The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c14.13

v2.c14.13

We may perhaps, however, accept the statement which occurs in the earliest Yādava records that they were originally immigrants into the Deccan from Dvārakā.¹ There is in fact nothing inherently improbable in this and it may well have actually been the case, since one of their feudatory families in Khandesh is known to have been an emigrant from Valabhi, another city in Kathiawar.² No Kathiawar records have, however, so far been found to prove that any Yādava family migrated thence to Mahārāṣṭra in the ninth century, nor do the actions or policies of the Yādavas show any anxiety to recover their patrimony there or to re-establish any political or cultural connexion with that country. The story in the Jain tradition of how the pregnant mother of the founder of the dynasty was saved by a Jain saint from the conflagration which destroyed Dvārakā and how she was later delivered of a son in her new home, looks more like mythological legend than actual history. The pretension that the Yādavas were once lords of Dvārakā is therefore so far historically unproved, and may be due rather to the fact that a descent from Yadu is claimed by the family than to its founders ever having really been emigrants from that city. It is interesting to note that the Hoysalas, who profess to be the descendants of Yadu, make the same claim to have been formerly lords of the city of Dvārakā.