The Bharatas were an early
Vedic tribe that existed in the latter half of the
second millennium B.C.E.
The earliest mentioned location of the Bharatas was on the first
Sarasvati River
The Sarasvati River () is a deified river first mentioned in the Rigveda and later in Vedic and post-Vedic texts. It played an important role in the Vedic religion, appearing in all but the fourth book of the Rigveda.
As a physical river, i ...
in southern Afghanistan. Under the tribal king
Divodāsa, the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountains and defeated Śambara. Divodāsa's descendant, Sudās, won the
Battle of the Ten Kings against a
Puru Puru refer to:
*Puru (Vedic tribe), a tribe, or a confederation of tribes, mentioned many times in the Rigveda
*King Puru, a Hindu king in the Rigveda and Mahabharata
*King Porus, a king of northwest India in the time of Alexander the Great
*Puru ( ...
-led coalition, which set the scene for the initial compilation of hymns of the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
. After the battle, the Bharatas and other Puru clans would eventually form the
Kuru Kingdom
Kuru (Sanskrit: ) was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some parts of western Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. ...
, which was the first attested state in Indian history.
Etymology
The name ''Bharata'' is of Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian origin, meaning "the ones who carry".
History
Two Bharatas, Devaśravas Bhārata and Devavāta Bhārata, are mentioned as living near the Āpayā,
Sarasvatī
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...
and
Dṛṣadvatī rivers.
Devavāta's son, Sṛñjaya Daivavāta, defeated the
Turvaśas, and is mentioned alongside Abhyāvartin Cāyamāna who defeated the Vṛcīvants under Varaśikha. These battles took place at the
Hariyūpiyā (modern Hali-āb) and
Yavyāvatī rivers (modern
Zhob
Zhob (; ) or Zhobak (), formerly known as Appozai or Fort Sandeman, is a city and district capital of Zhob District in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on the banks of Zhob River 337 km from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
T ...
) in what is now eastern Afghanistan. In a hymn to Sarasvatī, it is stated that she aided (or is sought to aid) Vadhryaśva in defeating niggards, foreigners, insulters of gods, haters, and the sons of Bṛsaya. Witzel notes that the name Bṛsaya is of non-Indo-Aryan origin, and Parpola proposes that the name came from the language of the
Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (short BMAC) or Oxus Civilization, recently dated to c. 2250–1700 BC,Lyonnet, Bertille, and Nadezhda A. Dubova, (2020b)"Questioning the Oxus Civilization or Bactria- Margiana Archaeological Cultu ...
. He states that Bṛsaya was a hereditary regnal title in the region, and that it existed even till the time of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
. In addition, the poet expresses the desire not to leave the Sarasvati river (modern
Helmand
Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...
and
Arghandab).
Both hymns mentioning the two are attributed to
Bharadvāja Bārhaspatya.
Under the chieftain Divodāsa Atithigva, the Bharatas moved through the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...
mountain range in the northwest
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. Divodāsa was adopted by Vadhryaśva after the former was given to him by the river goddess
Sarasvatī
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...
.
Divodāsa defeated the aboriginal mountain chief Shambara in the autumn of the fortieth year of campaigns, after destroying ninety-nine of the latter's forts. Under Divodāsa, the Bharatas were also enemies of the
Yadu-
Turvaśas. Divodāsa's allies were Prastoka, Aśvatha, and Sṛñjaya's son. Scholars differ on whether Sṛñjaya's son was a different person from Prastoka or Aśvatha. Several Rigvedic poets mention a patron-client relationship between Divodāsa and Bharadvāja. According to a hymn attributed to Suhotra Bhāradvāja, Bharadvāja was involved in Divodāsa's battles with Śambara. In another hymn, Garga Bhāradvāja enumerates the gifts that were donated to the Bharadvajas by Divodāsa and his allies, of which included part of the booty that was looted from Śambara.
Under
Sudās Paijavana (a descendant of Divodāsa) and his
purohita Viśvāmitra Gāthina, the Bharatas crossed the Vipāś and
Śutudrī rivers (modern
Beas
Beas is a riverfront town in the Amritsar district of the Indian state of Punjab. Beas lies on the banks of the Beas River. Beas town is mostly located in revenue boundary of Budha Theh with parts in villages Dholo Nangal and Wazir Bhullar. ...
and
Sutlej). Eventually Viśvāmitra was replaced by
Vasiṣṭha Maitrāvaruṇi.
Battle of the Ten Kings
Under Sudās and Vasiṣṭha, the Tṛtsu-Bharatas win the
Battle of the Ten Kings.
The first phase of the battle took place on the banks of the Paruṣnī river (modern
Ravi Ravi may refer to:
People
* Ravi (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Ravi (composer) (1926–2012), Indian music director
* Ravi (Ivar Johansen) (born 1976), Norwegian musical artist
* Ravi (music director) (1926–201 ...
) near Mānuṣa, west of Kurukṣetra.
The principal antagonist is doubtful and names of the participating tribes are difficult to retrieve, in light of the phonological deformations of their names.
Plausible belligerents of the tribal union include (in order) —
Pūrus (erstwhile master-tribe of Bharatas),
Yadu (probably commanded by Turvaśa), Yakṣu (relatively unimportant or a pun for Yadu),
Matsyas,
Druhyus
This is a list of ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes that are mentioned in the literature of Indic religions.
From the second or first millennium BCE, ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes turned into most of the population in the northern p ...
,
Pakthas,
Bhalānas,
Alinas Aluminium indium arsenide, also indium aluminium arsenide or AlInAs ( Alx In1−x As), is a semiconductor material with very nearly the same lattice constant as GaInAs, but a larger bandgap. The ''x'' in the formula above is a number between 0 and 1 ...
, Viṣāṇins, Śivas, Vaikarṇa, and
Anu.
Though seemingly an unequal battle, going by the numbers (this aspect is highlighted multiple times in the hymns), Sudās decisively won against the tribal alliance by strategic breaching of a (natural) dyke on the river thereby drowning most (?) of the opponents; the victory is attributed to the benevolence and strategizing of
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
, the patron-God of Bharatas, whose blessings were secured by Vasiṣṭha's poetics.
Thereafter, the battleground (probably) shifted to the banks of river
Yamunā, wherein the local chieftain Bheda was defeated along with three other tribes — Ajas, Śighras, and the Yakṣus.
Aftermath
The Battle of the Ten Kings led Bharatas to occupy the entire Pūru territory (Western Punjab) centered around
Sarasvatī River and complete their east-ward migration.
Sudās celebrated his victory with the
Aśvamedha ritual to commemorate the establishment of a realm, free of enemies from the north, east, and west. He still had enemies in the
Khāṇḍava Forest to the south, which was inhabited by the despised non-Indo-Aryan
Kīkaṭas
A political realignment between Pūrus and Bharatas probably followed soon enough and might have included other factions of the tribal union as well; this is exhibited from how the core collection of RV prominently features clan-hymns of both the sides.
There is no clear mention of Sudās’ descendants or any succeeding Bharata king in the Rigveda. The Bharatas eventually evolve into the
Kuru Kingdom
Kuru (Sanskrit: ) was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some parts of western Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. ...
; however, there is no record of this development due to the time gap between the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
and other
Vedas
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
.
Legacy in later literature
In the epic
Mahābhārata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
, the ancestor of
Kuru
Kuru may refer to:
Anthropology and history
* Kuru (disease), a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy associated with the cannibalistic funeral practices of the Fore people
* Kuru (mythology), part of Meithei mythology
* Kuru Kingdom, ...
s becomes
Emperor Bharata
Bharata ( sa, भरत, Bharata) is a legendary king featured in Hindu literature. He is a member of the Chandravamsha dynasty, and becomes the Chakravarti (universal monarch). He is regarded to be the ancestor of the Pandavas, the Kauravas, ...
, and his ruler and kingdom is called Bhārata. The Bharata clan mentioned in Mahabharata is a Kuru clan which is a sub clan of the Puru clan who were the cousins of the Yadavas. "
Bhārata" today is an official name of the
Republic of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
[Article 1 of the English version of the ]Constitution of India
The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
: "India that is Bharat shall be a Union of States."
See also
*
Vedic period
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharatas
History of India
History of Punjab
Indo-Aryan peoples
Rigvedic tribes