Historical Geography of Ancient India c9.18

c9.18

Ābhīra-deśa.—The Abiria or Ābhīra country was ruled over by the western Kṣatrapas or Śaka rulers of western India, who seem to have held sway over the entire realm of Indo-Scythia of Greek geographer Ptolemy (cf. E.I., VIII, pp. 36ff.). According to the Guṇḍa Inscription of the Śaka king Rudrasimha (A.D. 181) a tank was excavated by Rudrabhūti, an Ābhīra general, in his realm. Shortly afterwards (188-90 A.D. according to Bhandarkar; after 236 A.D. according to Rapson) a native of Ābhīra named Īśvaradatta held the office of Mahākṣatrapa. He was probably identical with the Ābhīra king named Īśvarasena, who became Mahākṣatrapa of western India and captured portions of Mahārāṣṭra in the 3rd century A.D. from the Sātavāhana rulers. It is suggested that the dynasty of Īśvarasena was identical with the Traikūṭaka line of Aparānta, and the establishment of the Traikūṭaka era commencing from 248 A.D., marks the time when the Ābhīras succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the government of northern Mahārāṣṭra and the adjoining region (cf. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Northern India, 4th ed., p. 418, f.n. 2). The Ābhīra country is also mentioned in the Allahabad Iron Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta as one of the tribal states of western and south-western India, who paid homage to the great Gupta Emperor and who were a semi-independent people living outside the borders of his empire (For a complete history, vide Law, Tribes in Ancient India, p. 81; E.I., X, pp. 99 and 127). Some have located them in the province of Ahirwāḍā between the Pārvatī and the Betwa in Central India. The Ābhīras, who were associated with Śūdras, most likely identified with the Sodrai or Sogdoi of the Greek historians of Alexander’s time, are placed, according to the Viṣṇu Purāṇa (Wilson, II, Ch. III, pp. 132-5), in the extreme west along with the Surāṣṭras, Śūdras, Arbudas, Kārūṣas and Mālavas dwelling along the Pāripātra.