The Abhiras appear to have been one of the immigrant tribes from
Central Asia who entered India shortly before or about the commencement
of the Christian era. In the Puranas and Mahabharata they are spoken
of as Dasyu or robbers, and Mlechchhas or foreigners, in the story
which says that Arjuna, after he had burned the dead bodies of
Krishna and Balaram at Dwarka, was proceeding with the widows of the
Yadava princes to Mathura through the Punjab when he was waylaid by
the Abhiras and deprived of his treasures and beautiful women. [15]
An inscription of the Saka era 102, or A.D. 180, speaks of a grant
made by the Senapati or commander-in-chief of the state, who is
called an Abhira, the locality being Sunda in Kathiawar. Another
inscription found in Nasik and assigned by Mr. Enthoven to the fourth
century speaks of an Abhira king, and the Puranas say that after the
Andhrabhrityas the Deccan was held by the Abhiras, the west coast
tract from the Tapti to Deogarh being called by their name. [16]
In the time of Samudragupta in the middle of the fourth century
the Abhiras were settled in Eastern Rajputana and Malwa. [17] When
the Kathis arrived in Gujarat in the eighth century, they found the
greater part of the country in the possession of the Ahirs. [18] In the
Mirzapur District of the United Provinces a tract known as Ahraura is
considered to be named after the tribe; and near Jhansi another piece
of country is called Ahirwar. [19] Elliot states that Ahirs were also
Rajas of Nepal about the commencement of our era. [20] In Khandesh,
Mr. Enthoven states, the settlements of the Ahirs were important. In
many castes there is a separate division of Ahirs, such as the Ahir
Sunars, Sutars, Lohars, Shimpis, Salis, Guraos and Kolis. The fort
of Asirgarh in Nimar bordering on Khandesh is supposed to have been
founded by one Asa Ahir, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth
century. It is said that his ancestors had held land here for seven
hundred years, and he had 10,000 cattle, 20,000 sheep and 1000 mares,
with 2000 followers; but was still known to the people, to whom
his benevolence had endeared him, by the simple name of Asa. This
derivation of Asirgarh is clearly erroneous, as it was known as
Asir or Asirgarh, and held by the Tak and Chauhan Rajputs from the
eleventh century. But the story need not on that account, Mr. Grant
says, [21] be set down as wholly a fable. Firishta, who records it,
has usually a good credit, and more probably the real existence of
a line of Ahir chieftains in the Tapti valley suggested a convenient
ethnology for the fortress. Other traditions of the past domination
of the pastoral tribes remain in the Central Provinces. Deogarh on
the Chhindwara plateau was, according to the legend, the last seat
of Gaoli power prior to its subversion by the Gonds in the sixteenth
century. Jatba, the founder of the Deogarh Gond dynasty, is said to
have entered the service of the Gaoli rulers, Mansur and Gansur, and
subsequently with the aid of the goddess Devi to have slain them and
usurped their kingdom. But a Gaoli chief still retained possession of
the fort of Narnala for a few years longer, when he also was slain by
the Muhammadans. Similarly the fort of Gawilgarh on the southern crest
of the Satpuras is said to be named after a Gaoli chief who founded
it. The Saugor traditions bring down the Gaoli supremacy to a much
later date, as the tracts of Etawa and Khurai are held to have been
governed by their chieftains till the close of the seventeenth century.