Chapter XLIII: Appendix: V (2)

In the fourth year of his reign about A.D. 758 the Khalífah Jaâfar-al-Mansúr [1389] (A.D. 754-775) the second ruler of the house of Abbás appointed Hishám governor of Sindh. Hishám despatched a fleet to the coast of Barádah, which may generally be read Balabha, under the command of Amru bin Jamál Taghlabi. Tabari (A.D. 838-932) and Ibni Asír (A.D. 1160-1232) [1390] state that another expedition was sent to this coast in A.H. 160 (A.D. 776) in which though the Arabs succeeded in taking the town, disease thinned the ranks of the party stationed to garrison the port, a thousand of them died, and the remaining troops while returning to their country were shipwrecked on the coast of Persia. This he adds deterred Al Mahdi [1391] (A.D. 775-785) the succeeding Khalífah from extending the eastern limits of his empire. Besides against Balaba the Sindhi Arabs sent a fleet against Kandhár apparently, though somewhat doubtfully, [1392] the town of that name to the north of Broach where they destroyed a temple or budd and built a mosque. Al Bírúni [1393] (A.D. 1030) writing of the Valabhi era describes the city of Balabah as nearly thirty jauzhans (yojanas) that is ninety miles to the south of Anhilvára. In another passage [1394] he describes how the Bánia Ránka sued for and obtained the aid of an Arab fleet from the Arab lord of Mansúrah (built A.D. 750) for the destruction of Balaba. A land grant by a Valabhi chief remains as late as A.D. 766. For this reason and as the invaders of that expedition fled panic-struck by sickness Valabhi seems to have continued as a place of consequence if the expedition of A.D. 830 against Bala king of the east refers to the final attack on Valabhi an identification which is supported by a Jain authority which places the final overthrow of Valabhi at 888 Samvat that is A.D. 830. [1395]

[Kings.] Of the rulers of Gujarát between A.D. 850 and A.D. 1250 the only dynasty which impressed the Arabs was the Balháras of Málkhet or Mányakheta (A.D. 630-972) sixty miles south-east of Sholápúr. From about A.D. 736 to about A.D. 978, at first through a more or less independent local branch and afterwards (A.D. 914) direct the Ráshtrakútas continued overlords of most of Gujarát. The Arabs knew the Ráshtrakútas by their title Vallabha or Beloved in the case of Govind III. (A.D. 803-814), Prithivívallabha, Beloved by the Earth, and of his successor the long beloved Amoghavarsha Vallabhaskanda, the Beloved of Siva. Al Masúdi (A.D. 915-944) said: Bálárái is a name which he who follows takes. So entirely did the Arabs believe in the overlordship of the Ráshtrakútas in Gujarát that Al Idrísi (A.D. 1100, but probably quoting Al Jauhari A.D. 950) describes Nehrwalla as the capital of the Balarás. Until Dr. Bhandárkar discovered its origin in Vallabha, the ease with which meanings could be tortured out of the word and in Gujarát its apparent connection with the Valabhi kings (A.D. 509-770) made the word Balarái a cause of matchless confusion. [1396] The merchant Sulaimán (A.D. 851) ranks the Balhára, the lord of Mánkír, as the fourth of the great rulers of the world. Every prince in India even in his own land paid him homage. He was the owner of many elephants and of great wealth. He refrained from wine and paid his troops and servants regularly. Their favour to Arabs was famous. Abu Zaid (A.D. 913) says that though the Indian kings acknowledge the supremacy of no one, yet the Balháras or Ráshtrakútas by virtue of the title Balhára are kings of kings. Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) describes the Balháras as the greatest of Indian kings being as the name imports the king of kings. Al Masúdi (A.D. 915) described Balhára as a dynastic name which he who followed took. Though he introduces two other potentates the king of Jurz and the Baûra or Parmár king of Kanauj fighting with each other and with the Balhára he makes the Balhára, the lord of the Mánkír or the great centre, the greatest king of India [1397] to whom the kings of India bow in their prayers and whose emissaries they honour. He notices that the Balhára favours and honours Musalmáns and allows them to have mosques and assembly mosques. When Al Masúdi was in Cambay the town was ruled by Bánia, the deputy of the Balhára. Al Istakhri (A.D. 951) describes the land from Kambáyah to Saimúr (Cheul) as the land of the Balhára of Mánkír. In the Konkan were many Musalmáns over whom the Balhára appointed no one but a Musalmán to rule. Ibni Haukal (A.D. 970) describes the Balhára as holding sway over a land in which are several Indian kings. [1398] Al Idrísi (A.D. 1100 but quoting Al Jauhari A.D. 950) agrees with Ibni Khurdádbah that Balhára is a title meaning King of Kings. He says the title is hereditary in this country, where when a king ascends the throne he takes the name of his predecessor and transmits it to his heirs. [1399]

[Condition.] That the Arabs found the Ráshtrakútas kind and liberal rulers there is ample evidence. In their territories property was secure, [1400] theft or robbery was unknown, commerce was encouraged, foreigners were treated with consideration and respect. The Arabs especially were honoured not only with a marked and delicate regard, but magistrates from among themselves were appointed to adjudicate their disputes according to the Musalmán law.

[The Gurjjaras.] The ruler next in importance to the Balhára was the Jurz that is the Gurjjara king. It is remarkable, though natural, that the Arabs should preserve the true name of the rulers of Anhilváda which the three tribe or dynastic names Chápa or Chaura (A.D. 720-956), Solanki or Cáulukya (A.D. 961-1242), and Vághela (A.D. 1240-1290) should so long have concealed. Sulaimán (A.D. 851) notices that the Jurz king hated Musalmáns while the Balhára king loved Musalmáns. He may not have known what excellent reasons the Gurjjaras had for hating the Arab raiders from sea and from Sindh. Nor would it strike him that the main reason why the Balhára fostered the Moslem was the hope of Arab help in his struggles with the Gurjjaras.

[Jurz.] According to the merchant Sulaimán [1401] (A.D. 851) the kingdom next after the Balhára's was that of Jurz the Gurjjara king whose territories "consisted of a tongue of land." The king of Jurz maintained a large force: his cavalry was the best in India. He was unfriendly to the Arabs. His territories were very rich and abounded in horses and camels. In his realms exchanges were carried on in silver and gold dust of which metals mines were said to be worked.

The king of Jurz was at war with the Balháras as well as with the neighbouring kingdom of Táfak or the Panjáb. The details given under Bhínmál page 468 show that Sulaimán's tongue of land, by which he apparently meant either Káthiávád or Gujarát was an imperfect idea of the extent of Gurjjara rule. At the beginning of the tenth century A.D. 916 Sulaimán's editor Abu Zaid describes Kanauj as a large country forming the empire of Jurz, [1402] a description which the Gurjjara Vatsarája's success in Bengal about a century before shows not to be impossible. Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) ranks the king of Juzr as fourth in importance among Indian kings. According to him "the Tátariya dirhams were in use in the Juzr kingdom." Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) speaks of the Konkan country of the Balhára as on one side exposed to the attacks of the king of Juzr a monarch rich in men horses and camels. He speaks of the Juzr kingdom bordering on Táfán apparently the Panjáb and Táfán as bounded by Rahma [1403] apparently Burma and Sumátra. Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968-976) notices that several kingdoms existed, including the domain of the Siláháras of the north Konkan within the land of the Balhára between Kambáyah and Saimúr. [1404] Al Bírúni (A.D. 970-1031) uses not Juzr, but Gujarát. [1405] Beyond that is to the south of Gujarát he places Konkan and Tána. In Al Bírúni's time Náráyan near Jaipúr, the former capital of Gujarát, had been taken and the inhabitants removed to a town on the frontier. [1406] Al Idrísi (end of the eleventh century really from tenth century materials) ranks the king of Juzr as the fourth and the king of Sáfán or Táfán as the second in greatness to the Balhára. [1407] In another passage in a list of titular sovereigns Al Idrísi enters the names of Sáfir (Táfán) Hazr (Jazr-Juzr) and Dumi (Rahmi). [1408] By the side of Juzr was Táfak (doubtfully the Panjáb) a small state producing the whitest and most beautiful women in India; the king having few soldiers; living at peace with his neighbours and like the Balháras highly esteeming the Arabs. [1409] Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) calls Tában the king next in eminence to the Balhára. [1410] Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) calls Táfak the ruler of a mountainous country like Kashmír [1411] with small forces living on friendly terms with neighbouring sovereigns and well disposed to the Moslims. [1412] Al Idrísi (end of eleventh century but materials of the tenth century) notices Sáfán (Táfán) as the principality that ranks next to the Konkan that is to the Ráshtrakútas.

[Rahma or Ruhmi.] Rahma or Ruhmi, according to the merchant Sulaimán (A.D. 851) borders the land of the Balháras, the Juzr, and Táfán. The king who was not much respected was at war with both the Juzr and the Balhára. He had the most numerous army in India and a following of 50,000 elephants when he took the field. Sulaimán notices a cotton fabric made in Rahma, so delicate that a dress of it could pass through a signet-ring. The medium of exchange was cowries Cypræa moneta shell money. The country produced gold silver and aloes and the whisk of the sámara or yák Bos poëphagus the bushy-tailed ox. Ibni Khurdádbah [1413] (A.D. 912) places Rahmi as the sixth kingdom. He apparently identified it with Al Rahmi or north Sumátra as he notes that between it and the other kingdoms communication is kept up by ships. He notices that the ruler had five thousand elephants and that cotton cloth and aloes probably the well-known Kumári or Cambodian aloes, were the staple produce. Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) after stating that former accounts of Rahma's [1414] elephants, troops and horses were probably exaggerated, adds that the kingdom of Rahma extends both along the sea and the continent and that it is bounded by an inland state called Káman (probably Kámarup that is Assam). He describes the inhabitants as fair and handsome and notices that both men and women had their ears pierced. This description of the people still more the extension of the country both along the sea and along the continent suggests that Masúdi's Al Rahmi is a combination of Burma which by dropping the B he has mixed with Al Rahma. Lane identifies Rahmi [1415] with Sumátra on the authority of an Account of India and China by two Muhammadan Travellers of the Ninth Century. This identification is supported by Al Masúdi's [1416] mention of Rámi as one of the islands of the Java group, the kingdom of the Indian Mihráj. The absence of reference to Bengal in these accounts agrees with the view that during the ninth century Bengal was under Tibet.

[Products.] In the middle of the ninth century mines of gold and silver are said to be worked in Gujarát. [1417] Abu Zaid (A.D. 916) represents pearls as in great demand. The Tártáriyah, or according to Al Masúdi the Táhiriyah dínárs of Sindh, fluctuating [1418] in price from one and a half to three and a fraction of the Baghdád dínárs, were the current coin in the Gujarát ports. Emeralds also were imported from Egypt mounted as seals. [1419]

Ibni Khurdádbah [1420] (A.D. 912) mentions teakwood and the bamboo as products of Sindán that is the Konkan Sanjan. [1421] Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) notes that at the great fair of Multán the people of Sindh and Hind offered Kumar that is Cambodian aloe-wood of the purest quality worth twenty dínárs a man. [1422] Among other articles of trade he mentions an inferior emerald exported from Cambay and Saimúr to Makkah, [1423] the lance shafts of Broach, [1424] the shoes of Cambay, [1425] and the white and handsome maidens of Táfán [1426] who were in great demand in Arab countries. Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968-976) states that the country comprising Fámhal, Sindán, Saimúr, and Kambáyah produced mangoes cocoanuts lemons and rice in abundance. That honey could be had in great quantities, but no date palms were to be found. [1427]

Al Bírúni (A.D. 1031) notices that its import of horses from Mekran and the islands of the Persian Gulf was a leading portion of Cambay trade. [1428] According to Al Idrísi (A.D. 1100) the people of Mámhal [1429] (Anhilwára) had many horses and camels. [1430] One of the peculiarities of the Nahrwála country was that all journeys were made and all merchandise was carried in bullock waggons. Kambáyah was rich in wheat and rice and its mountains yielded the Indian kaná or bamboo. At Subára [1431] (Sopára) they fished for pearls and Bára a small island close to Subára produced the cocoanut and the costus. Sindán according to Al Idrísi produced the cocoa palm, the ratan, and the bamboo. Saimúr had many cocoa palms, much henna (Lawsonia inermis), and a number of aromatic plants. [1432] The hills of Thána yielded the bamboo and tabáshír [1433] or bamboo pith. From Saimúr according to Al Kazwíni (A.D. 1236, but from tenth century materials) came aloes. Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) states that in Kambáyah, Somnáth, Kankan, and Tána the vines yield twice a year and such is the strength of the soil that cotton-plants grow like willow or plane trees and yield produce for ten years. He refers to the betel leaf, to which he and other Arab writers and physicians ascribe strange virtues as the produce of the whole country of Malabár. The exports from the Gujarát coasts are said to be sugar (the staple product of Málwa), bádrúd that is bezoar, and haldi that is turmeric. [1434]

According to Ibni Haukal (A.D. 170) from Kambáya to Saimúr the villages lay close to one another and much land was under cultivation. [1435] At the end [1436] of the eleventh century trade was brisk merchandise from every country finding its way to the ports of Gujarát whose local products were in turn exported all over the east. [1437] The Ráshtrakúta dominion was vast, well-peopled, commercial, and fertile. [1438] The people lived mostly on a vegetable diet, rice peas beans haricots and lentils being their daily food. [1439] Al Idrísi speaks of certain Hindus eating animals whose deaths had been caused by falls or by being gored, [1440] but Al Masúdi states that the higher classes who wore the "baldric like yellow thread" (the Janoi) abstained from flesh. According to Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968-970) the ordinary dress of the kings of Hind was trousers and a tunic. [1441] He also notices that between Kambáyah and Saimúr the Muslims and infidels wear the same cool fine muslin dress and let their beards grow in the same fashion. [1442] During the tenth century on high days the Balhára wore a crown of gold and a dress of rich stuff. The attendant women were richly clad, wearing rings of gold and silver upon their feet and hands and having their hair in curls. [1443] At the close of the Hindu period (A.D. 1300) Rashíd-ud-dín describes Gujarát as a flourishing country with no less than 80,000 villages and hamlets the people happy the soil rich growing in the four seasons seventy varieties of flowers. Two harvests repaid the husbandman, the earlier crop refreshed by the dew of the cold season the late crop enriched by a certain rainfall. [1444]

[Review.] In their intercourse with Western India nothing struck the Arabs more than the toleration shown to their religion both by chief and peoples. This was specially marked in the Ráshtrakúta towns where besides free use of mosques and Jámá mosques Musalmán magistrates or kázis were appointed to settle disputes among Musalmáns according to their own laws. [1445] Toleration was not peculiar to the Balháras. Al Bírúni records [1446] that in the ninth century (A.D. 581), when the Hindus recovered Sindán (Sanján in Kachh) they spared the assembly mosque where long after the Faithful congregated on Fridays praying for their Khalífah without hindrance. In the Balhára country so strongly did the people believe in the power of Islám or which is perhaps more likely so courteous were they that they said that our king enjoys a long life and long reign is solely due to the favour shown by him to the Musalmáns. So far as the merchant Sulaimán saw in the ninth century the chief religion in Gujarát was Buddhism. He notices that the principles of the religion of China were brought from India and that the Chinese ascribe to the Indians the introduction of Buddhas into their country. Of religious beliefs metempsychoses or re-birth and of religious practices widow-burning or satti and self-torture seem to have struck him most. [1447] As a rule the dead were burned. [1448] Sulaimán represents the people of Gujarát as steady abstemious and sober abstaining from wine as well as from vinegar, 'not' he adds 'from religious motives but from their disdain of it.' Among their sovereigns the desire of conquest was seldom the cause of war. [1449] Abu Zaid (A.D. 916) describes the Bráhmans as Hindus devoted to religion and science. Among Bráhmans were poets who lived at kings' courts, astronomers, philosophers, diviners, and drawers of omens from the flight of crows. [1450] He adds: So sure are the people that after death they shall return to life upon the earth, that when a person grows old "he begs some one of his family to throw him into the fire or to drown him." [1451] In Abu Zaid's time (A.D. 916) the Hindus did not seclude their women. Even the wives of the kings used to mix freely with men and attend courts and places of public resort unveiled. [1452] According to Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) India has forty-two religious sects "part of whom believe in God and his Prophet (on whom be peace) and part who deny his mission." [1453] Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) describes the Hindus as divided into seven classes. Of these the first are Thákarias [1454] or Thákurs men of high caste from whom kings are chosen and to whom men of the other classes render homage, the second are the Baráhmas [1455] who abstain from wine and fermented liquors; the third are the Katariya or Kshatrias who drink not more than three cups of wine; the fourth are the Sudaria or Shudras husbandmen by profession; the fifth are the Baisura or Vaish artificers and domestics; the sixth Sandalias or Chandala menials; and the seventh the 'Lahúd,' whose women adorn themselves and whose men are fond of amusements and games of skill. Both among the people and the kings of Gujarát [1456] wine was "unlawful and lawful" that is it was not used though no religious rule forbade its use. According to Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) a general opinion prevailed that India was the earliest home of order and wisdom. The Indians chose as their king the great Bráhma who ruled them for 366 years. His descendants retain the name of Bráhman and are honoured as the most illustrious caste. They abstain from the flesh of animals. [1457] Hindu kings cannot succeed before the age of forty nor do they appear in public except on certain occasions for the conduct of state affairs. Royalty and all the high offices of state [1458] are limited to the descendants of one family. The Hindus strongly disapprove of the use of wine both in themselves and in others not from any religious objection but on account of its intoxicating and reason-clouding qualities. [1459] Al Bírúni (A.D. 970-1031) quoted by Rashíd-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) states that the people of Gujarát are idolators and notices the great penance-pilgrimages to Somnáth details of which have already been given. [1460] Al Idrísi (end of the eleventh century) closely follows Ibni Khurdádbah's (A.D. 912) division of the people of India. The chief exception is that he represents [1461] the second class, the Bráhmans, as wearing the skins of tigers and going about staff in hand collecting crowds and from morn till eve proclaiming to their hearers the glory and power of God. He makes out that the Kastariás or Kshatriyas are able to drink three ratl (a ratl being one pound troy) of wine and are allowed to marry Bráhman women. The Sabdaliya or Chandal women, he says, are noted for beauty. Of the forty-two sects he enumerates worshippers of trees and adorers of serpents, which they keep in stables and feed as well as they can, deeming it to be a meritorious work. He says that the inhabitants of Kambáya are Buddhists (idolators) [1462] and that the Balhára also worships the idol Buddha. [1463] The Indians, says Al Idrísi [1464] (end of the eleventh century) are naturally inclined to justice and in their actions never depart from it. Their reputation for good faith, honesty, and fidelity to their engagements brings strangers flocking to their country and aids its prosperity. In illustration of the peaceable disposition of the Hindus, he quotes the ancient practice of duhái or conjuring in the name of the king, a rite which is still in vogue in some native states. When a man has a rightful claim he draws a circle on the ground and asks his debtor to step into the circle in the name of the king. The debtor never fails to step in nor does he ever leave the circle without paying his debts. Al Idrísi describes the people of Nahrwára as having so high a respect for oxen that when an ox dies they bury it. "When enfeebled by age or if unable to work they provide their oxen with food without exacting any return." [1465]