine sons and a daughter, among whom the whole of India was divided Ikshvaku, the Eldest, became the progenitor of the “Solar Race”.
His daughter Ila had a son called Pururavas who became the progenitor of the “Lunar” dynasty. Manu’s seventh son was Narsheyant who established his kingdom between the river Indus and the Hindu Kush Mountain.
The descendants of the Solar Prince Narsheyant were enterprising. They crossed the Hindu Kush and established their settlements in Central Asia, Iran and even as far as the Western Asia. After leaving India, these people came to be known as Sakas.Accorging to Manu Smriti, these people were divided into four main branches.
(i) The Parvajans who came to be called Parthians;
(ii) The Kambhoj;
(iii) Pahlvi from whom have descended the Iranians,. And.
(iv) the Yavanas or the Greeks:
Roh Desh and Chandra Vanshi Kshatriyas:
For a very long time the Kshatriyas of the Solar Race exercised their sway over Roh Desh and the land beyond. The descendants of Pururava were in possession of the tract between the Vindhyas and the jumna River. Yayati, the great grandson of Pururava was a mighly and famous conqueror. He succeeded in establishing an extensive empire. He had five remarkable sons among whom his vast empire was divided. Of these the youngest Puru got the ancestral property. Another son Yadu had remarkable descendants who extended their sway over the neighbouring countries by defeating the Pauravas, and driving out the Druhyas into the Punjab. Later, the last named, i. e. Druhyas, were made to migrate into the regions of QUetta and Gandhar by Shashi Bandhu, the Yadav King.
These Druhyas has a famous King Prachuyata who had one hundered sons, who extended their expire and overran the countries of the Malchhas (Barbarians) ruling over the regions in the North-west. It is said that when the Kshatriyas in Afghanistan and Central Asia called the Chandra Vanshis as Devas the later reliated and started calling them Malechhas (Barbarians).
For a long time Afghanistan continued to be ruled by the Druhyas; and it is reasonable to conclude that the mountainous tract over which they had their sway, came to be known as Roh. The view of the author of “Nasabi-Afghans” that Afghanistan came to be called Roh after the name of the wife of Jewish Prophet Rahall does not seem to be correct and based on facts.
Then came the period when Shri Rama ruled over Ayodhia. At that Roh was ruled by the Lunar Kings. The conquest of Ceylon being over, Shri Ram divided India among his brothers. The Bharat was allotted the region of the North-west where flows the river Jhelum and to which was also attached the Southern Valley of Indus. Bharat had two sons Taksh and Pushkar, both of whom were mightly warriors and conquerors. They conquered Gandhar Takshi is said to have founded the town of Takshila, which later on became the centre of trade, art and learning Pushkar founded the city of Pushkalvati, which is identified today with Charsada and Parang in the land of the Yusuf-Zias, situated today with miles to the north of Peshawar. The descendants of Bharat in course of time for mingled with the Druhyas.
Descended from Pushkar was one Raja Hans Dhaj whose descendant Daulat Rao founded Kanuaj.
Bhim Raj the author of “Rohilla Kshatriyas Jati Nirnaya”, wirtes that Shatrughan, the younger brother of Rama, had two sons Sruti Sen and Sabahu. The descendant of the latter settled down in the region of the North-west. From Sabahu originated the famous Rajput clan of Chindaks or Chind. As already remaeked elsewhere, these Kshatriyas conquered lands beyond Hindu Kush and founded the Karkot Fort in Turkistan, where it still exists.
In the descriptive found of inscriptions found in the Central Privinces &Berar (now Madhya Bharat) we read about certain kingdoms existing during the 11th and 12th centuries of the Christian Era, the rulers of which had with their names attached the clan-name viz. Nag Vansh and CHindak. It appears that these Kshatriyas kings must have come from Roh Desh.
In the Sabha Parv of the Mahabharat we read that Arjun in the course of his campaigns in the North-west, had to fight hard against warlike racessuch as Trurusks, Kambhojas and Dards.
Colonel Tod in his “Annals of Rajasthan” Volume-I makes a mention of Taks and Writes: “A new race entered Hindustan led by conqueror termed Shehes Nag, from Sehes Nag Desh, who ascended the Pandu’s throne ans whose line terminates in the descents with Maha Nada od spurious birth”. Sehes Nag Desh is explained by him as the country of the ‘head of the snakes’ Nag or Tak or Takshak being synonymous. This was the abode of the ancient Scythic Tochari of Strabo, the Takurks of the Chinese, the Tajuks of the present-day Turkestan. This race appears to be the same as the Toorshks of the Puranas who rules on Arsvesina (the Araxes) in Sacadwip or Scythia.
“Tak or Takshak” in the words of Col. Tod appears to be the generic term of the race from which the various Scythic tibes, the early invaders of India, branched off.
Some ancient inscription in the Pali characters discovered in some parts of Rajasthan throw light upon the history of a race called Tusta, Takshak and Tak relating to the tribes known as the Mori, Pramara and their descedants.
In view of the observations of Col. Tod above, we can safely conclude that theAgnikul Rajput clans were immigrants Rajput clans were immigrants into India, and were inhabitants of Sacadwip and hence it is not a matter for wonder that the Rohilla Rajputs contain gotras and branches not only of Takshaks but of the fout Agnikul royal houses.
The North-west Frontier of India and regions beyond have, from very ancient times, been a storm centre and a source of trouble for the kings of India and, therefore, it was why Arjun had to a vigorous and bloody war against the tribes of Afghanistan. As a result of this, his grandson Prikhist had to face an invasion from the North-west made by the Takshaks. The Mahabharat describes the war in its usual allegorical style betweent the Kings of Indrapast abd Nags of the North. King Parikshit was murdered by the Nag leader, and his son Janmeja escaped and carried on a devastating warfare against the enemies of his house, as a result of which the Takshaks must have retired to the hills of the North-west.
By a reference to Kautliya Arth Shastra, we learn that there were tribal republics in India. If the Pooranas are to be believed, India was invaded by this very Tak race in the sixth century before Christ under their leader Sehes Nag who succeeded in setting up a royal dynasty, which remained in existence for three hundred and sixty years. Of this dynasty Kala Soka was assassinated by a man of low originbarber according to some accounts named Maha Padma Nanda, who succeeded in establishing an empire over the ruins of ancient Kshatriya Kingdoms ruled by the Puruavas, Aikshvaks and the Pradyotas extending over a large part of Northern India, excluding the Punjab, Kashmir and Sindh.
Then came the invasion of Alexander the Great, Which opened a free intercourse between India and Western countries. It also resulted in the Greek domination of the Punjab and in less than five years the last vestige of Greek rule in the Punjab was done away with. The hero to whom belong the credit of accomplishing this task was Chandra Gupta Maurya, whose name is surrounded with a host of legends. He said to have been the son of Mura, a low born woman from whom the dynastic name of Maurya is supposed to have been derived. It is probable, however, that Chandra Gupta belonged to the Kshatriya clan of that name, which is referred to as Maryas of Pippahalivana.
This Maurya clan to which Chandra Gupta belonged can also be treated as akin to the clan of the founder of Sehes Nag dynasty who came to India during the sixth century B C. from Sehes Nag Desh. On pages 45 and 46 of Tod’s “Rajasthan”, Popular Edition, we read: “A fourth dynasty commenced with Chandra Gupta Mori of the same Takshak race. The Mori dynasty consisted of ten princes, who are started to have passed away in one hundred abd thirty-seven years”. In another place-page 87-Col. Tod observes “Enough of the ancient history of the Tak. We will now descent to more modern times on which we shall be brief. We have already mentioned the Takshak Moris as being Lords of Chitor from a very early period . But few generations after the Gehlots supplanted the Moris, this Palladuim of Hindu liberty was assailed by the arms of Islam. We find among the numerous defenders who appeared to Asirgarh’. “The heroic leaderof the Gehlots who supplanted the Tak Moris of Chitor was Bappa Rawal, who figures so prominently as the founder of the dynasty in bardic chronicles and later records dating from the 13th Century A. D. Different versions are current of his early history, according to some of which he obtained royality through the grace of a sage and captured Chitor by defeating the Mlechhas or the Nori King according to sovereighnty there by a Bappa Rawal, Dr Majumdar in his book “Ancient India”, states: “It is likely that the Mauryas (Moris) who were ruling at Chitor fell before the Great Onslaught of the Arabs which overwhelmed nearly the whole of Western India about 725 A. D. and that Bappa like Nag Bhatta was one of those Indian rulers who distinguished themselves by brave resistance against the Arabs and secured some cities and strongholds which they were able to wrest from the foreign invaders. The heroic part which Bappa played at this critical moment of India’s history probably raised his power and fame to such an extent that posterity regarded him as the real founder of the family”.
The above shows that the Morris of Chitor were Taks who, after their defeat, migrated to Asirgarh over which they ruled for several centuries and were known as Taks when they appeared again for the assistance of khuman Rawal of Chitor to stop the advance of the muslim invaders and beat them back to thei country. These Taks Moris re-appeared from Asirgarh to fight against the Ghori Sultan when Prithvi Raj Chohan of Delhi met him on the field of tarawari. It appears that in later times the ancient Maurya Kshatriya clan of Chandra Gupta came to be known as Taks. Hence we would not much wrong if we state that Chandra Gupta Maurya must have been of the same Nag Vanshi Takshak Clan to which Sehes Nag, the founder of the Magadha Kngdom, had belonged.
After the downfall of the Maurya Empire its North-Western Provinces were conquered by Demetrius, the Greek King of Bactria about the beginning of the Second Century B. C. This king also led an expedition into India, which was successful but after this he was supplanted by another Greek who could not enjoy his ill gotten power for long.
For sometime the Greeks had internal dissensions and when they were quarrelling among themselves, they were overwhelmed by The Seythians who exterminated their rule in the Valley of Oxus. From where the Greeks came to Afghanistan and the Western Punjab which they held for more than two hundred years. Of the Greek kings who made themselves famous was Menander or king Milinda so famous in Buddhist literature. The Indian frontier was also harassed by other tribes, the most famous among them being the Parthians, Sakas and Kushans. The Sakas established their rule in some parts of Northern India, Malwa and Kathiar. The Kushans belonged to nomadic Turusks who conquered Afghanistan ruled by the Greek Kings. A vast empire was established by them and their emperor Kanishka rose to become the most familiar figure in ancient India after Ashoka. The successors of Kanishka continued to rule in Kabul and a part of Punjab for a long time. Some of the Kushans entered India and came to be Known as Rohilla Rajputs with Kushan Wal as their Gotra.
