Agnivansha

In Indian culture, the Agnivanshi are people who claim descent from Agni, the Vedic god of fire. The Agnivanshi lineage is one of the lineages among the Rajput clans, the others being the Suryavanshi (descended from Surya, the sun god) and the Chandravanshi (descended from Chandra, the moon god). According to medieval legends, there are four Agnivanshi clans: Chauhans (Chahamanas), Pratihar (Pratiharas), Parmars (Paramaras) and Solankis (Chaulukyas).

Apart from Rajputs, several other Indian communities and dynasties have legends of fire-born ancestry. Alf Hiltebeitel theorises that the fire-lineage legends signify a new class of Kshatriya warriors, as opposed to the earlier warriors who claimed descent from the solar and lunar lineages mentioned in the ancient texts. Among the clans now known as the Rajputs, the legend might have been invented by Padmagupta, a 10th-century court poet of the Paramara dynasty. His Nava-sahasanka-charita is the earliest source claiming an Agnivanshi origin for the Paramaras. He might have been motivated by the fact that the Paramaras were the only royal family in their region without a mythical account of heroic or divine origin. The 16th century Rajput bards might have extended the legend to include other imperial dynasties, in order to foster Rajput unity against Muslims.

Among the dynasties that are now called Rajputs, the Paramara kings of Malwa were the first to claim an Agnikula ("fire clan") ancestry. Several inscriptions and literary works composed during the Paramara era mention this legend. The earliest known source to mention this story is the Nava-sahasanka-charita of the Paramara court poet Padmagupta Parimala. The Sanskrit-language epic was composed during the reign of Sindhuraja (ca. 997-1010). Its version of the legend is as follows:

On Mount Arbuda (Abu), the priest of Ikshvaku royal house (Vashistha) once made a sacred grove. The son of Gadhi (Vishvamitra) stole the wish-granting cow of Vashistha, just like Kartavirya Arjuna had once stole the cow of Jamadagni. The barkcloth on the bosom of Arundhati (Vashistha's wife) became soaked with tears. The earliest of the knowers of Atharva Veda (Vashistha) then made a fire offering with mantras. A hero with a bow, a crown and golden armour emerged from the fire. He brought back Vashistha's cow. The grateful owner of the cow named this hero "Paramara" ("slayer of the enemy"), and gave him the power to rule the entire earth. From this hero, who resembled Manu, sprang the (Paramara) dynasty.

Padmagupta's Nava-sahasanka-charita is based on the life of Sindhuraja, but is of little historical value. The legend is not mentioned in earlier Paramara inscriptions (such as the Harsola copper plates) or literary works (such as Halayudha's Mritasanjivani). Therefore, it appears that Padmagupta invented the legend in late 10th century. By this time, all of the Paramaras' neighbouring dynasties claimed descent from mythical heroes or gods: the Pratiharas from Lakshmana, the Chahamanas (Chauhans) from Surya (Sun), the Chaulukyas from Brahma's water pot (chaluka), and the Chandelas from Chandra (Moon). The Paramaras were the only ones without a legend of mythical origin. This might have motivated Padmagupta to invent a new legend with Sindhuraja's approval. R.K. Gupta and S.R. Bakshi opine that Parmara legend is based on an earlier legend narrated in the Ramayana. According to it, Vasistha, in a dispute over Kamadhenu, created the ancient non-Aryan tribes of the Sakas, Pahlavas, and Kambojas to fight Visvamitra.

The post-Sindhuraja Paramara inscriptions and literary works widely mention the Agnikula myth. The Paramara inscriptions which mention this legend include the Udaipur Prashasti inscription, the Nagpur stone inscription, the Vasantagarh inscription, the Arthuna inscription of Chamundaraja, the Neminath Jain temple inscription, the Donagaragrama inscription, the Patnarayan inscription and the Jainad inscription. Tilaka-Manjari by Dhanapala, a contemporary of the Paramara king Bhoja, also supports this account. Some of the later inscriptions mention the name the dynasty's progenitor as "Dhumaraja" (smoke-king) instead of "Paramara".

The earliest of the Chauhan inscriptions and literary works do not claim Agnivanshi descent. These sources variously state that the dynasty's legendary founder Chahamana was born from Indra's eye, in the lineage of the sage Vatsa, in the solar dynasty and/or during a ritual sacrifice performed by Brahma.

Some recensions of Prithviraj Raso, an epic poem by Chand Bardai, contain a legend similar to the Paramara legend. However, this version does not present the sages Vashistha and Vishwamitra as rivals. It goes like this: