History of Gujarát / Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.

by James M. Campbell

After the fall of Valabhi no other reliable record remains of any dynasty ruling over the greater part of Gujarát. The most trustworthy and historical information is in connection with the Chávaḍás of Aṇahilapura. Even for the Chávaḍás nothing is available but scant references recorded by Jain authors in their histories of the Solaṅkis and Vághelás.

The Chúḍásamás, a.d. 900–940.[The modern traditions of the Chúḍásamá clan trace their origin to the Yádava race and more immediately to the Samma tribe of Nagar Thatha in Sindh.[5] The name of the family is said to have been derived from Chúḍáchandra the first ruler of Vanthalí
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
The Chúḍásamás, a.d. 900–940. (Káthiáwár Gazetteer, 489). Traces of a different tradition are to be found in the Tuhfat-ul-Kirám (Elliot, I. 337) which gives a list of Chúḍásamá’s ancestors from Nuh (Noah), including not only Kṛishṇa the Yádava but also Ráma of the solar line. In this pedigree the Musalmán element is later than the others: but the attempt to combine the solar and lunar lines is a sure sign that the Samma clan was not of Hindu origin, and that it came under Hindu influence fairly late though before Sindh became a Musalmán province. This being admitted it follows that the Sammas were one of the numerous tribes that entered India during the existence of the Turkish empire in Transoxiana (a.d. 560–c. 750). In this connection it is noteworthy that some of the Jáms bore such Turkish names as Tamáchi, Tughlik, and Sanjár.

The migration of the Sammas to Kacch is ascribed by the Taríkh-i-Tahiri (a.d. 1621) to the tyranny of the Súmra chiefs. The Sammas found Kacch in the possession of the Cháwaras, who treated them kindly, and whom they requited by seizing the fort of Gúntrí by a stratagem similar to that which brought about the fall of Girnár.

The date of the Chúḍásamá settlement at Vanthalí is usually fixed on traditional evidence, at about a.d. 875, but there is reason to think that this date is rather too early. In the first place it is worthy of notice that Chúḍáchandra, the traditional eponym of the family, is in the Tuhfat-ul-Kirám made a son of Jádam (Yádava) and only a great-grandson of Kṛishṇa himself, a fact which suggests that, if not entirely mythical, he was at all events a very distant ancestor of Múlarája’s opponent Grahári, and was not an actual ruler of Vanthalí. As regards Grahári’s father Viśvavaráha and his grandfather Múlarája, there is no reason to doubt that they were real persons, although it is very questionable whether the Chúḍásamás were settled in Káthiáváḍa in their time. In the first place, the Morbí grant of Jáikadeva shows that the Jethvás had not been driven southwards before a.d. 907. Secondly Dharaṇívaráha’s Vadhván grant proves that the Chápa family of Bhínmál were still supreme in Káthiáváḍa in a.d. 914: whereas the Taríkh-i-Tahiri’s account of the Chúḍásamá conquest of Kacch implies that the Cháwaras, who must be identified with the Chápas of Bhínmál, were losing their power when the Chúḍásamás captured Gúntrí, an event which must have preceded the settlement at Vanthalí in Káthiáváḍa. Beyond the fact that Múlarája Solaṅki transferred the capital to Aṇahilaváḍa in a.d. 942, we know nothing of the events which led to the break-up of the Bhínmál empire. But it is reasonable to suppose that between a.d. 920 and 940 the Chápas gradually lost ground and the Chúḍásamás were able first to conquer Sindh and then to settle in Káthiáváḍa.—A. M. T. J.]

[Káthiáváḍa contains three peculiar and associated classes of Hindus, the Mers, the Jethvás, and the Jhálás. The Mers and the Jethvás stand to each other in the relation of vassal and lord. The Jhálás are connected with the Jethvás by origin history and alliance. The bond
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
The Jethvás. of union between the three classes is not only that they seem to be of foreign that is of non-Hindu origin, but whether or not they belong to the same swarm of northern invaders, that they all apparently entered Káthiáváḍa either by land or sea through Sindh and Kacch. So far as record or tradition remains the Mers and The Jethvás.Jethvás reached Káthiáváḍa in the latter half of the fifth century after Christ, and the Jhálás, and perhaps a second detachment of Mers and Jethvás, some three hundred years later.[6] The three tribes differ widely in numbers and in distribution. The ruling Jethvás are a small group found solely in south-west Káthiáváḍa.[7] The Jhálás, who are also known as Makvánas, are a much larger clan. They not only fill north-east Káthiáváḍa, but from Káthiáváḍa, about a.d. 1500, spread to Rájputána and have there established a second Jháláváḍa,[8] where, in reward for their devotion to the Sesodia Rája of Mewáḍ in his struggles with the Emperor Akbar (a.d. 1580–1600), the chief was given a daughter of the Udepur family and raised to a high position among Rájputs.[9] The Mers are a numerous and widespread race. They seem to be the sixth to tenth century Medhs, Meds, Mands, or Mins of Baluchistán, South-Sindh, Kacch, and Káthiáváḍa.[10] Further they seem to be the Mers of Meváḍa or Medapatha in Rájputána[11] and of Mairváḍa in Málava,[12] and also to be the Musalmán Meos and Minas of Northern India.[13] In Gujarát
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
The Mers. their strength is much greater than the 30,000 or 40,000 returned as The Mers.Mers. One branch of the tribe is hidden under the name Koli; another has disappeared below the covering of Islám.[14]

Formerly except the vague contention that the Medhás, Jhetvás, and Jhála-Makvánás were northerners of somewhat recent arrival little evidence was available either to fix the date of their appearance in Káthiáváḍa or to determine to which of the many swarms of non-Hindu Northerners they belonged.[15] This point Dr. Bhagvánlál’s remarks in the text go far to clear. The chief step is the identification of the Mers with the Maitrakas, the ruling power in Káthiáváḍa between the decline of the Guptas about a.d. 470 and the establishment of Valabhi rule about sixty years later. And further that they fought at the same time against the same Hindu rulers and that both are described as foreigners and northerners favours the identification of the
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
White Húṇas. White Húṇas. power of the Maitrakas with the North Indian empire of the Epthalites, Yethas, or White Húṇas.[16]

Though the sameness in name between the Mihiras and Mihirakula (a.d. 508–530), the great Indian champion of the White Húṇas, may not imply sameness of tribe it points to a common sun-worship.[17]

That the Multán sun-worship was introduced under Sassanian influence is supported by the fact (Wilson’s Ariana Antiqua, 357) that the figure of the sun on the fifth century Hindu sun coins is in the dress of a Persian king; that the priests who performed the Multán sun-worship were called Magas; and by the details of the dress and ritual in the account of the introduction of sun-worship given in the Bhavishya Purána.[18] That the Meyds or Mands had some share in its introduction is supported by the fact that the Purána names the third or Sudra class of the sun-worshippers Mandagas.[19] That the Meyds were associated with the Magas is shown by the mention of the Magas as Mihiragas.[20] The third class whom the Bhavishya Purána associates with the introduction of sun-worship are the Mânas who
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
White Húṇas. are given a place between the Magas and the Mands. The association of the Mânas with the Mihiras or Maitrakas suggests that Mâna is Mauna a Puráṇic name for the White Húṇas.[21] That the Multán sun idol of the sixth and seventh centuries was a Húṇa idol and Multán the capital of a Húṇa dynasty seems in agreement with the paramount position of the Rais of Alor or Rori in the sixth century. Though their defeat by Yesodharmman of Málwa about a.d. 540 at the battle of Karur, sixty miles east of Multán, may have ended Húṇa supremacy in north and north-west India it does not follow that authority at once forsook the Húṇas. Their widespread and unchallenged dominion in North India, the absence of record of any reverse later than the Karur defeat, the hopelessness of any attempt to pass out of India in the face of the combined Turk and Sassanian forces make it probable that the Húṇas and their associated tribes, adopting Hinduism and abandoning their claim to supremacy, settled in west and north-west India. This view finds support in the leading place which the Húṇas and Hára-Húṇas, the Maitrakas or Mers, and the Gurjjaras hold in the centuries that follow the overthrow of the White Húṇa empire. According to one rendering of Cosmas[22] (a.d. 525) the chief of Orrhotha or Sorath in common with several other coast rulers owed allegiance to Gollas, apparently, as is suggested at page 75 of the text, to Gulla or Mihirgulla the Indian Emperor of the White Húṇas. These details support the view that the Maitrakas, Mihiras, or Mers who in Cosmas’ time were in power in Káthiáváḍa, and to whose ascendancy during the seventh and eighth centuries both the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (a.d. 612–640) and the Arab historians of Sindh bear witness, were a portion of the great White Húṇa invasion (a.d. 480–530).[23] In the many recorded swarmings south from
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
White Húṇas. Central Asia into Persia and India no feature is commoner than the leading of the conquered by certain families of the conquering tribe. Chinese authorities place it beyond doubt that when, towards the middle of the fifth century a.d., the White Húṇas crossed the Oxus they found in power a cognate tribe of northerners whose date of settlement on the Indian frontier was less than a century old. This preceding swarm was the Yuán-Yuán, Var-Var, or Avár, who, about the close of the fourth century (a.d. 380), had driven from Balkh southwards into the Kábul valley Kitolo the last ruler of the long established Yuetchi (b.c. 50–a.d. 380).[24] It is known that in retreating before the Yuán-Yuán a division of the Baktrian Yuetchi, under the leadership of Kitolo’s son, under the name of the Kidáras or Little Yuetchi, established their power in Gandhára and Pesháwar.[25] This Kidára invasion must have driven a certain share of the people of the Kábul valley to the east of the Indus. The invasion of the White Húṇas a century later, who were welcomed as allies by some of the Panjáb chiefs,[26] would cause fresh movements among the frontier tribes. The welcome given to the Húṇas, and the show and dash which marked their century of ascendancy in India and Persia, make it probable that as leaders they conducted south as far as Káthiáváḍa and Málava large bodies of the earlier northern settlers. To which of the waves of earlier northerners the Medhs belonged is doubtful.[27] The view held by Pandit Bhagvánlál that one branch of the Medhs entered India in the first century before Christ among the tribes of which the great Yuechi were the chief is on the whole in agreement with General Cunningham’s argument that Medus Hydaspes, Virgil’s phrase for the Jhelum, proves that the Medhs were then (b.c. 40) already settled on its banks.[28]

Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
White Húṇas. Dr. Bhagvánlál’s view that the Jethvás are Medhs ennobled by long overlordship is somewhat doubtfully shared by Colonel Watson[29] and is not inconsistent with Tod’s opinions.[30] Still though the Hindu ruler-worship, which, as in the case of the Marátha Śiváji, explains the raising to the twice-born of leaders of successful early and foreign tribes makes it possible that the Jethvás were originally Mers, it seems on the whole probable that the Jethvás’ claim to an origin distinct from the Mers is well founded. The evidence recorded by Colonel Tod and the name Jethva led the late Dr. John Wilson to trace the Jethvás to the Játs or Jits.[31] According to the bards the name of the Káthiáváḍa tribe Jethva is derived from Jetha No. 85 or No. 95 of the Porbandar list, who was probably so called because he was born under the Jyeshṭha constellation.[32] The common practice of explaining a tribal name by inventing some name-giving chief deprives this derivation of most of its probability.[33] In the present case it may further be noticed that the name Jethi is borne by two of the chiefs earlier than the Jetha referred to.[34] In the absence of any satisfactory explanation the name Jethva suggests an origin in Yetha the shortened Chinese form of Ye-ta-i-li-to or Ephthalite the name of the ruling class of the White Húṇas.[35] It is true that so good an authority as Specht[36] holds that the shortened form Yetha is peculiar to the Chinese and was never in use. But the form Tetal or Haital, adopted by
Chapter XII.
The Mers, a.d. 470–900.
White Húṇas. Armenian Musalmán and Byzantine historians,[37] makes probable an Indian Yethál or Jethál if not a Yetha or Jetha. Nor does there seem any reason why Yetha the Chinese form of the word should not be more likely to be adopted in India than the western and otherwise less correct form Tetal or Haithal. In any case the irregular change from a correct Yethál to an incorrect Yetha cannot be considered of much importance, if, as seems likely, the change was made in order to give the word an Indian meaning.[38] The v in Jethva would come to be added when the origin from a chief named Jetha was accepted.

Jhálás.Another name for the White Húṇas, or for a section of the White Húṇa swarm, is preserved by Cosmas[39] in the form Juvia. This form, if it is not a misreading for Ounia or Húṇa, suggests Jáuvla the recently identified name of the tribe ennobled in India by the great Toramáṇa (a.d. 450–500) and his son Mihirakula (a.d. 500–540), and of which a trace seems to remain in the Jáwla and Jháwla divisions of Panjáb Gujjars.[40] This Jáuvla, under such a fire baptism as would admit the holders of the name among Hindus, might be turned into Jvála flaming and Jvála be shortened to Jhála. That Jhála was formerly punningly connected with flame is shewn by a line from the bard Chand, ‘The lord of the Ránás the powerful Jhála like a flaming fire.’[41] That the Káthiáváḍa bards were either puzzled by the name Jhála or were unwilling to admit its foreign origin is shewn by the story preserved in the Rás Málá,[42] that the tribe got the name because the children of Hirpál Makvána, about to be crushed by an elephant, were snatched away jhála by their witch-mother. It has been noticed in the text that the break in Gujarát History between a.d. 480 and 520, agreeing with the term of Húṇa supremacy in North India, seems to imply a similar supremacy in Gujarát. The facts that up to the twelfth century Húṇas held a leading place in Gujarát chronicles,[43] and that while in Rájputána and other parts of Northern India the traces of Huns are fairly widespread in Gujarát they have almost if not altogether disappeared, support the view that the Húṇa strain in Káthiáváḍa is hid under the names Mera, Jethva, and Jhála.[44]