Ahir or Aheer is a ethnic group in India. Some members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadavcommunity because they consider the two terms to be synonymous.[1] The Ahirs are variously described as a caste, a clan, a community, a race and a tribe.
The traditional occupation of Ahirs are pastoralism and agriculture. They are found throughout India but are particularly concentrated in the northern areas. They are known by numerous other names, including Gauli,[2]Ghosi in the north[3]. Some in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh are known as Dauwa.[4] In Gujarat, they are also known as Ahad and Aiydr.[5]
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Etymology[edit]
Gaṅga Ram Garg considers the Ahir to be a tribe descended from the ancient Abhira community, whose precise location in India is the subject of various theories based mostly on interpretations of old texts such as the Mahabharata and the writings of Ptolemy. He believes the word Ahir to be the Prakrit form of the Sanskritword, Abhira, and he notes that the present term in the Bengali and Marathi languages is Abhir.[1]
Garg distinguishes a Brahmin community who use the Abhira name and are found in the present-day states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. That usage, he says, is because that division of Brahmins were priests to the Abhira tribe.[1]
Ahirs in Gujarat came from the Sumra Dynasty and claim to be descended from the Yadava race of Lord Krishna.[5]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
Theories regarding the origins of the ancient Abhira — the putative ancestors of the Ahirs — are varied for the same reasons as are the theories regarding their location; that is, there is a reliance on interpretation of linguistic and factual analysis of old texts that are known to be unreliable and ambiguous.[6] S. D. S. Yadava describes how this situation impacts on theories of origin for the modern Ahir community because
Some, such as A. P. Karmakar, consider the Abhira to be a Proto-Dravidian tribe who migrated to India and point to the Puranas as evidence. Others, such as Sunil Kumar Bhattacharya, dismiss this theory as anachronistic and say that the Abhira are recorded as being in India in the 1st-century CE work, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Bhattacharya considers the Abhira of old to be a race rather than a tribe.[6] M. S. A. Rao and historians such as P. M. Chandorkar and T. Padmaja say that epigraphical and historical evidence exists for equating the Ahirs with the ancient Yadavatribe.[8][9][10].
In Padma-puranas and certain literary works Abhiras are mentioned as belonging to the race of Lord Krishna.[11][12] According to K. P. Jayaswal the abhiras of Gujarat are the same race as Rastrikas of Emperor Asoka and Yadavas of the Mahabharatha.[13][14]
Whether they were a race or a tribe, nomadic in tendency or displaced or part of a conquering wave, with origins in Indo-Scythia or Central Asia, Aryan or Dravidian — there is no academic consensus, and much in the differences of opinion relate to fundamental aspects of historiography, such as controversies regarding dating the writing of the Mahabharata and acceptance or otherwise of the Aryan invasion theory.[7] Similarly, there is no certainty regarding the occupational status of the Abhira, with ancient texts sometimes referring to them as pastoral and cowherders but at other times as predatory tribes and rulers.[15]
Kingdoms[edit]
Ahir kingdoms included:
- Balaramvanshi king of Rewari[16]
- Veersen Ahir of Nasik[17]
- Ahir dynasty in pre-12th century areas in present-day Nepal[18]
- Chudasama dynasty of Junagadh:[19] The Chudasama kings of Junagadh Navaghana and Khengar described as Ahir Rana , Abhira Ranaka in Hemchandra's Dvyashraya and Merutunga's Prabandha-Chintamani, as their ancestors regained the throne with help of Ahirs.[20] However the Chudasama dynasty of Junagadh was a Rajput dynasty and they were nothing related to Ahir[21][22][23][24]
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Military involvements[edit]
The British rulers of India classified the Ahirs of Punjab as an "agricultural tribe" in the 1920s, which was at that time synonymous with being a "martial race".[25]They had been recruited into the army from 1898.[26] In that year, the British raised four Ahir companies, two of which were in the 95th Russell's Infantry.[27] The involvement of a company of Ahirs from 13 Kumaon Regiment in a last stand at Rezang La in 1962 during the Sino-Indian War has been celebrated by Indian Army & Govt. and in remembrance of their bravery the war point memorial has been named as Ahir Dham.[28][29]
During the 1965 India-Pakistan War, the 4 Kumaon Regiment, which is an Ahir company, played a key role. The Indian Army renamed Point 8667 to Yadav Hill in memory of the soldiers who were killed in capturing it from Pakistani forces.[30][31]
Karantikari Hinduism[edit]
The Ahirs have been one of the more Karantikari Hindu groups, including in the modern era. For example, in 1930, about 200 Ahirs marched towards the shrine of Trilochan and performed puja in response to Islamic tanzeem processions.[32]. It was from the 1920s that some Ahirs began to adopt the name of Yadav and various mahasabhas were founded by ideologues such as Rajit Singh. Several caste histories and periodicals to trace a Kshatriya origin were written at the time, notably by Mannanlal Abhimanyu. These were part of the jostling among various castes for socio-economic status and ritual under the Raj and they invoked support for a zealous, martial Hindu ethos.[
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