Indian Antiquary Vol 40

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

Page 33

JANUARY, 1911.)
FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE HINDU POPULATION.
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shows that Mayurasarman, the founder of the Kadamba dynasty, was a Brälmaņa. But what is very strange is that his very son is in the same inscription called Kangavarman, that is, with the title varman assumed by Kshatriya3. Be that as it may, the Brahmanic origin of the Kadambas remains indisputable.
I have stated above that, like the Kadambas, the Chalukyas also are known as Haritiputras and Manavya-sagotras. They must have been somehow intimately connected with each other. There can be no question that the Châlukças came from the north. The Kadambas also, therefore, seem to have emigrated from the same quarter. This also explains, I think, how the son of Mayurasarman became a Kshatriya. What actually happened in the case of the Pratihäras, must have occurred bere also. The custom of the offspring of a Brahmana and a Kshatriya woman being called Kshatriya, which the Pratibâras followed, though not a Hindu custom, appenrs to bave been followed by the Kadambas also, as will be shown subsequently. This also indicates the northern and foreign origin of the latter,
A stone inscription at Kargudari, in the Hangal tdluka of the Dharwar district, represents this Mayůraśarman, or Mayůra varman (1) as he is therein called, as three-eyed and four-armed, as a son of the god Siva and the Earth, as having "bound his infuriated elephants to a shining pillar of a rock of crystal of the mountain) Himavân," and as having brought from Ahichchha. tra eighteen Brah manas whom he established in the Kuntala country'. Another Talgund record speaks of Mukaņņa-Kadamba, -"the three-eyed Kadamba"-, supposed to be identical with Mayůraśarman as having brought twelve-thousand Brâhmaņas, of thirty-two gotras purified by performing the Agnihotra sacrifice, from the agrahdra of A hichchhatra and as having established them in the agrahdra of Sthânagûdhapura, i.e., Talgund itself in the Shimoga district, Mysore. The Brahmaņas brought here from the north are said to have made an effort later to leave the province. “But they were brought back again, and in order to prevent a repetition of the attempt, were compelled to have anshorn a lock of hair on the forehead, as a distinguishing mark. From these are descended the present Haiga or Havika Bråbmaņas of the north-west of Mysore, who wear their hair in that fashion. Ethnologically, their colour and features support the tradition of a northern origin"3.
Another foreign tribe, which came from the north to the south, is Sinda. An interesting record of this family has been found at Bhairanmatti* in the Bagalkot tálukd, Bijapur District, Bombay Presidency. It says that there was a Sinda prince named Pulikala, born in the race of the Nagas, who had the naga-dhvaja or hooded-serpent banner, and the hereditary title Bhogavatipuraparamekvara, i.e., "supreme lord of the town Bhogavati," which was, according to Hindu mythology, the capital of the Naga king Vasuki in Påtala or lower regions. From a desire to see the earth, there came from these regions the serpent-king Dharanendra, and to him there was born at Ahichchhatra in the island of the river Sindhu (the Indus), a son, "the long-armed Sinda," the progenitor of the Sinda family. The Sindas thus were a clan of the Nâga tribe, and came from Ahichchhatra.
We have seen that Sâmanta, one of the earliest princes of the Châhamâna dynasty, came from Ahichchhatra. Mayurasarman, the founder of the Kadamba family, we know, proceeded to the Himalayas, and brought with him a colony of Brahmanas from Ahichchhatra. The implication is that Ahichchhatra was somewhere in the Himalayas. The ancestor of the Sindas also, we now find, came from Ahichchhatrapura. Ahichchhatra thus appears to be the original 1 Ind. Ant.; Vol. X., pp. 251 and 253.
2 Ep. Carnat., Vol. VII., Pt I., p. 121. # Mysore and Coorg, by Rioo, p. 86. The Havig Brahmaņas of Karwar still say that they were originally brought by May Aravarman (Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XV., Pt. I, p. 117), of. also the Sahyadrikhanda, by Da Cunha, p. 384.
• Rp. Ind., Vol III, p. 232.