Part 1 - Origin of Gurjaradesa and its people

In any attempt to study the History of Caulukyas certain problems connected with the history of Gurjaradesa have to be examined again in the light of materials which the labours of Indian Scholars have made available. A controversy has arisen over the word 'Gurjara'. Does the word primarily denote the country, Gurjara-desa, Gurjarabhumi, Gurjaratra or Gujarat?. And has the word been transferred to its rulers and residents in its secondary meaning? Or was Gurjara in its inception the name of an immigrating tribe or tribes and was later transferred to the tract where they first settled and to the kings and the people of that race?. This problem has been created by a failure to appraise the value of two facts. Modern Gujarat (=Gujarat) is not geographically the same as the Gurjarabhumi of the Caulukyas; and modern and Caulukyan Gujarats are both different historically and geographically from Gurjaradesa. The term 'Gujarat' is at present, used in different senses by different people. In ordinary language the term Gujarat is used in two senses. In the first sense it denotes the main land between Mount Abu and the river Daman-Ganga distinguishing it from Cutch and Kathiwar on the one side and Marwar and the Malwa on the

14 other. In the second sense it means the much larger language-field in which modern Gujarati is spoken. The boundary of this linguistic Gujarat in the north touches Sirohi and Marwar and includes Cutch and the districts of Thar and Parkar in Sind. Its eastern frontier runs down from the Aravalli hills along the eastern boundary of Palanpur enclosing the Bhill settlements and running along the eastern boundary of Dharampur, with the sea in the west. Linguistic Gujarat tapers down to a narrow strip which ends in the bilingual area of the city and the suburban district of Bombay. This area, within which modern Gujarati is spoken may, therefore be called modern Gujarat.1 i But at no time in history were its frontiers co-terminous with the boundaries of any part of political Gujarat or of Gurjaradesa known to history. At the same time at no time in history were Mount Abu and the town Srimala or Bhillamala outside the boundaries of the tract known as Gurjara or Gurjaradesa or Gujarat. Bhillamala therefore, is the centre, the fluctuating boundaries of the province have to be measured from it. Gujarat again is not the same thing as Gurjaradesa or Gurjara. The word 'Gurjara' appears in history as applicable to a region in the middle of the sixth century. A.D. Its capital was Bhillamala. Its southern boundary was somewhere about the river Sarasvati on which the town of Patana (now in Baroda state) came to be situated.Its northern boundary was beyond modern Jodhpur. The land was styled 'Gurjara' pure and simple. The names of the countries which surrounded it and which now form part of modern Gujarat were not very different in point of population, but were differently

15 delimited. Nasik was Nasik in Maharashtra. From Bulsar to Broach was Bhrgukaccha or south Lata. From Broach to Mahi including the modern Baroda. Pranta was Malava, from Mahi to Sabarmati was Khetaka, modern Kheda; parts of Ahmedabad district were Asapalli near the modern village Aslali ; north of it was Anarta with its capital Anandapura of modern Vadanagar. Kathiawar was divided into Valabhi and Saurastra. Kaccha was so named even then. What is Malva now was called Ujjayini or Avanti. The southern part of the old Gurjara is now included in modern Gujarat as its northernmost part and lies between Sirohi and the Sarasvati.2 The imperial Gurjaras of the first dynasty, who are styled by modern historians as the Pratiharas of Kanauj, looked to Gurjaradcoa as their homeland. That is why they were called Gurjaras. And the imperial Gurjaradesa. under the greatest of them, Mihirabhoja, extended in the west, from Prthudaka in the Punjab to Jodhpur, form Jodhpur to Abu, from Abu to the mouth of Sarasvati, so as to include the portion east of modern Wadhwan. The Sarasvati was the southern limit or perhaps Anarta was absorbed in Gurjara-desa. The bulk of modern Malwa also formed part of it. Saurastra and Kaccha were not in Gurjaradesa but were ruled by the Imperial Gurjaras. The region from Khetaka, modern Kaira, or perhaps from Mahi to Kaveri in the Surat district was not in Gurjaradesa and was called Lata. Lata was the battle-ground, between the Pratihara emperors of Gurjaradesa and the Rastrakuta emperors of Karnataka.3

16 Two successive raids of the Rastrakutas, one in 915. A.D., and the other in 940 A.D. broke the first empire of Gurjaradesa. The political fabric which the imperial Gurjaras of the Pratihara dynasty had reared went to pieces. Every feudatory became independent. Gurjaradesa from the homeland of emperors became a battle-ground of petty kings. The principal fragments of the imperial Gurjaradesa were the regions of Delhi, Sapadalaksa with Sakambhari, modern Sambhar, as its capital in the north, Gopagiri, modern Gwalior, Kiradu near Jodhpur, Marwar with its capital at Naddula, Medapata with its capital at Citrakuta or Chitor, Jabalipura or modern Jalor, Abu with its capital at Candravati; Sarasvata Mandala or the valley of the Sarasvati river with its capital Anahilavada Patana; Vagada or Dungarpur Banswara State and Malva with its Capital Dhara.4 Gurjaradesa at the height of its first Empire includes other provinces also, Viz. Kanyakubja Visaya, the region around Kanauj. Pratisthana Visaya, the region arround Kasi; Jejabhukti or Bundelkhand, Saurastra and Kaccha. These also drifted away as separate kingdoms and the limits of old Gurjara-desa were forgotten. In this confusion, Mularaja the founder of the Caulukya dynasty captured the Southernmost slice of Gurjaradesa and established himself at Anahilavada Patana. His little principality was known as Sarasvata Mandala, not as Gurjaradesa. When he carved out this little kingdom for himself the Paramara ruler who ruled over modern Malwa, Khetaka Mandala and parts of Lata was called a Gurjara. But the title. Gurjaresvara struck to Mularaja and his successors who ruled at Patana. No doubt Sarasvata Mandala and Satyapura Mandala which he soon captured and adjoining Abu region, were parts of old 1

17 Gurjaradesa 5 But after 940 A.D. the territory over which the Caulukyas of Gujarat ruled, came to be called 'Gurjarabhumi'. And as the Southern frontier of their little kingdom advanced under Karna, Jayasimha-Siddharaja and Kumarapala, the name 'Gurjarabhumi' or 'Gujarata' came to be applied to such accretions. Each of the other fragments of the imperial Gurjaradesa was known by a separate name, but the region from Abu in the receding southern frontier which first rested on the Mahi, then on the Narmada and then on the Daman-Ganga on the main-land, came to be known as Gujarat. The kings of Anahilavada were invariably Gurjaresvaras. The name Lata as applied to the portion between Mahi and Daman slowly disappeared and the southern boundary of Gujarabhumi was Daman-Ganga when Kumarapala died in 1174. A.D.6 When the Muslims captured Anahilavada Patana the kingdom that they inherited from the Caulukyas of Patana was known as the kingdom of Gujarat. Thus it was Mularaja and his successors who acquired a part of the imperial Gurjaradesa for themselves and brought with them the name Gurjaresvaras and it was in their time that the bulk of the peninsular Gujarat received its name. The second belief almost elevated to the pedestal of a religious dogma, which consciously or unconsciously obscures judgement of this period of Indian History, is that Gurjaras were a foreign tribe. They immigrated to India with the Hunas in C.450 A.D. Whatever the locality of which the word 'Gurjara' or any word of which it forms part like Gujranwala, Gujarat, Gurjarkahan is applied at present, indicates the settlement of this foreign tribe J

18 in its onward march from the north-western frontier of India to the Khatiawar peninsula. People or kings referred to as Gurjaras, therefore, belonged to this foreign tribe. This theory of immigration has so captured the imagination of students of Indian History, both Indian and Foreign, that everything connected with Gurjara is sought to be explained by it. But against great names in Indian Research like JACKSON,BHAGWANLAL, HOERNLE,BHANDARKAR and SMITH, there has been a protest led by VAIDYA, OJHA and KRISHNASWAMI IYENGAR the last of whom states, "I do believe that the immigration of the Gurjaras is not such a settled fact of history for deductive applications. I did my best to examine the materials on which the theory of immigration was based and I submit that in view of all the evidence that has been forth-coming of recent years the theory of immigration is unsustainable".8 K.M. MUNSHI, clarifies the position in this statement by saying "I venture to submit that there is no determinative piece of evidence that the word Gurjara was used to indicate the race of the person indicated; or that the person denominated was of the foreign origin."9 The theory began with an early bias which can be traced to European scholars of the mid-nineteenth century. Some of the inferences drawn under the influence of this bias were remarkable : (A). The Gurjaras were always coupled with the Hunas. They were 'Khazaras', part of the great horde of which Juan-Juan or Avars and the Epithaletes Yeats and the white Hunas were leading elements. Therefore the Gurjaras came with the Hunas to India. 10 }

20 As against this, is the other view which is borne out by the literary and ephigraphic references of six centuries. In the seventh century A.D. a certain tract in modern Rajaputana was known by the name of Gurjara. Its inhabitants were divided into Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras and were similar in race and culture to others of North India. They with the people who occupied Lata, Saurastra, Malva, Anarta and Ujjayini formed a homogeneous people. The people residing in this tract whenever they migrated to other parts of the country, were known as Gurjaras from the name of their homeland just as residents of other provinces like Gouda, Lata, Dravida were known by the respective names of their homelands. The rulers of Gurjara-desa politically consolidated the surrounding parts of which the people were homogeneous. As a result Gurjaradesa grew to become co-terminous with the kingdom of its kings. The geographical units which are known as Gujarat, which carry the word Gurjara in it, are isolated fragments of that larger Gurjaradesa which have retained old name while the surrounding parts have lost it, or were towns or fortresses built or occupied by persons who called themselves Gurjaras. Finally the castes and tribes which bear the name Gurjara and the kings who styled themselves or were known as such, derived it from their homeland.14 A detailed examination of the sources therefore becomes necessary. But, a few correctives must not be forgotten while securing such evidences. Firstly, the absence of reference to the name of a country in the Mahabharata or such earlier records does not mean that the name of the country

21 is necessarily derived from a foreign name. Lata, for instance, is not known to the Mahabharata, and yet no one has suggested that the name was given to modern south Gujarat by foreigners. Vagada, the name of the region represented by modern Dungarpur-Bansvara, is not mentioned in the Puranas. Even Khetaka Mandala is not found in old literature though its name sprung into existence between the first and the fifth century of the Christian Era. The absence of the name of Gujjars or its Sanskrtised form Gurjara therefore from any literary or ephigraphic record before the sixth century A.D. need not necessarily involve its foreign origin.³ 15 Secondly, the name of a country is used for its kings both in literature and ephigraphic records as in the case of Lata, Malava, Kuntala, Cedi etc. If Gurjara was the name of a country, its kings would naturally be referred to as Gurjara. Such use does not necessarily denote the original tribe to which the king belonged. Thirdly, the residents of a country were always described by the name of the country. The use of the words Saurastras, Latas, Malavas for residents of these parts is well-known to literature. If the sub-consious bias in favour of foreign immigration of the Gurjaras is excluded, there is no reason whatever why the word Gurjara applied to Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras need be treated as referring to anything except their home-land.16 Fourthly, the evolution of Hindu tradition and society shows a tendency to absorb foreigners settled in this country within the social organisation of Varnasramadharma. The absorptive tendency of Hindu

13 (B). Sapadalakssa is Sevalik. Sevalik is Socotra. Socotra is in Africa. Socotra was colonised by remnants of the Greek army of Alexander. The Capas were Gurjaras and were therefore descended from the Greek heroes. 11 (C). The Huna group of tribes permanently settled in Rajaputana. The Gurjaras were its important elements. They migrated to all parts of India, among them were Gurjara Brahmanas and Gurjara cultivators. Therefore the foreign tribe of Gurjaras under Brahmanical influence divided itself into four castes, and hence the foreign Gurjaras became Gurjara Brahmanas. Gurjara Vaisyas Gurjara Ksatriyas and Gurjara Sudras. 12 (D). People calling themselves Gurjaras are found from the Indus to Ganges, and from the Hazara mountains to the Narmada. They are numerous in western Himalayas a tribe of herdsmen is found calling itself Gurjar in Kasmir. They are numerous on the banks of upper Jumna and the Doab. This distribution testifies to the tribal movements of the foreign Gurjaras.1 13 (E). In the Punjab, the names Gujarat, Gujarwala, Gurjarakhan, still retain their connection with the word Gurjara. Saharanpur was called Gujarat in the eighteenth century. One of the northern districts of Gwalior is still called Gurjaragadh. The northern and central portions of Rajputana were called Gurjaratra in the ninth century. The Gurjaras are found in Bundelakhand. The word Gujarata of course is there as applied to modern Gujarat. There are Gurjaras in the Narmada valley and Nagpur; and also in South India where they have drifted atleast before sixth century. These places, argue eminent scholars, indicate the main stages in the onward march of the foreign Gurjaras from Peshawar to Narmada.

22 culture was so effective that within two generations communities of foreign origin became rooted both in tradition and social institutions of the land. If Gurjaras were foreigners, if its warriors had been absorbed completely as Kstriyas, so that they traced their decent from a Brahmana Haricandra or from · the Iksvaku Laksmana, it would be surprising indeed if they continued to maintain the badge of their foreign origin by calling themselves Gurjaras. The absorption of foreign tribes in Hindu society has always taken the form of giving to military leaders the position of Ksatriyas and others the position in the lower strata of the society according to the profession they followed. But in no case except in the isolated and doubtful case of Maga Brahmanas settled Srimala who are stated Magi priests of Persia, has foreign group been given the status of Brahmanas. But to assume that the Gurjaras under Brahmanical influence divided themselves into four castes is to misread the processes of Hindu social and cultural evolution.17 at Fifthly, Rajaputana, Gujarat and Malva wherein are found traces of people, kings and places known by the name of Gurjara or any other name associated with it, were not empty places before the sixth century. From early times Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaigyas of Aryo-Dravidian stock, and the aborigines lived there; and the foreign Hunas or Gurjaras, only came if at all as conquering tribes to win, to settle, and to be absorbed among the existing population. Their number therefore could never have been so large as to displace or to absorb the population. The Rajputs of Rajaputana so named only by the Muslim chroniclers could not be all Hunas and Gurjaras, who simply elbowed out the original Ksatriya donned the belief, tradition and

23 culture of their victims, as if it were a clock. And if so, where did the old Ksatriyas go ? If the earliest records which refer to the word Gurjara are examined with the aid of these correctives the theory of immigration will appear to be of doubtful validity. Bana in his Harsacarita describes Prabhakaravardhana (569-601 A.D.), the father of Emperor Sri Harsa as "The lion to the deer which is the Huna, the dangerous fever to Sindhu Raja, the one who kept the Gurjara awake, the fell disease to the elephants of Gandhara, the thief of the expanse of Lata, the axe of the creeper of the sovereignty of Malava". 18 These rhetorical references are clearly to the kings of Huna, Sindhu, Gurjara, Gandhara, Lata and Malava, the countries. There is no warrant for treating Gurjaras as necessarily referring to the race, as opposed to the country of the king, nor is Gurjara connected with Huna in such a manner or context as to suggest affinity of race. Next are two references, one of an individual called Gurjara who engraved a copper-plate charter of Sri Harsa found in a village thirty-two miles north-east of Azamgadh, 19 and another to "Kucharskudihaj" a temple of Gurjara workmanship referred to in a Tamil poem Manimekhalai composed in the sixth century A.D. These references would equally make sense if the word Gurjara was applied to the individual or individuals with reference to the country of their origin. In C.550 A.D. a Gurjaranrpati invaded region of Broach in Lata from the north; and Dadda I, of Lata is described as 20

24 Gurjaranrpativamsa in the inscription of his grand-son. 21 This Gurjaranrpati, from epigraphic evidence is now identified with Haricandra the Brahmana who founded the fortunes of the Pratihara family in the region of modem Jodhpur, which upto the tenth century A.D. was included in Gurjaratra or Gurjaradosa.2 Why should he be taken to be a king of a foreign tribe and not as referred to by the name of the kingdom he ruled over, when definite epigraphic evidence establishes that this king was a "Learned Brahmana well versed in Vedas?" A Javanese tradition places the arrival of Bhrvijaya the son of Kasamacitra or Baladitya, King of Gujarat in 603 A.D.23 In the seventh century the evidence is conclusive. The Aihole inscription of Pulakesi II of C.625 A.D. records the defeat of Lata, Malava, Gurjara. This is a clear reference to the kings of Gurjara, Lata and Malava whose territories were contiguous. 24 The king of Lata was Gurjaranipativamsa; while the king of Gurjara can be no other than Haricandra's descendant of the Pratihara dynasty who reigned at Bhillamala, the capital of Gurjaradesa. Yuan Chwang, the Chinese traveller, is definite that the countries in Western India from South to North were ranged as follows: (a) Maharashtra; (b) Bhrgukaccha; (c) Malava, the territory between the Narmada and Mahi and West part of modern Malva.

25 (d) Khetaka or the modern district of Kaira; (c) Asapalli or the Ahmedabad district; (f) Valabhi and Saurastra in Peninsula; (g) Anarta, North Gujarat. (h) Gurjara; and (i) Ujjayini. In 739 A.D. Pulakeshi Avanijanasraya of Navasari describes the conquest of the Arabs or Tejakas over different kings among whom are mentioned Saindhava, Kaccha, Saurastra, Cavotaka, Maurya and Gurjara.25 Though Cavotaka and Maurya are the family names of rulers, Kaccha and Saurastra are the names of countries used for their respective kings. The word Gurjara need not therefore be assumed to be applied to the race of the king but to the country over which he ruled. In the Pancatantra, there is a reference to Gurjara-desa where camels were available. This points to Gurjara being identical with Rajputana.26 In 778 A.D. Udyotana writing his work Kuvalayamala at Jabalipura, modern Jhalor, describes the beautiful Gurjara-desa and also refers to its residents in general as Gurjaras.2 27 C.942 A.D. Mularaja, the founder of Caulukya dynasty and his successors adopted the title of Gurjaresvara, possibly because they came from

26 Gurjaradesa or because Sarasvata and Satyapura Mandalas over which Mularaja ruled formed part of Gurjaradesa. 28 C.997 A.D. Ksemendra in his Aucitya-Vicara-Carca describes the war between Munja, identified as Vakpati II, and Mularaja of Patana as one between the lion of Malava and the lord of Gurjara.29 These all facts make it clear that the people of Rajaputano, Malva, and of modern Gujarat during the period under survey, were one homogeneous people divided into Varnas. Next, we have to observe the Caulukya dynasty of Gujarat, of which, our hero of the Vasantvilasa Mahakavya, by name Vastupala was the prime-minister in the court of Caulukya king Viradhavala.