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Bharatas (tribe)

January 01, 1970

The Bharatas were an early Vedic tribe that existed in the latter half of the second millennium B.C.E.[1][2][3]

Bharatas
The Bharatas and other early Vedic tribes
EthnicityIndo-Aryan
LocationNorthern Indian subcontinent
Parent tribePuru (originally)
BranchesTr̥tsu. Sr̥ñjaya
LanguageVedic Sanskrit
ReligionHistorical Vedic religion

The earliest mentioned location of the Bharatas was on the first Sarasvatī River in southern Afghanistan. Led by the tribal king Divodāsa, the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountains and defeated Śambara. Divodāsa's descendant, Sudās, won the Battle of the Ten Kings against a Pūru-led coalition, after which the initial compilation of hymns of the R̥gveda was carried out.[citation needed] After the battle, the Bharatas and other Pūru clans eventually formed the Kuru Kingdom, which was the first attested state in Indian history.

Etymology edit

The name Bharata is of Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian origin, meaning "bearers" or "carriers".[4][5]

History edit

Two Bharatas, Devaśravas Bhārata and Devavāta Bhārata, are mentioned as living near the Āpayā, Sarasvatī and Dr̥ṣadvatī rivers.[6]

Devavāta's son, Sṛñjaya Daivavāta, defeated the Turvaśas, and is mentioned alongside Abhyāvartin Cāyamāna who defeated the Vṛcīvants under Varaśikha. These battles occurred at the Hariyūpiyā (modern Hali-āb) and Yavyāvatī rivers (modern Zhob) in what is now eastern Afghanistan.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In a hymn to Sarasvatī, it is stated that she aided (or is sought to aid) Vadhryaśva in defeating niggards, foreigners, insulters of gods, haters, and the sons of Br̥saya. Witzel notes that the name Br̥saya is of non-Indo-Aryan origin,[14][15] and Parpola proposes that the name came from the language of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex. He states that Br̥saya was a hereditary regnal title in the region, and that it existed even till the time of Alexander the Great.[16] In addition, the poet expresses the desire not to leave the Sarasvatī river (modern Helmand and Arghandab).[17][18][19][20] Both hymns mentioning the two are attributed to Bharadvāja Bārhaspatya.[21]

Under the chieftain Divodāsa Atithigva, the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountain range, which borders the Indian subcontinent in the northwest.[22][23] Divodāsa was adopted by Vadhryaśva after the former was given to him by the river goddess Sarasvatī.[19][20] Divodāsa defeated the aboriginal mountain chief Śambara in the autumn of the fortieth year of campaigns, after destroying ninety-nine of the latter's forts.[24][19] Under Divodāsa, the Bharatas were also enemies of the Yadu-Turvaśas.[25] Divodāsa's allies were Prastoka, Aśvatha, and Sr̥ñjaya's son. Scholars differ on whether Sr̥ñjaya's son was a different person from Prastoka or Aśvatha.[26][27] Several Rigvedic poets mention a patron-client relationship between Divodāsa and Bharadvāja. According to a hymn attributed to Suhotra Bhāradvāja, Bharadvāja was involved in Divodāsa's battles with Śambara. In another hymn, Garga Bhāradvāja enumerates the gifts that were donated to the Bharadvajas by Divodāsa and his allies, of which included part of the booty that was looted from Śambara.[28][29]

Under Sudās Paijavana (a descendant of Divodāsa)[30][31] and his purohita Viśvāmitra Gāthina, the Bharatas crossed the Vipāś and Śutudrī rivers (modern Beas and Sutlej).[32] Eventually Viśvāmitra was replaced by Vasiṣṭha Maitrāvaruṇi.[33]

Battle of the Ten Kings edit

Main article: Battle of the Ten Kings

Under Sudās and Vasiṣṭha, the Tṛtsu-Bharatas win the Battle of the Ten Kings.[34] The first phase of the battle took place on the banks of the Paruṣnī river (modern Ravi) near Mānuṣa, west of Kurukṣetra.[34][35] The principal antagonist is doubtful[a] and names of the participating tribes are difficult to retrieve, in light of the phonological deformations of their names.[34][37][38] Plausible belligerents of the tribal union include (in order) — Pūrus (erstwhile master-tribe of Bharatas), Yadu (probably commanded by Turvaśa), Yakṣu (relatively unimportant or a pun for Yadu), Matsyas, Druhyus, Pakthas, Bhalānas, Alinas, Viṣāṇins, Śivas, Vaikarṇa, and Anu.[34][37]

Though seemingly an unequal battle, going by the numbers (this aspect is highlighted multiple times in the hymns), Sudās decisively won against the tribal alliance by strategic breaching of a (natural) dyke on the river thereby drowning most (?) of the opponents; the victory is attributed to the benevolence and strategizing of Indra, the patron-God of Bharatas, whose blessings were secured by Vasiṣṭha's poetics.[34][38]

Thereafter, the battleground (probably) shifted to the banks of river Yamunā, wherein the local chieftain Bheda was defeated along with three other tribes — Ajas, Śighras, and the Yakṣus.[34][38]

Aftermath edit

The Battle of the Ten Kings led Bharatas to occupy the entire Pūru territory (Western Punjab) centered around Sarasvatī River and complete their east-ward migration.[34] Sudās celebrated his victory with the Aśvamedha ritual to commemorate the establishment of a realm, free of enemies from the north, east, and west. He still had enemies in the Khāṇḍava Forest to the south, which was inhabited by the despised non-Indo-Aryan Kīkaṭas[34]

A political realignment between Pūrus and Bharatas probably followed soon enough and might have included other factions of the tribal union as well; this is exhibited from how the core collection of Rigveda prominently features clan-hymns of both the sides.[39][34]

There is no clear mention of Sudās’ descendants or any succeeding Bharata king in the Rigveda.[40] The Bharatas eventually evolve into the Kuru Kingdom; however, there is no record of this development due to the time gap between the R̥gveda and other Vedas.[41][42]

Legacy in later literature edit

In the epic Mahābhārata, the ancestor of Kurus becomes Emperor Bharata, and his ruler and kingdom is called Bhārata.[43] The Bharata clan mentioned in Mahabharata is a Kuru clan which is a sub clan of the Puru clan who were the cousins of the Yadavas.[44] "Bhārata" today is an official name of the Republic of India.[45]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Scharfe, Hartmut E. (2006), "Bharat", in Stanley Wolpert (ed.), Encyclopedia of India, vol. 1 (A-D), Thomson Gale, pp. 143–144, ISBN 0-684-31512-2
  2. ^ Thapar, Romila (2002), The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, Allen Lane; Penguin Press (published 2003), p. 114, ISBN 0141937424
  3. ^ Witzel, Michael (1995b), (PDF), Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 1–4: 1–26, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-20, retrieved 2017-09-16
  4. ^ Witzel 1999, p. 19.
  5. ^ Witzel, Michael (1999b). "Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages". Mother Tongue: 3.
  6. ^ Palihawadana 2017, p. 38.
  7. ^ Palihawadana 2017, pp. 38–40.
  8. ^ Jamison & Brereton 2014, pp. 810–811.
  9. ^ Macdonell, Arthur Anthony; Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1912). Vedic Index of Names and Subjects. John Murray. p. 380.
  10. ^ Witzel 1995a, p. 247-248.
  11. ^ Gonda, Jan (1975). A History of Indian Literature: I.1 Vedic literature (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas). Otto Harrassowitz. p. 130.
  12. ^ Witzel, Michael (2000). "The Home of the Aryans". In Hintze, A.; Tichy, E. (eds.). Anusantatyai : Festschrift für Johanna Narten zum 70. Geburtstag. Dettelbach: Röll. p. 34.
  13. ^ Witzel 1999, p. 31.
  14. ^ Witzel, Michael (2001). "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts" (PDF). Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 7: 23. doi:10.11588/ejvs.2001.3.830.
  15. ^ Witzel 1999.
  16. ^ Parpola 2015, p. 81, 97-98, 105.
  17. ^ Palihawadana 2017, p. 40.
  18. ^ Jamison & Brereton 2014, pp. 857–859.
  19. ^ a b c Parpola 2015, p. 97.
  20. ^ a b Velankar, H. D. (1942). "Divodāsa Atithigva and the other Atithigvas". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 23 (1/4): 659. JSTOR 44002604 – via JSTOR.
  21. ^ Jamison & Brereton 2014, pp. 810, 857.
  22. ^ Witzel 1995a, pp. 244–246.
  23. ^ Parpola, Asko (2015). The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-19-022693-0.
  24. ^ Witzel 1995a, p. 244-246.
  25. ^ Velankar 1942, p. 663.
  26. ^ Palihawadana 2017, p. 36.
  27. ^ Witzel 1995a, p. 247.
  28. ^ Sarmah, Thaneswar (1991). The Bharadvājas in Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. pp. 7–8. ISBN 81-208-0639-5.
  29. ^ Jamison & Brereton 2014, pp. 815, 833, 837.
  30. ^ Witzel 1995a, p. 216.
  31. ^ Palihawadana 2017, p. 37.
  32. ^ Witzel 1995a, pp. 248–249, 251.
  33. ^ Jamison & Brereton 2014, p. 465.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i Witzel, Michael (1995). "4. Early Indian history: Linguistic and textual parametres". In Erdosy, George (ed.). The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. Indian Philology and South Asian Studies. De Gruyter. pp. 85–125. doi:10.1515/9783110816433-009. ISBN 978-3-11-081643-3. S2CID 238465491.
  35. ^ Brereton, Joel P.; Jamison, Stephanie W., eds. (2020). The Rigveda: A Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 9780190633363.
  36. ^ Palihawadana 2017, p. 51.
  37. ^ a b Schmidt, Hans-Peter (March 1980). "Notes on Rgveda 7.18.5–10". Indica. 17: 41–47. ISSN 0019-686X.
  38. ^ a b c Brereton, Joel P.; Jamison, Stephanie W., eds. (2014). The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. Vol. I. Oxford University Press. pp. 880, 902–905, 923–925, 1015–1016. ISBN 9780199370184.
  39. ^ Witzel, Michael (1997). "The development of the Vedic canon and its schools: the social and political milieu". crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de: 263, 267, 320. doi:10.11588/xarep.00000110 (inactive 2024-04-25). Retrieved 2021-04-15.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2024 (link)
  40. ^ Witzel 1995a, p. 337; Palihawadana 2017, p. 52.
  41. ^ Witzel 1995b, p. 1-2.
  42. ^ B. Kölver, ed. (1997). Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien [Law, State and Administration in Classical India] (in German). München: R. Oldenbourg. pp. 27–52.
  43. ^ Julius Lipner (2010) "Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices.", p.23
  44. ^ National Council of Educational Research and Training, History Text Book, Part 1, India
  45. ^ Article 1 of the English version of the Constitution of India: "India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States."

Notes edit

  1. ^ Karl Friedrich Geldner deemed it to be Bheda, incorrectly. Witzel proposes Trasadasyu. Palihawadana proposes Purukutsa, Trasadasyu's father.[36]

Bibliography edit

  • Jamison, Stephanie; Brereton, Joel (2014). The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. Oxford University Press.
  • Palihawadana, Mahinda (2017). "The Indra Cult as Ideology: A Clue to Power Struggle in an Ancient Society". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 24 (2): 19–166. doi:10.11588/ejvs.2017.2.2667.
  • Witzel, Michael (1995a). "Ṛgvedic history: poets, chieftains and polities". In Erdosy, George (ed.). The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. De Gruyter.
  • Witzel, Michael (1999). "Aryan and non-Aryan Names in Vedic India. Data for the linguistic situation, c. 1900-500 B.C". In Bronkhorst, J.; Deshpande, M. (eds.). Aryans and Non-Non-Aryans, Evidence, Interpretation and Ideology. Vol. 3. Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora.

January 01, 1970
bharatas, tribe, bharatas, were, early, vedic, tribe, that, existed, latter, half, second, millennium, bharatasthe, bharatas, other, early, vedic, tribesethnicityindo, aryanlocationnorthern, indian, subcontinentparent, tribepuru, originally, branchestr, ñjayal. The Bharatas were an early Vedic tribe that existed in the latter half of the second millennium B C E 1 2 3 BharatasThe Bharatas and other early Vedic tribesEthnicityIndo AryanLocationNorthern Indian subcontinentParent tribePuru originally BranchesTr tsu Sr njayaLanguageVedic SanskritReligionHistorical Vedic religion The earliest mentioned location of the Bharatas was on the first Sarasvati River in southern Afghanistan Led by the tribal king Divodasa the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountains and defeated Sambara Divodasa s descendant Sudas won the Battle of the Ten Kings against a Puru led coalition after which the initial compilation of hymns of the R gveda was carried out citation needed After the battle the Bharatas and other Puru clans eventually formed the Kuru Kingdom which was the first attested state in Indian history Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Battle of the Ten Kings 2 1 1 Aftermath 3 Legacy in later literature 4 See also 5 References 6 Notes 6 1 BibliographyEtymology editThe name Bharata is of Indo Aryan and Indo Iranian origin meaning bearers or carriers 4 5 History editTwo Bharatas Devasravas Bharata and Devavata Bharata are mentioned as living near the Apaya Sarasvati and Dr ṣadvati rivers 6 Devavata s son Sṛnjaya Daivavata defeated the Turvasas and is mentioned alongside Abhyavartin Cayamana who defeated the Vṛcivants under Varasikha These battles occurred at the Hariyupiya modern Hali ab and Yavyavati rivers modern Zhob in what is now eastern Afghanistan 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 In a hymn to Sarasvati it is stated that she aided or is sought to aid Vadhryasva in defeating niggards foreigners insulters of gods haters and the sons of Br saya Witzel notes that the name Br saya is of non Indo Aryan origin 14 15 and Parpola proposes that the name came from the language of the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex He states that Br saya was a hereditary regnal title in the region and that it existed even till the time of Alexander the Great 16 In addition the poet expresses the desire not to leave the Sarasvati river modern Helmand and Arghandab 17 18 19 20 Both hymns mentioning the two are attributed to Bharadvaja Barhaspatya 21 Under the chieftain Divodasa Atithigva the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountain range which borders the Indian subcontinent in the northwest 22 23 Divodasa was adopted by Vadhryasva after the former was given to him by the river goddess Sarasvati 19 20 Divodasa defeated the aboriginal mountain chief Sambara in the autumn of the fortieth year of campaigns after destroying ninety nine of the latter s forts 24 19 Under Divodasa the Bharatas were also enemies of the Yadu Turvasas 25 Divodasa s allies were Prastoka Asvatha and Sr njaya s son Scholars differ on whether Sr njaya s son was a different person from Prastoka or Asvatha 26 27 Several Rigvedic poets mention a patron client relationship between Divodasa and Bharadvaja According to a hymn attributed to Suhotra Bharadvaja Bharadvaja was involved in Divodasa s battles with Sambara In another hymn Garga Bharadvaja enumerates the gifts that were donated to the Bharadvajas by Divodasa and his allies of which included part of the booty that was looted from Sambara 28 29 Under Sudas Paijavana a descendant of Divodasa 30 31 and his purohita Visvamitra Gathina the Bharatas crossed the Vipas and Sutudri rivers modern Beas and Sutlej 32 Eventually Visvamitra was replaced by Vasiṣṭha Maitravaruṇi 33 Battle of the Ten Kings edit Main article Battle of the Ten Kings Under Sudas and Vasiṣṭha the Tṛtsu Bharatas win the Battle of the Ten Kings 34 The first phase of the battle took place on the banks of the Paruṣni river modern Ravi near Manuṣa west of Kurukṣetra 34 35 The principal antagonist is doubtful a and names of the participating tribes are difficult to retrieve in light of the phonological deformations of their names 34 37 38 Plausible belligerents of the tribal union include in order Purus erstwhile master tribe of Bharatas Yadu probably commanded by Turvasa Yakṣu relatively unimportant or a pun for Yadu Matsyas Druhyus Pakthas Bhalanas Alinas Viṣaṇins Sivas Vaikarṇa and Anu 34 37 Though seemingly an unequal battle going by the numbers this aspect is highlighted multiple times in the hymns Sudas decisively won against the tribal alliance by strategic breaching of a natural dyke on the river thereby drowning most of the opponents the victory is attributed to the benevolence and strategizing of Indra the patron God of Bharatas whose blessings were secured by Vasiṣṭha s poetics 34 38 Thereafter the battleground probably shifted to the banks of river Yamuna wherein the local chieftain Bheda was defeated along with three other tribes Ajas Sighras and the Yakṣus 34 38 Aftermath edit The Battle of the Ten Kings led Bharatas to occupy the entire Puru territory Western Punjab centered around Sarasvati River and complete their east ward migration 34 Sudas celebrated his victory with the Asvamedha ritual to commemorate the establishment of a realm free of enemies from the north east and west He still had enemies in the Khaṇḍava Forest to the south which was inhabited by the despised non Indo Aryan Kikaṭas 34 A political realignment between Purus and Bharatas probably followed soon enough and might have included other factions of the tribal union as well this is exhibited from how the core collection of Rigveda prominently features clan hymns of both the sides 39 34 There is no clear mention of Sudas descendants or any succeeding Bharata king in the Rigveda 40 The Bharatas eventually evolve into the Kuru Kingdom however there is no record of this development due to the time gap between the R gveda and other Vedas 41 42 Legacy in later literature editIn the epic Mahabharata the ancestor of Kurus becomes Emperor Bharata and his ruler and kingdom is called Bharata 43 The Bharata clan mentioned in Mahabharata is a Kuru clan which is a sub clan of the Puru clan who were the cousins of the Yadavas 44 Bharata today is an official name of the Republic of India 45 See also editVedic periodReferences edit Scharfe Hartmut E 2006 Bharat in Stanley Wolpert ed Encyclopedia of India vol 1 A D Thomson Gale pp 143 144 ISBN 0 684 31512 2 Thapar Romila 2002 The Penguin History of Early India From the Origins to AD 1300 Allen Lane Penguin Press published 2003 p 114 ISBN 0141937424 Witzel Michael 1995b Early Sanskritization Origins and Development of the Kuru State PDF Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 1 4 1 26 archived from the original PDF on 2012 02 20 retrieved 2017 09 16 Witzel 1999 p 19 Witzel Michael 1999b Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages Mother Tongue 3 Palihawadana 2017 p 38 Palihawadana 2017 pp 38 40 Jamison amp Brereton 2014 pp 810 811 Macdonell Arthur Anthony Keith Arthur Berriedale 1912 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects John Murray p 380 Witzel 1995a p 247 248 Gonda Jan 1975 A History of Indian Literature I 1 Vedic literature Saṃhitas and Brahmaṇas Otto Harrassowitz p 130 Witzel Michael 2000 The Home of the Aryans In Hintze A Tichy E eds Anusantatyai Festschrift fur Johanna Narten zum 70 Geburtstag Dettelbach Roll p 34 Witzel 1999 p 31 Witzel Michael 2001 Autochthonous Aryans The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts PDF Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 7 23 doi 10 11588 ejvs 2001 3 830 Witzel 1999 Parpola 2015 p 81 97 98 105 Palihawadana 2017 p 40 Jamison amp Brereton 2014 pp 857 859 a b c Parpola 2015 p 97 a b Velankar H D 1942 Divodasa Atithigva and the other Atithigvas Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 23 1 4 659 JSTOR 44002604 via JSTOR Jamison amp Brereton 2014 pp 810 857 Witzel 1995a pp 244 246 Parpola Asko 2015 The Roots of Hinduism The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization Oxford University Press p 94 ISBN 978 0 19 022693 0 Witzel 1995a p 244 246 Velankar 1942 p 663 Palihawadana 2017 p 36 Witzel 1995a p 247 Sarmah Thaneswar 1991 The Bharadvajas in Ancient India Motilal Banarsidass Publishers pp 7 8 ISBN 81 208 0639 5 Jamison amp Brereton 2014 pp 815 833 837 Witzel 1995a p 216 Palihawadana 2017 p 37 Witzel 1995a pp 248 249 251 Jamison amp Brereton 2014 p 465 a b c d e f g h i Witzel Michael 1995 4 Early Indian history Linguistic and textual parametres In Erdosy George ed The Indo Aryans of Ancient South Asia Language Material Culture and Ethnicity Indian Philology and South Asian Studies De Gruyter pp 85 125 doi 10 1515 9783110816433 009 ISBN 978 3 11 081643 3 S2CID 238465491 Brereton Joel P Jamison Stephanie W eds 2020 The Rigveda A Guide Oxford University Press p 34 ISBN 9780190633363 Palihawadana 2017 p 51 a b Schmidt Hans Peter March 1980 Notes on Rgveda 7 18 5 10 Indica 17 41 47 ISSN 0019 686X a b c Brereton Joel P Jamison Stephanie W eds 2014 The Rigveda The Earliest Religious Poetry of India Vol I Oxford University Press pp 880 902 905 923 925 1015 1016 ISBN 9780199370184 Witzel Michael 1997 The development of the Vedic canon and its schools the social and political milieu crossasia repository ub uni heidelberg de 263 267 320 doi 10 11588 xarep 00000110 inactive 2024 04 25 Retrieved 2021 04 15 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint DOI inactive as of April 2024 link Witzel 1995a p 337 Palihawadana 2017 p 52 Witzel 1995b p 1 2 B Kolver ed 1997 Recht Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien Law State and Administration in Classical India in German Munchen R Oldenbourg pp 27 52 Julius Lipner 2010 Hindus Their Religious Beliefs and Practices p 23 National Council of Educational Research and Training History Text Book Part 1 India Article 1 of the English version of the Constitution of India India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States Notes edit Karl Friedrich Geldner deemed it to be Bheda incorrectly Witzel proposes Trasadasyu Palihawadana proposes Purukutsa Trasadasyu s father 36 Bibliography edit Jamison Stephanie Brereton Joel 2014 The Rigveda The Earliest Religious Poetry of India Oxford University Press Palihawadana Mahinda 2017 The Indra Cult as Ideology A Clue to Power Struggle in an Ancient Society Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 24 2 19 166 doi 10 11588 ejvs 2017 2 2667 Witzel Michael 1995a Ṛgvedic history poets chieftains and polities In Erdosy George ed The Indo Aryans of Ancient South Asia Language Material Culture and Ethnicity De Gruyter Witzel Michael 1999 Aryan and non Aryan Names in Vedic India Data for the linguistic situation c 1900 500 B C In Bronkhorst J Deshpande M eds Aryans and Non Non Aryans Evidence Interpretation and Ideology Vol 3 Harvard Oriental Series Opera Minora Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bharatas tribe amp oldid 1220782217, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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