Study of the Contemporary Literary Sources

Apart from the above mentioned inscriptional evidence, some notable contemporary literature also provides several examples of migration in northern India in the early and early medieval period. Personal information and descriptions that depicted in the works of some poets, authors, grammarians, and others, rather their wanderings from one place to another, show that they left their ancestral homes to settle elsewhere. Although we are only discussing the vedic Brahmins, these examples are needed to make the matter clearer.

The author of the Kirātārjuniyam, Bhāravi, who made an impact in the last half of the sixth century, himself lived at the court of Kubja Viṣṇuvardhana of the Eastern Cālukya dynasty of Piṣtapura in Godavari district. His forefathers were initially from Ānandapura in Gujarat and moved to Nāsikya in Maharashtra from there. Later Bhāravi was invited by Pallava Simhaviṣṇu of Kāñci and went to live at his court.^[1] And then he became a friend of the Prince Mahendravikrama there.

Bāṇabhaṭṭa lived in the first half of the seventh century. He was contemporary of Harṣavardhana of Kanauj. Harṣavardhana appointed Bāṇabhaṭṭa as a court-poet there and Bāṇabhaṭṭa authored Harṣacarita in no time. From the description part, we came to know that Bāṇa's home was at Pritikūṭa near the bank of the Hirayṇavāha or Śoṇa.^[2] Rising in the Vindhya hills, the river flows through the Daṇḍaka forest. In his book ‘Harṣacarita, Ek Sanskrikita Adhyayana’, V.S. Agrawal^[3] agrees with the phenomena. He, however, quoted K. Upadhyaya’s view on Pritikūṭa . According to Upadhyaya, Bāṇa's home Pritikūṭa is modern Piyur in the Shahabad district of Bihar. But Bāṇa himself mentions that his ancestral home was near the river Śona, which ran through the Dandakāraṇya.^[4] So Bāṇa's ancestral home was near the source of the river śoṇa, probably in the region of Madhyapradesh, and he went to live in the court of Harṣavardhana at Kanauj from there.

According to V.V. Mirashi and P.V. Kane, Bhavabhūti, the author of Mālatīmādhava, Mahāviracarita, and Uttararāmacarita, lived in between the eighth century. As per the Mahāviracarita^[5] and Mālatīmādhava, ^[6] Bhavabhūti was born in Padmapura in Dakṣiṇāpatha or the Deccan India, which (Padmapura) is in Vidarbha or modern Berar. Bhandarkar mentions his edition of the Mālatīmādhava that some manuscripts omit the word Vidarbheṣu from the text.^[7] Maybe this is the reason some scholars misguided and identify Padmapura with Padmāvati or Padam Pawaya near Narwar. But, D.C. Sircar does not agree with this view. He prefers to locate Padmapura in Vidarbha, as stated in Bhavabhūti’s early work Mālatīmādhava. Kalhaṇa, the famous history writer from Kashmir, in his Rājatarangiṇi mentions that Bhavabhūti was the court-poet of Yaśovarman of Kanauj.^[8] So it can be concluded, from Vidarbha (modern Berar) in Maharashtra, Bhavabhūti migrated to Kanauj in Uttarpradesh in the eighth century.

Kalhaṇa also refers to another instance of migration from north to south India. In the fourth chapter of his book Rājatarangiṇi, Kalhaṇa refers to Vāmana, who was a minister of Jayāpida of Kashmir.^[9] But later on, Vāmana went to the court of Rāṣṭrakūṭa King Govinda III^[10] leaving his home in the extreme north of India and coming southward to Maharashtra in the eighth century.

Sanskrit poet, dramatist and critic Rājaśekhara, the author of the Viddhaśālabhañjikā, Bālabhārata, Karpūramañjarī, Bālarāmāyaṇa, and Kāvyamīmaṃsā, belonged to a Yāyāvara brāhmaṇa family of Maharashtra (more or fewer c. 900 CE).^[11] His great-grandfather, Akālajalada, was Mahārāṣtracūḍāmaṇi or a crest-jewel of Maharashtra.^[12] It is being heard that the poet applies this epithet to himself.^[13] He composed himself as an ornament of the country of Maharashtra. V.V. Mirashi,^[14] too agrees with it. This emphasizes that Rājaśekhara is originated from Maharashtra and his ancestors migrated from there. Rājaśekhara is found to occupy the position of a courtpoet at Kanauj in his plays. During c. 885-908 CE, he was the guru of Mahendrapāla -I of the Gurjara Pratihāra dynasty, as mentioned in Karpūramañjari. ^[15] In the time of Vinayaka-1, Mahipāla , his contacts with Kanauj continued.

Lakṣmīdhara the Sanskrit poet, an inhabitant of Bhaṭṭa Kośala in Gauḍa lived in c. 1010–1055 CE. Then, he went to Mālava/ Malwa (currently in Madhyapradesh) and settled in the court of Paramāra King Bhoja.^[16]

The author of Vikramāṅkadevacarita and the Caurapañcāśikā, Bilhaṇa, was an 11th-century Kashmiri poet. He had initially been lived in Madhyadeśa, and his ancestors were of Madhyadeśa brāhmaṇas. Later they migrated to Kashmir. However, Bilhaṇa was by birth Kashmiri. He was born at Koṇamukha near Pravarapura in Kashmir.^[17] Then, he left Kashmir as well in the reign of King Kalaśa,^[18] and he finally came to Southern India, to the court of Cālukya Vikramāditya -V I Tribhuvanamalla (c. 1076-1127 CE) and the royal courts at Dahala and Anhilvāda after visiting Kānyakubja -M athurā–Prayāga and Vārāṇasī . Bilhana's travel took us on a long journey from the north to south through many places in between and finally to the Deccan. How he was honored by the Cālukya king and received the title of Vidyāpati, Kalhaṇa describes them all.

In the first chapter of his essay on India, Alberuni mentions migration of the Hindus, while he describes how Mahmūd, had made the Hindus scattered in all directions.^[19] With their science and knowledge, they fled to Kashmir, Benaras, and other places. Besides,he has repeatedly referred to Kashmiri writers and Kashmiri scholars. It is doubtful whether Albaruni himself ever visited Kashmir. It is possible that he relied on the information of scholars who had left Kashmir. According to Stein,^[20] Alberuni's detailed statement on the knowledge of Kashmir and all his comments about it seem to indicate that he was in personal contact with Kashmiri scholars. Although a lot of information about migration is given in this book, from the description in the first chapter, it seems that they were forced to flee from one place to another, not moved voluntarily.

Sanskrit prose literature during the period under discussion contains some references to the migration of brāhmaṇas. The Dasakumāracarita of Danḍin (c. 635-700 CE) mentions about a brāhmaṇa viz. Mātanga who lived in the Vindhya forest. The description goes that later he went to the Danḍaka forest at the command of God and then became the king of Pātāla.^[21] Pātāla here obviously not an underground kingdom but refers to some other place in the Danḍaka forest. Some other brāhmaṇa and sons of the ministers of the king of Magadha , Rājahaṃsa, also left their homes in Magadha (currently in southern Bihar) to settle elsewhere. Kāmapāla, son of Dharmapāla, went Vārāṇas^[22] (Uttar Pradesh) from Magadha . Again, Pramati, son of Sumati, settled down in Śrāvasti^[23] (Uttar Pradesh) from the same city viz. Magadha . And then, Mitragupta, grandson of Dharmapāla, was found in the town of Suhma, called Dāmalipta.^[24] They can be counted among such immigrant brāhmaṇas. According to D.C. Sircar, Dāmalipta viz. Tāmralipta is sometimes mentioned as a part of Suhma, sometimes as an independent state or sometimes as a part of Vaṇga.^[25] In this case, the princes traveled from Magadha (an ancient kingdom in southern Bihar) and settled to the cities that were located in the fertile Gangetic plains and on the banks of the Ganges that belongs to in the present-day Uttar Pradesh.

The Kathāsaritasāgara of Somadeva contains similar instances as Daśakumārucarita. In a story of the books, a brāhmaṇa who lived in Chinchani in the Dakṣināpatha (Deccan), left his home and entered the Vindhya forest and then, came to Pāṭaliputra.^[26] Similarly, Pralambabāhu from the Dakṣināpatha (Deccan) migrated to Kauśāmbī in Uttar Pradesh for employment under Naravāhanadatta. Naravāhanadatta was son of Udayana king of Vatsa.^[27] Another Brāhmaṇa Śrīdarśana went to Mālava from Trigarta.^[28] Trigarta was situated in between the rivers Ravi and Sutlej. Again, Viravarawas originally from Vikramapura (in modern Bangladesh), moved to Mālava^[29] from there. Govindasvāmin, who was living on the banks of the Yamunā, left his home and settled in Benares.^[30] Yaśaskara emigrated from Śobhāvatī in the territory of Kaliṇga and went to the city of Visālā.^[31] According to a story of Kathāsaritasāgara, the two famine-stricken brāhmaṇa Govindasvāmin and Yaśaskara moved to Benares and Visālā.

It is true that the testimony of these stories of Daśakumārucarita, Kathāsaritasāgara and others it is not as reliable as the information provided by the texts like Rājatarangiṇi, Alberuni's India or living history inscriptions. Literature is like a mirror of society. Any literature highlights the situation of that time. Although not a reliable material to conclude yet it can safely be surmised that migration as a feature of human life and surely the people of that day were used to it well. Otherwise, their mentions about the movement can hardly find a place in these stories.

We must note that the actual names of many places mentioned in the inscriptions have not yet been identified. Moreover, in many cases, nothing specific has been said about them. Again, there are instances where the original residence and current residence of the donee have identified well but the granted village that still unidentified. There are other instances where the location of the donated land is explicitly stated, but not the residence of the donee. Besides, there are several other land grants, where the new names of either the ancestral home of the donee or the place to which he migrated we do not know yet.

Lack of identification of place-names becomes a severe problem here, as it is challenging to understand whether the place was a village or a city at that time. Often a larger geographical area is mentioned from where brāhmaṇas emigrated, e.g., the Madhyadeśa, Odradeśa, etc. but the name of a particular place is not, which has made the problem worse. However, where modern scholars have correctly identified precise references to cities and villages or places, it is possible to arrive at any conclusions regarding the subject. For the sake of convenience, in this chapter, the records in which the brāhmaṇa’s original homes and places to which they migrated are identified have been discussed chronologically dynasty-wise and region-wise.

Opinions of various researchers,their hard devotion to find those ancient villages and towns, and their thorough research on even the smallest detail helped me get the job done.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

M. Krishnamachariar, History of Classical Sanskrit Literature, pp. 147-148.

[2]:

P.V. Kane (ed.), Harṣacarita, I, p. 8.

[3]:

V.S. Agrawal, Harṣacarita, Eka Sāṃskṛtika Adhyayana, p. 18.

[4]:

Indeed, the precise extent of Dandakāranya is far from certain. It seems to have been a generic name, comprising all forests from the Yamunā to the Kṛṣnā. Guha who helped Bhārata to cross the Ganges, has been described in the Rāmāyaṇa, as being well acquainted with the Daṇḍakāraṇya, which may have stretched right up to the Ganges. Hemādri, in his digest (in Vratakhanḍa section), says Devagiri or modern Daulatabad was in Seunadeśa on the confines of Daṇḍakāraṇya (Bombay Gazettee, part II, p. 231): Kane too has held, that the ancestral home of Bāṇabhaṭṭa was in Daṇḍakāraṇya and not near Buxar. Agrawal also feels that as Bāṇahimself describes the Sona as lying near Candraparvata, the latter must have been situated in that part of the Vindhya hills from where the Sona rises.

[5]:

Todarmall (ed.), Mahāviracarita, I, p. 2.

[6]:

M.R. Telang and W.S. Paniskar (eds.), Mālatimādhava, p. 7.

[7]:

Ibid., p. 11.

[8]:

Rājataraṅgiṇī, IV, verse 144.

[9]:

Ibid., IV, verse 497.

[10]:

M. Krishnamachariar, op. cit., p. 734.

[11]:

Sisir Kumar Das, A history of Indian literature, 500-1399: from courtly to the popular, p. 60.

[12]:

Bālarāmāyaņa, chap. I. 13, p. 91, as quoted by Sten Konow in Rājaśekhara's Karpūramañjarī, p. 180.

[13]:

S. Konow and C.R. Lanman, Rājaśekhara's Karpūramañjarī, pp.180-181.

[14]:

V.V. Mirashi, Bhavabhūti, His Date, Life and Works, p. 379.

[15]:

S. Konow and C.R. Lanman, op. cit., p. 5.

[16]:

Indian Culture, vol. I, pp. 702-705.

[17]:

S.N. Dasgupta and S.K. De, History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 350-352.

[18]:

Rājataraṅgiṇī, VII, verses 935-937.

[19]:

Alberuni, India, ed. and eng. trans. E.C. Sachau, vol. I, chap. I., p. 22.

[20]:

M.A. Stein, Kalhaņa's Rājataraṅgiṇī, vol.II, pp. 359-360.

[21]:

M.R. Kale (ed.), Daśakumāracarita, II, pp. 24-28.

[22]:

Ibid., IV, p. 125.

[23]:

Ibid., V, p. 143.

[24]:

Ibid., VI, p. 149.

[25]:

D.C. Sircar, op. cit., p. 246.

[26]:

N.M. Penzer (ed.), Ocean of Stories, vol. I, chap. III, pp. 21-24.

[27]:

Ibid., vol. IV, chap. LIII, p. 173.

[28]:

Ibid., vol. VI, chap. LXXIII, p. 102.

[29]:

Ibid., vol. IV, chap. LIII, p. 173.

[30]:

Ibid., vol. III, chap. XXV, p. 196.

[31]:

Ibid., vol. VIII, chap. CIIV, p. 2.