The Abhiras were a legendary people mentioned in ancient Indian epics and scriptures as early as the Vedas. they were a warlike tribe is admitted by all. Probably they were a nomadic people as they are associated with various peoples and provinces. [1] 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. [2]
Etymologically, he who can cast terror on all sides is called an Abhira. [3] [ clarification needed ]
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, as pastoral 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, and 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]
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]
Before the 12th century, an Ahir dynasty ruled some areas in what is now Nepal. [13]
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]
During the reign of Samudragupta (c. 350), the Abhiras lived in Rajputana and Malwa 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. [17] 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. [17] Abhiras were sturdy and regarded 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. [18]
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. [19] Also founded a kingdom in the northern part of the Maratha country, and an inscription of the ninth year of the Abhira king Ishwarsena. [20] [21]
The Mahabharata and other authoritative works use the three terms-Abhira, Yadava and Gopa synonymously. [22] [23]
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 [24] and Kauravas and in the Mahabharata, Abhira, Gopa, Gopal and Yadavas are all synonyms. [25] 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. [26]
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. [27]
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. [28]
According to famous historian K. P. Jayaswal, the Abhiras of Gujarat are the same race as Rastrikas of Emperor Ashoka and Yadavas of the Mahabharata. [29] [30] [31]
According to Jayant Gadkari tribes such as Abhiras, Vrishnis, Andhakas and Satvatas after a period of long conflicts came to be known as Yadavas. [32]
In the period between the third and tenth centuries the history of the Abhiras becomes extremely confused, both in brahminical records and epigraphic inscriptions. They begin to be associated with ancient Yadava dynasties such as the Chedis and Haihayas and are probably to be identified with the Kalachuri dynasty, one of whose rulers inaugurated the Kalachuri or Chedi era in A.D. 249. [33]
According to historian G. H. Ojha, the assimilation of the Abhiras with the Yadavas was an accomblished fact by the 12th century. [34]
As a goddess, Gayatri is the personified form of popular Vedic hymn, Gayatri Mantra. [35] 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. [36] [37] [38]
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. [39]
The Padma Purana features Vishnu stating that, "I shall be born amongst you, O Ābhīras, at Mathura in my eighth birth". [40]
The Abhiras were stratified into the four Varna categories of Abhira-Brahmins, Abhira-Kshatriyas, Abhira-Vaisyas and Abhira-Sudras. [41]
Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.
Subhadra is the sister of deities Krishna and Balarama in Hindu mythology. According to Hindu scriptures, she was a princess from the Yadava clan, who married Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers, and had a son named Abhimanyu.
Pradyumna is the eldest son of the Hindu deities Krishna and his chief consort, Rukmini. He is considered to be one of the four vyuha avatars of Vishnu. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Pradyumna was the reincarnation of Kamadeva, the god of love. The Mahabharata states that Pradyumna was a portion of Sanat Kumara.
The Yadava were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage.
The kingdom of Surasena was an ancient Indian region corresponding to the present-day Braj region in Uttar Pradesh, with Mathura as its capital city. According to the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya, Surasena was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas in the 6th century BCE. Also, it is mentioned in the Hindu epic poem Ramayana. The ancient Greek writers refer to the Sourasenoi and its cities, Methora and Cleisobra/Kleisobora.
The Abhira kingdom in the Mahabharata is either of two kingdoms near the Sarasvati river. It was dominated by the Abhiras, sometimes referred to as Surabhira also, combining both Sura and Abhira kingdoms. Modern day Abhira territory lies within Northern areas of Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan, India.
Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a caste, a clan, a community, a race and a tribe.
The Vrishnis were an ancient Vedic Indian clan who were believed to be the descendants of Vrishni. It is believed that Vrishni was the son of Satvata, a descendant of Yadu, the son of Yayati. He had two wives, Gandhari and Madri, not to be confused with Gandhari and Madri from the Mahabharata. He has a son named Devamidhusha by his wife Madri. Vasudeva, the father of Krishna was the grandson of Devamidhusha. According to the Puranas, the Vrishnis were residents of Dvaraka.
Yadav, Jadam, or Jadav refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite, peasant-pastoral communities or castes in India that since the 19th and 20th centuries have claimed descent from the mythological king Yadu as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence. The term Yadav now covers many traditional peasant-pastoral castes such as Ahirs of the Hindi belt and the Gavli of Maharashtra.
The Mausala Parva is the sixteenth of the eighteen books of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. It traditionally has nine chapters. The critical edition has eight chapters. One of the 3 shortest books within the epic, the Mausala Parva describes the demise of Krishna in the 36th year after the Kurukshetra war had ended, the submersion of Dvaraka under sea, death of Balarama by drowning in the sea, Vasudeva's death, and a civil war fought among the Yadava clan that killed many of them. The story of infighting of the Yadavas becomes the reason why the Pandava brothers renounce their kingdom and begin their walk towards heaven, events recited in the last two books of the Mahabharata.
Ahir is a caste found in the Indian subcontinent, mainly modern-day Northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. The Ahir clans are almost spread over all the Northern India. Historians such as P. M. Chandorkar, using both literary and epigraphic sources has argued that the modern Ahirs should be identified with the Yadavas of the classical Sanskrit texts.
Samba was a son of the Hindu god Krishna and his second consort, Jambavati. His foolish prank brought an end to the Yadu dynasty.
The Golla are a Telugu-speaking pastoral community primarily living in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with smaller numbers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They are related to other pastoral-herding castes like Gulla, Gullar, Gollewar, Gavli and Dhangar and are a part of the larger Yadav community. They are classified as a Backward Caste.
The Hindu Ghosi or Ghosi Thakur are a community of Ahirs (Yadav) in India. They are divided into various sections and lineages. The Ghosis have a system of panches and hereditary chaudhris. If one of the latter's line fail, his widow may adopt a son to succeed him, or, failing such adoption, the panch elects a fit person.
The Yaduvanshi Aheer or Yaduvanshi Ahir claim descent from god Krishna of the ancient Yadava clan. The Ahirs have three major classifications - Yaduvanshi, Nandavanshi and Gwalavanshi. Yaduvanshis claim descent from Yadu, Nandavanshis claim descent from Nanda, the foster father of Krishna and Gwalavanshis claim descent from gopis and gopas of Krishna's childhood.
The Abhira dynasty was a dynasty that ruled over the western Deccan, where it perhaps succeeded the Satavahana dynasty. From 203 CE to roughly 270 or 370, this dynasty formed a vast kingdom. The Abhiras had an extensive empire comprising Maharashtra, Konkan, Gujarat and some part of South Madhya Pradesh.
The Bhoja tribes were a collection of semi-Aryan ancient tribes, located in India during the Late Vedic Period. They are described as being an offshoot of the Yadava tribe in the Indian epic of Mahabharata. They were a branch of the Andhaka clan, who were in turn descendants of the Satvata clan descended from King Yadu. The Bhojas were sub-divided into eighteen branches and ruled from their capital at Mrittikavati, on the banks of the Parnasa river in Central India.
Yadavs of Nepal, also known as Ahir or Gope are one of the prominent caste of Nepal. According to the 2021 Nepal census, 1,228,581 people are Yadav.
The term Ahir is derived from Abhira, a clan mentioned several times in inscriptions and Hindu revered books. The term Ahir is often seen as synonymous with Yadav. The Mahabharata and other authori-tative works use the three terms-Ahir, Yadav and Gopa synonymous.
In the Mahabharata, Abhir, Gopa, Gopal and Yadavas are all synonyms.