YADAVA, descendants of Yadu, the eldest son of Yayat and Devayiud, a unlade pastoral race of ancient India. The date of their arrival in India is unknown. At the time of Krishna's birth they were in the neighbourhood of Mathura, now called Muttra, a town on the banks of the river Jwnna, and about 120 miles south of the site of the ancient city of Hastinapur. They dwelt on both sides of the river, on the western bank in the village of Vrindavana, and in the Gokula country on the opposite shore. They afterwards migrated to Dwaraka, on the western coast of the peninsula of Gujerat. Krishna belonged to this tribe, and he induced them to abandon the worship of Indra, and substitute the mountain Govardhana. Violence and disorder prevailed wherever the Yadava settled. Nearly all the tribe was destroyed at Prabhasa during a drunken affray, and others perished in Dwaraka when it was overwhelmed by a tidal wave.
Some of their branches.have taken a prominent part in the history of Central Asia, ha the valley of the Indus, in the. countries now styled tbe Panjab, Rajputana, and Sind, known in ancient times as the Gete, the Yuti, and now represented by the Jat,.Jut, Jet, or J'hut, and by the Yadu Bhatti of Jeysulmir, all dwelling along the valley of the Indus and to the east in Rajputana. A multiplicity of scattered facts and geographical distinctions warrant the belief that the Yadava race had dominion in Central Asia, and were again, as other races advanced, repelled upon India. Budh was an ancestor of a branch of the great Hindu people of a time prior to authentic history. He is traced up to Brahma, from whom he descends through Atri, Samudra, Chandra or Soma, and Vrihaspati. Budh is said to have married Ila, daughter of Ikshwaku, with whom, therefore, he was a contemporary, and the descend ants of this union were, in succession, Pururava, Ayu or Yaou, Nohas or Nohus, and Yayat. Ayu or Yaou is claimed by the Tartar and Chinese genealogists as their great progenitor ; from Yayat sprang three great lines, the Yadu, Puru, and Ura or Urvasa, from each of whom came many dynasties ruling on the Indus, in Hindustan, Assarn Ava, and China. The great Hya was a branch' of the Yadu ; and five members of it formed Panchalika or Panchaldesa, and the seed of Bajaswa at one time occupied all the countries on the Indus. Of the three lines, the Yadu, Puru,
and. Ura, the Yadu became the most illustrious. The descendants of Budh• and Ila were known as the Chandravansa, Somavansa, or Induvansa, of these terms meaning the Lunar race ; but the fame of the Ya.du eclipsed the prior designations, aud throughout India the Lunar race came to be styled Yaduvansa. The Yadu held territories in Hindustan about Allahabad, but seemingly in small republican states, some of which were staked and lost at play. The relatives then fonght for domimion, for 18 days, on the field of Kuru Khet. There was no battle of armies, but a series of single combats, with treacherous, cruel surprises, during which nearly all of the Yadu fell, and at the close, of those remaining, several, amongst whom Krishna was one, emigrated. The story is told in the Maliabharata. After the com bats, the Yadu seem to have left the Ganges, to have been expelled from Dwaraka, to have crossed the Indus, passed Zabulisthan and founded Ghazni and Samarcand, but to liave swept back on the Indus into Gujerat and the Indian desert, from which they expelled the Langaha, Johya, Mohila, etc., and founded successfully Tannote, Derrawul, and Jeysulmir, in S. 1212, the present capital of the Bhatti, the lineal successors of Krishna. They are now known as the Bhatti of Jeysulmir, the Jharijah of Cutch Bhooj, the tribes occupying Kerrowlee and Subbulgh ur on the Cham bal, and the Sumaitcha on the Chambal. The great Tuar ° tribe are also said to have been of Yadu orioin. The Bhatti and Jharijah trace their descent erom Budh and Krishna, and they may be said to occupy the Indian desert frorn the Sutlej to the ocean. Budh seems to have been a descend ant of the first man, Brahma, and to have been the first emigrant from Sakadwipa or Scythia, into Hindustan, viz. about B.C. 2400. Between Budh and Krishmi, was a period of 1200 years. But Budh was deified by his descendants ; and in Hindu mythology he is described as of Lunar origin, the son of Soma or Chandra or Indu, the moon, by'Rohini. The date of the apotheosis of Budh is not known.