Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c18.2

c18.2

AN incident redeems the early history of Gujarát from provincial narrowness and raises its ruling tribes to a place among the greater conquerors and colonisers. This incident is the tradition that during the sixth and seventh centuries fleets from the coasts of Sindh and Gujarát formed settlements in Java and in Cambodia. The Java legend is that about A.D. 603 Hindus led by Bhruvijáya Savelachála the son of Kasamachitra or Bálya Achá king of Kujrát or Gujarát settled on the west coast of the island.¹ The details of the settlement recorded by Sir Stamford Raffles² are that Kasamachitra, ruler of Gujarát, the tenth in descent from Arjun, was warned of the coming destruction of his kingdom. He accordingly started his son Bhruvijáya Savelachála with 5000 followers, among whom were cultivators artisans warriors physicians and writers, in six large and a hundred small vessels for Java. After a voyage of four months the fleet touched at an island they took to be Java. Finding their mistake the pilots put to sea and finally reached Matarem in the island of Java. The prince built the town of Mendang Kumulan. He sent to his father for more men. A reinforcement of 2000 arrived among them carvers in stone and in brass. An extensive commerce sprang up with Gujarát and other countries. The bay of Matarem was filled with strange vessels and temples were built both at the capital, afterwards known as Brambanum, and, during the reign of Bhruvijáya's grandson Ardivijáya that is about A.D. 660, at Boro Baddor in Kedu.³ The remark that an ancestor of the immigrant prince had changed the name of his kingdom to Gujarát is held by Lassen to prove that the tradition is modern. Instead of telling against the truth of the tradition this note is a strong argument in its favour. One of the earliest mentions of the name Gujarát for south Márwár is Hiuen Tsiang's (A.D. 630) Kin-che-lo or Gurjjara. As when Hiuen Tsiang wrote the Gurjjara chief of Bhinmál, fifty miles west of Abu, already ranked as a Kshatriya his family had probably been for some time established perhaps as far back as A.D. 490 a date by which the Mihira or Gurjjara conquest of Valabhi and north Gujarát was completed.⁴ The details of the help received from Gujarát after the prince's arrival show that the parent state had weathered the storm which threatened to destroy it. This agrees with the position of the Bhinmál Gurjjaras at the opening of the seventh century, when, in spite of their defeat by Prabhákaravardhana (A.D. 600-606) the father of Śrí Harsha (A.D. 606-641) of Magadha, they maintained their power at Broach and at Valabhi as well as at Bhinmál.¹ The close relations between the Gurjjaras and the great seafaring Mihiras or Meds make it likely that the captains and pilots who guided the fleets to Java belonged to the Med tribe. Perhaps it was in their honour that the new Java capital received the name Mendan, as, at a later period it was called Brambanum or the town of Bráhmans. The fact that the Gurjjaras of Broach were sun-worshippers not Buddhists causes no difficulty since the Bhinmál Gurjjaras whom Hiuen Tsiang visited in A.D. 630 were Buddhists and since at Valabhi Buddhism Shaivism and sun-worship seem to have secured the equal patronage of the state.