It cannot necessarily be assumed that all the above traditions relate
to the Abhira tribe proper, of which the modern Ahir caste are scarcely
more than the nominal representatives. Nevertheless, it may fairly be
concluded from them that the Abhiras were widely spread over India
and dominated considerable tracts of country. They are held to have
entered India about the same time as the Sakas, who settled in Gujarat,
among other places, and, as seen above, the earliest records of the
Abhiras show them in Nasik and Kathiawar, and afterwards widely spread
in Khandesh, that is, in the close neighbourhood of the Sakas. It has
been suggested in the article on Rajput that the Yadava and other lunar
clans of Rajputs may be the representatives of the Sakas and other
nomad tribes who invaded India shortly before and after the Christian
era. The god Krishna is held to have been the leader of the Yadavas,
and to have founded with them the sacred city of Dwarka in Gujarat. The
modern Ahirs have a subdivision called Jaduvansi or Yaduvansi, that is,
of the race of the Yadavas, and they hold that Krishna was of the Ahir
tribe. Since the Abhiras were also settled in Gujarat it is possible
that they may have been connected with the Yadavas, and that this may
be the foundation for their claim that Krishna was of their tribe. The
Dyashraya-Kavya of Hemachandra speaks of a Chordasama prince reigning
near Junagarh as an Abhira and a Yadava. But this is no doubt very
conjectural, and the simple fact that Krishna was a herdsman would be
a sufficient reason for the Ahirs to claim connection with him. It is
pointed out that the names of Abhira chieftains given in the early
inscriptions are derived from the god Siva, and this would not have
been the case if they had at that epoch derived their origin from
Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu. "If the Abhiras had really been
the descendants of the cowherds (Gopas) whose hero was Krishna, the
name of the rival god Siva would never have formed components of the
names of the Abhiras, whom we find mentioned in inscriptions. Hence
the conclusion may safely be drawn that the Abhiras were by no means
connected with Krishna and his cowherds even as late as about A.D. 300,
to which date the first of the two inscriptions mentioned above is
to be assigned. Precisely the same conclusion is pointed to by the
contents of the Harivansha and Bhagwat Purana. The upbringing of
Krishna among the cowherds and his flirtations with the milkmaids are
again and again mentioned in these works, but the word Abhira does not
occur even once in this connection. The only words we find used are
Gopa, Gopi and Vraja. This is indeed remarkable. For the descriptions
of the removal of Krishna as an infant to Nanda, the cowherd's hut,
of his childhood passed in playing with the cowherd boys, and of his
youth spent in amorous sports with the milkmaids are set forth at
great length, but the word Abhira is not once met with. From this
only one conclusion is possible, that is, that the Abhiras did not
originally represent the Gopas of Krishna. The word Abhira occurs for
the first time in connection with the Krishna legend about A.D. 550,
from which it follows that the Abhiras came to be identified with
the Gopas shortly before that date." [23]
This argument is interesting as showing that Abhira was not originally
an occupational term for a herdsman, nor a caste name, but belonged
to an immigrant tribe. Owing apparently to the fact that the Abhiras,
like the Gujars, devoted themselves to a pastoral mode of life in
India, whereas the previous Aryan immigrants had settled down to
cultivation, they gave their name to the great occupational caste
of herdsmen which was subsequently developed, and of which they may
originally have constituted the nucleus. The Gujars, who came to India
at a later period, form a parallel case; although the Gujar caste,
which is derived from them, is far less important than the Ahir,
the Gujars have also been the parents of several Rajput clans. The
reason why the early Mathura legends of Krishna make no mention of
the Ahirs may be that the deity Krishna is probably compounded of at
least two if not more distinct personalities. One is the hero chief of
the Yadavas, who fought in the battle of the Pandavas and Kauravas,
migrated to Gujarat and was killed there. As he was chief of the
Yadavas this Krishna must stand for the actual or mythical personality
of some leader of the immigrant nomad tribes. The other Krishna,
the boy cowherd, who grazed cattle and sported with the milkmaids of
Brindaban, may very probably be some hero of the indigenous non-Aryan
tribes, who, then as now, lived in the forests and were shepherds
and herdsmen. His lowly birth from a labouring cowherd, and the
fact that his name means black and he is represented in sculpture
as being of a dark colour, lend support to this view. The cult of
Krishna, Mr. Crooke points out, was comparatively late, and probably
connected with the development of the worship of the cow after the
decay of Buddhism. This latter Krishna, who is worshipped with his
mother as a child-god, was especially attractive to women, both actual
and prospective mothers. It is quite probable therefore that as his
worship became very popular in Hindustan in connection with that of
the cow, he was given a more illustrious origin by identification
with the Yadava hero, whose first home was apparently in Gujarat. In
this connection it may also be noted that the episodes connected with
Krishna in the Mahabharata have been considered late interpolations.