Solanki Gotra
सोलंकी
At a glance
- Founding Rishi
- Bharadwaja
- Veda
- Rigveda
Related Gotras
Common surnames
About
Solanki (Solankhi, Chaulukya) is a Rajput clan whose best-known house ruled Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan from Anahilavada (Patan) between about 940 and 1244 CE. Rajput tradition counts it among the four Agnivanshi clans; the dynasty's own records say its ancestor was made by Brahma from a handful of Ganges water. Tod's bardic text gives the Bharadwaja gotra. Kuldevi traditions differ: Tod names Keonj Mata, and community sources name Khimaj Mata of Bhinmal.
Founding Rishi
Pravara Lineage
The Pravara is the line of illustrious ancestral rishis recited in ritual, from the first ancestor down:
- 1Angirasa
- 2Barhaspatya
- 3Bharadwaja
Regional Spread
The Solanki Gotra is predominantly found in:
Etymology
Chaulukya is the form in the dynasty's own inscriptions, probably a variant of Chalukya; Solanki and Solankhi are the vernacular forms. Hemachandra writes it Chulukya, from chuluka, the hollow of the hand. Crooke records a derivation from the Sanskrit sulakshana, 'having auspicious marks', and the bardic derivation from the figure formed in the palm (challu) of the hand in the fire-pit.
Historical Journey
The Chaulukya inscriptions give the family a myth of its own. The Vadnagar prashasti of Kumarapala says the gods asked Brahma to protect them from demons, and he made a hero, Chulukya, from a pot of Ganges water held in his palm. Wikipedia notes that this is a conventional royal origin story. The Chaulukyas of Gujarat did not claim the Agnikula legend: the Agnikula story belonged to the Paramaras, and inscriptions of Bhima II show the Chaulukyas knew it but applied it to them. The version that makes the Chalukya a fire-born clan appears in the sixteenth-century recensions of the Prithviraj Raso and in Tod. Whether the Gujarat Chaulukyas are related to the Chalukyas of Badami and Kalyani is uncertain; D. R. Bhandarkar and others thought they were a branch of the Gurjaras, a view that the sources now regard as weak. Mularaja founded the Gujarat line around 940 CE, taking power from the last Chavda king. Bhima I fled when Mahmud of Ghazni raided Somnath in 1024 to 1025, then restored the kingdom; the earliest Dilwara temples and the Modhera Sun Temple date from his reign. Jayasimha Siddharaja (about 1092 to 1142) and Kumarapala (reigned from the 1140s) took the kingdom to its height. Kumarapala, a patron of Jainism in later accounts, extended it from Chittor and Jaisalmer to the Tapti. A Chaulukya army with Chahamana and Paramara feudatories defeated Muhammad of Ghor at Kasahrada in 1178. The Ghurid general Qutb al-Din Aibak took Anahilapataka in 1197, but the Chaulukyas won it back by 1201. The Vaghela chiefs Lavanaprasada and Viradhavala, who had served as their generals, took the throne in the 1240s. Tod divides the Solanki of Rajputana into sixteen branches, among them Baghel, Bhurta, Langaha, Togra, Sirwaria and Kalamor, and Crooke repeats the list. The Baghel clan of Rewa is given as an offshoot. Princely houses calling themselves Solanki, such as Lunavada, claimed descent from the Chaulukyas.
Migration & Diaspora
Tod's bards place the Solanki first at Lohkot (said to be ancient Lahore), then at Kalyan on the west coast, from which a scion was taken to Anahilwara Patan. The Gujarat dynasty then spread its feudatories into the Abu and Marwar country. After the thirteenth century, families moved with the Vaghela and later Rajput states; Tod mentions a Solanki chief of Toda in Jaipur, called the lineal descendant of the kings of Anhilwara, and the Solanki of Rewa through the Baghel. Crooke's census table of 1891 records Solankhi Rajputs mainly in Etah, Aligarh, Farrukhabad, Gorakhpur, Mainpuri and Agra districts.
Presence Across Regions
Gujarat (Patan, Ahmedabad, Kalri, Lunavada)
Rajput
The seat of the Chaulukya dynasty. Solanki landholders of Kalri were among the temple servants at the Bahuchara Mata shrine at Becharaji; Wikipedia reports a tradition that she was the patron deity of Solanki rulers.
Rajasthan (Abu, Bhinmal, Jalor, Toda)
Rajput
Tod places the Solanki of Toda in Jaipur and several branches in Marwar. Bhinmal is where Khimaj Mata has her temple on a hill.
Baghelkhand and Madhya Pradesh
Rajput
The Baghel of Rewa are given as a Solanki offshoot by Crooke, Tod and Russell. Russell records a small number of Solankhi in Hoshangabad and Nimar.
Uttar Pradesh
Rajput
Crooke counted 5,636 Solankhi in Etah in the 1891 census, with others in Aligarh, Farrukhabad, Gorakhpur and Mainpuri.
Other communities
Various
Wikipedia notes that the name Solanki has also been adopted by communities such as the Bhils, Kolis, Kumbhars, Darjis and others. This page describes the Rajput clan only.
Notable Personalities
Mularaja
c. 940 CE
Founder of the Chaulukya dynasty of Gujarat, who took power from the last Chavda king. Later chronicles name him as builder of the Jain Mulavasatika and Mulanatha temples.
Bhima I
11th century
Ruler during Mahmud of Ghazni's raid on Somnath in 1024 to 1025. After Mahmud left he restored the kingdom; the earliest Dilwara temples and the Modhera Sun Temple date from his reign.
Jayasimha Siddharaja
c. 1092 to 1142
Chaulukya king under whom the kingdom reached its height. He defeated the Chudasama king of Saurashtra and annexed Paramara Malwa in 1135 to 1136, and his court included the Jain scholar Hemachandra.
Kumarapala
Reigned from the 1140s to about 1172
Ruler whose empire reached from Chittor and Jaisalmer to the Tapti. Jain accounts portray him as the last great royal patron of Jainism.
Stories & Legends
Chuluka, the hero made from Ganges water
The Vadnagar prashasti of Kumarapala, set up in the twelfth century, says that the gods once asked Brahma to protect them from the danavas. Brahma took Ganges water in the hollow of his hand (chuluka) and made a hero from it, who was named Chulukya and became the ancestor of the dynasty. Abhayatilaka Gani, in a commentary on Hemachandra's Dvyashraya-Kavya, tells a variant in which Brahma made the hero to support the earth. Historians regard these as conventional dynastic myths.
The fire-pit version in Tod
Tod's translation of the Agnikula legend says that Vashistha and the Brahmans raised four heroes from the fire-pit on Abu. In the version he gives, the second was formed in the palm (challu) of the hand and named Chalukya, carrying a sword and the Veda, and was given Anhilpur Patan as his land. The bards also name Keonj Mata as the goddess of the Solanki among the four goddesses who drank the demons' blood. Wikipedia notes that this version of the legend appears first in the sixteenth century.
Ritual Significance
Gotra: Bharadwaja. Tod's bardic gotracharya for the Solanki gives the Bharadwaja gotra, the Madhwani sakha, three pravaras ('tin parwar'), the Sama Veda, origin at Garh Lohkot, and the river Sarasvati. The site's Bharadwaj page has Angirasa, Barhaspatya and Bharadwaja as the three pravaras and the Rigveda; I used those, and Tod's Sama Veda is a difference. Families in different branches may name other gotras. Kuldevata, in Tod's gotracharya: Kapaleshwar Mahadeva. Kuldevi: Tod names Keonj Mata (Keonj Devi) as the Solanki goddess among the four fire-born clans. Modern community listings, including rajputs.net, name Khimaj (Khiwaj, Kshemankari) Mata, whose temple is on a hill at Bhinmal in Jalor district; a community page says Mularaja built it, which I could not confirm. I could not tell whether Keonj and Khimaj are one goddess. The Kalri Solankis of Gujarat are linked to Bahuchara Mata at Becharaji. Families should confirm their own kuldevi.