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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c21: Chapter XVII: The Western Kingdoms

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c21

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Chapter XVII: The Western Kingdoms

(1) Gujar Chāpas of Bhinmal

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We will now turn to the history of the remaining kingdoms to the west of Kanauj noticed by Hiuen Tsang. And the first among them was the Gujar kingdom of Bhinmal in Rajputana. We have discussed the question of the race of Gurjaras in a note. We have shown there that they cannot but be treated as distinctly Aryan. Their long heads, their fine noses (finer even than those of Parisians, vide Sir H. Risley), their tall stature are too strong ethnological characteristics declaring unequivocally their Aryan origin, to be got rid of by the imaginary theory of Mr. R. D. Bhandarkar who would assign them to a foreign or Scythic stock supposed to be Khazar. And Sir V. Smith himself admits that there is no historical evidence to support the surmise that the Gurjaras at any time came to India. "The Gurjaras are believed to have entered India, either along with or soon after the white Huns; but there is nothing to show what part of Asia they came from or to what race they belonged." (V. Smith's Early History 3rd Edn. p. 412). A similar view is expressed by him in his paper in J. R. A. S. 1908 and also 1909. The only reason for such a surmise is the fact that the name 'Gujar' is not met with before the 6th century A. D. and that in Bāṇa's Harsha Charita the Gujars are said to have been defeated by Pratāpavardhana along with the Huns. There can be nothing more unsatisfactory than this. The name Gurjara is undoubtedly not yet found in any work before the 6th century. But does that prove that it did not exist or that the name had not been in use before? Absence of mention is no proof whatever of non-existence. And have we found all the inscriptions or records before the 6th century and have we got all books that were written before that period? It would be ridiculous to suggest, much more to believe this.

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Secondly Bāṇa's Harsha Charita says that Pratāpavardhana defeated the Huns, the Gujars, the Mālavas, the Sindhus and many others. Does that mean that all these people were Huns or came along with or after them? There is an unaccountable tendency in antiquarians of India to assign foreign and Scythic origin to each and every forward people found in Indian history. Thus the Jats and even the Rajputs are assigned a foreign and a Scythic origin. If the Jats, the Gujars and the Rajputs with their clearly Aryan features are foreigners and Scythians where are the Indo-Aryans, those people who spoke the Aryan Sanskrit or Vedic language, who according to the Vedas, and the Epics supported by the Avesta came to and settled in the Panjab and Rajputana? Have they disappeared? The lower strata in these parts are Dravidian by their ethnic characteristics and if the Jats, Gujars, Rajputs and the Brahmins are foreigners-Greek, Śaka or Hūna, where indeed are the Indo-Aryans so famous in the Vedas, the Mahābhārata and the Manu Smṛiti? We may conclude therefore that the ethnic characteristics of the Jats, the Gujars and the Rajputs viz. their long heads, their fine noses and their tall statures are undeniably Aryan and that there is nothing in history which suggests or proves that they came from outside India in historic times.

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The Gujars like the Jats are the ancient Vedic Aryan Vaiśyas; and that explains why their names are not met with in ancient records before the fifth or sixth century. For such ancient scanty historical records as we possess concern themselves chiefly with kings and kingly families and rarely mention the common people. In the third century A. D. the Vaiśyas for the first time came into prominence because (most Kshatriya kingly families being killed or driven further south) many Vaiśya families took to the profession of arms against the foreign invaders of Scythic origin. The Guptas thus were Vaiśyas who first opposed the Yue-chi and latterly opposed the Huns. It seems that when the Huns first invaded India and founded a kingdom at Sialkot, the Gujars moved down into Rajputana, the sandy deserts of which have always afforded shelter to Aryans of the Panjab and the middle country when oppressed and dispossessed by foreigners. That seems to be the reason why the Gurjaras came into prominence about the time of the Huns. They moved from the Panjab into Rajputana and founded a kingdom at Bhinmal about the beginning of the sixth century. They even sent off-shoots further southwards and we find the Gurjara kingdom of Broach founded by Dadda at about the same time. These two kingdoms were found in a flourishing condition by Hiuen Tsang. Pratāpavardhana conquered the Gurjaras not because they were Huns or foreigners; he conquered them as every conquering hero in India did who conquered both foreigners and Indians in his digvijaya. The Gurjaras of Bhinmal were to his south-west and he must have established his overlordship over them also. Yet the Gurjara kingdom of Bhinmal was strong and even Harsha did not entirely dispossess the Gurjaras. They were probably only in nominal subjection to him as we have already stated. And they not only remained strong but in the next century grew stronger and subdued Kanauj itself.

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Who was the king in the days of Harsha and what was his family and caste? We have already said that he probably was son to one Vyāghramukha mentioned by Brahmagupta the famous astronomer who composed his well-known Siddhānta at Bhinmal in 628 A. D. Now this Brahmagupta states that the king belonged to the Chāpa dynasty.[*] The Chāpas or Chapotkatas are well-known Kshatriyas mentioned in inscriptions of the 7th and 8th centuries (see Chālukya Navasari grant already described). They hereafter established the kingdom of Gujarat at Anhillapattana as we shall have to relate in our next volume. This king then was a Kshatriya according to Brahmagupta and he was equally a Kshatriya according

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∗ Dikshit's Marathi history of Indian Astronomy p. 217. The verse quoted by him from Brahma Siddhānta is as follows :—

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श्रीचापवंशतिलके श्रीव्याघ्रमुखे नृपे शकनृपाणाम् ।
पञ्चाशत्संयुक्तैः शतैः पञ्चभिरतीतैः !!

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to Hiuen Tsang. "He was a Kshatriya by caste and a young man noted for wisdom and a firm believer in Buddhism." Now this fact is a puzzle to European scholars who look upon Gurjaras as foreigners but they twist it into an argument for their own theory. They argue that not only were the Gujars foreigners and of Scythian origin admitted into the Hindu fold but that within a hundred years of their coming into India their kings were admitted to be true Kshatriyas!!! This explanation however is untenable. It is possible for any person or people to be admitted into Hinduism which with its peculiar institution of caste can easily admit anybody in its fold without sacrificing the purity of existing castes but it is not possible to suppose that when everybody was opposing the detested Huns and other foreigners, when Aryan orthodox kings, according to inscriptions of that very period, were strongly enforcing caste and preventing sankara or intermixture of races, that these foreign kings could have been admitted to be Kshatriyas. This fact therefore supports our view that the Gurjaras were Hindus of ancient date and Vaiśyas and their kings the Chāpat were true Kshatriyas.

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We know very little of the history of these Chāpas from 641 A. D. when Hiuen Tsang visited Bhinmal down to about 750 A. D. The king at his time was a Buddhist but it is probable that after his death, as in the rest of India, there must have been a revival of Hinduism among the Gurjaras. They appear to have been a very powerful people and resisted the invasion of their country by the Arabs who after their conquest of Sind in 712 A. D. tried to extend their dominion and their religion to the neighbouring states of India. Bhinmal the Gurjara kingdom was undoubtedly one of such kingdoms contiguous to Sind and it appears certain that the Gurjaras eventually defeated the Arabs. Along with this event there appears to have been a change of dynasty in the ruling family and the Pratihāras appear to come in about 750 A.D. displacing the old Chāpas whose rule seems to have extended to the usual period of dynasties i. e. about two centuries. The history of the Gurjara Pratihāras belongs to the second portion of our period and will be related in our next volume.

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(2) THE VARDHANAS OF MOLAPO OR WESTERN MALWA.

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We have already given the history of the other Gurjara kingdom to the south at Broach; and we will now proceed to describe the history of Hiuen Tsang's Molapo or Western Malwa. This kingdom belonged as we have seen to Yaśodharman Viṣṇuvardhana of the Mandsaur inscription In our surmise this name-ending Vardhana shows that he was a Vaiśya like the Guptas. His great exploit was that he defeated Mihirakula the Hun. Now we have already quoted the sentence in Chandra's grammar अजयन्-जटों हूणान् "the Jarta conquered the Huns". If we apply this sentence to Yaśodharman and there is none else to whom it can well be applied, we may surmise that he was a Jarta or Jat from the Panjab. In fact like the Gurjaras of Bhinmal we may suppose the Jats from the Panjab to have migrated to Malwa (which like Rajputana is a favourite land with migrators) to take refuge from the incursions of the Huns and these Jats in Malwa getting strong under Yaśodharman inflicted in 528 A. D. a signal defeat on the Huns who had overrun their motherland the Panjab.

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A grandson or great grandson of this king was on the throne when Hiuen Tsang visited Western Malwa. He was a devout Buddhist and a Buddha temple near the city was being built for several generations. We may take it from the Rājatarangiṇī that Yaśodharman's son named Silāditya (name mentioned by Hiuen Tsang also) being a Buddhist was assailed by his neighbours and dispossessed. Pravarsena of Kashmir about 540 A. D. re-established this son on the throne of his father, and took away from him the throne of Kashmir which his father Yaśodharman had brought away. This dynasty, therefore, had certainly lasted from about 500-641 A. D. the date of Hiuen Tsang's visit. What became of it after Harsha we are not in a position to state. The history of Malwa as a whole is obscure until we come to the Paramāra dynasty; but we may state that Western Malwa was on the border between Gujarat and Central India and was often changing hands. That it was entirely under Valabhis for some time hereafter is certain from grants of Valabhi kings which gave lands even near Mandsaur to donees. Apparently therefore, when Harsha's empire fell Molapo passed into the power of the stronger Valabhi kingdom.

(3) Ujjain or Central Malwa.

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Ujjain was the capital of central Malwa and when Huen Tsang visited it in 641 A. D. it was under a Brahmin king. Who he was and what became of his family after Harsha we cannot say. In fact as stated above until we come to the Paramāra rule there is no history of Malwa to be detailed. We may however make the following observations. Malwa has always been under foreign rule. The climate of Malwa is not fecund and is distinctly enervating. Foreign races and tribes have consequently always come into Malwa and ruled there. Malwa was thus directly under the Mauryas and their heir-apparents ruled here as viceroys. Aśoka was one of such viceroys. After the Mauryas the Sungas similarly held Malwa and Agnimitra was a similar viceroy who resided at Vidiśā. After the Sungas the family of Vikrama ruled in Malwa and they too were by tradition foreigners belonging to the Pāndava clan. After Vikrama's line, Malwa fell to the Western Śakas who ruled in Ujjain from 78 A. D. to 400 A. D. When Malwa was conquered by the Guptas about 400 A. D., Gupta viceroys resided at Ujjain for a hundred years. When the Gupta empire was dismembered about 500 A. D. central Malwa or Ujjain must have remained with a Gupta branch. Of this branch was Devagupta, the foe of Grahavarman and Rājyavardhana and when in 606 A. D. he was killed Malwa was entirely held under subjection by Harsha. The Brahmin king seen by Hiuen Tsang according to our view was a viceroy appointed by Harsha. After Harsha Ujjain remained subject to Kanauj and we know Yaśovarman in about 700 A. D. was master of it. We have also seen that Mālwa or Mālava was a subject province or country of Kanauj when Chakrāyudha was placed on the throne of Kanauj by Dharmapāla about 800 A.D. with the consent of many dependent kings detailed. Between Yaśovarman and Chakrāyudha i. e. from 700 to 800 A. D., Malwa appears to have been for a time under the Rashtrakūtas of Malkhed also. We indeed find a prince of Mālava mentioned but he was usually subject either to the emperor of the north at Kanauj or the emperor of the south at Malkhed. In a grant of Govind III dated Śaka 728 or 730 (806 A. D.) his father Dhruva is said to have conquered a Mālava king who indeed himself offered submission (Ind. Ant. Vol. XI). Then again in a grant of the Rāshṭrakūṭa Gujarat branch king Karka we are told that he held his arm as a bar against the encroachments of the (northern) Gurjara king to protect Mālava for his master (Ind. Ant. XIII p. 160). This does not make it clear if Malwa was under a subject king or was entirely a subject province of the southern Rāshṭrakūṭa king. It is, however, curious to notice how history repeats itself. The Marathas in 800 A.D. were the masters of Mālava and warded off the northern emperor of Kanauj much in the same way as they in 1800 A. D. a thousand years later held Malwa against the Emperors of Delhi. Some time after this the Maratha Rāshṭrakūṭa empire declined and Malwa was conquered and raised into an independent kingdom by the Paramāras who too hailed not from Malwa but from outside as we shall relate in our second volume.

(4) Jejākabhukti and Mahesvarapura

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Hiuen Tsang does not mention Eastern Malwa the capital of which was Bhelsa or Vidiśā and which country was in ancient times called Daśārna (see Kālidāsa’s Megha-dūta and Mahābhārata also) a name which survives in detailed maps of Central India and still in the popular language as Dhasāna. Probably this tract was then included in Avanti or Ujjain (central Malwa). Hiuen Tsang mentions two more kingdoms in what is now Central India viz. Jejākabhukti and Maheśvarapura, in both of which ruled Brahmin kings in his days. Jejākabhukti as the name itself indicates is the province of Jejāka, “bhukti” being as we have already shown the usual title of a division or collectorate under a kingdom e. g. Tirabhukti which is now Tirhut. The province of Jejāka was therefore originally part of the Gupta Empire and we surmise that Budhagupta ruled here so late as about 500 A. D. After the fall of his line some Brahmin governor of it must have become independent partially only for he must have been subject to Harsha. He may have been a descendant of Dhyāna Vishnu whose inscription has been found at Eran ( see Gupta Ins. III ). This line must have become independent after Harsha but must have been subjugated again under the rule of Yaśovarman and his successors. However we know nothing about this kingdom or province till the appearance of the Chandels in the 9th century and their history does not belong to the first portion of the Hindu period. The word Bhukti, however, has stuck to this district finally although it became independent and powerful under the Chandels. For its modern name is Jajoti and the Brahmins of this country or modern Bundelkhand are known by the title of Jajotia Brahmins.

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Of Maheśvarapura we know practically nothing. It is identified with Gwalior or with Narwar. Bhojas must have ruled there ( See Dharmapāla's inscription noticed above ). But it was a province so near the centre of the empire at Kanauj under Harsha and under his successors that it could only have had viceroys and not independent or semi-independent kings until Kanauj declined.

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