Abhira people

This article is about the ancient Abhira tribe. For for other uses, see Abhira (disambiguation).

For the dynasty, see Abhira dynasty.

The Abhira people were a legendary people mentioned in ancient Indian epics and scriptures as early as the Vedas. A historical people of the same name are mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The Mahabharata describes them as living near the seashore and on the bank of the Sarasvati River, near Somnath in Gujarat and in the Matsya region also.^[1][2]

Etymology

Etymologically, he who can cast terror on all sides is called an Abhira.^[3]

History

Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya says that the Abhiras are mentioned in the first-century work of classical antiquity, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. He considers them to be a race rather than a tribe.^[4] Scholars such as Ramaprasad Chanda believe that they were Indo-Aryan peoples.^[5] But others, such as Romila Thapar, believe them to have been indigenous.^[6] The Puranic Abhiras occupied the territories of Herat; they are invariably juxtaposed with the Kalatoyakas and Haritas, the peoples of Afghanistan.^[7]

In the Padma-puranas and certain literary works, the Abhiras are referred to as belonging to the race of Krishna.^[8]

There is no certainty regarding the occupational status of the Abhiras, with ancient texts sometimes referring to them as warriors, pastoral and cowherders but at other times as plundering tribes.^[9]

Along with the Vrishnis, the Satvatas and the Yadavas, the Abhiras were followers of the Vedas, who worshipped Krishna, the head and preceptor of these tribes.^[10][8]

In archaeological inscriptions Abhiras are mentioned as belonging to the race of Krishna.^[11][8]

Rule of the Konkan

From 203 to 270 the Abhiras ruled over the whole of the Deccan Plateau as a paramount power. The Abhiras were the probably successors of the Satvahanas.^[12]

Nepali branch

Before the 12th century, an Ahir dynasty ruled some areas in what is now Nepal.^[13]

Connection to modern Ahirs

According to Ganga Ram Garg, the modern-day Ahir caste are descendants of Abhira people and the term Ahir is the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit term Abhira.^[8] Bhattacharya says that the terms Ahir, Ahar and Gaoli are current forms of the word Abhira.^[4] This view gets support in many writings.

M. S. A. Rao and historians such as P. M. Chandorkar and T. Padmaja have explained that epigraphical and historical evidence exists for equating the Ahirs with the ancient Abhiras and Yadava tribe.^[14][15][16]

Abhiras as Yadavas

The Mahabharata and other authoritative works use the three terms-Abhira, Yadava and Gopa synonymously.^[17][18]

In the Mahabharata it is mentioned that when the Yadavas (though belonging to the Abhira group) abandoned Dvaraka and Gujarat after the death of Krishna and retreated northwards under Arjuna's leadership, they were attacked and broken up by the rude Abhiras of Rajputana. They were also mentioned as warriors in support of Duryodhana^[19] and Kauravas and in the Mahabharata, Abhira, Gopa, Gopal and Yadavas are all synonyms.^[20] They defeated the hero of the Kurukshetra War (Arjuna), and spared him when he disclosed the identity of the members of the family of Krishna.^[21]

The Yadavas, mentioned in the Mahabharata, were pastoral Kshatriyas among whom Krishna was brought up. The Gopas, whom Krishna had offered to Duryodhana to fight in his support when he himself joined Arjuna's side, were no other than the Yadavas themselves, who were also the Abhiras.^[22]

The Yadavas of the Mahabharata period were known to be the followers of Vaisnavism, of which Krishna was the leader. They were the Gopas (cowherd) by profession, but at the same time they held the status of the Kshatriyas, by participating in the battle of Kurukshetra. The present Ahirs are also followers of Vaishnavism. In the epics and the Puranas the association of the Yadavas with the Abhiras was attested by the evidence that the Yadava kingdom was mostly inhabited by the Abhiras.^[23]

According to K. P. Jayaswal the Abhiras of Gujarat are the same race as Rastrikas of Emperor Ashoka and Yadavas of the Mahabharata.^[24][25][26]

According to Jayant Gadkari tribes such as Abhiras, Vrishnis, Andhakas and Satvatas after a period of long conflicts came to be known as Yadavas.^[27]

Legendary figures in Hinduism

 

Gayatri as illustrated by Raja Ravi Verma. She is often depicted with appears with five heads and five pairs of hands, sitting on a lotus flower.

As a goddess, Gayatri is the personified form of popular Vedic hymn, Gayatri Mantra.^[28] According to the medieval Sanskrit text Padma Purana, the storm god Indra brought Gayatri, an Abhira girl, to Pushkar to help Brahma in a yajna, a ritual sacrifice. During the ceremony she became Brahma's second wife.^[29][30][31]

Historian Ramaprasad Chanda argued in 1916 that the goddess Durga evolved from "syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshiped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas", a deity of the Abhiras conceptualised as a war-goddess.^[32]

The Padma Purana features Vishnu stating that, "I shall be born amongst you, O Ābhīras, at Mathura in my eighth birth".^[33]

Abhiras of Gupta empire

Main article: Abhira dynasty

During the reign of Samudragupta (c. 350), the Abhiras lived in Rajputana and Malava on the western frontier of the Gupta empire. Historian Dineshchandra Sircar thinks of their original abode was the area of Abhiravan, between Herat and Kandahar, although this is disputed.^[34] Their occupation of Rajasthan also at later date is evident from the Jodhpur inscription of Samvat 918 that the Abhira people of the area were a terror to their neighbours, because of their violent demeanour.^[34] Abhiras of Rajputana were sturdy and regarded as Mlecchas, and carried on anti-Brahmanical activities. As a result, life and property became unsafe. Pargiter points to the Pauranic tradition that the Vrishnis and Andhakas, while retreating northwards after the Kurukshetra War from their western home in Dwarka and Gujarat, were attacked and broken up by the rude Abhiras of Rajasthan.^[35]

The Abhiras did not stop in Rajasthan; some of their clans moved south and west reaching Saurashtra and Maharashtra and taking service under the Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps.^[36] Also founded a kingdom in the northern part of the Maratha country, and an inscription of the ninth year of the Abhira king Ishwarsena.^[37][38]

References

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2. Garg, Gaṅgā Rām (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World. Concept Publishing Company. p. 113. ISBN 978-81-7022-374-0.
3. Soni, Lok Nath (2000). The Cattle and Stick. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 14. ISBN 9788185579573.
4. Bhattacharya, Sunil Kumar (1996). Krishna — Cult in Indian Art. M.D. Publications. p. 126. ISBN 9788175330016.
5. Chanda, Ramaprasad (1969). The Indo-Aryan races: a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions. Indian Studies: Past & Present. p. 55.
6. Thapar, Romila (1978). Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. Orient Blackswan. p. 149. ISBN 978-81-250-0808-8.
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8. Garg, Dr Ganga Ram (1992). Encyclopaedia of Hindu world. Concept Publishing. p. 113. ISBN 9788170223740.
9. Malik, Aditya (1990). "The Puskara Mahatmya: A Short Report". In Bakker, Hans (ed.). The History of Sacred Places in India As Reflected in Traditional Literature. Leiden: BRILL and the International Association of Sanskrit Studies. p. 200. ISBN 9789004093188.
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