Yaudheya

A corporation in arms

Pāṇini lists the Yaudheyas among the groups whose livelihood is the profession of arms, and their coins bear it out. Copper issues in very large numbers, found across Haryana, the eastern Punjab and northern Rajasthan, carry the legend of victory to the Yaudheya corporation rather than the name of any king. Some issues add the phrase for the leader appointed by the corporation, which is as close as the record comes to describing their constitution.

The commonest reverse type is Kārttikeya, the war god, standing with a spear and attended by a peacock. A deity of war on the coinage of a people who defined themselves by arms is consistent throughout.

Against the empires

The Junagadh rock inscription of the Śaka ruler Rudradāman, dated 150 CE, names the Yaudheyas as proud of the title of heroes among the kṣatriyas and difficult to subdue, and claims to have rooted them out by force. That an imperial inscription should single out a republic for this kind of notice is itself a measure of their standing.

Two centuries later the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta lists the Yaudheyas among the frontier peoples who paid tribute and obeyed his commands. Their coinage continues after this, in what appears to be a subordinate status, and ends in the Gupta period.

A seal found at Naurangabad naming the Yaudheya gaṇa, and the density of their coin finds around Rohtak, have led to that area being treated as their centre, though no capital is named in any source.