THE CHAORA RULERS probability were the Chaoras. They too were Rajputs, and very likely were of Saka or Scythian origin. It is believed that they and the Jethwas were of the same stock, and legendary history maintains that Dhank was the scene of their first settlement in Saurashtra. While the Walabhi dynasty was still paramount, the Chaoras separated from the Jethwas and settled in Okha, in the West of the peninsula. They did not stay there very long, however, and later migrated to Prabhas Patan, where they were settled when Walabhi fell. Patan was not the only scene of their incursions. In A.D. 746 we learn that a Chaora named Wanraj (the Forest King) was elected by Bhils in Guj arat to be their ruler. Anhilwad Patan, in Gujarat, became his capital, and after the destruction of Walabhi this place became the most important in Western India. But the Chaoras never rose to very great eminence, and it is doubtful whether all the country between Anhilwad Patan, in Gujarat, and Prabhas Patan, in Saurashtra, came under their sway. What is more likely is that they became two separate peoples, of which the Gujarat branch became more powerful. Wanraj died in A.D. 804, and was succeeded by Yograj, then Kshemraj, Bhuwad, Wirsinha, Ratnaditya, and Samatsinha in the order named. Samatsinha, the last of the dynasty, died in A.D. 935, and with his death the Chaora power practically died out. Chaoras, however, continued to hold sway in part of Saurashtra until the thirteenth century, but never to any great extent. Their name suggests that they were merely plunderers, the word " Chaora " being derived from the Gujarat! word choriya, a band of robbers. But the fact that they held Prabhas Patan and fortified it so well that they were able at first to beat off the determined attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni in A.D. 1025 shows that robbery cannot subsequently have been their only occupation* If, as is probable, they built the temple of Somnath, the riches