Book Title: Tribes In Ancient India
Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

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Page 362
________________ 342 TRIBES IN ANCIENT INDIA his pursuers by scattering coins and gold-dust on the route, and reached his own territory in safety. Udena and Väsuladatta entered the city in triumph, and with due pomp and ceremony the princess was anointed queen. In the fourth century B.C., Ujjayini became subject to Magadha. Later (early third century B.C.), Asoka was stationed at Ujjayini as Viceroy of the Avanti country, prior to his accession. We reads that Asoka's son, Mahinda, was born while Asoka was Viceroy in Ujjayinī, under his father Bindusāra. Asoka's grandson, Samprati, ruled in Ujjain and figured in Jaina legends. Vikramāditya, the celebrated king of Ujjain, who is usually identified with Candragupta II (c. 375 A.D.) is said to have expelled the Scythians and thereafter established his power over the greater part of India. In later times some of the ruling families of Avanti made their mark on Indian history. The Paramāra dynasty of Malwa, anciently known as Avanti, is especially memorable by reason of its association with many eminent names in the history of later Sanskrit literature. The dynasty was founded early in the ninth century by a chief named Upendra or Krsnarāja. Upendra appears to have come from Candrāvati and Achalgarh near Mount Abu, where his clan had been settled for a long time. The seventh rājā, named Muñja, was famous for his learning and eloquence, and was not only a patron of poets but himself a poet of no small reputation. About 1018 A.D., Muñja's nephew, the famous Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhārā, which was the capital of Malwa in those days, and reigned gloriously for more than forty years. About 1060 A.D., this prince succumbed to an attack by the confederate kings of Gujarat and Cedi; but his dynasty lasted as a purely local power until the beginning of the thirteenth century, when it was superseded by chiefs of the Tomara clan, who were followed in their turn by Chauhan rājās, from whom the crown passed to Muhammadan kings in 1401. The Emperor Akbar suppressed the local dynasty in 1569, and incorporated Malwa in the Mughal empire. There is generally one distinguishing mark of the coins current in Ujjain; but on some of the rare coins the word 'Ujeniya' is incised in Brāhmi characters of the second century B.C. Generally on one side is a man with a symbol of the Sun and on the other is seen the sign of Ujjain. On some coins, a bull within a fence, or the Bodhi-tree, or Sumeru hill, or the figure of the Goddess of Fortune, 1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 4-7. The same story is related in another form by Bhāsa in his drama, Svapnavāsavadattā: Dham. Com., Vol. I, pp. 191-2. 2 V. A. Smith, Asoka, p. 235. 3 Copleston, Buddhism, p. 181. 4 Mrs. Stevenson, Heart of Jainism, p. 74. 5 Smith, Early History of India, 4th Ed., p. 410. 8 Ibid., p. 411.

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