Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c5: Early History of Gujarát

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c5

Language
English

Contents

Early History of Gujarát

Chapter I. Boundaries and Name

c5.s1.2

The portion of the Bombay Presidency known as Gujarát fills the north-east corner of the coast of Western India.

c5.s1.3

On the west is the Arabian Sea; on the north-west is the Gulf of Cutch. To the north lie the Little Ran and the Mevád desert; to the north-east Ábu and other outliers of the Arávali range. The east is guarded and limited by rough forest land rugged in the north with side spurs of the Vindhyas, more open towards the central natural highway from Baroda to Ratlám, and southwards again rising and roughening into the northern offshoots from the main range of the Sátpudás. The southern limit is uncertain. History somewhat doubtfully places it at the Tápti. Language carries Gujarát about a hundred miles further to Balsár and Párdi where wild forest-covered hills from the north end of the Sahyádri range stretch west almost to the sea.

c5.s1.4

The province includes two parts, Mainland Gujarát or Gurjjara-ráshtra and Peninsular Gujarát the Sauráshtra of ancient, the Káthiá-váda of modern history. To a total area of about 72,000 square miles Mainland Gujarát with a length from north to south of about 280 miles and a breadth from east to west varying from fifty to 150 miles contributes 45,000 square miles; and Peninsular Gujarát with a greatest length from north to south of 155 miles and from east to west of 200 miles contributes 27,000 square miles. To a population of about 9,250,000 Mainland Gujarát contributes 6,900,000 and the Peninsula about 2,350,000.

c5.s1.5

The richness of Mainland Gujarát the gift of the Sábarmati Mahi Narbada and Tápti and the goodliness of much of Sauráshtra the Goodly Land have from before the beginning of history continued to draw strangers to Gujarát both as conquerors and as refugees.

c5.s1.6

By sea probably came some of the half-mythic Yádavas (B.C. 1500 - 500); contingents of Yavanas (B.C. 300 - A.D. 100) including Greeks Baktrians Parthians and Scythians; the pursued Pársis and the pursuing Arabs (A.D. 600 - 800); hordes of Sanganian pirates (A.D. 900 - 1200); Pársi and Naváyat Musalmán refugees from Khulagu Khán's devastation of Persia (A.D. 1250 - 1300); Portuguese and rival Turks (A.D. 1500 - 1600); Arab and Persian Gulf pirates (A.D. 1600 - 1700); African Arab Persian and Makran soldiers of fortune (A.D. 1500 - 1800); Armenian Dutch and French traders (A.D. 1600 - 1750); and the British (A.D. 1750 - 1812). By land from the north have come the Skythians and Huns (B.C. 200 - A.D. 500), the Gurjjaras (A.D. 400 - 600), the early Jádejás and Káthis (A.D. 750 - 900), wave on wave of Afghan Turk Moghal and other northern Musalmáns (A.D. 1000 - 1500), and the later Jádejás and Káthis (A.D. 1300 - 1500) : From the north-east the prehistoric Aryans till almost modern times (A.D. 1100 - 1200) continued to send settlements of Northern Bráhmans ; and since the thirteenth century have come Turk Afghan and Moghal Musalmáns : From the east have come the Mauryans (B.C. 300), the half - Skythian Kshatrapas (B.C. 100 - A.D. 300), the Guptas (A.D. 380), the Gurjjars (A.D. 400 - 600), the Moghals (A.D. 1530), and the Maráthás (A.D. 1750) : And from the south the Sátakarnis (A.D. 100), the Chálukyas and Ráshtrakutas (A.D. 650 - 950), occasional Musalmán raiders (A.D. 1400 - 1600), the Portuguese (A.D. 1500), the Maráthás (A.D. 1660 - 1760), and the British (A.D. 1780 - 1820).

c5.s1.7

The name Gujarát is from the Prákrit Gujjara-ratta, the Sanskrit of which is Gurjjara-ráshtra that is the country of the Gujjaras or Gurjjaras. In Sanskrit books and inscriptions the name of the province is written Gurjjara-mandala and Gúrjjara-des'a the land of the Gujjaras or Gúrjjaras. The Gujjaras are a foreign tribe who passing into India from the north-west gradually spread as far south as Khándesh and Bombay Gujarát. The present Gujars of the Panjab and North-West Provinces preserve more of their foreign traits than the Gujar settlers further to the south and east. Though better-looking, the Panjab Gujars in language dress and calling so closely resemble the associates the Játs or Játs as to suggest that the two tribes entered India about the same time. Their present distribution shows that the Gujars spread further east and south than the Játs. The earliest Gujar settlements seem to have been in the Panjab and North-West Provinces from the Indus to Mathurá where they still differ greatly in dress and language from most other inhabitants. From Mathurá the Gujars seem to have passed to East Rajputána and from there by way of Kotah and Mandasor to Málwa, where, though their original character is considerably altered, the Gujars of Málwa still remember that their ancestors came from the Doab between the Ganges and the Jamna. In Málwa they spread as far east as Bhilsa and Saharanpur. From Málwa they passed south to Khándesh and west probably by the Ratlam-Dohad route to the province of Gujarát.

c5.s1.8

Like the modern Ahirs of Káthiávád the Gujars seem to have been a tribe of cattle-rearers husbandmen and soldiers who accompanied some conqueror and subsequently were pushed or spread forwards as occasion arose or necessity compelled. In the absence of better authority the order and locality of their settlements suggest that their introduction into India took place during the rule of the Skythian or Kushán emperor Kanerkes or Kanishka (A.D. 78 - 106) in whose time they seem to have settled as far east as Mathurá to which the territory of Kanishka is known to have extended. Subsequently along with the Guptas, who rose to power about two hundred years later (A.D. 300), the Gujars settled in East Rajputána, Málwa, and Gujarát, provinces all of which were apparently subjugated by the Guptas. It seems probable that in reward for their share in the Gupta conquests the leading Gujars were allotted fiefs and territories which in the declining power of their Gupta overlords they afterwards (A.D. 450 - 550) turned into independent kingdoms.

c5.s1.9

The earliest definite reference to a kingdom of North Indian Gujars is about A.D. 890 when the Kashmir king Sankaravarman sent an expedition against the Gurjjara king Alakhána and defeated him. As the price of peace Alakhána offered the country called Takkades'u. This Takkades'a¹ appears to be the same as the T'sehkia of Hiuen Tsiang² (A.D 630 - 640) who puts it between the Biyás on the east and the Indus on the west thus including nearly the whole Panjab. The tract surrendered by Alakhána was probably the small territory to the east of the Chináb as the main possessions of Alakhána must have lain further west between the Chináb and the Jehlam, where lie the town of Gujarát and the country still called Gujar-des'a the land of the Gujars.³

c5.s1.10

¹ Rája Tarangini (Calc. Edition), V. 150, 155; Cunningham's Archæological Survey, II. 8. An earlier but vaguer reference occurs about the end of the sixth century in Bána's Sriharshacharita, p. 274, quoted in Ep. Ind. I. 670, where Prabhátkaravardhana of Thánesar the father of the great S'rí Harsha is said to have waged war with several races of whom the Gurjaras are one.

c5.s1.11

² Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, I. 165 note 1.

c5.s1.12

³ Cunningham's Archæological Survey, II. 71.

c5.s1.13

As early as the sixth and seventh centuries records prove the existence of two independent Gurjjara kingdoms in Bombay Gujarát one in the north the other in the south of the province. The Northern kingdom is mentioned by Hiuen Tsiang in the seventh century under the name Kiu-che-lo. He writes: 'Going north from the country of Valabhi 1800 li (300 miles) we come to the kingdom of Kiu-che-lo. This country is about 5000 li in circuit, the capital, which is called Pi-lo-mo-lo, is 30 li or so round. The produce of the soil and the manners of the people resemble those of Sauráshtra. The king is of the Kshatriya caste. He is just twenty years old.'⁴ Hiuen Tsiang's Kiu-che-lo is apparently Gurjjara, the capital of which Pi-lo-mo-lo is probably Bhilmál or Bhinmál, better known as S'rímál.⁵ Though Hiuen Tsiang calls the king a Kshatriya he was probably a Gujar who like the later Southern Gujars claimed to be of the Kshatriya race.

c5.s1.14

⁴ Beal's Buddhist Records, II. 270.

c5.s1.15

⁵ This identification was first made by the late Col. J. W. Watson, I.S.C. Ind. Ant. VI. 63. Bhinmál or Bhilmál also called S'rímál, is an old town about thirty miles north-east of Abu, north latitude 25° 4' east longitude 71° 14'. General Cunningham (Ancient Geography of India, 313) and Professor Beal (Buddhist Records, II. 270) identity Pi-lo-mo-lo with Bálmer or Bádamera (north latitude 71° 10' east longitude 26° 0') in the Jodhpur State of West Rájputána. This identification is unsatisfactory. Bálmer is a small town on the slope of a hill in an arid tract with no vestige of antiquity. Hiuen Tsiang notes that the produce of the soil and the manners of the people of Pi-lo-mo-lo resemble those of Suráshtra. This description is unsuited to so arid a tract as surrounds Bálmer; it would apply well to the fertile neighbourhood of Bhilmál or Bhinmál. Since it is closely associated with Juzr that is Gurjjara the Al Bailáman of the Arabs (A.D. 750, Elliot's History, I. 442) may be Bhilmál. A Jain writer (Ind. Ant. XIX. 233) mentions Bhilmál as the seat of king Bhímasena and as connected with the origin of the Gadbia coinage. The date Bhinmál in a M.S. of A.D. 906 (Ditto, page 35) suggests it was then a seat of learning under the Gurjjaras. The prince of S'rímál is mentioned (Rás Málá, I. 58)

The Name

c5.s1.t1.1

Southern Gurjjara Kingdom, A.D. 589 - 735.

c5.s1.t1.2

The Southern Gurjjara kingdom in Gujarát, whose capital was at Nándipuri, perhaps the modern Nándod the capital of the Rájpipla State, flourished from A.D. 589 to A.D. 735.¹ The earlier inscriptions describe the Southern Gurjjaras as of the Gurjjara Vans'a. Later they ceased to call themselves Gurjjaras and traced their genealogy to the Puránic king Karna.

c5.s1.t1.3

¹ Indian Antiquary, XIII. 70-81. Bühler (Ind. Ant. VII. 62) identifies Nándipuri with a suburb of Broach.

c5.s1.t1.4

From the fourth to the eighth century the extensive tract of Central Gujarát between the North and South Gurjjara kingdoms was ruled by the Valabhis. The following reasons seem to show that the Valabhi dynasty were originally Gujars. Though it is usual for inscriptions to give this information none of the many Valabhi copper-plates makes any reference to the Valabhi lineage. Nor does any inscription state to what family Senápati Bhatárka the founder of the dynasty belonged. Hiuen Tsiang describes the Valabhi king as a Kshatriya and as marrying with the kings of Málwa and Kanauj. The Valabhi king described by Hiuen Tsiang is a late member of the dynasty who ruled when the kingdom had been greatly extended and when the old obscure tribal descent may have been forgotten and a Kshatriya lineage invented instead. Intermarriage with Málwa and Kanauj can be easily explained. Rajputs have never been slow to connect themselves by marriage with powerful rulers.

c5.s1.t1.5

The establishment of these three Gujar kingdoms implies that the Gurjjara tribe from Northern and Central India settled in large numbers in Gujarát. Several Gujar castes survive in Gujarát. Among them are Gujar Vániás or traders, Gujar Sutárs or carpenters, Gujar Sonis or goldsmiths; Gujar Kumbhárs or potters, and Gujar Saláts or masons. All of these are Gujars who taking to different callings have formed separate castes. The main Gujar underlayer are the Lewás and Kadwás the two leading divisions of the important class of Gujarát Kanbis. The word Kanbi is from the Sanskrit Kutumbin, that is one possessing a family or a house. From ancient times the title Kutumbin has been prefixed to the names of cultivators.² This practice still obtains in parts of the North-West Provinces where the peasant proprietors are addressed as Grihasthas or householders. As cattle-breeding not cultivation was the original as it still is the characteristic calling of many North Indian Gujars, those of the tribe who settled to cultivation came to be specially known as Kutumbin or householders. Similarly Deccan surnames show that many tribes of wandering cattle-owners settled as householders and are now known as Kunbis.³ During the last

c5.s1.t1.6

² Bombay Gazetteer, Násik, page 604. Bombay Arch. Survey Sep. Number X. 38.

c5.s1.t1.7

³ Among Deccan Kunbi surnames are Jádhav, Chuhán, Nikumbha, Parmár, Selár, Solké. Cf. Bombay Gazetteer, XXIV. 65 note 2, 414.

c5.s1.t1.8

as accompanying Múla Rajá Solankhi (A.D. 942-997) in an expedition against Sorath. Al Biruni (A.D. 1030, Sachau's Edn., I.153, 267) refers to Bhillamála between Multán and Anhilaváda. As late as A.D. 1611 Nicholas Ufflet, an English traveller from Agra to Ahmadábád (Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 301) notices "Beehuahl as having an ancient wall 24 kos (36 miles) round with many fine tanks going to ruin." The important sub-divisions of upper class Gujarát Hindus who take their name from it show S'rimál to have been a great centre of population.

Settlements

c5.s1.t2.1

twenty years the settlement as Kunbis in Khándesh of tribes of wandering Wanjára herdsmen and grain-carriers is an example of the change through which the Gujarát Kunbis and the Deccan Kunbis passed in early historic times.

c5.s1.t2.2

Besides resembling them in appearance and in their skill both as husbandmen and as cattle-breeders the division of Gujarát Kunbis into Lewa and Kadwa seems to correspond with the division of Málwa Gujars into Daha and Karad, with the Lewa origin of the East Khándesh Gujars, and with the Lawi tribe of Panjáb Gujars. The fact that the head-quarters of the Lewa Kanbis of Gujarát is in the central section of the province known as the Charotar and formerly under Valabhi supports the view that the founder of Valabhi power was the chief leader of the Gujar tribe. That nearly a fourth of the whole Hindu population of Gujarát are Lewa and Kadwa Kanbis and that during the sixth seventh and eighth centuries three Gujar chiefs divided among them the sway of the entire province explain how the province of Gujarát came to take its name from the tribe of Gujars.¹

c5.s1.t2.3

¹ Though the identification of the Valabhis as Gurjjaras may not be certain, in inscriptions noted below both the Chávadás and the Solankis are called Gurjjara kings. The Gurjjara origin of either or of both these dynasties may be questioned. The name Gurjjara kings may imply no more than that they ruled the Gurjjara country. At the same time it was under the Chávadás that Gujarát got its name. Though to Al Biruni (A.D. 1020) Gujarát still meant part of Rájpútána, between A.D. 750 and 950 the name Gurjjara land passed as far south as the territory connected with Anhilváda and Vadnagar that is probably as far as the Mahi. As a Rástrakuta copperplate of A.D. 888 (S. 810) (Ind. Ant. XIII. 69) brings the Konkan as far north as Variáv on the Tápti the extension of the name Gujarát to Láta south of the Mahi seems to have taken place under Musalmán rule. This southern application is still somewhat incomplete. Even now the people of Surat both Hindus and Musalmáns when they visit Pattan (Anhilváda) and Ahmadábád speak of going to Gujarát, and the Ahmadábád section of the Nágar Bráhmans still call their Surat caste-brethren by the name of Kunkanas that is of the Konkan.

Chapter II. Ancient Divisions

c5.s2.2

FROM ancient times the present province of Gujarát consisted of three divisions Anartta, Suráshtra, and Láṭa. Anartta seems to have been Northern Gujarát, as its capital was Anandapura the modern Vaḍanagara or Chief City, which is also called Anarttapura.¹ Both these names were in use even in the times of the Valabhi kings (A.D. 500-770).² According to the popular story, in each of the four cycles or yugas Anandapura or Vaḍanagara had a different name, Chamatkárapura in the first or Satya-yuga, Anarttapura in the second or Tretá-yuga, Anandapura in the third or Dvápara-yuga, and Vriddha-nagara or Vaḍanagar in the fourth or Káli-yuga. The first name is fabulous. The city does not seem to have ever been known by so strange a title. Of the two Anarttapura and Anandapura the former is the older name, while the latter may be its proper name or perhaps an adaptation of the older name to give the meaning City of Joy. The fourth Vriddha-nagara meaning the old city is a Sanskritized form of the still current Vaḍnagar, the Old or Great City. In the Girnár inscription of Kshatrapa Rudradáman (A.D. 150) the mention of Anartta and Suráshtra as separate provinces subject to the Pahlava viceroy of Junágadh agrees with the view that Anartta was part of Gujarát close to Káthiáváḍa. In some Puránas Anartta appears as the name of the whole province including Suráshtra, with its capital at the well known shrine of Dwáriká. In other passages Dwáriká and Prabhás are both mentioned as in Suráshtra which would seem to show that Suráshtra was then part of Anartta as Káthiáváḍa is now part of Gujarát.

c5.s2.3

¹ See Nagarakhaṇḍa (Junagadh Edition), 13, 32, 35, 185, 289, 332, 542.

c5.s2.4

² The Alina grants (Indian Antiquary, VII. 73, 77) dated Valabhi 330 and 337 (A.D. 649-656) are both to the same donee who in the A.D. 649 grant is described as originally of Anarttapura and in the A.D. 656 grant as originally of Anandapura.

c5.s2.5

Suráshtra the land of the Sus, afterwards Sanskritized into Sauráshtra the Goodly Land, preserves its name in Sorath the southern part of Káthiáváḍa. The name appears as Suráshtra in the Mahábhárata and Pánini's Ganapatha, in Rudradáman's (A.D. 150) and Skandagupta's (A.D. 456) Girnár inscriptions, and in several Valabhi copper-plates. Its Prákrit form appears as Suratha in the Násik inscription of Gotamiputra (A.D. 150) and in later Prákrit as Suraththa in the Tirthakalpa of Jinaprabhásuri of the thirteenth or fourteenth century.³ Its earliest foreign mention is perhaps Strabo's (B.C. 50-A.D. 20) Saraostus and Pliny's (A.D. 70) Oratura.⁴ Ptolemy

c5.s2.6

³ Girnára-Kalpa, Atthi Suraththa vesaé Ujjinto náma pavvao rammo. In the Suraththa district is a lovely mountain named Ujjinto (Girnár).

c5.s2.7

⁴ Hamilton and Falconer's Strabo, II. 252-253; Pliny's Natural History, VI, 20.

c5.s2.9

the great Egyptian geographer (A.D. 150) and the Greek author of the Periplus (A.D. 240) both call it Surastrene.¹ The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 600-640) mentions Valabhi then large and famous and Surashtra as separate kingdoms.²

c5.s2.10

¹ Bertius' Ptolemy, VII. 1; McCrindle's Periplus, 113. The Periplus details regarding Indo-Scythia, Surastrene, and Ujjain are in agreement with the late date (A.D. 247) which Reinand (Indian Antiquary of Dec. 1879 pp. 330-338) and Burnell (S. Ind. Pal. 47 note 3) assign to its author.

c5.s2.11

² Hiuen Tsiang's Valabhi kingdom was probably the same as the modern Gohilvāḍa, which Jinaprabhāsuri in his S'atrunjaya-kalpa calls the Vallūka-Visaa.

c5.s2.12

Lāṭa is South Gujarāt from the Mahi to the Tāpti. The name Lāṭa does not appear to be Sanskrit. It has not been found in the Mahābhārata or other old Sanskrit works, or in the cave or other inscriptions before the third century A.D., probably because the Purāṇas include in Aparānta the whole western seaboard south of the Narbada as far as Goa. Still the name Lāṭa is old. Ptolemy (A.D. 150) uses the form Larike³ apparently from the Sanskrit Lāṭaka. Vātsyāyana in his Kāma-Sutra of the third century A.D. calls it Lāṭa; describes it as situated to the west of Mālwa; and gives an account of several of the customs of its people.⁴ In Sanskrit writings and inscriptions later than the third century the name is frequently found. In the sixth century the great astronomer Varāhamihira mentions the country of Lāṭa, and the name also appears as Lāṭa in an Ajanta and in a Mandasor inscription of the fifth century.⁵ It is common in the later inscriptions (A.D. 700-1200) of the Chālukya Gurjara and Rāshtrakūṭa kings⁶ as well as in the writings of Arab travellers and historians between the eighth and twelfth centuries.⁷

c5.s2.13

³ Bertius' Ptolemy, VII. 1.

c5.s2.14

⁴ Vātsyāyana Sutra, Chap. II.

c5.s2.15

⁵ Arch. Sur. of Western India, IV. 127. The Mandasor inscription (A.D. 437-38) mentions silk weavers from Lāṭavishaya. Fleet's Corpus Ins. Ind. III. 80. The writer (Ditto, 84) describes Lāṭa as green-hilled, pleasing with choice flower-burdened trees, with temples vihāras and assembly halls of the gods.

c5.s2.16

⁶ Ind. Ant. XIII. 157, 158, 163, 180, 188, 196, 199, 204.

c5.s2.17

⁷ Elliot's History, I. 378.

c5.s2.18

The name Lāṭa appears to be derived from some local tribe, perhaps the Laṭṭas, who, as r and l are commonly used for each other, may possibly be the well known Rāshtrakūṭas since their great king Amoghavarsha (A.D. 851-879) calls the name of the dynasty Ratta. Lattalura the original city of the Raṭṭas of Saundatti and Belgaum may have been in Lāṭa and may have given its name to the country and to the dynasty.⁸ In this connection it is interesting to note that the country between Broach and Dhār in Mālwa in which are the towns of Bāgh and Tānda is still called Rāṭha.

c5.s2.19

⁸ Compare Lassen in Ind. Ant. XIV. 325.

Chapter III. Legends

c5.s3.2

The oldest Puránic legend regarding Gujarát appears to be that of the holy king Anartta son of Saryáti and grandson of Manu. Anartta had a son named Revata, who from his capital at Kuśasthali or Dwáriká governed the country called Anartta. Revata had a hundred sons of whom the eldest was named Raivata or Kakudmi. Raivata had a daughter named Revati who was married to Baladeva of Kuśasthali or Dwáriká, the elder brother of Krishna. Regarding Revati's marriage with Baladeva the Puránic legends tell that Raivata went with his daughter to Brahmá in Brahma-loka to take his advice to whom he should give the girl in marriage. When Raivata arrived Brahmá was listening to music. As soon as the music was over Raivata asked Brahmá to find the girl a proper bridegroom. Brahmá told Raivata that during the time he had been waiting his kingdom had passed away, and that he had better marry his daughter to Baladeva, born of Vishnu, who was now ruler of Dwáriká.¹ This story suggests that Raivata son of Anartta lost his kingdom and fled perhaps by sea. That after some time during which the Yádavas established themselves in the country, Raivata, called a son of Revata but probably a descendant as his proper name is Kakudmi, returned to his old territory and gave his daughter in marriage to one of the reigning Yádava dynasty, the Yádavas taking the girl as representing the dynasty that had preceded them. The story about Brahmá and the passing of ages seems invented to explain the long period that elapsed between the flight and the return.

c5.s3.3

¹ The Vishnu Purána (Anśa iv. Chap. i. Verse 19 to Chap. ii. Verse 2) gives the longest account of the legend. The Bhágavata Purána (Skanda ix. Chap. iii. Verse 16-36) gives almost the same account. The Matsya Purána (Chap. xii. Verse 22-24) dismisses the story in two verses. See also Harivanśa, X.

c5.s3.4

The next Puránic legends relate to the establishment of the Yádava kingdom at Dwáriká. The founder and namegiver of the Yádava dynasty was Yadu of whose family the Puránas give very detailed information. The family seems to have split into several branches each taking its name from some prominent member, the chief of them being Vrishni, Kukkura, Bhoja, Sátvata, Andhaka, Madhu, Surasena, and Daśárha. Sátvata was thirty-seventh from Yadu and in his branch were born Devaki and Vasudeva, the parents of the great Yádava hero and god Krishna. It was in Krishna's time that the Yádavas had to leave their capital Mathurá and come to Dwáriká. This was the result of a joint invasion of Mathurá on one side by a legendary Deccan hero Kálayavana and on the other by Jarásandha the powerful king of Magadha or Behar, who, to avenge the death of his brother-in-law¹ Kansa killed by Krishna in fulfilment of a prophecy, is said to have invaded the Yádava territory eighteen times.

c5.s3.5

¹ Compare Máhábh. II. 13,594ff. Jarásandha's sisters Asti and Prápti were married to Kansa.

c5.s3.6

According to the story Kálayavana followed the fugitive Krishna and his companions as far as Suráshtra where in a mountain cave he was burnt by fire from the eye of the sleeping sage Muchakunda whom he had roused believing him to be his enemy Krishna. According to the Harivansa the fugitive Yádavas quitting Mathurá went to the Sindhu country and there established the city of Dwáriká on a convenient site on the sea shore making it their residence.² Local tradition says that the Yádavas conquered this part of the country by defeating the demons who held it.

c5.s3.7

² Hari-vansa, XXXV. - CXII.

c5.s3.8

The leading Yádava chief in Dwáriká was Ugrasena, and Ugrasena's three chief supporters were the families of Yadu, Bhoja, and Andhaka. As the entire peninsula of Káthiáwáda was subject to them the Yádavas used often to make pleasure excursions and pilgrimages to Prabhás and Girnár. Krishna and Baladeva though not yet rulers held high positions and took part in almost all important matters. They were in specially close alliance with their paternal aunt's sons the Pándava brothers, kings of Hastinápura or Delhi. Of the two sets of cousins Krishna and Arjuna were on terms of the closest intimacy. Of one of Arjuna's visits to Káthiáwáda the Mahábhárata gives the following details: 'Arjuna after having visited other holy places arrived in Apáránta (the western seaboard) whence he went to Prabhás. Hearing of his arrival Krishna marched to Prabhás and gave Arjuna a hearty welcome. From Prabhás they came together to the Raivataka hill which Krishna had decorated and where he entertained his guest with music and dancing. From Girnár they went to Dwáriká driving in a golden car. The city was adorned in honour of Arjuna; the streets were thronged with multitudes; and the members of the Vrishni, Bhoja, and Andhaka families met to honour Krishna's guest.'³

c5.s3.9

³ Mahábhárata Ádiparva, chaps. 218-221.

c5.s3.10

Some time after, against his elder brother Baladeva's desire, Krishna helped Arjuna to carry off Krishna's sister Subhadrá, with whom Arjuna had fallen in love at a fair in Girnár of which the Mahábhárata gives the following description: 'A gathering of the Yádavas chiefly the Vrishnis and Andhakas took place near Raivataka. The hill and the country round were rich with fine rows of fruit trees and large mansions. There was much dancing singing and music. The princes of the Vrishni family were in handsome carriages glistening with gold. Hundreds and thousands of the people of Junágadh with their families attended on foot and in vehicles of various kinds. Baladeva with his wife Revati moved about attended by many Gandharvas. Ugrasena was there with his thousand queens and musicians. Sámba and Pradyumna attended in holiday attire and looked like gods. Many Yádavas and others were also present with their wives and musicians.’

c5.s3.11

Some time after this gathering Subhadrá came to Girnár to worship and Arjuna carried her off. Eventually Vasudeva and Baladeva consented and the runaways were married with due ceremony. The large fair still held in Mágh (February - March) in the west Girnár valley near the modern temple of Bhavanáth is perhaps a relic of this great Yádava fair.

c5.s3.12

The Yádava occupation of Dwáriká was not free from trouble. When Krishna was at Hastinápura on the occasion of the Rájasúya sacrifice performed by Yudhishthira, Sálva king of Mrittikávati in the country of Saubha led an army against Dwáriká. He slew many of the Dwáriká garrison, plundered the city and withdrew unmolested. On his return Krishna learning of Sálva’s invasion led an army against Sálva. The chiefs met near the sea shore and in a pitched battle Sálva was defeated and killed.¹ Family feuds brought Yádava supremacy in Dwáriká to a disastrous end. The final family struggle is said to have happened in the thirty-sixth year after the war of the Mahábhárata, somewhere on the south coast of Káthiáwád near Prabhás or Somnáth Pátan the great place of Bráhmanical pilgrimage. On the occasion of an eclipse, in obedience to a proclamation issued by Krishna, the Yádavas and their families went from Dwáriká to Prabhás in state well furnished with dainties, animal food, and strong drink. One day on the sea shore the leading Yádava chiefs heated with wine began to dispute. They passed from words to blows. Krishna armed with an iron rod² struck every one he met, not even sparing his own sons. Many of the chiefs were killed. Baladeva fled to die in the forests and Krishna was slain by a hunter who mistook him for a deer. When he saw trouble was brewing Krishna had sent for Arjuna. Arjuna arrived to find Dwáriká desolate. Soon after Arjuna’s arrival Vasudeva died and Arjuna performed the funeral ceremonies of Vasudeva Baladeva and Krishna whose bodies he succeeded in recovering. When the funeral rites were completed Arjuna started for Indraprastha in Upper India with the few that were left of the Yádava families, chiefly women. On the way in his passage through the Panchanada¹ or Panjab a body of Ábhíras attacked Arjuna with sticks and took several of Krishna's wives and the widows of the Andhaka Yádava chiefs. After Arjuna left it the deserted Dwáriká was swallowed by the sea.²

c5.s3.13

¹ Mahábhárata Vanaparva, Chap. xiv. - xxii. Skanda x. Mrittikávati the capital of Sálva cannot be identified. The name of the country sounds like S'vabhra in Rudradáman's Girnár inscription, which is apparently part of Charotar or South Ahmadabad. A trace of the old word perhaps remains in the river Sábhramati the modern Sábarmati. The fact that S'álva passed from Mrittikávati along the sea shore would seem to show that part of the seaboard south of the Mahi was included in S'álva's territory. Dr. Bühler (Ind. Ant. VII. 263) described Pandit Bhagvanlál's reading of S'vabhra as a bold conjecture. A further examination of the original convinced the Pandit that S'vabhra was the right reading.

c5.s3.14

² The following is the legend of Krishna's iron flail. Certain Yádava youths hoping to raise a laugh at the expense of Viśvámitra and other sages who had come to Dwáriká presented to them Sámba Krishna's son dressed as a woman big with child. The lads asked the sages to foretell to what the woman would give birth. The sages replied: 'The woman will give birth to an iron rod which will destroy the Yádava race.' Obedient to the sage's prophecy Sámba produced an iron rod. To avoid the ill effects of the prophecy king Ugrasena had the rod ground to powder and cast the powder into the sea. The powder grew into the grass called eraka Typha elephantina. It was this grass which Krishna plucked in his rage and which in his hands turned into an iron flail. This eraka grass grows freely near the mouth of the Hiranya river of Prabhás.

c5.s3.15

¹ This suggests that as in early times the Great Ban was hard to cross the way from Káthiáwáda to Indraprastha or Delhi was by Kacheh and Sindh and from Sindh by Multán and the Lower Panjáb. According to the Bhágavata Purána Krishna took the same route when he first came from Indraprastha to Dwáriká. On the other hand these details may support the view that the head-quarters of the historic Krishna were in the Panjáb.

c5.s3.16

² So far as is known neither Gujarát nor Káthiáwáda contains any record older than the Girnár rock inscription of about B.C. 240: The Great Kshatrapa Rudra Dáman's (A.D. 139) inscription on the same rock has a reference to the Maurya Rája Chandragupta about B.C. 300. No local sign of Krishna or of his Yádavas remains.

c5.s3.17.1

In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, XX. XXI. and XXII. Mr. Hewitt has recently attempted to trace the history of Western India back to B.C. 3000 perhaps to as early as B.C. 6000. The evidence which makes so far-reaching a past probable is the discovery of Indian indigo and muslin in Egyptian tombs of about B.C. 1700 (J. R. A. S. XX. 206); and the proof that a trade in teak and in Sindhu or Indian muslins existed between Western India and the Euphrates mouth as far back as B.C. 3000 or even B.C. 4000 (J. R. A. S. XX. 336, 337 and XXI. 204). According to Mr. Hewitt the evidence of the Hindu calendar carries the historical past of India into still remoter ages. The moon mansions and certain other details of the Hindu calendar seem to point to the Euphrates valley as the home of Hindu lunar astronomy. As in the Euphrates valley inscriptions of the Semitic king Sargon of Sippara prove that in B.C. 3750 moon-worship was already antiquated (J. R. A. S. XXI. 325), and as the precession of the equinoxes points to about B.C. 4700 as the date of the introduction of the sun zodiac (Sayce's Hibbert Lectures, 398) the system of lunar mansions and months, if it came from the Euphrates valley, must have reached India before B.C. 4700. The trade records of the black-headed Dravidian-speaking Sumris of the Euphrates mouth prove so close relations with the peninsula of Sinai and Egypt as to make a similar connection with Western India probable as far back as B.C. 6000.

c5.s3.17.2

(Compare Sayce's Hibbert Lectures, 33: J. R. A. S. XXI. 326.) Of the races of whose presence in Gujarát and the neighbourhood Mr. Hewitt finds traces the earliest is the same black-headed moon-worshipping Sumri (Ditto). Next from Susiana in south-east Persia, the possessors of a lunar-solar calendar and therefore not later than B.C. 4700 (J. R. A. S. XXI. 325, 327, 330), the trading Sus or Saus, in Hindu books known as Suvarnas, entered India by way of Baluchistán and settled at Pátala in South Sindh. (J. R. A. S. XXI. 209.) With or soon after the Sus came from the cattle-herding sun-worshipping Sakas (J. R. A. S. XXII. 382). The Sus and Sakas passed south and together settled in Surashtra and West Gujarát. At a date which partly from evidence connected with the early Vedic hymns (J. R. A. S. XXII. 456) partly from the early Babylonian use of the Sanskrit Sindhu for India (J. R. A. S. XXI. 309), Mr. Hewitt holds cannot be later than B.C. 3000 northern A'ryas entered Gujarát and mixing with the Sus and Sakas as ascetics traders and soldiers carried the use of Sanskrit southwards. (J. R. A. S. XX. 343) Of other races who held sway in Gujarát the earliest, perhaps about B.C. 2000 since their power was shattered by Parasuráma long before Mahábhárata times (J. R. A. S. XXI.

c5.s3.17.3

209-266), were the snake-worshipping perhaps Accadian (Ditto, 265) Haihayas now represented by the Gonds and the Haihayas' vassals the Vaidarbhas (Ditto, 209) a connection which is supported by trustworthy Central Indian Uraon or Gond tradition that they once held Gujarát (Elliott's Races, N. W. P., I. 154). Next to the Haihayas and like them earlier than the Mahábhárata (say B.C. 1500-2000) Mr. Hewitt would place the widespread un-Aryan Bhárats or Bhárgavas (J. R. A. S. XXI. 279-282, 286) the conquerors of the Haihayas (Ditto, 288). In early Mahábhárata times (say between B.C. 1000 and 800; Ditto 197 and 209) the Bhárats were overcome by the very mixed race of the Bhojas and of Krishna's followers the Vrishnis (Ditto, 270). Perhaps about the same time the chariot-driving Gandharvas of Cutch (Ditto, 273) joined the Sus and Sakas, together passed east to Kosala beyond Benares, and were there established in strength at the time of Gautama Buddha (B.C. 530) (Ditto). To the later Mahábhárata times, perhaps about B.C. 400 (Ditto, 197-271), Mr. Hewitt would assign the entrance into Gujarát of the Ábhíras or Ahirs whom he identifies with the northern on Scythian Abārs. Mr. Hewitt finds the following places in Gujarāt associated with these early races. Pātāla in South Sindh he (J. R. A. S. XXI, 209) considers the head-quarters of the Sus and Sakas. Another Su capital Prājyotisha which is generally allotted to Bengal he would (XXI, 206) identify with Broach.

c5.s3.17.4

With the Vaidarbhas the vassals of the Haihayas he associates Surpāraka, that is Sopara near Bassein, which he identifies (Ditto, 206) with the modern Surat on the Tāpti. He connects (Ditto, 265) the Baroda river Viśvāmitra and Vaidurga the hill Pāvagad with the same tribe. He finds a trace of the Bharata in Baroda and in Bhārati an old name of the river Mahi (Ditto, 285) and of the same race under their name Bhārgav in Broach (Ditto, 289). The traditional connection of the Bhojas with Dwārka is well established. Finally Kārpasika a Mahābhārata name for the shore of the Gulf of Cambay (Ditto, 209) may be connected with Kārvān on the Narbada about twenty miles above Broach one of the holiest Shaiv places in India. Though objection may be taken to certain of Mr. Hewitt's identifications of Gujarāt places, and also to the extreme antiquity he would assign to the trade between India and the west and to the introduction of the system of lunar mansions, his comparison of sacred Hindu books with the calendar and ritual of early Babylonia is of much interest.

Chapter IV. Mauryan and Greek Rule

c5.s4.2

(B.C. 319-100.)

c5.s4.3

After the destruction of the Yádavas a long blank occurs in the traditional history of Gujarát. It is probable that from its seaboard position, for trade and other purposes, many foreigners settled in Káthiávád and South Gujarát; and that it is because of the foreign element that the Hindu Dharmasástras consider Gujarát a Mlechchha country and forbid visits to it except on pilgrimage.¹ The fact also that Asoka (B.C. 230) the great Mauryan king and propagator of Buddhism chose, among the Buddhist Theras sent to various parts of his kingdom, a Yavana Thera named Dhamma-rakhito as evangelist for the western seaboard,² possibly indicates a preponderating foreign element in these parts. It is further possible that these foreign settlers may have been rulers. In spite of these possibilities we have no traditions between the fall of the Yádavas and the rise of the Mauryas in B.C. 319.

c5.s4.4

¹ Mahábhárata Anusásanaparvan 2138-9 mentions Látas among Kshatriya tribes who have become outcasts from seeing no Bráhmans. Again, Chap. VII. 72. ib. couples (J. Bl. As. Soc. VI. (1) 387) thievish Bahikas and robber Suráshtras. Compare Vishnu Purána, II. 37, where the Yavanas are placed to the west of Bháratavarsha and also Magadha unless it be for a pilgrimage deserves to go through a fresh purification.

c5.s4.5

² Turnour's Mahávanso, 71.

c5.s4.6

Gujarát history dates from the rule of the Mauryan dynasty, the only early Indian dynasty the record of whose rule has been preserved in the writings of the Bráhmans, the Buddhists, and the Jains. This fulness of reference to the Mauryas admits of easy explanation. The Mauryas were a very powerful dynasty whose territory extended over the greater part of India. Again under Mauryan rule Buddhism was so actively propagated that the rulers made it their state religion, waging bloody wars, even revolutionizing many parts of the empire to secure its spread. Further the Mauryas were beneficent rulers and had also honourable alliances with foreign, especially with Greek and Egyptian, kings. These causes combined to make the Mauryas a most powerful and well remembered dynasty.

c5.s4.7

Inscriptions give reason to believe that the supremacy of Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty (B.C. 319), extended over Gujarát. According to Rudradáman's inscription (A.D. 150) on the great edict rock at Girnár in Káthiávád, a lake called Sudarsana³ near the edict rock was originally made by Pushyagupta of the Vaisya caste, who is described as a brother-in-law of the Mauryan king Chandragupta.⁴ The language of this inscription leaves no doubt that Chandragupta's sway extended over

c5.s4.8

³ Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society Journal, 1891, page 47.

c5.s4.9

⁴ It is interesting to note that Chandragupta married a Vaisya lady. Similarly while at Sanchi on his way to Ujjain Asoka married Devi, the daughter of a Setthi, Turnour's Mahávanso, 76; Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 95.

c5.s4.10

Chapter IV.

Linked texts (19)