: History of Gujarát Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency Volume I Part I. by Campbell James M - Gujarat (India) History

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THE MIHIRAS OR MERS.

A.D. 470-900.

That the Guptas held sway in K?thi?v?da till the time of Skandagupta is proved by the fact that his Sorath Viceroy is mentioned in Skandagupta's inscription on the Girn?r rock. After Skandagupta under the next known Gupta king Budhagupta 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 Sur?shtra and Gujar?t during the period of Gupta decline until the arrival and settlement of Bhatk?rka in A.D. 514 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 K?thi?v?da and established a mandala or kingdom. Though these Maitrakas are mentioned in no other records from Sur?shtra 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 K?thi?v?da settled round the Barda hills while the Porbandar chiefs who are known as Jethv?s are recognized as the head of the tribe. The name Jethv? 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 Han?m?n. Though the Jethv?s 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 Han?m?n, and there are some Pur?nic legends attached to the tradition. The historical kernel of the tradition appears to be that the Mhers or Jethv?s had a makara or fish as their flag or symbol. One of the mythical stories of Makaradhvaja is that he fought with May?radhvaja. Whatever coating of fable may have overlaid the story, it contains a grain of history. May?radhvaja stands for the Guptas whose chief symbol was a peacock may?ra, and with them Makaradhvaja that is the people with the fish-symbol that is the Mhers had a fight. This fight is probably the historical contest in which the Mhers fought with and overthrew the Gupta Viceroy of K?thi?v?da.

A similar copperplate in which the king's name appears in the slightly different form J?ikadeva has been found at Dhiniki in the same neighbourhood as the first and like it bearing the fish mark. This copperplate describes the king as ruling at Bh?milik? or Bh?mli in Sorath and gives him the high titles of Parama-bhatt?raka-Mah?r?j?dhir?ja-Paramesvara, that is Great Lord Great King of Kings Great King, titles which imply wide extent and independence of rule. This grant purports to be made on the occasion of a solar eclipse on Sunday Vikrama Samvat 794 Jyeshtha constellation, the no-moon of the second half of K?rttika. This would be A.D. 738 or 166 years before the J?chika of the Morb? plate. Against this it is to be noted that the letters of this plate, instead of appearing as old as eighth century letters, look later than the letters of the tenth century Morb? plate. As neither the day of the week, the constellation, nor the eclipse work out correctly Dr. Bhagv?nl?l believed the plate to be a forgery of the eleventh century, executed by some one who had seen a fish-marked copperplate of J?chika dated in the Saka era. It should however be noted that the names of ministers and officers which the plate contains give it an air of genuineness. Whether the plate is or is not genuine, it is probably true that J?ikadeva was a great independent sovereign ruling at Bh?mli. Though the names of the other kings of the dynasty, the duration of the Bh?mli kingdom, and the details of its history are unknown it may be noted that the dynasty is still represented by the Porbandar chiefs. Though at present Bh?mli is deserted several ruined temples of about the eleventh century stand on its site. It is true no old inscriptions have been found; it is not less true that no careful search has been made about Bh?mli.

Early in the tenth century a wave of invasion from Sindh seems to have spread over Kacch and K?thi?v?da. Among the invading tribes were the J?dej?s of Kacch and the Ch?d?sam?s of Sorath, who like the Bhattis of Jesalm?r call themselves of the Yaduvamsa stock. Doctor Bhagv?nl?l held that the Ch?d?sam?s were originally of the ?bh?ra tribe, as their traditions attest connection with the ?bh?ras and as the description of Graharipu one of their kings by Hemachandra in his Dvy?sraya points to his being of some local tribe and not of any ancient R?jput lineage. Further in their bardic traditions as well as in popular stories the Ch?d?sam?s are still commonly called ?hera-r?n?s. The position of Aberia in Ptolemy seems to show that in the second century the Ahirs were settled between Sindh and the Panj?b. Similarly it may be suggested that J?dej? is a corruption of Jaudhej? which in turn comes from Yaudheya who in Kshatrapa Inscriptions appear as close neighbours of the Ahirs. After the fall of the Valabhis the Yaudheyas seem to have established themselves in Kacch and the Ahirs settled and made conquests in K?thi?v?da. On the decline of local rule brought about by these incursions and by the establishment of an Ahir or Ch?d?sam? kingdom at Jun?gadh, the Jethv?s seem to have abandoned Bh?mli which is close to Jun?gadh and gone to Sr?nagar or K?ntelun near Porbandar which is considered to have been the seat of Jethv? power before Porbandar.

A copperplate found at Hadd?l? on the road from Dholka to Dhandhuka dated A.D. 917 shows that there reigned at Vadhw?n a king named Dharan?var?ha of the Ch?pa dynasty, who granted a village to one Mahesvar?ch?rya, an apostle of the ?mard?ka S?kh? of Saivism. Dharan?var?ha and his ancestors are described as feudatory kings, ruling by the grace of the feet of the great king of kings the great lord the illustrious Mah?p?ladeva. This Mah?p?la would seem to be some great king of K?thi?v?da reigning in A.D. 917 over the greater part of the province. Dr. Bhagv?nl?l had two coins of this king of about that time, one a copper coin the other a silver coin. The coins were found near Jun?gadh. The copper coin, about ten grains in weight, has one side obliterated but the other side shows clearly the words R?n? Sr? Mah?p?la Deva. The silver coin, about fourteen grains in weight, has on the obverse a well-executed elephant and on the reverse the legend R?n? Sr? Mah?p?la Deva. From the locality where the name Mah?p?la appears both in coins and inscriptions, and from the fact that the more reliable Ch?d?sam? lists contain similar names, it may be assumed as probable that Mah?p?la was a powerful Ch?d?sam? ruler of K?thi?v?da in the early part of the tenth century.

After the fall of Valabhi no other reliable record remains of any dynasty ruling over the greater part of Gujar?t. The most trustworthy and historical information is in connection with the Ch?vad?s of Anahilapura. Even for the Ch?vad?s nothing is available but scant references recorded by Jain authors in their histories of the Solankis and V?ghel?s.

The name of the family is said to have been derived from Ch?d?chandra the first ruler of Vanthal? . Traces of a different tradition are to be found in the Tuhfat-ul-Kir?m which gives a list of Ch?d?sam?'s ancestors from Nuh , including not only Krishna the Y?dava but also R?ma of the solar line. In this pedigree the Musalm?n 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 Musalm?n 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 . In this connection it is noteworthy that some of the J?ms bore such Turkish names as Tam?chi, Tughlik, and Sanj?r.

The migration of the Sammas to Kacch is ascribed by the Tar?kh-i-Tahiri to the tyranny of the S?mra chiefs. The Sammas found Kacch in the possession of the Ch?waras, who treated them kindly, and whom they requited by seizing the fort of G?ntr? by a stratagem similar to that which brought about the fall of Girn?r.

Jethv?s reached K?thi?v?da in the latter half of the fifth century after Christ, and the Jh?l?s, and perhaps a second detachment of Mers and Jethv?s, some three hundred years later. The three tribes differ widely in numbers and in distribution. The ruling Jethv?s are a small group found solely in south-west K?thi?v?da. The Jh?l?s, who are also known as Makv?nas, are a much larger clan. They not only fill north-east K?thi?v?da, but from K?thi?v?da, about A.D. 1500, spread to R?jput?na and have there established a second Jh?l?v?da, where, in reward for their devotion to the Sesodia R?ja of Mew?d in his struggles with the Emperor Akbar , the chief was given a daughter of the Udepur family and raised to a high position among R?jputs. The Mers are a numerous and widespread race. They seem to be the sixth to tenth century Medhs, Meds, Mands, or Mins of Baluchist?n, South-Sindh, Kacch, and K?thi?v?da. Further they seem to be the Mers of Mev?da or Medapatha in R?jput?na and of Mairv?da in M?lava, and also to be the Musalm?n Meos and Minas of Northern India. In Gujar?t their strength is much greater than the 30,000 or 40,000 returned as Mers. One branch of the tribe is hidden under the name Koli; another has disappeared below the covering of Isl?m.

Formerly except the vague contention that the Medh?s, Jhetv?s, and Jh?la-Makv?n?s were northerners of somewhat recent arrival little evidence was available either to fix the date of their appearance in K?thi?v?da or to determine to which of the many swarms of non-Hindu Northerners they belonged. This point Dr. Bhagv?nl?l'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 K?thi?v?da 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 power of the Maitrakas with the North Indian empire of the Epthalites, Yethas, or White H?nas.

Though the sameness in name between the Mihiras and Mihirakula , the great Indian champion of the White H?nas, may not imply sameness of tribe it points to a common sun-worship.

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