Tribes in Ancient India c73.16

c73.16

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.