History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.195

v2.c19.195

*Ābhīra*. According to Manu X. 15 he is the child of the union of a brāhmaṇa with an ambaṣṭha girl. The Mahābhārata (Mausalaparva 7. 46-63 and 8. 16-17) states that the ābhīras were *dasyus* and *mlecchas* who attacked Arjuna after the great war in the land of the five rivers and carried away Vṛṣṇi women. The Sabhāparva (51. 12) mentions ābhīras with Pāradas and the Āśvamedhika (29. 15-16) says (just as Manu X. 43-44 do) that the Ābhīras, the Draviḍas and others became śūdras by non-contact with brāhmaṇas. The Mahābhāṣya expressly states that the ābhīras are not a subcaste included under the genus śūdra but that they are a caste distinct from śūdras.¹⁷⁶ The Kāmasūtra (V. 5. 30) names an ābhīra king Koṭṭarāja. Daṇḍin in his Kāvyādarśa (I. 36) says that Apa-bhraṁśa is the appellation of the speech of ābhīras and the like in poetry. The Amarakośa says that they are cow-herds and that the ābhīra wife of a Mahāśūdra is called Ābhīrī. The Ābhīras became absorbed in Hindu society and we find that an Ābhīra *senāpati* Rudrabhūti in the year 103 ( 181-82 A. D. ) under king Rudrasiṁha, son of Rudradāman, built a well ( E. I. vol. 16 p. 235 ) and in the Nasik cave No. 15 there is an inscription of king Īśvarasena, a son of Ābhīra Śivadatta and Māḍharī ( i. e. the mother was of the Māṭhara gotra ). Vide E. I. vol. 8. p. 88. Ābhīras are called *ahirs* in modern times. Vide J. B. B. R. A. S. vol. 21 pp. 430-433, Enthoven's ‘Tribes and castes of Bombay ’ vol. I. p. 17 ff.