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CHAPTER LXXI
THE BHOJAS The Bhojas were a very ancient tribe, who attained to considerable eminence as early as the period represented by the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa. The term Bhoja is mentioned even in the Rgveda (III, 53, 7) though many scholars do not consider it to be a tribal name there, and Sāyaṇa also explains it otherwise. According to the Aitareya Brāhmana, the Bhojas were a southern people, a ruling tribe whose princes held the Satvats in subjection. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (XIII, 5, 4, 21) seems to imply that the Satvats were located near the Gangā and Yamunā, which was the realm of the Bharatas, for the defeat by Bharata of the Satvats, and his taking away of the horse which they had prepared for an Aśvamedha sacrifice are here referred to. It is likely, therefore, that the Bhojas had spread over Central and Southern India in very early times.
According to the Purāņas, the Bhojas and the Satvats were allied tribes, both belonging to the Yadu-vamsa which dwelt at Mathurā (the capital of the Sūrasenas, q.v.) on the banks of the Yamunā. The Vişnupurāna 4 alludes to a branch of the Satvats as Bhojas, and by the Epic period at least the Bhojas and Satvats were indistinguishable.
In the Mahābhārata, the Bhojas are declared to have been descended from Druhyu, the third son of Yayāti, the great ancestor of the Kuru-Pāndavas. When King Yayāti proposed to have Druhyu's youth transferred to himself, and was unceremoniously refused, he cursed his son, saying that he would be a king only in name. You shall rule over a region where there will be no roads, no passages for either horses or horse-drawn excellent chariots, nor for elephants, asses, goats, bullocks, palanquins and other good vehicles, where the only means of locomotion will be rafts and floats. In such a place will you have to live, and with all your family you will get the designation of Bhoja, --and there will not be a Rājā amongst you.5 Druhyu's children were the Bhojas. 6 1 VIII, 14: 'Dakṣiṇasyām diśi ye ke ca Satvatām rājāno
Bhaujyāyaiva te' bhişiñcyante Bhojetyenānabhișiktān-ācakşata.' 2 Satapatha Brāhmana, XIII, 5, 4, II.
3 Matsyapurāna, Chap. 43, p. 48; Chap. 44, pp. 46-8; Vāyupurāna, Chap. 94, p. 52; Chap. 95, p. 18; Chap. 96, pp. 1-2; Vişnupurāņa, IV, 13, 1-6.
4 IV, 13, 1-61. 5 Mahābhārata, Adiparvan, Chap. 84, pp. 20-2; Vangavāsi Ed. 6 Ibid., Chap. 85, verse 34.
