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Origins

Author: MT on twitter

One of the earliest ChAhamAna inscription states that they emerged from the eye of indra. kAvya chronicles mention their founding ruler as vAsudeva dIkShita. That dIkShita name is explicitly linked to his being a soma ritualist described here in the chronicle of vishvanAtha.

प्रवितत-सुविताने जुह्वतां भव्य-जुह्वा
हविर् अविरतम् उच्चैर् ऋत्विजां तत्र रेजे ।
चरम-सवन-कालाधीत-याज्यानुवाक्या-
ध्वनिर्-अजनि सुरौघ-कारणे चारुदूतः ॥

There, in the wide, good ritual arena, offerings with a good juhū ladle, the uninterrupted oblations with loud voice of the stvik-s shone forth. The sound of the yājya incantations recited at the time of the final libation produced the good messenger for the purpose of inviting the pantheon.

Later inscriptions mention an association to certain RShi vatsa. While most inscriptions & chronicles mention them as “sUryavaMshin”, at least 1 mentions them as being generated by vatsa after the end of the traditional sUrya-& soma-vaMsha-s. In line with their early dIkShita status, one of their princesses, a poetess, was the wife of the great rAjashekhara of kAvyamImAMsA fame.