The Agnikula or fire born theory of Rajput origin is based mainly on which text?
- A.Prithviraj Vijaya
- B.Prithviraj Raso
- C.Rajatarangini
- D.Hammir Mahakavya
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Prithviraj Raso. Chand Bardai's Prithviraj Raso tells that four clans, the Pratihara, the Chauhan, the Solanki and the Parmar, rose from a fire pit at Mount Abu where the sage Vashishtha performed a sacrifice, and from this account the Agnikula or fire born theory takes its name. Because the work is bardic and far later than the events, historians treat it as a story of ritual purification rather than of descent.
Option A is wrong because the Prithviraj Vijaya of Jayanak is a court history of Prithviraj Chauhan III and carries no fire pit account. Option C is wrong because Kalhana's Rajatarangini is a history of Kashmir. Option D is wrong because the Hammir Mahakavya of Nayachandra Suri deals with Hammir Dev Chauhan of Ranthambore.
Read the full article: Origin of the Rajputs and Early Dynasties of Rajasthan
Practice Questions
View allWhich writer traced the Rajputs to the Scythians of Central Asia in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan?
- A.Gauri Shankar Hirachand Ojha
- B.Colonel James Tod
- C.C. V. Vaidya
- D.Dashratha Sharma
Show answer
Tod, who served as the Political Agent of the East India Company in western Rajputana, wrote the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan and argued that the Rajputs were descended from the Scythians of Central Asia, pointing to shared habits of warfare, the place of the horse and certain funeral rites.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following clans is NOT counted among the four Agnikula clans?
- A.Chauhan
- B.Parmar
- C.Solanki
- D.Rathore
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The four clans named in the Agnikula account are the Pratihara or Parihar, the Chauhan or Chahamana, the Solanki or Chaulukya and the Parmar or Paramara.
Read the full explanation →Who was the founder of the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty, remembered for checking the Arab advance from Sindh?
- A.Vatsaraja
- B.Nagabhata I
- C.Mihir Bhoja
- D.Mahendrapala I
Show answer
He ruled in about the middle of the eighth century from Bhinmal in the Jalore region and is credited with stopping the Arab armies that had taken Sindh, a service which even the Rashtrakuta records acknowledge when they describe the Pratihara as the defender of the west.
Read the full explanation →The Pratihara ruler Mihir Bhoja struck coins bearing which title?
- A.Adivaraha
- B.Prithvivallabha
- C.Vikramaditya
- D.Devaputra
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Mihir Bhoja, also called Bhoja I, was the greatest of the Gurjara Pratiharas; he ruled from Kannauj in the ninth century, was a devotee of Vishnu and issued silver coins carrying the title Adivaraha, the primeval boar, one of Vishnu's forms.
Read the full explanation →The Bijoliya inscription of 1170 gives the genealogy of which dynasty and calls it Brahmin of the Vatsa gotra?
- A.The Guhils of Mewar
- B.The Chauhans of Shakambhari
- C.The Rathores of Marwar
- D.The Pratiharas of Mandore
Show answer
The Bijoliya rock inscription of Bhilwara district, dated 1170, sets out the Chauhan line from Vasudeva, the founder at Shakambhari or Sambhar, and describes the family as Brahmins of the Vatsa gotra, which is one of the strongest arguments against the Agnikula story of their birth from fire.
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