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Revision as of 04:01, 4 April 2006 by Satbir Singh (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Pahlavas are a people mentionned in ancient Indian texts like the Manu Smriti, various Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Brhatsamhita etc. They are referenced in the Puranic literature as Pahlavas as well as Pallavas. They are said to be same as the Parasikas.
Pahlavas are referenced in various Puranic texts like Vayu Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Markendeya Purana, Matsya Purana, Vamana Purana etc. The Puranic texts refer to Pallavas and Pahlavas indistinguishably, thus attesting that the Pallavas of southern India are also derived from Iranian Pahlavas. While Vayu Purana mention Pahlava and Pahnava, the Brahmanda Purana and Markendeya Purana refers to them both as Pahlavas as well as Pallavas and the Vamana Purana and Matsya Purana notes them as Pallavas.
Vayu Purana mentions the Pahlavas with the tribes of Uttarapatha or north-west. The sixth century text Markendeya Purana (57.35) lists the Pahlavas, Kambojas, Daradas, Bahlikas, Barbaras, Tusharas, Daradas, Paradas, Chinas, Lampakas etc as the countries of Udichya division i.e Uttarapatha, but 58th chapter of the Markendeya Purana also refers to yet other settlements of the Pahlavas and the Kambojas and locates them both specifically in the south-west of India as neighbors to the Sindhu, Sauvira and Anarta (north Saurashtra) countries. Further the sixth century CE Brhatsamhita of Varaha Mihira also locates the Pahlavas and Kamboja kingdoms in south-west India i.e around Gujarat/Saurashtra.
According to P. Carnegy, the Pahluva are probably those people who spoke Paluvi or Pehlvi, a language pf Persia. Buhler thinks that Phalvas and their Iranian prototype Pahlava are corruptions of Parthavas. They are same as Parthians. The first reference to Pahlavas is found in the Rigveda. Vartikka of Katyayana mentions Sakah-Parthavah showing that in fourth century BCE, the Parthavas or Pahlavas were known to the the Hindus probably by way of commerce.
Puranas associate the Pahlavas with the Kambojas, Sakas, Yavanas and Pardas and brands them tether as Panca-ganah (fiver-hordes). These five hordes were military allies of the Haihaya and Taljunga Kshatriyas of Yadava line and were chiefly responsible for dethroning king Bahu of Kosala. Later, king Sagara, son of king Bahu, was able to defeat the Haihayas and Taljungas together with these five-hordes. According to Puranic accounts, king Sagara had divested the Paradas and other members of the well-known Panca-gana (i.e. the Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas and Pahlavas) of their Kshatriyahood and turned them into the Mlechchas. Before their defeat at the hands of king Sagara, these five-hordes were called Kshatriya-pungava (i.e. foremost among the Kshatriyas).
Puranas like Vayu Purana also state that the Udichyas including the Pahlavas, Paradas, Gandharas, Sakas, Yavanas, Tusharas, Kambojas, Khasas, Lampakas, Madhyadesis, Vindhyas, Aprantas, Dakshinatyas, Dravidas, Pulindas, Simhalas etc would be proceeded against and annihilated by Kalki in Kaliyga. And they are stated to have been annhilated by king Pramiti at the end of Kali age as per Puranic evidence.
According to Vayu Purana and Matsya Purana, river Chakshu (Oxus or Amu Darya) flowed through the countries of Pahlavas, Tusharas, Lampakas, Paradas and the Shakas etc (Vayu Purana I.58.78-83).
Mahabharata attests that Pandava-putra Nakula had defeated the Pahlavas in the course of his western expedition. The kings of Pahlava were also present at the Rajasuyi sacrifice of king Yudhishtra.
The Mahabharata also associates the Pahlavas with the Shakas, Yavanas, Gandharas, Kambojas, Pahlavas, Tusharas, Sabaras, Barbaras, etc. and addresses them all as the Barbaric tribes of Uttarapatha.
The Balakanda of the Ramayana groups the Pahlavas with the Shakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Mlechhas and the Kiratas and refers to them as military allies of sage Vasishtha against Vedic king Vishwamitra (55/2-3).
The Kiskindha Kanda of Ramayana associates the Pahlavas with the Yavanas, Shakas, Kambojas, Paradas (Varadas), Rishikas and the Uttarakurus etc and locates them all in the trans-Himalayan territories i.e. in the Sakadvipa (Ramayana Kisk. Kanda, 43-12).
The Pahlavas settlements have been noted both in the north/north-west as well as in the western and south-west India. This shows that the Pahlavas had moved to western region around Christian times. This movement of the Pahlavas appears to have been associated with the well known tribal movements of several Central Asian tribes like the Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Tusharas, Rishikas, Pardas etc which had occured around second century prior to Christian era.
The Buddhist drama Mudrarakshas by Visakhadutta and the Jaina works Parisishtaparvan refer to Chandragupta's alliance with Himalayan king Parvatka. This Himalayan alliance gave Chandragupta a powerful composite army made up of the frontier martial tribes of the Shakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Parasikas (Pahlavas), Bahlikas etc (predominantly an Iranian army) which he utilised to defeat the Greek successors of Alexander and the Nanda rulers of Magadha, and thus establishing his Mauryan Empire in northern India (See: Mudrarakshas, II).
The Brihat-Katha-Manjari of the Kshmendra (10/1/285-86) relates that around 400 AD, the Gupta king Vikramaditya (Chandragupta II) had "unburdened the sacred earth of the barbarians" like the Shakas, Mlecchas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Tusharas, Parasikas (Pahlavas), Hunas, etc. by annihilating these "sinners" completely.
The 10th century Kavyamimamsa of Chander Shekhar (Ch. 17) still lists the Sakas, Tusharas, Vokanas, Hunas, Kambojas, Bahlikas, Pahlavas, Tangana, Turukshas, etc. together, and states them as the tribes located in the Uttarapatha division.
Manusmriti (X.43-44) states that the Pahlavas and several other tribes like Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Paradas, Daradas, Khasas, Dravidas etc were originally noble Kshatriyas, but later, due to their non-observance of sacred Brahmanical codes and neglect of the priestly class, they had gradually sunken to the status of Mlechchas.