The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s5.107

c7.s5.107

¹ Prairies d'Or, I. 254, 383 & II. 85; Elliot and Dowson, I. 24, 25. Tod (Western India, 147, 160) held that Balhára meant the leaders of the Balla tribe, whose name appears in the ancient capital Valabhi (A.D. 480), probably the present village of Valleh about twenty miles west of Bhávnagar in Káthiáwár. Elliot (History, I. 354) has adopted Tod's suggestion, modifying it slightly so as to make Balhára stand for the Ballabhi or Ballabh, Rái. Renaud (Mémoire Sur l'Inde, 145) explained Balhára by Malvarai lord of Málwa, and Mr. Thomas has lately adopted the view that Balhára is Bara Rái or great king, and holds that his capital was Monghir in Behár (Numismata Orientalia, III.) The objection to these views is, as the following passages show, that the two Arab travellers who knew the country of the Balháras, Sulaimán (850) and Masudi (915), agree in placing it in the Konkan and Dakhan. Sulaimán (Elliot and Dowson, I. 4) says the Balhára's territory begins at the Komkam or Konkan. Masudi says (Pariries d'Or, I. 177, 381), the capital of the Balhára is Mankir, the sea-board Saimur or Chaul, Sopára, and Thána, and again (I. 353) the Balhára's kingdom is called the Konkan (Kemker). Again the Balhára of Mankir ruled in Sindán, Sanján in north Thána, and the neighbourhood of Cambay in Gujarát (Ditto, I. 254 & III. 47. This Gujarát power of the Ráshtrakutas at the opening of the tenth century is proved by local inscriptions. Ind. Ant. VI. 145). Finally Lár, or the North Konkan coast, was under the Balhára, and Masudi in 916 (H. 304) visited Saimur or Chaul, one of the chief of the Balhára towns (Ditto, II. 85), which was then under a local prince named Jandja. This is the Siláhara Jhanja. (See above page 17.) Idrisi (1135) is the only authority who places the seat of Balhára power in Gujarát (Jaubert, I. 176; Elliot, I. 87, 88). The Anahilaváda sovereigns had before this (Rás Málá, 62) adopted the title of King of Kings Rája of Rájás, and Idrisi seems to have taken for granted that this title was Balhára, which Ibn Khurdádba (912), who never was in India, had, by mistake, translated king of kings (Elliot, 1. 13). The true origin of the title Balhára, that it was the name of the founder of the dynasty, is given by Masudi (Prairies d'Or, I. 162), and neither Sulaimán (850), Al Istakhir (951), nor Ibn Haukal (970), all of whom visited India, translates Balhára king of kings (see Elliot I, 4, 27, 34). The details of the Balhára kings given by Sulaimán, Masudi, Al Istakhir, and Ibn Haukal, show that their territory began from the Konkan and stretched across India, and that their capital was Mankir, inland in the Kánarese (Kiriah) speaking country. These details point to the Ráshtrakutas of Málkhet, who were overlords of the Konkan from about 750 to 970, and among the earliest of whom, as Professor Bhandárkar has shewn, Valabh the Beloved was a favourite personal name. At the same time the Ráshtrakutas seem to have no claim to the title Balhára.