Refutation of the widely spread misinformation accusing 'Prabodhankar' Keshav Sitaram Thackeray of claiming origin from Bihar.
For a long time we have been observing an often repeated propaganda against the CKP community, especially the clan of Thakre (Anglicized to Thackeray) within it, where they have been accused of being medieval or pre-medieval migrants from the state of Bihar, called as Janapada of Magadha in older times.
This lie was first propagated by the Madhya Pradeshi politician Digvijay Singh. He along with certain media houses loyal to his political party spread this lie on the basis of a deliberately done misinterpretation of the Thakre family history record, as reported and cited by Prabodhankar Thackeray in his Marathi work Grammanyacha Itihas.
Apart from him the other people engaging in such defamation happen to be some politically motivated Maharashtrians who oppose the Thackerays for political reasons, Muslims, Ambedkarites as well as many Biharis and other North Indians including the Chitraguptiya Lalas (also called 'Kayastha') of Bihar notorious for annoyingly appropriating the ancestry of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus.
Anyway... now we shall look into the recorded folk history as reported by Prabodhankar Thackeray whose work is primarily misused for denigrating his family, clan and caste.
'Thakre' is one of the 26 clans (with the 40 houses within it) of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community which like most other clans traces it's descent to the legendary Yadu-Haiheya King Kartivirya Arjuna's grandson Chandrasena, son of Virasena (Vitihotra). King Nala (of Nala-Damyanti fame) is said to belong to this same family of Virasena. Hence by Prabhu folk traditions and Brahmanical traditions, CKPs are considered to be Kshatriyas of the "Lunar race" (Chandravansha).
The first line is the only time when the word Magadha has been used in the works of Prabodhankar Thackeray! The word Bihar has anyway not been used anywhere though.
The line says that the King of Magadha named Mahapadmanand was extremely greedy and atrocious. Inspite of being of Kshatriya origin he himself used to persecute Kshatriyas... this is all that is written with regards to the word Magadha.
Now as we all see the word used is "Magadha Deshacha Raja". Nowhere has it been mentioned that CKPs were living in Magadha Janapada! To be clear enough.. Magadha Desha/Rajya/Samrajya and Magadha Janapada were not the same thing.
Desh in traditional Marathi literary language could mean anything from a small district to a large Empire. Janapada on the other hand was a fixed territory.
There were four major Magadha Empires in history- first the Nanda Empire, followed by Mauryan Empire and Shunga Empire and fourth, Gupta Empire.
This is the extent of the Nanda Empire under King Mahapadmanand! This map is based on the coins and artefacts discovered from the said period. All the people living in this territory were automatically 'prajaa' or subjects of Mahapadmanand. So "the king of Magadha country Mahapadmanand persecuted CKPs" doesn't necessarily mean that CKPs resided in Magadha Janapada (today, the state of Bihar) themselves. They could be in any part of the Nanda dynasty's "Magadha Empire" mapped above.
But where were CKPs exactly? The answer lies in the same book of Prabodhankar Thackeray and it's source- the various family historical traditions of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus!
This is an extract from exactly the same book. Here Thackeray states the tradition of CKPs to arrive from the Chandrabhaga or "Chenab river Valley" of Punjab-Kashmir region to Deccan via Ayodhya and Malwa.
Nowhere is Magadha Janapada or Bihar states anywhere in this traditionally recorded migration route!
From a rational historical point of view this happens to be our historically recorded history. But from a traditional and pre-historic pov, even the CKPs in Kashmir were originally migrants from Ujjain and Ayodhya who migrated during "Dwapar Yuga" to Kashmir.
The Kashmiri-origin is post-Buddha part of CKP tradition. The pre-Buddha part of tradition states that even though dozens of generations resided along the banks of river Chenab in Northwest India, the original place of residence of these Kashmiri Kayastha Prabhus was Ujjain in Central India- a stronghold of the Kshatriya tribe of the Haiheya.
As shown above, the Shiva Purana (Section 4, Kotirudra Samhita, Chapter 17- Jyotirlinga Mahakaal Mahatmya) mentions the Haiheya Prabhu (lord/king) and direct ancestor of the Kshatriya tribe of the Chandraseniyas.
This is coherent with the Rajataringini by Kalhana Prabhu which states that the Kayasthas (Prabhus) arrived in Kashmir from Central India. The Karkota dynasty founded by King Durlabhvardhana Prabhu and to which his grandson Emperor Lalitaditya Muktapida belonged were of the same tribe of Kayastha Prabhus.
The Mahabharata and various subsequent Puranas mention Karkotaka Naga to be the ruler of Mahishmati- at the banks of river Narmada. Kartivirya Arjuna is said to have defeated Karkotaka Naga and conquered Mahishmati for himself! Karkotaka Naga was a dragon-deity widely worshipped in Kashmir as well and has been mentioned as the 'extra-marital' progenitor of the CKP King Durlabhvardhana.
The inscriptions of other CKP royal dynasties like that of the Haiheyas of Palnad and Kayastha Prabhu dynasty match these origin myths, which reflect that these were established traditions of the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community.
— SKA
Sources:
1.) Gramanyacha Saddyant Itihas, Prabodhankar Thackeray Samagra Vangmay Khand-5.
2.) Shiva Purana Section 4, Chapter 17 (available on wisdomlib).
3.) Prabhuratnamala by Acharya Takale.
● Illustration of young Prabodhankar KS Thackeray made by me.
● Map of Nanda Empire got from Wikimedia maps.
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