Note 8 — INDEX (continued 2)

So far as is known neither Gujarát nor Káthiáváḍa contains any record older than the Girnár rock inscription of about b.c. 240: The Great Kshatrapa Rudra Dáman’s (a.d. 139) inscription on the same rock has a reference to the Maurya Rája Chandragupta about b.c. 300. No local sign of Kṛishṇa or of his Yádavas remains.

In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, XX. XXI. and XXII. Mr. Hewitt has recently attempted to trace the history of Western India back to b.c. 3000 perhaps to as early as b.c. 6000. The evidence which makes so far-reaching a past probable is the discovery of Indian indigo and muslin in Egyptian tombs of about b.c. 1700 (J. R. A. S. XX. 206); and the proof that a trade in teak and in Sindhu or Indian muslins existed between Western India and the Euphrates mouth as far back as b.c. 3000 or even b.c. 4000 (J. R. A. S. XX. 336, 337 and XXI. 204). According to Mr. Hewitt the evidence of the Hindu calendar carries the historical past of India into still remoter ages. The moon mansions and certain other details of the Hindu calendar seem to point to the Euphrates valley as the home of Hindu lunar astronomy. As in the Euphrates valley inscriptions of the Semitic king Sargon of Sippara prove that in b.c. 3750 moon-worship was already antiquated (J. R. A. S. XXI. 325), and as the precession of the equinoxes points to about b.c. 4700 as the date of the introduction of the sun zodiac (Sayce’s Hibbert Lectures, 398) the system of lunar mansions and months, if it came from the Euphrates valley, must have reached India before b.c. 4700. The trade records of the black-headed perhaps Dravidian-speaking Sumris of the Euphrates mouth prove so close relations with the peninsula of Sinai and Egypt as to make a similar connection with Western India probable as far back as b.c. 6000. (Compare Sayce’s Hibbert Lectures, 33: J. R. A. S. XXI. 326.) Of the races of whose presence in Gujarát and the neighbourhood Mr. Hewitt finds traces the earliest is the same black-headed moon-worshipping Sumri (Ditto). Next from Susiana in south-east Persia, the possessors of a lunar-solar calendar and therefore not later than b.c. 4700 (J. R. A. S. XXI. 325, 327, 330), the trading Sus or Saus, in Hindu books known as Suvarnas, entered India by way of Baluchistán and settled at Pátala in South Sindh. (J. R. A. S. XXI. 209.) With or soon after the Sus came from the north the cattle-herding sun-worshipping Sakas (J. R. A. S. XXII. 332). The Sus and Sakas passed south and together settled in Suráshṭra and West Gujarát. At a date which partly from evidence connected with the early Vedic hymns (J. R. A. S. XXII. 466) partly from the early Babylonian use of the Sanskrit Sindhu for India (J. R. A. S. XXI. 309), Mr. Hewitt holds cannot be later than b.c. 3000 northern Áryas entered Gujarát and mixing with the Sus and Sakas as ascetics traders and soldiers carried the use of Sanskrit southwards. (J. R. A. S. XX. 343.) Of other races who held sway in Gujarát the earliest, perhaps about b.c. 2000 since their power was shattered by Paraśuráma long before Mahábhárata times (J. R. A. S. XXI. 209–266), were the snake-worshipping perhaps Accadian (Ditto, 265) Haihayas now represented by the Gonds and the Haihayas’ vassals the Vaidarbhas (Ditto, 209) a connection which is supported by trustworthy Central Indian Uraon or Gond tradition that they once held Gujarát (Elliott’s Races, N. W. P., I. 154). Next to the Haihayas and like them earlier than the Mahábhárata (say b.c. 1500–2000) Mr. Hewitt would place the widespread un-Aryan Bhárats or Bhárgavs (J. R. A. S. XXI. 279–282, 286) the conquerors of the Haihayas (Ditto, 288). In early Mahábhárata times (say between b.c. 1000 and 800, Ditto 197 and 209) the Bhárats were overcome by the very mixed race of the Bhojas and of Kṛishṇa’s followers the Vrishṇis (Ditto, 270). Perhaps about the same time the chariot-driving Gandharvas of Cutch (Ditto, 273) joined the Sus and Sakas, together passed east to Kosala beyond Benares, and were there established in strength at the time of Gautama Buddha (b.c. 530) (Ditto). To the later Mahábhárata times, perhaps about b.c. 400 (Ditto, 197–271), Mr. Hewitt would assign the entrance into Gujarát of the Ábhíras or Ahirs whom he identifies with the northern or Chapter III. Legends. The Yádavas. Skythian Abárs. Mr. Hewitt finds the following places in Gujarát associated with those early races. Pátála in South Sindh he (J. R. A. S. XXI. 209) considers the head-quarters of the Sus and Sakas. Another Su capital Prágjyotisha which is generally allotted to Bengal he would (XXI. 206) identify with Broach. With the Vaidarbhas the vassals of the Haihayas he associates Surparika, that is Sopára near Bassein, which he identifies (Ditto, 206) with the modern Surat on the Tapti. He connects (Ditto, 266) the Baroda river Viśvámitra and Vaidurga the hill Pávágaḍ with the same tribe. He finds a trace of the Bhárats in Baroda and in Bharati an old name of the river Mahi (Ditto, 286) and of the same race under their name Bhárgav in Broach (Ditto, 289). The traditional connection of the Bhojas with Dwárka is well established. Finally Kárpásika a Mahábhárata name for the shore of the Gulf of Cambay (Ditto, 209) may be connected with Kárván on the Narbada about twenty miles above Broach one of the holiest Shaiv places in India. Though objection may be taken to certain of Mr. Hewitt’s identifications of Gujarát places, and also to the extreme antiquity he would assign to the trade between India and the west and to the introduction of the system of lunar mansions, his comparison of sacred Hindu books with the calendar and ritual of early Babylonia is of much interest. ↑