[89] Bṛihaṭ Saṃhitá, V. 80. [↑]
[90] Corp. Ins. Ind. III. 140–141. [↑]
[91] The references are; Langlois’ Harivaṃśa, I. 388–420, II. 178. That in a.d. 247 Balkh or Báktria was free from Indian overlordship (McCrindle’s Periplus, 121), and that no more distant tribe than the Gandháras finds a place in the Harivaṃśa lists combine to make it almost certain that, at the time the Harivaṃśa was written, whatever their origin may have been, the Báhlikas were settled not in Báktria but in India. [↑]
[92] The passage from the Karṇa Parva or Eighth Book of the Mahábhárata is quoted in Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, II. 482, and in greater fullness in St. Martin’s Geog. Greque et Latine de l’Inde, 402–410. The Báhikas or Bálhikas are classed with the Madras, Gandháras, Araṭṭas, and other Panjáb tribes. In their Bráhman families it is said the eldest son alone is a Bráhman. The younger brothers are without restraint Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas, Śudras, even Barbers. A Bráhman may sink to be a Barber and a barber may rise to be a Bráhman. The Báhikas eat flesh even the flesh of the cow and drink liquor. Their women know no restraint. They dance in public places unclad save with garlands. In the Harivaṃśa (Langlois, I. 493 and II. 178, 388, 420) the Bahlikas occur in lists of kings and peoples. [↑]
[93] Kern in Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, II. 446. St. Martin (Geog. Greque et Latine de l’Inde, 149) takes Báhika to be a contraction of Báhlika. Reasons are given below for considering the Mahábhárata form Báhika a confusion with the earlier tribes of that name rather than a contraction of Báhlika or Bálhika. The form Báhika was also favoured by the writer in the Mahábhárata because it fitted with his punning derivation from their two fiend ancestors Vahi and Hika. St. Martin, 408. [↑]
[94] St. Martin Geog. Greque et Latine de l’Inde, 403, puts the probable date at b.c. 380 or about fifty years before Alexander. St. Martin held that the passage belonged to the final revision of the poem. Since St. Martin’s time the tendency has been to lower the date of the final revision by at least 500 years. The fact noted by St. Martin (Ditto, page 404) that Jartika which the Mahábhárata writer gives as another name for Báhika is a Sanskritised form of Jat further supports the later date. It is now generally accepted that the Jats are one of the leading tribes who about the beginning of the Christian era passed from Central Asia into India. [↑]
[95] The name Valabhi, as we learn from the Jain historians, is a Sanskritised form of Valahi, which can be easily traced back to one of the many forms (Bálhíka, Bálhika, Balhika, Bahlíka, Báhlika, Váhlíka, Vahlíka, Válhíka, Válhika, Valhika) of a tribal name which is of common occurrence in the Epics. This name is, no doubt rightly, traced back to the city of Balkh, and originally denoted merely the people of Baktria. There is, however, evidence that the name also denoted a tribe doubtless of Baktrian origin, but settled in India: the Emperor Chandra speaks of defeating the Váhlikas after crossing the seven mouths of the Indus: Varáha-Mihira speaks of the Válhikas along with the people who dwell on Sindhu’s banks (Bṛ. Saṃ. V. 80): and, most decisive of all, the Káśiká Vṛitti on Páṇ. VIII. iv. 9 (a.d. 650) gives Bahlíka as the name of the people of the Sauvíra country, which, as Alberuni tells us, corresponded to the modern Multán, the very country to which the traditions of the modern Válas point.
If the usual derivation of the name Bálhika be accepted,[96] it is possible to go a step further and fix a probable limit before which the tribe did not enter India. The name of Balkh in the sixth century b.c. was, as we learn from Darius’ inscriptions, Bákhtri, and the Greeks also knew it as Baktra: the Avesta form is Bakhdhi, which according to the laws of sound-change established by Prof. Darmsteter for the Arachosian language as represented by the modern Pushtu, would become Bahli (see Chants Populaires des Afghans, Introd. page xxvii). This reduction of the hard aspirates to spirants seems to have taken place about the first century a.d.: parallel cases are the change from Parthava to Palhava, and Mithra to Mihira. It would seem therefore that the Bahlikas did not enter India before the first century a.d.: and if we may identify their subduer Chandra with Chandragupta I., we should have the fourth century a.d. as a lower limit for dating their invasion.
Unfortunately, however, these limits cannot at present be regarded as more than plausible: for the name Balhika or Valhika appears to occur in works that can hardly be as modern as the first century a.d. The Atharvaveda-pariśishtas might be put aside, as they show strong traces of Greek influence and are therefore of late date: and the supposed occurrences in Páṇini belong to the commentators and to the Gaṇapáṭha only and are of more or less uncertain age. But the name occurs, in the form Balhika, in one hymn of the Atharvaveda itself (Book V. 22) which there is no reason to suppose is of late date.
The lower limit is also uncertain as the identification of Chandra of the inscription with the Gupta king is purely conjectural.—(A. M. T. J.) [↑]