Avantis (Haihaya clan)

Avanti · avanti, “the people of Avanti”

Avantī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Avantī.

The Avantis are one of the famous clans in the line of the great Haihayas, of the line of Yadu. The Brahma Purāṇa names them among the Haihaya clans, and an old gāthā sung of King Āhuka tells that the Andhakas give their sister to the Avantis.

In the Haihaya line

The Sūta tells the munis that Kārtavīrya had a hundred sons, of whom five remained, strong, heroic, righteous and renowned: Śūrasena, Śūra, Vṛshaṇa, Madhupadhvaja and Jayadhvaja. Jayadhvaja ruled the Avantī country; his son was Tālajaṅgha, whose hundred sons were known as the Tālajaṅghas. In the line of the great Haihayas the famous clans are the Vītihotras, Suvratas, Bhojas, Avantis, Tauṇḍikeras, Tālajaṅghas, Bharatas, Sujātas and many others, too many to name.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13

In the gāthā of Āhuka

In the Kukura line, Abhijit had twin sons, Āhuka and Śrāhuka. About Āhuka the ancients cite a gāthā. It tells of Āhuka going first with a white retinue, wearing eighty suits of armour; that no one without sons, without a life of a hundred thousand years, of impure deeds or not a performer of yajña may stand in the following of the Bhoja king; of the Bhoja’s ten thousand elephants, ten thousand armoured men with banners and ten thousand chariots thundering like clouds; and that all the kings of the Bhoja line made the bowstring ring like a little bell. “And the Andhakas give their sister to the Avantis”: so runs the gāthā.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 15

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 15