Chapter 3—The Role of the Sub-Regions of Maharashtra
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CHAPTER 3—THE ROLE OF THE SUB-REGIONS OF MAHARASHTRA THE INTER-RELATIONSHIP OF THE SUB-REGIONS and their role in the formation of Maharashtra is indicated in this Chapter. Sub-regions and their dialects —The main dialects in Maharashtra are roughly based on the sub regions. In Khandesh the dialect spoken by people is called Ahirani. In Konkan the dialect is Konkani. Throughout the northern Konkan, in the districts of Thana, Kolaba and Ratnagiri, Konkani is supposed to be a Marathi language. Further southwards, in Goa, the Konkani is supposed to be a separate language by some scholars. In Berar and Nagpur the dialect is Varhadi. The Southern Krishna valley dialect is Kolhapuri. There is no regional name for the dialect spoken along the banks of the Godavari. The language developed in this region became the acknowledged literary language tor Maharashtra at an early period, and exercised an influence on all other regions, as we shall see later. Sub-regions and Dynasties.- The dynastic histories of these different regions are also different from one another. The earliest kings who ruled during the period from three or four centuries before Christ to three to four centuries after Christ, were the Satavahanas with their capital at Pratishthan (modern Paithan), on the river Godavari about thirty miles west of the modern city of Aurangabad. These kings ruled in the Godavari valley and north Konkan. In the Puranas they are mentioned , as Shakaraj. An eastern inscription mentions a Satavahana King as Aparanta-adhipa (King of the western lands—Konkan). They called themselves Andhra-Bhritya. All these words being compound words can be differently interpreted. Shakaraj might mean a king who was a Shaka (belonging to the Shaka tribe of Central India) or a king who ruled over the Shakas. Andhra-bhritya might mean one who was nourished by and therefore servant of the Andhras or it might mean one whose servants are the Andhras. The first of these kings is supposed to have fought with the help of horses. There is also a legend which says that an early Satavahana king could not understand the Sanskrit spoken by his wife who laughed at his ignorance. The king thereon learnt within 56 MAHARASHTRA STATE GAZETTEER a short time a Prakrit language. All these legends indicate either that the king was a foreigner who did not know Sanskrit or that he was of humble origin and spoke a language of the people. The Satavahana kings have left many inscriptions, all of them in Prakrit. There is an anthology of Prakrit poems called Gatha—Saptashati which is supposed to have been put together by a king of this dynasty some time in the sixth or seventh century, A. D.1 All this shows that in this kingdom a form of Prakrit called Maharashtri became the language of the court. All the dynasties which followed the Satavahana dynasty were patrons of Maharashtri. They, however, did not have Pratishthan as their capital but their capitals were not far from it. The Satavahanas were followed by Chalukyas, Vakatakas and then by Rashtrakutas. During the Rashtrakuta dynasty was written one of the most voluminous books in the Maharashtri dialect, namely the Harivamsha Purana by the court poet Pushpadanta. This is a Jain book. The Rashtrakutas were followed by Yadavas who apparently were patrons of Marathi poets as can be inferred by the reference to King Ramachandra by Dnyaneshwar. His reference to the “city of Marathi” can be confirmed in a double sense as referring abstractly to the Marathi language as also concretely to the capital city of the kingdom of the Yadavas. The Yadavas did for Marathi what the Satavahanas did for Prakrit. Prakrit was the language of the people and the Satavahanas gave it a status by making it their official language as their inscriptions show. In the same way Marathi was the language of the people a few centuries before the Yadavas came on the throne, but they were the first to give patronage to it. Parallel with the Satavahanas, three dynasties ruled over Konkan, namely, the Maurya, the Kadamba, and the Shilahara. Their inscriptions are in Sanskrit and partly in Prakrit. In Konkan again we have one of the earlier Marathi inscriptions. The third important sub-region comprising roughly the valleys of Purna, Vardha and Vainganga together form the kingdom known in Sanskrit literature as Vidarbha whose kings were the Vakatakas. The first historical reference is in the fourth century when a Gupta princess called Prabhavati married a Vakataka prince. It is thought that the poet Kalidas came with the princess and lived at the Vakataka court. A few centuries after Kalidas, the poet Dandin mentions the poetic style (in Sanskrit) of Vidarbha called the Vaidarbhi style, the best style in poetry. Kalidas in his drama Malavikagnimitram, which purports to refer to a king of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha, mentions some kind of a disturbance and a revolt in the then Vidarbha kingdom and the marriage of the Shunga king to a princess from Vidarbha. Kalidas does not 1 Lila-Charitra an early Marathi book of the 14th century and belonging to the Mahanubhava sect mentions ‘ Shalivahana’ as a person in the employ of the then king Mahadeva of the Yadava dynasty. Part 2, page 2 of introduction and p. 31 of text. Lila Charitra Part 2, 1st book, edited by H. N. Nene, Amraoti, 1933. MAHARASHTRA – LAND AND ITS PEOPLE 57 give the name of the dynasty then ruling Vidarbha. He merely mentions the prince by his first name Madhavasena. The Shunga dynasty was ruling in Magadha in the 1st century B. C. In the centuries which precede the Shunga dynasty, Vidarbha is mentioned again and again. Three legends of Sanskrit literature mention three Vidarbha princesses. The first called Lopamudra belongs to a hoary past and is connected with the legend of the sage Agasti crossing the Vindhyas and opening up the south. The second legend refers to princess Damayanti, the daughter of Bhima or Bhishma, king of Vidarbha. She was married to Nala. The third legend refers to Rukmini, daughter of a king called Bhimaka, Bhima or Bhishma, who was carried away by Shri Krishna. If we place the time of the Mahabharata battle, that is of Shri Krishna, as somewhere near 1000 B. C, then we have a thousand year gap which is not filled either by legend or history for this area. The short account given above, however, shows that Vidarbha was always in active contact with the north throughout the legendary and historical period. It was the southernmost outpost of the interrelated dynasties of the northern Sanskrit-speaking people. This characteristic apparently continued during the historical period, inasmuch as all the Vakataka inscriptions are in Sanskrit. The history of this region is obscure after the Vakatakas of whom one branch or the other ruled over some portion of this region up to the eighth century. Apparently this area, especially the eastern portion from Nagpur to Bhandara, was ruled by Gond kings. The twelfth century inscriptions show that parts of Vidarbha were nominally under the Yadavas. Not until Chhatrapati Shahu sent the Bhosles to rule over Nagpur did this region come again effectively under the rule of Maratha kings. In spite of the long domination of Sanskrit, the Marathi language was the language of the people from at least the thirteenth century onwards. The southern portion, after the Chalukya era, was ruled by local chiefs some of whom held sway over parts of the coast and part of the mountain region. An eighth century inscription mentions Punaka-vishaya (revenue division) which approximately was the same as the township of Poona today. The Prakrit inscriptions in the Buddhist caves of this area tell of river Indra, the present Indra- yani, and Mammalavishaya, the present Maval. These inscriptions show that Prakrit held sway in the southern portion. A connected dynastic history for this region cannot be reconstructed. The last sub-region comprising the two Khandesh districts, called west and east Khandesh formerly, and called Dhulia and Jalgaon now, had no famous dynasties ruling in them. This portion was ruled over by people called Ahir or Abhir who are mentioned first at the end of the Mahabharata. These people apparently were pastoral people who destroyed the kingdoms of the Yadavas and also mixed with them. Khandesh was penetrated by the Marathi-speaking farmers from the south (Nasik area) and from the east (Berar) ; from the north by people from central India; and from 58 MAHARASHTRA STATE GAZETTEER the west along the Tapi river by people from Gujarat. The Marathi immigration appears to be the latest inasmuch as most of Khandesh speaks today either standard Marathi or Ahirani (a dialect of Marathi). Bhils, a very numerous primitive tribe belonging to Rajasthan, have penetrated into Maharashtra through Khandesh over the Satpuda hills, Part of Khandesh was ruled by the Bhils. Thus in the north the western (Khandesh) and the eastern (Bhandara and Chanda district ) portions were held by primitive people. The eastern Gond kingdoms, however, seemed to have been more powerful and not as primitive as the small Bhil chieftainships of Khandesh. The most ancient dynasty, that of Satavahanas was on the banks of the Godavari. The later dynasties upto the Yadavas ruled in the east but not directly on the river Godavari and influenced the north, the south and also Konkan1. From the 13th century onward, the centre shifted gradually westwards. After the conquest of the Yadava kingdom by the Khiljis in 1318 a Muslim dynasty known as the Bahamanis assumed an independent status in the Deccan in 1347.