Historical Geography of Ancient India c9.19

c9.19

mountains. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Ch. 57, vv. 35-36) groups them with the Vāhlīkas, Vāṭadhānas, Śūdras, Madrakas, Surāṣṭras and Sindhu-Sauvīras, all of whom occupied the countries included in the Aparāntaka (Western India). Pargiter points out that the Ābhīras had something to do with the events following the great Bhārata war. The Yādavas of Gujarat were attacked and broken up by the rude Ābhīras (A.I.H.T., p. 284). According to the Mahābhārata (Sabhāparva, Ch. 51), they were located in the western division of India. This evidence of the Mahābhārata is supported by the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as well as by Ptolemy. The Mahābhārata (IX, 37, 1) definitely locates the Ābhīras in western Rajputana where the river Sarasvatī disappears. Patañjali in his Mahābhāṣya (1. 2. 3) is perhaps the first to introduce them into Indian history. By the middle of the second century B.C. the Ābhīras and their country must have been overpowered by the Bactrian Greeks, who seem to have occupied the whole of the country, which Ptolemy designates as Indo-Scythia and which included Aberia or Abiria. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Chs. 57-58, vv. 45-8 and v. 22) places them with those dwelling in the southern country. The Vāyu Purāṇa (Ch. 45, 126) supports it and describes the Ābhīras as Dakṣiṇāpatha-vāsinah. For further details, vide B. C. Law, Indological Studies, Pt. I, pp. 54ff.