Chapter XII · THE MIHIRAS OR MERS. a.d. 470–900.
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Chapter XII. The Mers, a.d. 470–900. That the Guptas held sway in Káthiáváḍa till the time of Skandagupta (a.d. 454–470) is proved by the fact that his Sorath Viceroy is mentioned in Skandagupta’s inscription on the Girnár rock. After Skandagupta under the next known Gupta king Budhagupta (Gupta 165–180, a.d. 484–499) no trace remains of Gupta sovereignty in Sorath. It is known that Budhagupta was a weak king and that the Gupta kingdom had already entered on its decline and lost its outlying provinces. Who held Suráshṭra and Gujarát during the period of Gupta decline until the arrival and settlement of Bhaṭkárka in a.d. 514 (Gupta 195) is not determined. Still there is reason to believe that during or shortly after the time of Budhagupta some other race or dynasty overthrew the Gupta Viceroy of these provinces and took them from the Guptas. These powerful conquerors seem to be the tribe of Maitrakas mentioned in Valabhi copperplates as people who had settled in Káthiáváḍa and established a maṇḍala or kingdom. Though these Maitrakas are mentioned in no other records from Suráshṭra there seems reason to identify the Maitrakas with the Mihiras the well-known tribe of Mhers or Mers. In Sanskrit both mitra and mihira are names of the sun, and it would be quite in agreement with the practise of Sanskrit writers to use derivatives of the one for those of the other. These Mhers or Mers are still found in Káthiáváḍa settled round the Barda hills while the Porbandar chiefs who are known as Jethvás are recognized as the head of the tribe. The name Jethvá is not a tribal but a family name, being taken from the proper or personal name of the ancestor of the modern chiefs. As the Porbandar chiefs are called the kings of the Mhers they probably belong to the same tribe, though, being chiefs, they try, like other ruling families, to rank higher than their tribe tracing their origin from Hanúmán. Though the Jethvás appear to have been long ashamed to acknowledge themselves to belong to the Mher tribe the founders of minor Mher kingdoms called themselves Mher kings. The Porbandar chiefs have a tradition tracing their dynasty to Makaradhvaja son of Hanúmán, and there are some Puráṇic legends attached to the tradition. The historical kernel of the tradition appears to be that the Mhers or Jethvás had a makara or fish as their flag or symbol. One of the mythical stories of Makaradhvaja is that he fought with Mayúradhvaja. Whatever coating of fable may have overlaid the story, it contains a grain of history. Mayúradhvaja stands for the Guptas whose chief symbol was a peacock mayúra, and with them Makaradhvaja that is the people with the fish-symbol that is Chapter XII. The Mers, a.d. 470–900. the Mhers had a fight. This fight is probably the historical contest in which the Mhers fought with and overthrew the Gupta Viceroy of Káthiáváḍa.
Early in the tenth century a wave of invasion from Sindh seems to have spread over Kacch and Káthiáváḍa. Among the invading tribes were the Jádejás of Kacch and the Chúḍásamás of Sorath, who like the Bhattis of Jesalmír call themselves of the Yaduvaṃśa stock. Doctor Bhagvánlál held that the Chúḍásamás were originally of the Ábhíra tribe, as their traditions attest connection with the Ábhíras and as the description of Graharipu one of their kings by Hemachandra in his Dvyáśraya points to his being of some local tribe and not of any ancient Rájput lineage. Further in their bardic traditions as well as in popular stories the Chúḍásamás are still commonly called Áhera-ránás. The position of Aberia in Ptolemy (a.d. 150) seems to show that in the second century the Ahirs were settled between Sindh and the Panjáb. Similarly it may be suggested that Jádejá is a corruption of Jaudhejá which Chapter XII. The Mers, a.d. 470–900. in turn comes from Yaudheya (the change of y to j being very common) who in Kshatrapa Inscriptions appear as close neighbours of the Ahirs. After the fall of the Valabhis (a.d. 775) the Yaudheyas seem to have established themselves in Kacch and the Ahirs settled and made conquests in Káthiáváḍa. On the decline of local rule brought about by these incursions and by the establishment of an Ahir or Chúḍásamá kingdom at Junágaḍh, the Jethvás seem to have abandoned Bhúmli which is close to Junágaḍh and gone to Srínagar or Káṇtelun near Porbandar which is considered to have been the seat of Jethvá power before Porbandar.
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 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.]