Tribes in Ancient India c12.21

c12.21

The Mālava occupation of the Nāgar area near Jaipur in Rajputana is also upheld by the Nasik Cave Inscription of Uṣavadāta, the Śaka, son-in-law of the Kṣatrapa Nahapāna. The power of Nahapāna and his allies seems to have been threatened by the Malayas (= Mālavas) who had already besieged the Uttamabhadras, allies of the Śaka king. Nahapāna sent Uṣavadāta, and the Malayas fled at the very sound of his approach, and were taken prisoner by the Uttamabhadras. Uṣavadāta afterwards went to Puṣkara, six miles west of Ajmere.¹ The Scythic invasions and conquests could not, however, destroy the tribal organisation of the tribe, for in the Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta they are included in the list of tribal states of the western and south-western fringe of Āryāvarta. Among them the most important were the Mālavas, Arjunāyanas, Yaudheyas, and Ābhīras, all of whom were settled in Rajputana at this time. The Bijayagaḍh Inscription (J.R.A.S., 1897, p. 30) definitely locates the Yaudheyas at this time in the Bharatpur State of Rajputana. The Ābhīras also occupied some region in Western Rajputana, the place called Abiria in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.