State and Government in Ancient India c13.54

c13.54

The Yaudheya republic was a fairly extensive state. The findspots of its coins show that it extended from Saharanpur in the east to Bahavalpur in the west, from Ludhiyana in the north-west to Delhi in the south-east. It was a confederation of three republics. Rohtak in the Punjab was the capital of one of them, and northern Pañchāla, known as Bahudhānyaka (rich in corn) country, was the centre of power of the second. Northern Rajputana seems to have been in the jurisdiction of the third. The powerful trans-Beas state, mentioned by Alexander’s historians, which possessed fertile territory and virile inhabitants, and which was governed by an aristocracy exercising its power with justice and moderation, is obviously the Yaudheya republic. The Yaudheyas had an unsurpassed reputation for bravery, and no wonder ; for they were the devotees of Kārttikeya, the generalissimo of gods. They were, therefore, also known as Mattamayūrakas, peacock (*mayūra*) being the vehicle of Kārttikeya.¹ It was this reputation of their bravery and the report about the rich resources of their state that made Alexander’s soldiers lose their heart and refuse to advance further. The Yaudheyas continued to flourish down to the end of the 1st century A. D., when they were temporarily overpowered by Kanishka I. But they soon became ‘insubordinate’, as a record of their enemy puts it, 'owing to their pride due to their valour being respected by all the Kshattriyas',¹ and rebelled against the Kushāṇa hegemony. They not only reasserted their independence in *c.* 225 A. D., but dealt a powerful blow to the Kushāṇa empire from which it could not recover.² They were flourishing as a republic down to *c.* 350 A. D. Their subsequent history is unknown.