Vallabhipur

Map of Bhavnagar district

Vallabhipur (बल्लभीपुर) is a town in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat. Its ancient name was Walai, Ballabhi (बल्लभी), Vallabhi. Also known as Vallabhipura, it was the capital of the ancient Maitraka dynasty.

Location

It is an ancient city located in Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat, in western India, near Bhavnagar.

History

Legend states that a Kshatriya named Vijayasena founded the city around the 3rd century.

James Tod writes that By what route Kanaksen, the first emigrant of the solar race, found his way into Saurashtra from Lohkot (Lahore), is uncertain : he, however, wrested dominion from a prince of the Pramara race, and founded Birnagara in the second century (A.D. 144).

Four generations afterwards, Vijayasen, founded Vijayapur, supposed to be where Dholka now stands, at the head of the Saurashtra peninsula. Vijayapur has been doubtfully identified with Bijapur in the Ahmadabad district (BG, i. Part i. 110).

Vidarba was also founded by him, the name of which was afterwards changed to Sihor.

But the most celebrated was the capital, Valabhipura, which for years baffled all search, till it was revealed in its now humbled condition as Walai, ten miles west of Bhavnagar. The existence of this city was confirmed by a celebrated Jain work, the Satrunjaya Mahatma. The want of satisfactory proof of the Rana's emigration from thence was obviated by the most unexpected discovery of an inscription of the twelfth century, in a ruined temple on the tableland forming the eastern boundary of the Rana's present territory, which appeals to the ' walls of Valabhi ' for the truth of the action it records. And a work written to commemorate the reign of Rana Raj Singh opens with these words : "In the west is Sorathdes, (Saurashtra) a country well known : the barbarians invaded it, and conquered Bal-ka-nath ; all fell in the sack of Valabhipura, except the daughter of the Pramara."

Sack of Vallabhi

It is an ancient city. A Jain scroll which Colonel James Tod obtained from a Jain guru in Sanderao gives the earliest description of founding of the town. The scroll mentions that on the sack of Valabhi city in Gujarat, thirty thousand Jain families abandoned Valabhi and led by their priests found a retreat for themselves in Marwar, where they erected the towns of Sanderao, Bali and Nadol in 524 AD. The Maitrakas:

The Maitrakas, descending from general Bhatarka, a military governor of the Saurashtra peninsula at the time of Gupta ruler Skandagupta (455-467), had ruled the peninsula and parts of southern Rajasthan from Vallabhi from the fifth to the eighth centuries.

The first two Maitraka rulers Bhatarka and Dharasena I used only the title of Senapati (general). The third ruler, Dronasimha, declared himself Maharaja. King Guhasena stopped using the term Paramabhattaraka Padanudhyata alongside his name as his predecessors had done, a term that denotes the cessation of displaying of the nominal allegiance to the Gupta overlords. He was succeeded by his son Dharasena II, who used the title Mahadhiraja. His son, the next ruler Siladitya I, Dharmaditya was described by Chinese scholar and traveller Xuanzang as a "monarch of great administrative ability and of rare kindness and compassion". Siladitya I was succeeded by his younger brother Kharagraha I.

A virdi copperplate grant of 616 CE at the time of Kharagraha I shows that his territories included Ujjain. During the reign of the next ruler, his son Dharasena III, north Gujarat was assimilated into the kingdom. Dharasena II was succeeded by another son of Kharagraha I, Dhruvasena II, Baladitya. He married the daughter of Harshavardhana. His son Dharasena IV assumed the imperial titles of Paramabhattaraka Mahrajadhiraja Parameshvara Chakravartin. Sanskrit poet Bhatti was his court poet. The next powerful ruler of this dynasty was Siladitya III. During the reign of Siladitya V, Arabs probably invaded. The last known ruler of the dynasty was Siladitya VII. The Maitrakas came under the rule of Harsha in the mid-seventh century, but retained local autonomy, and regained their independence after Harsha's death. Maitraka rule ended with the sacking of Vallabhi by the barbarians in 524, according to James Tod and in second or third quarter of the 8th century by various other scholars.

There is no agreement among the scholars as to who these barbarians were.

Gajni or Gayni is one of the ancient names of port of Vallabhi (Cambay), the ruins of which are about three miles from the modern city. H. A. Rose and several other scholars have identified this Gajni with the Gajni referenced in the traditions of Karnal Kamboj (Garh Gajni Nikaas, Lachhoti Ghaggar). This and some other traditions of Karnal Kamboj seem to connect them with Vallabhi (Kambay) in Saurashtra.

बल्लव-बल्लभी जनपद

दलीप सिंह अहलावत के अनुसार बल्लव-बल्लभी जनपद गुजरात काठियावाड़ में था। इस प्रदेश पर जाटवंश का राज्य था। महाभारत काल के पश्चात् बल या बालियान जाटवंश का शासन इस जनपद पर रहा। यहां के राजा ध्रुवसेन द्वितीय (बालियान जाट गोत्री) के साथ सम्राट् हर्षवर्द्धन (वैस या वसाति जाटवंशज) ने अपनी पुत्री का विवाह किया था। चीनी यात्री इत्सिंग ने लिखा है कि “इस समय भारत में नालन्दा और बल्लभी दो ही विद्या के घर समझे जाते हैं।” दूसरे चीनी यात्री ह्यूनसांग ने बलवंश की इस राजधानी को 6000 बौद्ध भिक्षुओं का आश्रयस्थान तथा धन और विद्या का घर लिखा है। सन् 757 ई० में सिंध के अरब शासक ह्शान-इब्न-अलतधलवी के सेनापति अबरुबिन जमाल ने गुजरात काठिवाड़ पर चढ़ाई करके बल्लभी के इस बलवंश के राज्य को समाप्त कर दिया।

References

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