Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c6.19

c6.19

We know, again, from epigraphic records that the Mālavas were another tribe with oligarchic form of government. The present province of Mālwa which is in Central India was doubtless named after them when they were settled there. But when this province came to be called Mālwa after the Mālavas we do not exactly know, but certainly not till the Gupta period. In the time of Alexander, however, they were settled somewhere in the Punjab and have been referred to as the Malloi republic by the Greek historians who accompanied him.¹ Certainly the Mālavas must have migrated through the intermediate regions before they passed from the Punjab to Central India. But it may be asked : Is there any evidence as to what this intervening province was through which they moved southwards? This evidence is furnished by their coins, which, as we know, have been picked up in large numbers in the south-east part of the Jaipur State called Nāgar-chal in Rājputānā. As the coins here found range in date from circa 150 B.C. to circa 250 A.D., we may reasonably hold that in this period the Mālavas had established themselves in this province and must have been in occupation of that region when about 100 A.D. Uṣavadāta, son-in-law of the Kṣatrapa Nahapāna, defeated them,¹ as we learn from a Nāsik cave inscription. They were not then far distant from Puṣkar near Ajmer.