Bhojas (Yādava Clan)

Bhoja

Bhoja has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhoja. Bhojas has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhojas.

The Bhojas are a clan of the Yādavas, born in the line of Babhru Devāvṛdha and famous as the Mārtikāvatas. With the Vṛshṇis and the Andhakas they form the three branches of the Vṛshṇi line, and Dvārakā was under the rule of Vasudeva and others of the Bhoja, Vṛshṇi and Andhaka clans. They are not the Bhojas of the Haihaya line.

The birth of Babhru Devāvṛdha

Devāvṛdha, a yajvan and a tapasvī, resolved to have a son rich in virtues and performed tapas, sipping the water of the river Parṇāśā. Because he always bathed in her, the river came to love him, and she resolved to be his wife herself; taking a form of great beauty, she chose the king, and he accepted her. In the tenth month she bore a son, Babhru Devāvṛdha, a treasure of every auspicious virtue, who made seven thousand and sixty-six men attain deathlessness. Babhru was a yajvan, a lord of gifts, wise, devoted to brāhmaṇas and firm of weapon. In his line arose the Bhojas, famous as the Mārtikāvatas.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 15

The gāthā of the Bhoja king

Of Āhuka of the Andhaka line the ancients cite a gāthā: with a white retinue Āhuka goes first, wearing eighty suits of armour. “One without sons, one without a life of a hundred thousand years, one of impure deeds, one who is not a yajvan, may not stand in the following of the Bhoja king.” The Bhoja had ten thousand elephants, ten thousand armoured men with banners and ten thousand chariots that thundered like clouds, and all the kings of the Bhoja line made the bowstring ring like a little bell: they were great warriors.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 15

Bhojas in the accounts

  • Śamīka, son of Śyāma, though born in the Bhoja vaṃśa, performed the rājasūya and had a son, Ajātaśatru. One who bears in mind the history of this three-branched vaṃśa of Vṛshṇi, Andhaka and Bhoja gains increase of his line and is freed from misfortune. (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 14)
  • In the account of the Syamantaka gem, Śatadhanvā of the Bhoja line killed Satrājit and took the gem. Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma pursued “that Bhoja”, who fled on his mare Hṛdaya, which could leap a hundred yojanas, and Hari killed him near Mithilā. (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 17)
  • When Raivata returned from Brahmā‘s presence, many yugas had passed, and his capital, Kuśasthalī, had become Dvārakā, the city of many gates, under the rule of Vasudeva and others of the Bhoja, Vṛshṇi and Andhaka clans. (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 7)

Sources

  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 7, 14–15, 17