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Tribes in Ancient India c73: Chapter LXXI. The Bhojas

Tribes in Ancient India c73

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Chapter LXXI. The Bhojas

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The Bhojas were a very ancient tribe, who attained to considerable eminence as early as the period represented by the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*. The term Bhoja is mentioned even in the *Ṛgveda* (III, 53, 7) though many scholars do not consider it to be a tribal name there, and Sāyaṇa also explains it otherwise. According to the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*,¹ the Bhojas were a southern people, a ruling tribe whose princes held the Satvats in subjection. The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (XIII, 5, 4, 21) seems to imply that the Satvats were located near the Gaṅgā and Yamunā, which was the realm of the Bharatas,² for the defeat by Bharata of the Satvats, and his taking away of the horse which they had prepared for an *Aśvamedha* sacrifice are here referred to. It is likely, therefore, that the Bhojas had spread over Central and Southern India in very early times.

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¹ VIII, 14: ‘Dakṣiṇasyāṃ diśi ye ke ca Satvatāṃ rājāno Bhaujyāyaiva te’ bhiṣiñcyante Bhojetyenābhiṣiktān-ācakṣata.’

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² *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, XIII, 5, 4, 11.

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According to the *Purāṇas*,³ the Bhojas and the Satvats were allied tribes, both belonging to the Yadu-vaṃśa which dwelt at Mathurā (the capital of the Śūrasenas, q.v.) on the banks of the Yamunā. The *Viṣṇupurāṇa*⁴ alludes to a branch of the Satvats as Bhojas, and by the Epic period at least the Bhojas and Satvats were indistinguishable.

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³ *Matsyapurāṇa*, Chap. 43, p. 48; Chap. 44, pp. 46-8; *Vāyupurāṇa*, Chap. 94, p. 52; Chap. 95, p. 18; Chap. 96, pp. 1-2; *Viṣṇupurāṇa*, IV, 13, 1-6.

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⁴ IV, 13, 1-61.

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In the *Mahābhārata*, the Bhojas are declared to have been descended from Druhyu, the third son of Yayāti, the great ancestor of the Kuru-Pāṇḍavas. When King Yayāti proposed to have Druhyu’s youth transferred to himself, and was unceremoniously refused, he cursed his son, saying that he would be a king only in name. ‘You shall rule over a region where there will be no roads, no passages for either horses or horse-drawn excellent chariots, nor for elephants, asses, goats, bullocks, palanquins and other good vehicles, where the only means of locomotion will be rafts and floats. In such a place will you have to live, and with all your family you will get the designation of Bhoja,—and there will not be a Rājā amongst you.’⁵ Druhyu’s children were the Bhojas.⁶

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⁵ *Mahābhārata*, *Ādiparvan*, Chap. 84, pp. 20-2; Vaṅgavāsī Ed.

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⁶ *Ibid.*, Chap. 85, verse 34.

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Though the Bhojas are condemned in the above passage, yet there appear to have been very cordial relations between them and the Pauravas, the children of Puru, Yayāti’s favourite son, from whom the Kurus and Pāṇḍavas traced their descent. Thus we find that when Arjuna in the course of his expedition of pilgrimage went to Dvārakā, the Bhojas and their allied tribes, the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas, hurried to have a look at the great Pāṇḍava hero as he marched along the road. Arjuna was welcomed and honoured by the young men of his own age among the Bhojas, Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas, and went to take up his residence in the house of Kṛṣṇa, who evidently belonged to these people.¹ We then meet with an account of festivities celebrated by the Bhoja-Vṛṣṇi-Andhakas on the hill of Mahendra.² When the report of the abduction of Subhadrā, Kṛṣṇa’s sister, was proclaimed at the assembly of the allied tribes, then the Bhojas along with the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas took up arms to recover the princess from the clutches of her abductor.³ Again we read that Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by a host of Bhoja-Vṛṣṇi-Andhakas, paid a visit to Indraprastha when Arjuna returned there after his exile; and we are further told that Kṛṣṇa paid a formal visit to the Pāṇḍava king, attended by Vṛṣṇis, Andhakas and Bhojas.⁴

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¹ *Ādiparvan*, Chap. 218, verses 18-21.

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² *Ibid.*, Chap. 219, verses 2ff.

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³ *Ibid.*, Chap. 220, verses 12 and 32.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, Chap. 221, verses 33 and 38.

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It appears from many passages in the *Mahābhārata* that the Bhojas formed a confederacy for offensive and defensive purposes with the Vṛṣṇis, Andhakas, and also the Yādavas. They were evidently descended from the same main stock, and were therefore bound together by consanguinity as well as by mutual interest. Besides the references given above, we may mention *Vanaparvan*, Chap. 120, where the prominent warriors of the Vṛṣṇis, Bhojas and Andhakas are mentioned together; and *Virāṭaparvan*, Chap. 72 and *Udyogaparvan*, Chap. 7, where we are told that a large crowd of Vṛṣṇis, Andhakas and Bhojas followed Kṛṣṇa to Dvārakā.⁵ When Kṛṣṇa returned to Dvārakā after the Kurukṣetra war was over, the Bhojas, Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas received him with honour.⁶ In the *Mauṣalaparvan*, where the extermination of the relatives and followers of Kṛṣṇa by internecine quarrel is described, we have a mention of the Bhojas who along with the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas took part in that mutually destructive combat.

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⁵ See also *Udyogaparvan*, Chap. 28.

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⁶ *Mahābhārata*, *Aśvamedhaparvan*, Chap. 59.

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In the *Sabhāparvan*, we find Kṛṣṇa telling Yudhiṣṭhira of the oppressive domination of Jarāsandha, king of Magadha. In this connection he says that the Bhojas descended from Yayāti had propagated and acquired a high position for themselves, but had been robbed of it by the confederacy under the suzerainty of Jarāsandha.¹ In a later verse (v. 25) of the same chapter, we are told that the eighteen families of the Bhojas that lived in the Udīcya or northern country had, from fear of Jarāsandha, been forced to take refuge far in the west. Kṛṣṇa is also represented as saying that the aged Bhoja kings, being oppressed by Kaṃsa who was in alliance with Jarāsandha, had sought refuge with him (Kṛṣṇa), in order to rescue their relatives; and it appears that the connection between the Vṛṣṇis and the Bhojas was cemented by the marriage of Āhuka’s daughter with Akrura.²

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¹ *Sabhāparvan*, Chap. 14.

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² *Ibid.*, Chap. 14, verses 32-3.

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We gather, then, that at this time the Bhojas had spread far and wide over India; they were found in the west, in the Madhyadeśa, and in the south, for King Bhīṣmaka, father of Rukmiṇī and father-in-law of Kṛṣṇa, is called a Bhoja. Thus Kṛṣṇa says, ‘That mighty king of the Bhojas, Bhīṣmaka . . . who governs a fourth part of the world, who has conquered by his learning the Pāṇḍyas and Krathakauśikas . . . has (also) become a servitor to the king of Magadha (Jarāsandha). We are his relatives . . . yet he does not at all regard us. He is always doing us ill. Without knowing his own strength and the dignity of the race to which he belongs, Bhīṣmaka has placed himself under Jarāsandha’s shelter, only seeing his blazing fame.’³

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³ *Ibid.*, Chap. 14, verses 21-4.

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We have an indication of the position of this Bhoja king Bhīṣmaka in a later chapter of the *Sabhāparvan*, where we are told that Sahadeva, the youngest of the Pāṇḍava brothers, when on his expedition of conquest, proceeded towards Bhojakaṭa, the capital of the Bhojas under Bhīṣmaka, after conquering Avanti, i.e. Malwa in Central India.⁴ Later in the same chapter⁵ we read that after subjugating the king of Surāṣṭra or Kathiawar, Sahadeva sent ambassadors to Bhīṣmaka, the ruler of Bhoja-kaṭa, and also to his son Rukmin (who was probably associated with him in the government of the country); and we are told that Bhīṣmaka and his son respected the mandate of Sahadeva out of consideration for Kṛṣṇa.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, Chap. 31, verses 10-11.

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⁵ *Ibid.*, Chap. 31, verses 62-4.

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The following story is told about the foundation of Bhojakaṭa. When Kṛṣṇa carried away Rukmin’s sister by force from his father’s capital, Kuṇḍinapura, Rukmin swore that he would not return home without defeating the abductor of his sister. As fate would have it, Rukmin was worsted in the fight that followed and true to his oath, he never returned to Kuṇḍinapura, but built a new city of the Bhojas on the site of the battle-field, and called it Bhojakaṭa.¹

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¹ Mahābhārata, Udyogaparvan, Chap. 157; see also ibid., Chap. 48, p. 74.

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Bhojakaṭa is interpreted by Vincent Smith as ‘Castle of the Bhojas’. He says that the name ‘implies that the province was named after a castle formerly held by the Bhojas . . .’² It is alluded to in the Chammak grant of the Vākāṭaka King Pravarasena II, which ‘makes it clear that the Bhojakaṭa territory included the Ilichpur district in Berar or Vidarbha’.³ Bhojakaṭa has been identified with Bhat-kuli in the Amraoti district of Berar. It is not improbable that the Bhojas had some relation with Bhojanagara, the capital of king Uśīnara of the Uśīnara country⁴ near the Kankhal region where the Ganges issues from the hills. In any case we may conclude that the Bhojas and the Vidarbhas were closely related. Kālidāsa also calls the king of Vidarbha a Bhoja (*Raghuvamśa*, V, 39, 40).

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² Ind. Ant., 1923, 262-3.

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³ Ray Chaudhuri, P.H.A.I., 4th Edn., p. 77.

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⁴ Mahābhārata, I, 85, 3533.

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It was said of the heroic Bhoja prince Rukmin that he was in the very front rank of the warriors of his time; the bow named *Vijaya* which he wielded was only equalled by the *Gāṇḍīva* of Arjuna and the *Śārṅgadhanu* of Kṛṣṇa. This prince is said to have been equally skilled with the bow and the sword and various other weapons, but to have been inordinately proud, and because of his boastfulness, his offer of aid was refused by both sides in turn before the Kurukṣetra War. On the eve of the war he came to the battle-field at the head of one complete Akṣauhiṇī of forces of every description.⁵

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⁵ Mbh., Udyogaparvan, Chap. 157.

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In the *Sabhāparvan*, we read that the whole confederacy of Anhakas, Yādavas and Bhojas abandoned Kamsa who was slain by Kṛṣṇa who had been appointed to do so (*niyogāt*).⁶ It appears from this that Kṛṣṇa had at least the tacit approval of all the allied peoples who had been tyrannized over and ill-treated by Kamsa. Kamsa himself was a Bhoja, as we learn from what Kṛṣṇa said to the Kurus in their assembly on the eve of the battle.⁷

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⁶ Mbh., Sabhāparvan, Chap. 62, p. 8.

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⁷ Mbh., Udyogaparvan, Chap. 128, p. 37.

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Another tribe with which the Bhojas are associated in the great Epic are the Kukuras who were evidently members of the Vṛṣṇi-cakra or confederacy of tribes⁸; for we are told in the *Udyogaparvan* of the Bhoja king joining the Kuru forces together with the Bhojas, Andhakas and Kukuras.⁹ In another chapter of the *Udyogaparvan* also we find the Bhojas in company with the Andhakas, Vṛṣṇis, Kukuras, Śriñjayas and Cedis.¹ Again, when all the people in this confederacy of tribes were engaged in a deadly conflict among themselves, we find the Kukuras fighting with and exterminating their allies and friends, the Bhojas and Andhakas.² The Kukuras, Andhakas, and all the tribes in the Union rushed at each other like maniacs run amuck, and brought about the destruction of their closest friends.³

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⁸ Mauṣalaparvan, Chap. I, 7.

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⁹ Mbh., Udyogaparvan, Chap. 19.

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¹ *Mbh.*, *Udyogaparvan*, V, 28.

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² *Mauṣalaparvan*, Chap. 5, verse 2.

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³ *Ibid.*, Chap. 3, pp. 40-3.

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We have already seen that the kings among the Sātvatas or Sātvats were called Bhojas: Bhoja was the designation of the royal family of the Sātvatas in the days of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, and afterwards the name Bhoja must have been extended to the whole Sātvat tribe. In the *Mahābhārata* we find the names Bhoja and Sātvata used indiscriminately to designate the same individual, e.g. in the case of Kṛtavarman, the Hārdikya or son of Hṛdika. He was one of the greatest of the Bhojas, and was in the very front rank of the warriors of that warlike age. He led a complete Akṣauhiṇī or division of forces to the great Kurukṣetra war⁴ (on the Kuru side), and appears to have been the leader of the allied army of the Bhoja-Andhaka-Kukura-Vṛṣṇi confederacy, as we learn from the *Udyogaparvan*.⁵ Kṛtavarman appears to have been the official commander of the allied forces even before they came to the field of battle.⁶ He seems to have belonged to the city of Mṛttikāvatī, as we may gather from the *Droṇaparvan*. When the young son of Subhadrā was making terrible slaughter in the Kuru army, and the Kuru heroes could not match him fighting singly according to the laws of honourable warfare, six of the leaders, Kṛtavarman amongst them, simultaneously made an onslaught against him.⁷ Abhimanyu aimed a number of arrows at Bhoja Mārttikāvata, that is, the Bhoja from Mṛttikāvatī, who must have been Kṛtavarman.⁸

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⁴ Rukmin is mentioned as leader of the Bhojas.

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⁵ *Mbh.*, *Udyogaparvan*, Chap. 19, pp. 17-18, 25.

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⁶ *Ibid.*, Chap. 7.

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⁷ *Mbh.*, *Droṇaparvan*, Chap. 46, p. 4.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, 47, 8.

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In various passages of the *Mahābhārata*,⁹ Kṛtavarman is called either a Bhoja or a Sātvata, the two terms being used interchangeably. From a passage of the *Karṇaparvan* (*Mahābhārata*, VIII, 7, 8) Kṛtavarman’s capital Mṛttikāvatī appears to have been situated in the Ānarta country, for he is called a resident of Ānarta. Towards the end of the battle, when Droṇa was killed, Kṛtavarman was elected leader by the remnant of the Bhojas, Kaliṅgas and Vāhlikas.¹ Kṛtavarman, the Bhoja, was one of the three heroes who attended Duryodhana when the latter took refuge in the Dvaipāyana lake.² We read of Kṛtavarman the Sātvata addressing the defeated Kuru monarch, and calling upon him to come out of his hiding place in the lake.³ Kṛtavarman took part in the slaying of the Pañcālas and the sons of Draupadī, and then he and two other heroes went to give the dying king Duryodhana this welcome news.⁴ Finally, he returned to his own country,⁵ and was later slain by Sātyaki in the mutually destructive encounter of the confederacy of tribes, his son then being placed on the throne of Mṛttikāvatī by Kṛṣṇa.⁶

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⁹ For example, Kṛtavarman is mentioned as a Bhoja at *Mbh.*, *Udyogaparvan*, Chap. 57, p. 21; Chap. 165; *Karṇaparvan*, Chap. 2, etc.; and as a Sātvata in Chap. 143 (*Udyogaparvan*); *Bhīṣmaparvan*, Chaps. 16, 51, 56, 81, 86, 95; *Karṇaparvan*, Chap. 9, p. 80.

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¹ Mahābhārata, VII, 193.

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² Ibid., IX, 29, 53-4.

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³ Ibid., IX, 30, 9-13. See also ibid., X, 1; X, 4, 6, etc.

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⁴ Ibid., X, 8; X, 9, 6.

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⁵ Ibid., XI, 11; XI, 66.

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⁶ Ibid., XVI, 3; XVI, 7.

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It is stated in the Purāṇas⁷ that the Sātvats and the Bhojas were branches of the Yadu family who dwelt at Mathurā on the banks of the Yamunā; and the Mahābhārata tells us that Kṛṣṇa removed the Yādava headquarters from Mathurā to Dvārakā through fear of King Jarāsandha of Magadha. In the Viṣṇupurāṇa⁸ we read that Sātvata was born in the family of Kroṣṭhu, son of Yadu. The descendants of Sātvata, son of Mahābhoja, were known as Bhojas.⁹ According to the Matsyapurāṇa,¹⁰ the Bhojas were pious, learned, truthful, valiant and charitable, and were performers of religious rites; but in another passage of this Purāṇa (34, 30) as well as in the Mahābhārata (I, 85, 3533), the Bhojas are relegated to the Mleccha caste. Pargiter thinks,¹¹ however, that this tradition is ‘unintelligible compared with all other traditions, and is probably late, and certainly very doubtful’. As we learn from the Purāṇas,¹² the Bhojas were related to the Haihayas who were a branch of the Yādavas. The Haihayas are said to have comprised five families, the Vītihotras, Śāryātas, Bhojas, Avantis and Tuṇḍikeras. As we have seen, the Bhojas were closely related with the Vidarbhas; and they probably also held sway over Daṇḍaka, the region around Nasik. This is implied by a passage in Kauṭilya’s *Arthaśāstra*¹ according to which a Bhoja named Dāṇḍakya, or king of Daṇḍaka, tried to seduce a Brāhmaṇa girl, as a result of which he perished with his relations and his kingdom.

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⁷ Matsyapurāṇa, 43, 48; Chap. 44, pp. 46-8; Vāyupurāṇa, Chap. 94, p. 52; Chap. 95, p. 48; Chap. 96, pp. 1-2.

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⁸ IV, 3.

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⁹ Cf. Bhāgavatapurāṇa, Chap. 9, p. 24; Kūrmapurāṇa, Chap. 24, śl. 40; Harivaṃśa, Chap. 37.

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¹⁰ Chap. 44, śl. 69.

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¹¹ A.I.H.T., p. 260, f.n. 1.

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¹² Agnipurāṇa, Chap. 275, śloka 10; Vāyupurāṇa, Chap. 94, pp. 3-54; Matsyapurāṇa, Chap. 43, pp. 7-49, etc.

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¹ 1919 Edn., p. 11.

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The Jaina sacred books speak of the Bhojas as Kṣatriyas and descendants from those whom Ṛṣabha acknowledged as persons deserving of honour.² The *Jaina Sūtras* also tell us of a Bhoja princess, Rājimati who showed extraordinary religious zeal and strength of mind in overcoming all temptations.³

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² *Jaina Sūtras*, S.B.E., Pt. II, p. 71, n. 2.

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³ Pt. II, pp. 115-8.

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In the Pāli Buddhist literature also we find references to Bhoja. In the *Saṃyutta Nikāya*⁴ there is a mention of a Ṛṣi named Rohitassa Bhojaputta, i.e. one belonging to the Bhoja family or tribe. One of the Jātaka stories⁵ tells that the Bodhisattva was born once as a Nāga king named Saṅkhapāla. He always used to give in charities and observe the religious precepts. On a certain sabbath day, while observing the precepts, he resolved to give away his own body in charity, and he became an iguana. Sixteen Bhojaputtas saw this iguana, made it weak by beating it, and carrying it off when they were seen by a merchant of Mithilā who caused Saṅkhapāla to be released.

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⁴ P.T.S. Ed., Pt. I, pp. 61-62.

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⁵ Vol. V, 164ff.

c73.72

The Bhojas, along with the Andhras, Pulindas and Rāṣṭrikas, were among the vassal tribes of Aśoka.⁶ Scholars hold that the Bhojas and the Rāṣṭrikas were evidently ancestors of the Mahābhojas and Mahārathis of the Sātavāhana period.⁷

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⁶ Rock Edicts, V and XIII.

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⁷ Cf. Ray Chaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 259.

c73.75

The next important mention of the Bhojas in the historical period is made in the Hāthigumphā Inscription of the Cheta king Khāravela (first century B.C.), which points out that Khāravela, the Mahārāja of Kaliṅga, defeated the Rāṭhikas and Bhojakas in the fourth year of his reign and compelled them to do homage to him. The Rāṭhikas and Bhojakas are evidently the Rāṣṭrikas and Bhojas of Aśoka’s Rock Edict.

c73.76

The Khālimpur grant of the Emperor Dharmapāladeva of Gauḍa (c. 800 A.D.) speaks of the king of Bhoja along with kings of Matsya, Kuru, Yadu and Yavana as having uttered benedictions at the coronation ceremony of the king of Kānyakubja.⁸ R. D. Banerjee holds that the king of Bhoja was defeated by Dharmapāla, and compelled to accept Cakrāyudha instead of Indrarāja as lord of Kānyakubja. In Banerjee’s view, Bhoja is to be identified with part of present Rajputana.¹

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⁸ *Gauḍalekhamālā*, p. 14.

c73.78

¹ Vāṅgālār Itihāsa, B.S. 1321, pp. 167-8.

c73.79

The Arulala-Perumal Inscription and the Raṅganātha Inscription of Ravivarman refer to a Bhoja king of that name who belonged to the Yadu family of the Kerala country in S. India.² This king Ravivarman is declared in the inscription to have been wise, liberal and a protector of the good.

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² Epigraphia Indica, Vol. IV, Pt. IV, June 1896, p. 146.

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