Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c9.t2: The Mihiras, A.D. 470-900

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c9.t2

Language: English

The Mihiras, A.D. 470-900

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power of the Maitrakas with the North Indian empire of the Ephthalites, Yethas, or White Hunas.

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Though the sameness in name between the Mihiras and Mihirakula (A.D. 508-530), the great Indian champion of the White Hunas, may not imply sameness of tribe it points to a common sun-worship.

That the Multan sun-worship was introduced under foreign influence is supported by the fact (Wilson's Ariana Antiqua, 134) that the figure of the sun on the fifth century Hindu sun coins is in the dress of a Persian king; that the priests who performed the Maitraka sun-worship were called Magas; and by the details of the dress and ritual in the account of the introduction of sun-worship given in the Bhavishya Purana. That the Meyds or Mandas had some part in its introduction is supported by the fact that the Purana calls the third or Sudra class of the sun-worshippers Mandagas. That the Meyds were associated with the Magas is shown by the mention of the Magas as Mihirakas. The third class whom the Bhavishya Purana associates with the introduction of sun-worship are the Magas.

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The evidence in support of the statement that the Maitrakas had a connection with the Hunas and some Hindu rulers is given in the text. An important passage is the grant of Dharasena II. (Epig. Ind. I, 85) with its reference to Bhatarka the founder of Valabhi (A.D. 470-520) described as the chief of the armies of the Maitrakas.

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Mr. Fleet (Epigraphia Indica, 125-127 and note 19) would identify the Mihiras with the Maitrakas. More recent evidence shows that the Mihira or Huna tribe was the Maitraka. That the White Hunas were also associated with the sun-worshippers appears from a reference to one of Mihirakula's coins (Rapson's Indian Coins, 111, 104) to the influence of a specially fine temple. It is clear from the fact that in Kashmir Mihirakula founded a city Mihirapura (Stein's Rajatarangini, I, 436; Fleet in Indian Antiquary, XV, 245-252) Mihirakula (A.D. 508-530) must have been the Mihira king. R. G. Bhandarkar (Ind. Ant. 30-170) mentions that in the Wilson's Ariana Antiqua it is stated that the 12th of the Mihirakula coins bears the name Mihira. It is also clear that Mihiras are mentioned as a tribe that Mihirakula was the head of. It is generally accepted that the spread of sun-worship in Gujarat under the influence of the Sassanian Varahran V. or Bahram Gor (A.D. 420-438) and his successors (A.D. 438-457) that the Mihiras (A.D. 457-1490) represented the White Hunas. The name of the White Hunas is known by the Persian name only. Dr. M. A. Stein (Rajatarangini, II, 490) says that the name of the White Hunas is the Mihiras. That the Indian sun-worship, which, at Multan, from the seventh century made Multan so famous was not of local origin is shown by the fact that the reference to the worship in Multan in the accounts of Alexander the Great of local origin is further shown by the fact that in the time of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 640, Beal's Edition, II, 119) the priests were called Magas and the image of the sun had northern dress falling to the ankles. It is remarkable as illustrating the tendency to adopt priests of conquering tribes into the ranks of Brahmans that this custom survives (Kutch Gazetteer, 45 note 2) among Shrimali Brahmans. The Magas are said to have married Bhoj or Rajput girls and to have become the Brahmans of the Dvarka. Even the Magas who had Kaka wives, whose descendants were called Bhojaks, obtained a share in the temple ceremonies. B. H. Baden Powell, Sun Worship.

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¹ Wilson's Vishnu Purana Preface XXXII, in Dr. Hall's Manners and Customs, 116. Details are given in Wilson's Works, X, 381-383.

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² Renaud's Memoire Sur l'Inde, 233; Wilson's Works, X, 282.

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³ The name Mihiraka is explained in the Bhavishya Purana as derived from the marriage of a daughter of the sage Riju or Rijvah of the race mentioned in Renaud's Memoire Sur l'Inde, 303; Wilson's Works, X, 382. The name Mihiraka is associated with the spread of sun-worship in the Punjab and Sindh, of which the migrations to Kutch, Sindh, Kathiawada and Mewad and the fine-looking Rajput and other races of the fifth and sixth centuries are evidence, was helped by the spread of the sun influence.

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to give a place between the Magas and the Mēdas. The association of the Mēdas with the Mīhiras or Mihirakula suggests that Mēdas or Mēdhas is possibly a name for the White Hūṇas. That the Multan sun idol of the sixth and seventh centuries was a Hūṇa idol and Mūlasthāna the capital of a Hūṇa dynasty is given agreement with the post-Sassanian tradition of the kings of Āl-or-Ban in the sixth century. Though the defeat of Yaśodharman of Mālwā about A.D. 530 at the hands of Kṛṣṇa, sixty miles east of Multan, may have ended Hūṇa supremacy in Central and North-west India, it does not follow that authority at once passed to the Hūṇas. There is period and unchallenged dominion in N.W. India, the absence of which may reverse the claim the Kārkoṭa dynasty, the hopelessness of any attempt to pass out of India by the Lāṭa, the powerful Turk and Sassanian forces may at one time drive the Hūṇas at their associated tribes adopting Hinduism and abandoning their claim to supremacy, to find at west and settle in India. This view finds support in the leading coins which the Hūṇas and Hāra-Hūṇas, the Mēdhas, or Mēdas of the Gurjara hold in the North-west follow the overthrow of the White Hūṇa empire. Everything as to the region of Sassanian rule, the relief of Orthoman or Sūras in person, the several minor tent rulers owed allegiance to Hūṇas, are all as suggested as part of the text to China, or origin in the Ind-va-Hūṇa or the White Hūṇas. These include all the Hūṇas and the Mēdhas as Mēdas, or Mēdhas-born Hūṇas who were in power in Kashmir, and to whom allegiance during the seventh and eighth centuries both the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang and the Arab and the Sassanian historians of India bear witness, the assertion of the last White Hūṇa mission A.D. 620 A.D. in the valley record remaining—and from

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the Belochistan frontier, the Hūṇa or Mēdhas rule of Kashmir, the Sassanian rule of the Indus, the Hūṇa rule of the Punjab, the Hūṇa rule of the Ganges, the Hūṇa rule of the Jumna, the Hūṇa rule of the Narmada, the Hūṇa rule of the Tapti, the Hūṇa rule of the Godavari, the Hūṇa rule of the Krishna, the Hūṇa rule of the Tungabhadra, the Hūṇa rule of the Cauvery, the Hūṇa rule of the Vaigai, the Hūṇa rule of the Tamraparni, the Hūṇa rule of the Palar, the Hūṇa rule of the Pennar, the Hūṇa rule of the Mahanadi, the Hūṇa rule of the Brahmaputra, the Hūṇa rule of the Ganges, the Hūṇa rule of the Jumna, the Hūṇa rule of the Narmada, the Hūṇa rule of the Tapti, the Hūṇa rule of the Godavari, the Hūṇa rule of the Krishna, the Hūṇa rule of the Tungabhadra, the Hūṇa rule of the Cauvery, the Hūṇa rule of the Vaigai, the Hūṇa rule of the Tamraparni, the Hūṇa rule of the Palar, the Hūṇa rule of the Pennar, the Hūṇa rule of the Mahanadi, the Hūṇa rule of the Brahmaputra, the Hūṇa rule of the Ganges, the Hūṇa rule of the Jumna, the Hūṇa rule of the Narmada, the Hūṇa rule of the Tapti, the Hūṇa rule of the Godavari, the Hūṇa rule of the Krishna, the Hūṇa rule of the Tungabhadra, the Hūṇa rule of the Cauvery, the Hūṇa rule of the Vaigai, the Hūṇa rule of the Tamraparni, the Hūṇa rule of the Palar, the Hūṇa rule of the Pennar, the Hūṇa rule of the Mahanadi, the Hūṇa rule of the Brahmaputra.

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¹ Wilson's Vol. IX, 364.

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² The White Hūṇas were Mēdhas, and the empire of the Hūṇas between A.D. 450 and 600. About a hundred years before the Sassanian empire the advance Turk and Hūṇa or Mēdhas in N. Malabar (A.D. 537-538). Hodgson's Sassanian Monarchy, 627. Specht in Journal Asiatique, 1883, Tea II, 349-356. The Hūṇas supremacy in North India did not last beyond A.D. 530 or 540. The overthrow of their

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Central Asia into Persia and India no feature is more leading of the conquered by certain families of the Hunas. Chinese authorities place it beyond doubt that, which, towards the middle of the fifth century A.D., the White Hunas crossed the Oxus and rose in power a cognate tribe of northerners whose date of arrival on the Indian frontier was less than a century old. This tribe was the Yuán Yuán, Var-Var, or Avar, who, about the middle of the fourth century (A.D. 350), had driven from Balkh, south of the Kabul valley Kitelo the last ruler of the long-established Kushan (A.D. 380). It is known that in retreating before the Hunas a division of the Kushans, under the leadership of a Kushan, under the name of the Kidaras or Little Yuchi, established their power in Gandhara and Peshawar. The Kidaras, it is said, have driven a certain share of the people of the Kidaras further east of the Indus. The invasion of the White Hunas was a movement who were welcomed as allies by some of the Punjab chiefs. These fresh movements among the frontier tribes. The welcome given to the Hunas, and the slow and dark which marked their rise to ascendancy in India and Persia, make it probable that some of them conducted raids as far as Kathiawada and Malava long before the earlier northern settlers. To which of the waves of earlier conquerors the Meds belonged it is doubtful. The view held by Panjab historians that one branch of the Meds entered India in this time century before Christ among the tribes of which the name Yuchi were known, is on the whole in agreement with General Cunningham's opinion that the Medus Hydaspes, Virgil's phrase for the Jhelum, proves that the Meds were, then (B.C. 10) already settled on its banks.

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Apparent perhaps dates from A.D. 500 the battle of Korur which broke the Malvas, their conqueror being Yasodharman who also assisted in the Vikramaditya of Malava. Of the Hunas position among Hindu tribes it is said: The Hunas are one of the thirty-six royal races, or rather tribes of India. They probably came along with the Suchi, Huna, and Avar. See Smith's Tod's Annals of Rajasthan, I, 110.

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¹ Speaks in Journal Asiatique (1883), II, 48.

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² Speaks in Journal Asiatique (1883), II, 510.

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³ Compare above Chapter VII, page 73 note 2.

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⁴ Dr. Bhagvanlal (Trans. As. Soc. of Bombay, XII, 32) identifies the Meds with the tribe of the Kathiawar Kathis (A.D. 700). He connects the Meds (24) with the Malavas, Pahlavas and Abhiras about the same time. Thus he seems to have considered these early Huna different from the fifth century Mihiras and from the seventh century Meds or Mands.

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⁵ Arch. Report for 1880-81, II, 52. To support this Cunningham (A.D. 450) the Hymnodis Huna is Sughi, they left north-west of India. Ptolemy's Tables (A.D. 400). This Iathyma is the description of the Meds the name given to them by Dionysius (circ. 150) the earliest mention of his Callip-Achydemus (Compare Text page 6 note 2). The cause of the cause of this change of names which may be many a varied explanations have been offered. Tod (An. of Raj. I, 93) would connect the Yothil-hunas the Middle Yuchi. Cunningham (Arch. Rep. II, 63) would attribute it to the southward migration. Towards Smith above p. 20 of this book, the wilder Mosch or Moghs came from Central Tibet and entered India by way of Kashmir or down the Swat valley. According to General Cunningham, the followers of this Moas were Mandreni called after the Mandreni east of the Oxus. The two forms Medh and Mand are due to the cerebral pronunciation of Minagara of Ptolemy and the Periplus. Merrill's (A.D. 916) Mind and the Rhmedae.

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Dr. Bhagvanlal’s view that the Jethvas are Meds is supported by long scholarship, a view which is doubtfully shared by Colonel Watson and is not universally accepted, but it has strong opinions. Still though the Hindu rider-worship, which is in the care of the Maratha Somji, explains the raising of the twice-born of leaders of successful early and foreign tribes makes it likely that the Jethvas were originally Meds, it seems on the whole probable that the Jethvas are a distinct race, distinct from the Meds, and well founded. The evidence mostly by Colonel Tod and the name Jethva, and the effort of Mr. Wilson to trace the Jethvas to the Jethvas, and according to the bards the name of the Jethvas is derived from Jethva (No. 85 or No. 95 of the Jethvas) and is possible as called because he was born under a particular constellation. The common practice of explaining a name by a myth is a common name-giving that deprives this derivation of much probability. In the present case it may further be added that the name Jethva is borne by two of the chiefs and a tribe of the Kathis. In the absence of any better theory the Jethvas are Meds suggests an origin by Meds the Jethvas and Jethvas are the same as the Jethvas the name of the ruling Jethva. It is true that no good or authority no Jethva is the earliest form of Jethva pointing to the Chin on who was never in rise of the term Tolu or Hultan adopted by

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¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Abhiras or Meds (Sabat, 7, 14 and 378).

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² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds and the Jethvas (Meds, 188).

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³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds and the Jethvas (The Meds, Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Kath. Gaz. 1884, 188).

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⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Tod, Western India, 415).

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⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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¹⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.48

²⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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²⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.50

²⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.56

³⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.58

³⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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³⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.60

³⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.65

⁴⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁴⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.68

⁴⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.69

⁴⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.70

⁴⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.71

⁵⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.72

⁵¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.73

⁵² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.74

⁵³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.75

⁵⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.76

⁵⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.77

⁵⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.78

⁵⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.79

⁵⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.80

⁵⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.81

⁶⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.82

⁶¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.83

⁶² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.84

⁶³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.85

⁶⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.86

⁶⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.87

⁶⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.88

⁶⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.89

⁶⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.90

⁶⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.91

⁷⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.92

⁷¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁷² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.94

⁷³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.95

⁷⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.96

⁷⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.97

⁷⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.98

⁷⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.99

⁷⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.100

⁷⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.101

⁸⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.102

⁸¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.103

⁸² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.104

⁸³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.105

⁸⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.106

⁸⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.107

⁸⁶ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.108

⁸⁷ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.109

⁸⁸ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.110

⁸⁹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.111

⁹⁰ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

c9.t2.112

⁹¹ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁹² The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁹³ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁹⁴ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

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⁹⁵ The Jethvas are the same as the Meds (Gazetteer, 188).

Cites (2)

Bhaviṣyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit