Parmarપરમાર

The account

The Parmar Rajputs are one of the four famous Agnivanshi clans: legend has their ancestor arise from the sacrificial fire of Vasishta, alongside the Chalukya, the Parihara and the Chahomana. The Parmar dynasty of Dhara-nagari is remembered for its great names in later Sanskrit literature; one branch settled in southern Sindh was known as the Sidha Parmars.

The Parmars first established themselves at Than and Chotila. The Vaghela king of Wadhwan, Vishaldev, seeing their prowess as fighters, enlisted their service in quelling the notorious Bhil plunderers of Mahikantha; the Parmars razed the Bhil defences and vanquished them in open fight, and Vishaldev made the grant of Muli, Chotila and Chobari districts (1476–77).

The bards tell how, when the Jats of Sindh took refuge with the Parmars against the army of Mohmed Begada, Jat Isaji lay dying on the slope of the Kandola hill beside Asobhai Parmar and dammed his own blood from mingling with the Hindu’s — and Asobhai bade him let it flow: ‘The Jats and Parmars are now one.’ From that day the two peoples were held blood-brothers, and their daughters intermarried.

The Parmars, the last clan to immigrate in a group into Saurashtra, comprise the poorest state and relatively the poorest landholders — yet they carried with them from Thar-Parkar the idol of Mandavraiji, the Sun, whom they worship to this day.