Ahir

Ahir (from Sanskrit ābhira meaning "cowherd"), is an agricultural and warrior-pastoralists community of India and Nepal who call themselves Yadavs and the notion that Krishna was an Ahir was natural to poet Jayadeva who uses Ahir as an epithet of Krishna. The term Ahir is often seen as synonymous with Yadav, because these are two names of the same community. Krishna is pictured as a symbol of the Ahir clan. Yadav come from Yadu, son of king of yayati. Yadav are descendent of yadu, it's more like family name than a caste.

Ahir/Aheer
Rao Tej Singh Yadav, the Yaduvanshi Ahir ruler of Rewari Kingdom.
Religions	Hinduism
Country	India and Nepal

Origin

There are many theories regarding their origin. Most of them link the Ahirs to a people known to the ancients as the Abhiras, the term Ahir being a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit word Abhira, meaning cowherd, who were once found in different parts of India, and who in several places wielded political power.

The origin of the Ahirs is controversial, but there seems to be a consensus regarding the spread of the Ahirs to different parts of India and their political dominance there. Historian Bhagwan Singh Suryavanshi (1962) produces historical evidence to show that the Ahirs were an Indian tribe who settled in the south western Rajasthan and north eastern Sind in about the first century B.C. This was the earliest settlement called Ahiradesha (Abhiradesha). The inscriptions regarding the Abhira Era (about third and fourth centuries A.D.) are to be found on the west coast in Khandesh, Konkan and Gujarat, in middle India near Saugar and toward' east at Allahalbad and Jabbulpur.

The Allahabad Iron Pillar inscription of Samudragupta (fourth century A.D.) mentions the Ahirs as one of the tribal states of west and south west India, who paid homage to the emperor. A fourth century (A.D.) inscription found in Nasik speaks of an Ahir king, and there is proof that in the middle of the fourth century the Ahirs were settled in eastern Rajputana and Malwa. Similarly, when the Kathis arrived in Gujarat in the eighth century, they found the greater part of the country in the possession of the Ahirs. The Mirzapur District of the United Provinces has a tract known as Aharura, named after the Ahir, and near Jhansi, another piece of country was called Ahirwar.

The Ahirs were also kings of Nepal at the beginning of the Christian era. Khandesh and the Tapti valley were'other regions where they were kings. This indicates that the Ahirs, who rose to political prominance in the second century B.C., had a chequered political career until the fourteenth century A.D. when their importance was over shadowed by the Mughals, but even during the Mughal period the Ahir and Golla rajahs were a power to be reckoned with. The Gavlis rose to political power in Deogarh, on the Chhindwara plateau in t he Central Provinces. The Saugar traditions trace down the Gavli supremacy to a much later date, as the tracts of Etawa and Khurai are held to have been governed by the chieftains till the close of the seventeenth century.

According to Some authors, the Ahirs were of Aryan descent. They wielded political power in Khandesh, Magadh, Uttar Pradesh, Malwa, Bengal, Maharashtra and Kabul. The fact that they occupied the fertile plains suitable for cultivation, residence and cattle, shows that they had not only political power but a high social status.

It is noted that the legends of the cowherd Krishna and his dances with cowherdesses are mentioned in the Sangam classics. The term ayarpati (cowherd settlement) is found in Cilappatikaram. It is argued that the term Ayar has been used for the Abhiras in ancient Tamil literature, and V. Kanakasabha Pillai (1904) derives Abhira from the Tamil word Ayir, which also means cow. He equates the Ayars with Abhiras, and bhagwan Singh Suryavanshi treats this as evidence of migration of the Abhiras to the south in the first century A.D. Thus, linguistic evidence is used to support the argument that the Abhiras spread to different parts of India, and that they retained different but related cultural traditions. The most common denominator, as was pointed out earlier, was their descent from the Yadu dynasty and their association with cattle.

Parmanand (1959), Rajbali Pandeya (1968) and K. C. Yadav (1967) examining the historical evidence, also place the earliest settlement of the Ahirs in the Punjab, and their empire in western India. They also note that the Ahirs held political power in Saurashtra from ninth to fifteenth centuries a.d., in central India, Ahirwara, Khandesh (Yadava dynasty of Devagiri), Nagpur and Wardha, Gwalior. Saugar, Chattisgarh, Naugawan, Rewari, Rajasthan and Bundelkhand. In northern India, the Ahirs had kingdoms in Simhapur (Punjab) and west Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa (as Varmans), Haryana, and Nepal.

The Ahirs had established kingdoms at various points in history in different parts of India. Since the Ahirs were Abhiras, and the Ahirs were synonymous with Gopas, Gopalas and Gollas, and since all these were Yadavas, the Abhiras political power gave the Yadavas a sense of real historical pride in addition to the mythical-historical pride of being the descendants of Lord Krishna. The Yadavas often evoked this pride to drive home the responsibility placed on them in the sense of civilizational realm of thought (Marriott, 1968) not only to lift themselves up in the educational, economic and political fields but to also take up the leadership of all the backward classes, to fight for their cause: Krishna was the leader in Dwapara Tuga, and the Yadavas, his descendants should lead the society in this Kaliyuga'. The past acts as a guide to improve the present.

Ahirs as Yadavs

The term Ahir is often seen as synonymous with Yadav, because these are two names of the same community. In the 1881 census records of the British empire, the Yadavs are identified as Ahirs. The Mahabharata and other authori-tative works use the three terms-Ahir, Yadav and Gopa synonymous.

However, most books publiced as recently as 2001, 2005, propogates the dubious theories generated based on old new paper articles and court records, that present day Yadav caste is merely renamed Ahirs who switched their identity in 1922 to Yadav as part of Sanskritization movement of certain Hindu castes. The facts mentioned in the Ahir taken a false identitiy of Yadav is incorrect. And these false informations are propogated in recently publised books, which no authority in subject. The book contents are based on news paper articles and courts records, whose validities are as genuine as a lawyer's statement.

The British census in 1881, half century before any Sanskritization movement, the census mentions Yadavs as Ahirs. It says "The Yadavs, who in their turn are identified with the Ahirs and Gaolis, were the dominant race at that time.

Hemachandra, in the Dyashraya-Kavya, describe the Ahir King Graharipu, ruling at Vanthali near Junagadh, as an Ahir and a Yadav. Again, many remains of Khandesh (historical stronghold of Ahirs) are popularly believed to be of Gawli Raj, which archaeologically belongs to the Yadvas of Devgiri. Hence, it is concluded that Yadavs of Devagiri were actually Ahirs. This receives some support from the fact that Yaduvanshis even now are one of the most important sub-divisions of the Ahirs.

According to Historian T Padmaja, the Ahirs migrated to Tamil Nadu and established their kingdoms and in inscriptions these Ahirs mention they are from Yadav lineage.

Ahirs tradition

Ahir/Yadavs are traditionally warriors-cowherders and farmers. Formerly the Ahir/Yadavs had the exclusive right to milk cows. Their role with the sacred cows gave them special status.

Ancient Martial race

The Narayani Sena which the Krishna organised and which made him so powerful that his friendship was eagerly sought by the greatest kings of his time, is described in the Mahabharata as being all of the Ahir caste.

The British Rulers of India classified the Ahirs amongst the "martial races" It was a designation created by officials of British India to describe "races" that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities like courage, physical strength, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The Ahirs may be seen to have continued their warrior tradition by their extensive participation in the Indian Army and police forces. Since ancient time, as per Mahabharata, Ahirs have been warriors; some were agriculturists and farmers. Ahir’s have been serving the Indian military right from the British period and won the highest of gallantry awards like Victoria Cross and the Param Veer Chakra. In the annals of Indian military history there is sufficient proof of Ahir bravery that is immortalized in the ballads of Alha and Udal of Bundelkhand. In 1962, a company of 120 Ahir men laid down their lives fighting against the Chinese - the Commander, (Major) Shaitan Singh was posthu-mously awarded the Param Vir Chakra. Equally meritorious was the Ahirs' record in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 and the heroes of Chusol (Ladakh) are famous. The Ahirs, as a race, are mentioned in Mahabharat and by Ptolemy, as also their country Abhir. Krishna was an Ahir.

Diet

The Ahirs (Yadavs) are pure vegetarian. They do consume onion and garlic and their consumption of vegetable is moderate to high, depending upon the season and availability. Milk and milk products substitute the non-vegetarian food and supplement their daily food intake. They consume almost all varieties of cereals and pulses. Main items of their consumption are wheat, rice, arhar, tur, urad, peas and beans. Potatoes are grown on a large scale and are consumed as a staple support-dish for roti (wheat) and rice. Mustard oil is their main cooking medium supplemented by ghee which is also used as a cooking medium for certain dishes and on certain festive occasions, or when mustard oil consumption is prohibited. They use all locally available seasonal roots, tubers, and fruits. They take only alcoholic drinks and their favourite drinks are milk, tea and buttermilk. They have not changed their food habits even with the changing times.