Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 25

JANUARY, 1911.) FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE HINDU POPULATION.
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relatives, from which it appears that his was a poetic family. His father, Manoratha, is styled nutana Kalidasa, and his grandfather Chakrapaņi is compared to Valmiki. Many others are praised more or less for their poetic talents. His is not a mere empty praise because they were his relatives, for the work Sadukti-karnámrita of Sridharadasa (1205 A.D.), an anthology called chiefly from Bengal poets, makes mention of no less than six of these including him) and cites their verses a 30. Nay, Varahamihira, one of the most celebrated astronomers of India, appears to bave been a Maga Brahmana. Bhattotpala, who bag commented on his works, tells us that he was a Magadba Brahmaņa 13 Magadha here does not, I think, mean an inhabitant of Magadha, bata Maga himself. The Bhavishy a-puraņa distinctly tells us that Magari dhyúyanti te yasmát tena te Magadhdh smritdh.44 This is corroborated by his and his father's names, piz., Varábamihira and Adityadîsa, one of whose components is a name of Sûrya.
In the Jodhpur State there is a class of Brahmaņas known as Sovak and also Bhojak, most of whom are religious dependents of the Osval Sráraks. They call themselves Sakadvipi Briihmaņas, and keep images of Sûrya in their houses, which they worship on Sundays, when they eat once only. Formerly they used to wear a necklace resembling the cast-off skin of a serpent, no doubt corresponding to the aryanga, which was supposed to be the cast-off skin of Vasuki. But this practice has recently fallen into desuetude. The Parisari Brahmanas of Pushkar were also originally known as Sevaks and Sakadvipi Brahmaņas. At any rate they were so known till the time of the Jaipur king Jayasimha 11.47 The Sevaks say that their caste people are called Sakad vipi in the east, Strapatri in the south, and Paņle round about Delhi and Agra. The pujáris of the temples of Jagadia and Jvalamukhi in north India are, it is said, Sakad vipi Brahmanas.
After the overthrow of the Kushanas, the Haihayas poured into India. The Hartvannsa and the Vishnu-puraņa43 state that they seizel the kingdom of the indigenous Indian king Bahu and that they were assisted in this expedition by the Sakas, Yavanas, Paradas, Kambojas, Pahlavas and Khasas. Bahu retired to a forest and killed himself. One of his wives, who was pregnant at that time, went to the bermitage of Aurva-Bhârgara, and was there delivered of a son called Sagara. The latter, in course of time, learnt the use of various miraculous weapons from the former, and niade a learful slaughter of the Haibayas. He then turned his arms against the Sakas, Yavanss, etc., but the sage Vasishtha intervened, and Sagara had to content himself with depriving them of the true religion and degrading them as Kshatriyas. Now, as the Haihayas are here classed with Sakas, Yavanas, Paradas, Kambojas and so forth, there can be little doubt that they were regarded as mlechchhas, i..., foreigners, at about the close of the fourth century A.D., when the Hariravisa was composed. It does not seem difficult to determine which part of India they held. In the Anusdsana-parran of the Mahdbharata and also in the Haritarisa, we are informed that the thousandarmed Haiyaya king Kartavirya-Arjuna reigned over the whole earth at Mâhishmati, which, I think, has been rightly identified by Dr. Fleet with Mândbâtà in the Central Provinces,
Kalachuris of Central Provinces in many of their inscriptions call themselves Haihayas, and trace their lineage to Kartavirya,50 They were probably & sept of the Haihayas. Their power, however, does not date earlier than circa 875 A.D. branch of this family went to western India, and established itself at Kalyari, under the leadership of Bijjala, by supplanting the Châlnkyn dynasty 51
Zeit, Deutschen Morg. Gas., Vol. XXXVI, p. 511. ** Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., P. 477, note.
44 Brahmaparvan, Cap. 117., v. 55, 15 Census Report of the Jodhpur State (Hindi), for 1891, Vol III, p. 320 ff. * For this information I am indebted to Munshi Deviprasad of Jodhpur. 11 I owo this information to Pandit Gaurishankar Ojha of Ajmer. 13 Haricarsa (Bengál) vs. 764-776 ; Vishnu-purana, anda iv, Cap. 3, v. 16 ff. 19 Anug isang parvar, adyaya, 159, v. 3; Rarivashsa, v. 1868. 5 Ep. Ind., Vol. I., PP. 37, 238 ; Vol. II., p. 5; Vide also ante, Vol. XII., PP. 253, 268. 51 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. I., Pt. II., p. 225 fanl p. 463 ff.