Battle of the Ten Kings
The Battle of the Ten Kings (Sanskrit: दाशराज्ञ युद्ध, romanized: Dāśarājñá yuddhá) is a battle, first alluded to in the 7th Mandala of the Rigveda (RV), between a Bharata king and a confederation of tribes. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Bharatas and subsequent formation of the Kuru polity.
| Battle of the Ten Kings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Trtsu-Bharata (Indo-Aryan) |
Alina Anu Bhrigus (Indo-Aryan) Bhalanas Dasa (Dahae?) Druhyus (Gandharis) Matsya (Indo-Aryan) Purus (Indo-Aryan) Panis (Parni) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
King Sudas Vashishta |
The Ten Kings Vishvamitra[1] | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown but less | More than 6,666 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown but less | 6,666 (Mandala 7) | ||||||||
Background
In Book 3, the Bharatas are noted to have crossed Beas and Sutlej, in their progress towards Kurukshetra where they came across a nascent (and temporary) inter-tribal alliance.[2] This led to the battle, which is described in the 18th hymn (verses 5-21) of Book 7; the exact motivations are doubtful — Michael Witzel argues that it might have been a product of intratribal resentment or intrigues of an ousted family-priest[lower-alpha 1] while Ranabir Chakravarti argues that the battle was probably fought for controlling the rivers, which were a lifeline for irrigation.[2][4][5][3] The hymns also mention of the tribes seeking to steal cows from the Bharatas.[3]
Battle
Hanns-Peter Schmidt, whom Witzel deems to have produced the most "detailed, and ingenious reinterpretation" of the hymns, locates a unique poetic moment across the RV corpus, in their extraordinarily abundant usage of sarcastic allusions, similes and puns to mock the tribal alliance.[2][5][6] Some of those allusions seem to be heavily context-specific and (still) remain unrecognized; there exist considerable disputes about interpretations of particular words, in light of the employed figures of speech and other poetic devices.[5][3]
First phase
The first phase of the battle took place on the banks of the river Ravi (then Parusni) near Manusa, west of Kurukshetra.[2][7] The Bharata King and their priest are respectively mentioned as Sudas Paijavana and Vasistha, in the Rig Veda; however the names change in Samaveda and Yajurveda Samhitas.[2] The principal antagonist is doubtful[lower-alpha 2] and names of the participating tribes are difficult to retrieve, in light of the phonological deformations of their names.[2][5][3] Plausible belligerents of the tribal union include (in order) — Purus (erstwhile master-tribe of Bharatas), Yadu (probably commanded by Turvasa), Yaksu (relatively unimportant or a pun for Yadu), Matsyas, Druhyus, Pakthas, Bhalanas, Alinas, Vishanins, Sivas, Vaikarna, and Anu.[2][5]
Though seemingly an unequal battle, going by the numbers (this aspect is highlighted multiple times in the hymns), Sudas decisively won against the tribal alliance by strategic breaching of a dyke on the river thereby drowning most (?) of the opponents.[2][6] This sudden change in fortunes is attributed to the benevolence and strategizing of Indra, the patron-God of Bharatas, whose blessings were secured by Vasistha's poetics.[2][3]
Second phase
Thereafter, the battleground (probably) shifted to the banks of river Yamuna, wherein the local chieftain Bhida was defeated along with three other tribes — Ajas, Śighras, and the Yakṣus.[2][3]
Aftermath
The Battle of the Ten Kings led Bharatas to occupy the entire Puru territory (Western Punjab) centered around Sarasvati River and complete their east-ward migration.[2] Sudas celebrated his victory with the Ashvamedha ritual to commemorate the establishment of a realm, free of enemies from the north, east, and west. He still had enemies in the Khāṇḍava Forest to the south, which was inhabited by the despised non-Indo-Aryan Kikatas.[2]
A political realignment between Purus and Bharatas probably followed soon enough and might have included other factions of the tribal union as well; this is exhibited from how the core collection of RV prominently features clan-hymns of both the sides.[9][2]
Historicity
Numerous translators since the 1800s including K. F. Geldner have considered the battle as a historical event, based on the narration-characteristics of the verses.[5] Witzel dates the battle between approximately 1450 and 1300 BCE; he deems the concerned hymns to be late interpolations.[10] Stephanie W. Jamison warns against using it as a major source to reconstruct history since the description of the battle is "anything but clear."[3][7]
Both Witzel and Jamison find the very next hymn (7.19, verse 3) to show a striking shift of allegiance with Indra helping Sudas as well the Purus, who won land.[2][3]
Possible Prototype for the Mahabharata War
Witzel notes this battle to be the probable archetype/prototype of the Kurukshetra War, narrated in the Mahabharata.[11] John Brockington takes a similar approach.[12] S. S. N. Murthy goes to the extent of proposing the battle as the very "nucleus" of the Kurukshetra War; Walter Ruben adopts a similar stance.[13][14] However, Witzel maintains the nucleus text of the Mahabharata to be in description of some event in the Late Vedic spans; it was since reshaped (and expanded) over centuries of transmission and recreation to (probably) reflect the Battle of the Ten Kings.[2] Alf Hiltebeitel rejects Witzel's and Brockington's arguments as "baffling fancy" and notes a complete lack of means to connect the battle with the "fratricidal struggle" of the Mahabharata.[15][12]
Legacy
Stephanie W. Jamison notes it to be the most famous historical conflict in RV—in that, it secured the dominance of Bharatas over Vedic tribes—, as does Witzel.[3][6]
The territory would eventually become the first South-Asian "state" under the Kuru tribe in post-RV span and serve as the heart-land of Brahminical culture.[2][9] The Purus went on to survive as a marginal power in Punjab; Witzel and some other scholars believe Porus (c. early 300 BC) to be a king from the same tribe.[2][9]
Notes
- Book 3 was composed by Vishwamitra, the family priest of the Bharatas and makes no mention of the battle. Book 7 was composed by Vasistha, who replaced Vishwamitra. However, Jamison rejects that there exists any evidence of Vasistha-Vishwamitra feud in RV.[3]
- Karl Friedrich Geldner deemed it to be Bheda, incorrectly. Witzel proposes Trasadasyu. Palihawadana proposes Purukutsa, Trasadasyu's father.[8]
References
Citations
- Witzel, Michael (1997). "The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools: The Social and Political Milieu" (PDF). Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora. 2: 264.
- Witzel, Michael (1995). "4. Early Indian history: Linguistic and textual parametres". In Erdosy, George (ed.). The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. Indian Philology and South Asian Studies. De Gruyter. pp. 85–125. doi:10.1515/9783110816433-009. ISBN 978-3-11-081643-3. S2CID 238465491.
- Brereton, Joel P.; Jamison, Stephanie W., eds. (2014). The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. Vol. I. Oxford University Press. pp. 880, 902–905, 923–925, 1015–1016. ISBN 9780199370184.
- Sinha, Kanad (2015). "PROFESSOR V.K. THAKUR MEMORIAL PRIZED PAPER: WHEN THE BHŪPATI SOUGHT THE GOPATI'S WEALTH: LOCATING THE "MAHĀBHĀRATA ECONOMY". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 76: 67–68. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44156566.
- Schmidt, Hans-Peter (March 1980). "Notes on Rgveda 7.18.5–10". Indica. 17: 41–47. ISSN 0019-686X.
- Stuhrmann, Rainer (11 October 2016). "Die Zehnkönigsschlacht am Ravifluß". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies (in German). 23 (1): 1–61. doi:10.11588/ejvs.2016.1.933. ISSN 1084-7561.
- Brereton, Joel P.; Jamison, Stephanie W., eds. (2020). The Rigveda: A Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 9780190633363.
- Palihawadana, Mahinda (2017). Mumm, Peter-Arnold; West, Tina (eds.). "The Indra Cult as Ideology A Clue to Power Struggle in an Ancient Society". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 24 (2): 51.
- Witzel, Michael (1997). "The development of the Vedic canon and its schools: the social and political milieu". crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de: 263, 267, 320. doi:10.11588/xarep.00000110. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Witzel, Michael (2000). "The Languages of Harappa: Early Linguistic Data and the Indus civilization": 37. doi:10.11588/xarep.00000120.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Witzel, Michael (1997). "Early Sanskritization Origins and Development of the Kuru State". In Kölver, Bernhard (ed.). Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien / The State, the Law, and Administration in Classical India. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. doi:10.1524/9783486594355-005 (inactive 28 February 2022). ISBN 978-3-486-59435-5.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2022 (link) - Hiltebeitel, Alf (30 October 2001). "Introduction". Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. University of Chicago Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-226-34054-8.
- Murthy, S. S. N. (8 September 2016). "The Questionable Historicity of the Mahabharata". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 10 (5): 1–15. doi:10.11588/ejvs.2003.5.782. ISSN 1084-7561. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- Ruben, Walter (1977). "KṚṢṆA, PARIS, AND SEVEN SIMILAR HEROES". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 58/59: 299. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41691699.
- Hiltebeitel, Alf (1 June 2000). "John Brockington, The Sanskrit Epics". Indo-Iranian Journal. 43 (2): 162. doi:10.1023/A:1003953706398. ISSN 1572-8536. S2CID 189772160.