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Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c5.s3: Chapter III. Legends

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c5.s3

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English

Contents

Chapter III. Legends

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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² Hari-vansa, XXXV. - CXII.

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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

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³ Mahábhárata Ádiparva, chaps. 218-221.

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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.’

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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.

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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.

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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.

Cites (7)