Bhoja tribe

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Bhoja tribe
Parent house Andhaka [1]
Country Vidarbha Kingdom, Kunti Kingdom, Surasena Kingdom
Style(s) Raja
Cadet branches
The Bhojas are shown in the south of the Indian subcontinent East-Hem 600bc.jpg
The Bhojas are shown in the south of the Indian subcontinent

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. [2] 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. [3] [4]

Contents

Origin

The origin of the Bhojas differs from source to source. Most sources such as the famous Indian epic of Mahabharata mention the Bhojas as an offshoot of the Yadava tribe.

The Vishnu Purana says that the Bhojas of Mrittikavati were descendants of Mahabhoja, son of Satvata, and that they were a kindred tribe of the Andhakas and Vrishnis. [5] [3]

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland theorizes that the Bhojas came to India from Iran, intermixing with the existing tribes wherever they settled. [6] The groups which settled in Rajasthan, Malwa and Kathiawar, became closely related to the Yavanas. They are probably the ones called mlechhas (foreigners) in a passage of the Matsya Purana. The group that settled in the Mathura region allied with the Surasena and Vrishni tribes to establish the Kingdom of Surasena. The group which settled in Saurashtra and the Indus River delta became associated with the Sauviras. [6]

In the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata (85.3533) and in a passage of the Matsya Purana (34.30) the Bhojas are mentioned as the mleccha s (foreigners). But another passage of the Matsya Purana (44.69) describes them as pious and the performers of the religious rites. [1]

In literature

Vidarbha

The largest and most prosperous kingdom of the Bhoja tribe was the Vidarbha Kingdom. In the Ramayana epic, the Bhoja princess of Vidarbha was married to Prince Aja of the Kosala Kingdom in a Swayamvara ceremony. [4] Aja was the son of the powerful Ikshavku king Raghu, and the father of King Dasharatha, in turn father of Lord Rama. King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha, the father of Rukmini and his son King Rukmi are called "Bhoja-Yadavas" in the Mahabharata .[ citation needed ]

Mathura

The Bhojas of Mathura allied with the other Yadava tribes were expelled from their kingdom by Kamsa, son of King Ugrasena. However, the hero-deity Krishna helped them reconquer Mathura from Kamsa and re-establish their rule. [7] The eighteen tribes of the Bhojas fled their kingdom due to fear of the powerful king of Magadha, Jarasandha. [7] [8]

Kunti

Another prominent Bhoja kingdom was the Kunti Kingdom. It was ruled by King Kunti-Bhoja. Kunti, the mother of Pandavas and the first wife of Kuru king Pandu, was the adopted daughter of Kuntibhoja. [9]

Mrittikavati

The Bhojas of Mrittikavati ruled somewhere around the Malwa Plateau, on the banks of the Parnasha (Sanskrit : पर्णाशा, romanized: Parṇāśā) river in Central India. [1] These Bhojas held the Satvata tribe in subjection. [10] A Bhoja king took part in the great Kurukshetra War. [5]

According to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, they were allied with Parshurama in defeating the powerful Haihaya king Kartavirya Arjuna. As a result of their success, they achieved supremacy over the Narmada and Tapti River valleys for a time. [11]

Bhoja-Andhakas

Kritavarma, a Yadava hero, is sometimes described as belonging to and ruling over the Andhaka and Bhoja clan as their king. [12] In the Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata epic, the clans of the Andhakas and Bhojas began to fight each other in drunken duels during a feast, leading to the death of almost all the Yadava royals. [12]

Descendants

Bhojas of Goa were a dynasty that ruled Goa, parts of Konkan, and some parts of Karnataka from at least the 3rd century AD to the 6th century. Goa came under the political sway of the Bhojas who ruled this territory in feudal allegiance to the Mauryan emperor of Pataliputra or perhaps under Satavahanas. Their capital was located at Chandrapura or Chandraura (Modern Chandor) in Goa. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahadeva</span> Character from Indian epic Mahabharata; 5th Pandava

Sahadeva was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. He, along with his twin brother Nakula, was born to Madri, one of the wives of the Pandava patriarch Pandu, after she invoked the Ashvini Kumaras, divine twin physicians, to beget her sons. Kunti, Sahadeva's stepmother, loved him the most despite his birth to Madri. Sahadeva is renowned for his wisdom, knowledge of astrology, and skill in swordsmanship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahajanapadas</span> Kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent (c. 600 BCE–c. 345 BCE)

The Mahājanapadas were sixteen kingdoms or aristocratic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE, during the second urbanisation period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yadava</span> Ancient people and Yadava Kingdoms

The Yadava were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surasena</span> Ancient Indian region

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 Kunti Kingdom was the kingdom of Kunti-Bhoja, one of the prominent kings among the Bhoja-Yadavas.

Saurashtra kingdom was one of the kingdom among the many kingdoms ruled by Yadava kings in the central and western India. Other kingdoms in this group include Chedi Kingdom, Dasarna Kingdom, Surasena Kingdom or Vraja Kingdom, Karusha Kingdom, Kunti Kingdom, Avanti Kingdom, Malava Kingdom, Gurjara Kingdom, Anarta Kingdom, Dwaraka Kingdom, Heheya Kingdom and Vidarbha Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chedi Kingdom</span> Ancient Indian kingdom

Chedi was a kingdom which fell roughly in the Bundelkhand division of Madhya Pradesh regions to the south of river Yamuna along the river Ken. Its capital city was called Suktimati in Sanskrit.

Anarta is a Vedic period kingdom of ancient India described in the Mahabharata, roughly forming the northern Gujarat state of India. It was founded by a grandson of Vaivasvata, inter alia the father of the present Manu and of Yama, named Anarta. He built a fortress at Kusasthali (Dvaraka), which was later flooded by Varuna. The place remained then for some time as a forest land, before Krishna and the Yadavas went there and built Dvaraka. It was then ruled by Yadavas after they fled from Mathura of Surasena Kingdom, due to the attacks of Jarasandha, the king of Magadha. The Yadava chiefs like Vasudeva Krishna, Bala Rama, Kritavarma and Satyaki, ruled this kingdom under their king Ugrasena. In Mahabharata, Dwaraka is considered as a capital city of Anarta Kingdom. But some other ancient texts like Mahabhagavata, mentions Dwaraka and Anarta as two independent kingdoms. As per the Purana viz. Bhagavata Purana, Bala Rama's wife Revati was from this kingdom.

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Kekeya Kingdom was a kingdom mentioned in the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata among the western kingdoms of then India. The epic Ramayana mentions one of the wives of Dasharatha, the king of Kosala and father of Rama, was from Kekeya kingdom and was known as Kaikeyi. Her son Bharata conquered the neighbouring kingdom of Gandhara and built the city of Takshasila. Later the sons and descendants of Bharata ruled this region from Takshasila.

Gomanta was a kingdom mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. It was an extension of the kingdom of Yadavas at Dwaraka. It is identified to be the Goa state of India, situated in the western coast. It was the southernmost extent of the region, occupied by the Yadava clans, finding explicit mention in Mahabharata.

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An akshauhini is described in the Mahabharata as a battle formation consisting of 21,870 chariots ; 21,870 elephants ; 65,610 horses and 109,350 infantry. Thus one akshauhini consisted of 218,700 warriors. The ratio is 1 chariot : 1 elephant : 3 cavalry : 5 infantry soldiers. In each of these large number groups, the digits add up to 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vrishni</span> Confederacy of ancient India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ugrasena</span> King of Mathura in the Mahabharata

Ugrasena is a character mentioned in the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. He is the King of Mathura, a kingdom that was established by the Vrishni tribes from the Yaduvamsha clan. His son Kamsa was a cousin of Krishna's mother, Devaki. King Ugrasena was overthrown by Kamsa, and was sentenced to life in prison, along with Kamsa's cousin, Devaki, and her husband, Vasudeva. Krishna reinstalled Ugrasena as the ruler of Mathura once more after defeating his wicked uncle.

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.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Chopra, Omesh K. (12 January 2023). HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA, From the Last Ice Age to The Mahabharata War (≈9000–1400 BCE). Blue Rose Publishers.
  2. ↑ Shastri, J. L. (1 January 2013). The Brahma Purana Part 1: Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology Volume 33. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN   978-81-208-3900-7.
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Horace Hayman (1840). "Book IV: Chapter XIII". The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson.
  4. 1 2 Subjects of Examination in Sanskrit Appointedby the Senate of the Calcutta University for the First Examination in Arts Being the First Eight Cantos of the Raghievansa and the First Five Cantos of the Bhatlikavya Ed. with ... English and Bengali Translations ... by Nihmani Mickhyopadhyaya Nyayalankara (in Sanskrit). Cakravarti. 1880.
  5. 1 2 Hall, Fitzedward (1865). The Vishńu Puráńa: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition. Trübner. p. 158-159.
  6. 1 2 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 1889.
  7. 1 2 The Mahabharata of Vyasa. Enigma Edizioni. 24 August 2021.
  8. ↑ Jain, Sandhya (19 March 2022). Adi Deo Arya Devata: A Panoramic View oF Tribal-Hindu Cultural Interface. Notion Press. ISBN   979-8-88530-378-1.
  9. ↑ "The Mahabharata, Book 1: Adi Parva: Sambhava Parva: Section CXI". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  10. ↑ Law, Bimala Churn (1973). Tribes in Ancient India. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. p. 366-73.
  11. ↑ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. University Press. 1889.
  12. 1 2 Valmiki; Vyasa (2018-05-19). Delphi Collected Sanskrit Epics (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. p. 8826. ISBN   978-1-78656-128-2.
  13. ↑ Shyam Singh, Shashi (2000). Encyclopaedia Indica: Ancient Goa. Anmol Publications. p. 657. ISBN   8170418593.
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