Goa Under The Bhoja Empire

The Bhojas ruled Goa and parts of Konkan and some part of Karnataka from the at least 3rd century AD to the 6th century AD. Goa came under the political sway of the Bhojas who ruled this territory in feudal allegiance to the Mauryan emperor of Pataliputra and then under the Shatavahanas. The Bhoja seat of power was located at Chandrapura or Chandraura (Modern Chandor) in Goa.

The capital township of Chandrapur, coveread an aread od a square mile and had mud wall fortifications around it in the northwest along with a moat running parallel to it. The Bojja kingdom also comprised the areas of Shahsti, including Kuthalli, Bardez and Partz of Tiswadi including the island of Goa in addition to areas of the now Kanara District in Kannada.

The earliest reference to Bhojas is found in rock edits of Ashoka as well as Bhavishya Purana. They are connected to the Yadavas of Vidarbha and Dwaraka, and are believed to have descended from them. Though their history is very obscure, copper-plates and other literary historical sources shed light on their history. Other evidence related to the Bhojas, that has been found to date is that of the copper plate grant issued from Chandrapura by King Devaraja Gominam, in the third century A.D. bestowing upon two priests the rights to collect taxes from a village along with grants of a house and pasture land for their cows. Another record of a grant to a buddhist vihara was found at Kumta in Karnataka near South Goa.

While ruling Chandramandala area from Chandraura, their territory might have extended to Goa, parts of North Canara and Belgaum districts of Karnataka. They were known for overseas trade,and the organisations of traders were highly ordered. Egyptian geographer Ptolemy, and the unknown author of Periplus of the Erythraean Sea has named this tract of the Bhojas as Arieke (Sodon). Their territory is also mentioned as a pirate coast of Satavahanas as well

It appears from those and other pieces of evidence that the Bhoja kings ruled over much of Goa Today and adjacent parts of North Kanara and Belgaum districts of Karnataka. According to traditions handed down through several generations, the Bhojas belonged to the sub division of Yadavas of the Aryan race of the Kaikeyas and seemed to have settled in the Konkan by the third century BC in the days of the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka. In the post vedic sanskrit literature, the bhojas figure as a clan of rulers.