Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c18.26

c18.26

coasts the Bodhas Kerks and Meds and along the shores of Kachh and Káthiáwád the closely connected Meds and Gurjjaras. In the seventh and eighth centuries the Gurjjaras, chiefly of the Chápa or Chávadá clan, both in Dwárka and Somnáth and also inland, rose to power, a change which, as already noticed, may explain the efforts of the Jats to settle along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. About A.D. 740 the Chápas or Chávadás, who had for a century and a half been in command in Dwárka and Somnáth, established themselves at Anahilaváda Pattan. According to their tradition king Vanarája (A.D. 720-780) and his successor Yogarája (A.D. 806-841) made great efforts to put down piracy. Yogarája’s sons plundered some Bengal or Bot ships which stress of weather forced into Verával. The king said "My sons with labour we were raising ourselves to be Chávadás of princely rank; your grog throws us back on our old nickname of Chóras or thieves." Yogarája refused to be comforted and mounted the funeral pyre. Dr. Bhagvánlál’s History, 151. This tale seems to be a parable. Yogarája’s efforts to put down piracy seem to have driven large bodies of Jats from the Gujarat coasts. In A.D. 834-35, according to Ibn Alathir (A.D. 834), a fleet manned by Djaths or Jats made a descent on the Tigris. The whole strength of the Khiláfat had to be set in motion to stop them. Those who fell into the hands of the Moslems were sent to Awacarbe on the borders of the Greek empire (Reinard’s Fragments, 201-2). As in the legend, the Chávadá king’s sons, that is the Chauras Mers and Gurjjaras, proved not less dangerous pirates than the Jats whom they had driven out.* About fifty years later, in A.D. 892, Al-Biláduri describes as pirates who scourged the seas the Meds and the people of Sauráshtra or Devpatan or Somnáth who were Chóras or Gurjjaras.† Biláduri (Reinard Sur L’Inde, 159) further notices that the Jats and other Indians had formed the same type of settlement in Persia which the Persians and Arabs had formed in India. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Gujarat kingdom which had been established in Java was at the height of its power. (Ditto, Abulfeda, cclxxxviii.)‡ Early in the tenth century (A.D. 915-930) Masudi (Yule’s Marco Polo, II, 344; Elliot, 1, 65) describes Sokotra as a noted haunt of the Indian corsairs called Bawárij which chase Arab ships bound for India and China. The merchant fleets of the early tenth century were not Arab alone. The Chóras of Anahilaváda sent fleets to Bhot and Chin (Rás Málá, I, 11). Nor were Mers and Chauras the only pirates. Towards the end of the tenth century (A.D. 980) Grahtri the Chudásama, known in story as Graharipu the Ahir of Sorath and Girnár, so passed and repassed the ocean that no one was safe (Ditto, I, 111. In the eleventh century (A.D. 1021) Alberuni (Sachau, II, 104) notes that the Bawárij, who take their name from their boats called báhria or bira, were Meds a seafaring people of Kachh and of Somnáth a great place of call for merchants trading between Sofala in east Africa and China. About the same time (A.D. 1025) when they despaired of withstanding Máhmud of Ghazni the defenders of Somnáth prepared to escape by sea, and after his victory Máhmud is said to have planned an expedition by sea to conquer Ceylon (Tod’s Rajasthan, I, 108). In the twelfth century Idrisi (A.D. 1185) notices that Tatariya dirhams, that is the Gupta (A.D. 319-500) and White Húna (A.D. 400-580) coinage of Sindh and Gujarat, were in use both in Madagascar and in the Malaya islands (Reinard’s Mémoires, 226), and that the merchants of Java could understand the people of Madagascar (Ditto, Abulfeda, cdxxii).§ With the decline of the power of Anahilaváda (A.D. 1250-1300) its fleet ceased to keep order at sea. In A.D. 1290 Marco Polo (Yule’s Ed. II, 325, 328, 341) found the people of Gujarat the most desperate share in colonising both Java and Cambodia cannot be doubted.¹