418:20 The text takes no notice of some collateral tribes, which appear to merit remark. Most of the other authorities, in mentioning the sons of Jayadhwaja, observe that from them came the five great divisions of the Haihaya tribe. These, according to the Váyu, were the Tálajanghas, Vítihotras, Ávantyas, Tuńd́ikeras, and Játas. The Matsya and Agni omit the first, and substitute Bhojas; and the latter are included in the list in the Bráhma, Padma, Linga, and Hari V. For Játas the reading is Sanjátas or Sujátas. The Bráhma P. has also Bháratas, who, as well as the Sujátas, are not commonly specified, it is said, 'from their great number.' They are in all probability invented by the compiler out of the names of the text, Bharata and Sujáti. The situation of these tribes is central India, for the capital of the Tálajanghas was Máhishmatí or Chulí-Maheswar, still called, according to Col. Tod, Sahasra-báhuki-basti, 'the village of the thousand-armed;' that is, of Kárttavíryya. Annals of Rajasthan, I. 39. n. The Tuńd́ikeras and Vítihotras are placed in the geographical lists behind the Vindhyan mountains, and the termination -kaira is common in the valley of the Narmadá, as Bairkaira, &c., or we may have Tuńd́ikera abbreviated, as Tuńd́ari on the Tapti. The Ávantyas were in Ujayin, and the Bhojas were in the neighbourhood probably of Dhár in Malwa. These tribes must have preceded, then, the Rajput tribes, by whom these countries are now occupied, or Rahtores, Chauhans, Pawars, Gehlotes, and the rest. There are still some vestiges of them, and a tribe of Haihayas still exists, at the top of the valley of Sohagpur in Bhagel-khańd́, aware of their ancient lineage, and though p. 419 few in number, celebrated for their valour. Tod's Rajasthan, I. 39. The scope of the traditions regarding them, especially of their overrunning the country, along with Śakas and other foreign tribes, in the reign preceding that of Sagara (see p. 373), indicates their foreign origin also; and if we might trust to verbal resemblances, we might suspect that the Hayas and Haihayas of the Hindus had some connexion with the Hia, Hoiei-ke, Hoiei-hu, and similarly denominated Hun or Turk tribes, who make a figure in Chinese history. Des Guignes, Histoire des Huns, I. 7, 55, 231. II. 253, &c. At the same time it is to be observed that these tribes do not make their appearance until some centuries after the Christian era, and the scene of their first exploits is far from the frontiers of India: the coincidence of appellation may be therefore merely accidental. In the word Haya, which properly means 'a horse,' it is not impossible, however, that we have a confirmatory evidence of the Scythian origin of the Haihayas, as Col. Tod supposed; although we cannot with him imagine the word 'horse' itself is derived from haya. Rajasthan, I. 76.

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Hinduism