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Thread: Varik or Virk- yashodharman etc

  1. #1

    Varik or Virk- yashodharman etc

    I am starting a sub thread for this


    There is some confusion about the term Virk, and Variika.

    In this case it comes from reference t an inscription of 372 CE, (n 428 Vikram samvat) in which Vishnuvardhan, is designated as a Varik or Varika.

    The exact quote, from the CII of J F Fleet, is


    Bijayagadh Stone Pillar Inscription of Vishnuvardhana
    ________________________________________
    Perfection has been attained! Four centuries of years, together with the twenty-eighth (year), (or in figures) 400 (ana) 20 (ana) 8, having been accomplished; on the fifteenth lunar day of the dark fortnight of (the month) Phâlguna;-on this (lunar day), (specified) as aforesaid: -
    (Line 3.)-On the ceremony of the pundarîka-sacrifice (having been performed), this sacrificial post has been caused to be set .up by the Varika, the illustrious Vishnuvarhana whose royalty and name are well established,-who is the excellent son of Yashôvardhana; (and) the excellent son’s son of Yashôrâta; (and) the excellent son of the son’s son of Vyâghrarâta, - for the purpose of increasing (his) splendour, sacrifices, religion, welfare (in the other world), prosperity, fame, family, lineage, good fortune, and enjoyment.
    (L. 4.)-Let there be success! Let there be increase! Let there be tranquillity! Let there be the condition of (his) having a son who shall live! Let there be the attainment of desires that are wished for! May there be faith and wealth!
    ________________________________________
    From: Fleet, John F. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: Inscriptions of the Early Guptas. Vol. III. Calcutta: Government of India, Central Publications Branch, 1888, 254.






    How should we interpret this term- Should we take it to read as a Title or should we read it as a clan name.?

    Some Scholars, D D Kosambhi, see Varika as a Tribe. The authors of the Imperial Gazeteers also see Varik as a Tribe.

    Some other scholars who have looked at this term, generally take it to be a clan name- Virk. The Jat historians Desraj 1934, Joon 1938, Dahiya 1982, see Varik(a) as a variation of Virk.

    Some scholars see the term to mean- official, manager, superintendent, Barber( Nai).

    To obtain an understadinhg we need to examine the meanings of “ Varik(a)” as it is used in various contexts.

    Fortunately today there is plenty of material available on the internet, and we are able ot go to original sources, as well to the actual scholarly works.


    Let us see what they all have to say.

  2. #2
    Let us examine Kosambi's book , URL below, for the electronic version initially for the term Varika.

    " D. D. KOSAMBI " ON HISTORY AND SOCIETY,PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION `
    DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY, BOMBAY"
    http://www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/ddkbomuniv.pdf

    Here are the seven instances where Varika is referred to in Kosambi's book. Readers can verify this quote easily, using the search function.

    EXTRACTS:
    1) The Varika king Visnuvnandin( should be Vishnuvardhan) (F 59) set up a sacrificial post in Malava samvat 428 =
    A.D. 372-3 on which three royal ancestors in the direct line are given.

    2) 13). All guilds are exempt from the khova(l) gift.-14). Royal perquisites
    (generally in kind) are to be given to members of the royal household, or to
    authorized officials, not to others. 15). Deposits (nyasaka, of royal dues?) are not to be made with the guild- alderman (varika).

    3) 16). A merchant come upon legitimate business from a
    foreign district is not to be apprehended, merely because he is suspect as
    a foreigner (of encroaching upon local privilege; c/. no. 52).

    The term varika implies holding the office in rotation, perhaps from day to
    day, presumably so that all the leading families might share the prestige and
    the responsibility by turns.

    4) 27). The shopping-quarter (petavikct) guild-alderman (varika) is to publish the roll of
    (fixed) prices every five days; for failure to publish,

    The guild-aldermen (varika) from the leading families (uttara-kulika) are not allowed to go forth (from the district) if the authorized stock-list should be lost.

    5) 47). At the royal storehouse, the distillery-varika has no obligation to do any work beyond measuring out and delivery of the measure (due to the king) by 1A soti
    pots.

    6) 71). The tailor, weaver, shoemaker are (in lieu of taxes or corvee) to supply
    the royal household, each according to the nature of his work, at half the rates
    prevalent over the countryside. 72). The blacksmith, sawyer, barber, potter,
    and the like are to be put to corvee labour by the (respective) varika (in
    lieu of taxes).


    Ravi Chaudhary

  3. #3

    Comments on Kosambi

    Tellingly, even Kosambi, refers to Visnunandin as the " Varika" king, i.e. of the Varikas.

    He does not refer to him, as holding simply a Title.

    Later down he appears to interpret Varika as possibly a title( rotating), but does not indicate the Vishnuvardhan (Visnunandin) was holding a rotating title.

    The other clue, which escapes Kosambi, is that the 'Varika' is referred to as being from an " Uttar- Kulin" see # 4 below.

    Uttar is read by Kosambi as "Leading" though a more straight forward reading would be Uttar(a) = Northern, indicating that the Virks came from the North, and that they held the leading positions in society and extracted the dues and taxes from the populace.

    Kosambi is however too tied up in his efforts to see Indian society only through casteist lens. His efforts were only to reconcile that slanted view with a Marxist view, and accordingly he fails, for he has no knowledge of the situation of the society on the ground.

    In his extensive book of some 450 pages, he does not note the existence of the Jats even once.

    His books was published in 1965.

    Quanango's, Desraj's books were well known by 1940. Jadu Nath Sarkar had also written extensively on the Jats before then.
    Last edited by ravichaudhary; September 30th, 2009 at 11:45 PM. Reason: minor

  4. #4

    Varik per Imperial Gazetteer

    Here is what the authors of the Gazette thought!


    http://www.archive.org/stream/imperi...igoog_djvu.txt

    THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA


    VOL. VII


    BAREILLY to BERASIA



    NEW EDITION

    PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF HIS MAJESTY'S
    SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL



    OXFORD
    AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

    1908




    HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

    PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

    LONDON, EDINBURGH

    NEW YORK AND TORONTO


    Bayana. — Head-quarters of a tahsil of the same name in the State
    of Bharatpur, Rajputana, situated in 26° 55' N. and 77° 18' E., close
    to the left bank of the Gambhlr river, a tributary of the Banganga,
    and about 25 miles south-by-south-west of Bharatpur city. Population
    (1901), 6,867. The town contains a vernacular school, attended by
    150 boys, and a hospital. The ancient name of the place was Sripatha.
    Two old Hindu temples were, till recently, used by the Musalmans as
    mosques, and each has a Sanskrit inscription. One of them, bearing
    date A.D. 1043, mentions a Jadon Raja, Bijai Pal, to whom is unani-
    mously attributed the building of the well-known fort of Bijaigarh,
    which is situated on an eminence about 2 miles to the south-west, and
    is shown in all maps under the name of Badalgarh Kot. There are
    several old temples and remains in this fort ; but the chief object of
    interest is a red sandstone pillar (Lat ) bearing an inscription of the
    Varika king, Vishnuvardhana, a tributary of Samudra Gupta, dated in
    A.D. 372. Bijai Pal, whose descendants rule at Karauli, is said to have
    been killed about the middle of the eleventh century in a battle with
    Masud Salar, a nephew of Mahmud of Ghazni, when the fort was taken.
    It was soon after recovered by the Rajputs, only, however, to be again
    stormed successfully by Abu Bakr, Kandahari, whose tomb is still
    pointed out in the vicinity. Thenceforward, it seems to have been
    held by whatever dynasty ruled at Delhi. Muhammad Ghori took
    it in 1 196 and Sikandar LodI in 1492. Babar, writing in 1526,
    describes the fort as one of the most famous in India, and his son
    Humayun took it from the Lodls in 1535. Bayana is mentioned in the
    Ain-i'Akbafi as having in former times been the capital of a province
    of which Agra was but a dependent village. It possessed a large
    fort containing many buildings and subterranean caverns, also a very
    high tower. The mangoes, some of which weighed above 2 lb., were
    excellent, and the place was famous for its very white sugar and its
    indigo, the latter selling at from Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 a maund*.

    [Indian Antiquary^ vols, xiv and xv ; J. F. Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions^

    P- 2S3-]
    Last edited by ravichaudhary; October 1st, 2009 at 01:21 AM.

  5. #5

    Varik per Advanced HItsory of India

    Advanced History of India- P T S Iyengar,


    http://ia331320.us.archive.org/3/ite...o035045mbp.pdf


    Besides the asvamedha which till the end of the IV century A-D.. was celebrated only by monarchs with claims to be overlords of pettier monarchs, other ya/ntfs were being performed in this age.

    Thus one Visnuvarddhana of the Varika tribe, which along with the Yaudheya tribe lived in RsjaputanS, whose ancestors were in ascending order Yasovardhana, Yasorata and Vyaghrarata on becoming a Raja, in the year 372 A-D , performed a pundaika yajna and on its completion erected a yupa (sacrificial pillar) on the spot [2]
    Last edited by ravichaudhary; October 1st, 2009 at 01:19 AM.

  6. #6
    S P Tewari’s paper on Varika.

    Varika

    “ The word varika is somehow a curious one which finds
    mention in some of the inscriptions also. 4 The ambiguity of the
    term is such that it has baffled even eminent epigraphists like
    Sircar more than once….. “



    http://www.archive.org/stream/contri...auoft_djvu.txt

    CONTRIBUTIONS OF SANSKRIT - ISCRIPTIONS TO LEXICOGRAPHY
    S.P. TEWARI

    Allahabad Museum, Allahabad


    1987

    AGAM KALA PRAKASHAN
    DELHI-110052
    First Published 1987
    SHITALA PRASAD TEWARI (b. 1944)

    Pages 208: note on :R]



    VARIKA


    The job of fetching water and that of household bearers even
    in modern times in the North is done by a class of people known
    as bans. They are invariably referred to along with the barbers as
    ‘nau-barr. In the survey of the native races of India, these people
    called bans are said to be the household servants of the kings
    having a reputation of great fidelity to their employers. In the
    same report, it is also mentioned that on occasions, these people
    were also employed as torch- bearers or sometimes even as barbers
    and they did almost all sorts of household jobs. 1 The authenti-
    city of the report of the survey mentioning bans as a class of
    barber is also borne out by the Desinama-mala of Hemachandra
    who refers to the name of a caste known as Varia. 2 The Sanskrit
    commentary on the same explains both vachchhiutta and varia as
    napita, i.e., barber. 3 In our opinion, the presently known bans
    and the varia must be the same. The word varia in its turn, on
    the other hand, might be the corrupt form of the Sanskrit word
    varika.


    The word varika is somehow a curious one which finds
    mention in some of the inscriptions also. 4 The ambiguity of the
    term is such that it has baffled even eminent epigraphists like
    Sircar more than once. With reference to the phrase, “Varikasya
    haste nyasako na sthapamyah” , he says once that the word varika


    Appendix I

    Pp 209

    apparently indicates a royal officer. 5 He makes the same identifi-
    cation again, this time adding the word “possibly” while explain-
    ing pltavika-varikina and uttarakulika-varikaih* ignoring the
    contexts altogether. Again, while editing the same record in the
    pages of Epigraphia Indica, it seems to him that the word varika
    indicates a class of officials. Without any authority whatsoever,
    he compares them with Gujarati var’edar or tax-gatherers, whereas
    varedar or vahredar is nothing but a contracted form of paharedar
    who is a watchman. 7 Further, with reference to dlva-varika, he
    makes them a superintendent of a temple and next as a superinten-
    dent of the gandhakuti.* Our simple impression is that Sircar
    could not make the term clear and he has jumped from a class of
    official to tax gatherer and then to a superintendent. His
    references to Brihaspati-smriti and the Rajatarangini, with all
    regards to him, hardly succeed in bringing the point home.
    In the Brihaspati-smriti, no doubt, vdrikas are mentioned
    along with the Chaturvaidya-vanik and others but all with the
    instruction of the king to take care of the plantation and the up-
    keep of the trees standing on the boundaries of the villages. 9 In
    this case the job of a varika would have been simply to give water
    (vari) to the plants.


    In the same way, the kataka-varika of the Rajatarangini
    also seems to be the person whose duty was to supply water to
    the army. Even the errand on which the kataka varika of the
    Rajatarangini was sent suits our interpretation better.
    Varikas, mentioned in the legends of the Nalanda seals,
    though not explained by Shastri, also seem to be the monks whose
    responsibility in the commune of the monastery was to look after


    “raja kshetram datva chaturvaidya vanig-varika svdmipurush-
    adhishthitam” etc.
    (Brihaspati, G.O.S. ed., p. 159).
    10. Raja., VI. 345. “ Tesham-madhye vasan-gudham-Adity-akhyah palayitah.
    Hato Vigraha rajasva prfyah kataka-varikah” .

    Pp 210 Contributions of Sanskrit Inscriptions to Lexicography


    the water supply. 11 In the monastic set-up where there was no
    distinction of caste or creed involved, the assignment of the duties
    of a varika to a monk may have had a direct relevance to the
    degree or level of that monk’s spiritual attainments.

    This rather short note on varika leads us to conclude as
    follows :

    1. In all probability, the word varika is an abbreviated form
    of vari-vahaka which yields the sense of a water fetcher.
    Its formation may be the same as bhara-vahas-tu-
    bharikah. 12

    2. The references to varika in the Brihaspati-smriti and the
    Rajatarangini are also made in the same sense.

    3. The varias referred to by Hemachandra should also be
    the same as varikas.

    4. Their close association with the community of barbers
    is mainly based on the similarities in their profession of
    attending to the bath of the king. This is also borne out
    by evidence from the Jatakas. 13

    5. In all probability the varikas are the same as those who
    are known presently as baris and are frequently referred
    to as nau-barl.

    6. In the light of the above, the varikas of the insciiptions
    should also be taken as the household attendants of the
    kings whose main duty was to fetch water and attend to
    the bath of the king. Being close to their masters as they
    were, they would have also been looking after his
    personal belongings including the gifts received from
    visitors.

    11. Shastri, H., Nalanda and its Epigraphic Material M. A.S.I., No. 66,
    p. 38.5.1. 675, PI. Ill a; reads as “Sri Nalanda, Baladitya gandhakudya-
    varika-bhikshtlnam”, see also S.I. 919, 9?8ff.

    12. Agrawal, V.S., Harshacharita Ek Samskritik Adhyayan, Patna, 1964,
    p. 164, has mistaken even bharika as varika which is not correct.

    13. For references see “nahapako va nahapakantevasi va”, (Jataka, 1.342);
    “hinajachcho mala maijano nahopita puttd”, (J. 11.452, III. 453), etc.

    Appendix I

    Pp 211

    7. An old and experienced varika would have also been able
    to misappropriate some gift items and thus earned the
    displeasure of his master; this in turn leading to the
    proclamation that from now onwards no gift should be
    placed in the hands of varikas :

    “varikasya hasll nyasako na sthapamyah” .

  7. #7
    For completeness, the term Varika has also been discussed by Jonathan Silk in his book.

    Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist ...
    By Jonathan A. Silk


    http://books.google.com/books?id=xtj...ddhist&f=false

    Silks finds many references in Buddhist works.

    Readers may wish to get an idea from the book, on URL above

    Ravi Chaudhary

  8. #8

    Varika or Virk-Yashodharman

    Varika or Virk-Yashodharman

    Ravi Ji,
    I must compliment you for digging out a mine of information on Varika. My hunch is that Vishnuvardhana qas not a king. Had he he been one we expected him to use some honorifics if not (out of modesty ) about himself, at least about his father or grandfather. He must have performed the Shrauta (Vedic) sacrifice named PundarIka in his private capacity in line with the general practice among householders. He was a distinguished person in the kingdom around the area of Bayana. This area was the habitat of the Yadheyas. TheAllahabad Pillar inscription (of roughly the same date as that of the Vijaygarh inscription) enumerates the Yaudheyas among the republican tribes who accepted the suzreinty of Samudra Gupta. As regards S.P Tiwari's research on the term Varika I have only one
    small problem (though not unsurmountable, viz. the spelling in Tiwari's references is VArika(though he does not specify it), whereas VV was a Varika. The Roman version puts both the terms at par. We can reconcile by suggesting the the long 'A' came to be pronounced variously including the with short 'a'.

  9. #9
    Dear Ranaji

    No credit to me.

    With improved technology, we now have a lot of material being digitalized, and available through the internet.

    This helps researchers and lay people like me alike.

    Vishnuvardhana. He is not central to this discussion. We can look at where he fits in later.


    Here let us simply look at the Virk/ Varik question.

    Can Varik denote a tribe/ clan name?

    Can Varik be a vraition of Vairk?

    If you could reflect upon this, it would be most helpful

    Ravi

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