The Abhiras had an extensive empire comprising modern-day Maharashtra, Konkan, Gujarat and parts of southern Madhya Pradesh.

According to Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya, this indicates that the Abhira general was the de facto ruler of the state, though not assuming any higher title.

[1][11] According to Prof Bhagwan Singh Suryavanshi, the Abhiras settled in southwestern Rajasthan and northeastern Sindh in the first century B.C.

[14] Archaeologist and scholar Bhagwan Lal Indraji (1839–1888) believed that the Abhiras probably came by sea from Sindh, conquered the western coast, and made Trikuta in Aparanta their capital.

Indarji further states that the Abhira Mahakshtrapa Isvaradatta was the founder of the Traikutaka dynasty – known later as the Kalachuri or the Chedi era{snd}}originating probably in the establishment of his power in the Konkan, with Traikuta as his capital.

Under Rudrasena, son of Viradaman the Kṣhatrapas, the Western Satraps appear to have re-established their sovereignty by driving out the Traikutakas who, thus dispossessed, retired to Central India and assumed the name of Haihaya or Kalachuri.

The branch came to power after the demise of the Satavahanas in the Nasik region of Maharashtra, with the help and consent of the Western Satraps (Sakas).

[1] An Abhira king is known to have sent an embassy to the Sassanid Shahanshah of Persia, Narseh, to congratulate him on his victory against Bahram III.

[19][1] During the time of the Gupta Empire, the Indian emperor Samudragupta recorded Abhira as a "frontier kingdom" which paid an annual tribute.

"Samudragupta, whose formidable rule was propitiated with the payment of all tributes, execution of orders and visits (to his court) for obeisance by such frontier rulers as those of Samataṭa, Ḍavāka, Kāmarūpa, Nēpāla, and Kartṛipura, and, by the Mālavas, Ārjunāyanas, Yaudhēyas, Mādrakas, Ābhīras, Prārjunas, Sanakānīkas, Kākas, Kharaparikas and other nations.

His inscriptions from the Konkan and coins from Andhra Pradesh suggest that he ruled over a large portion of the Satavahana Empire.

[24] The Abhiras began to rule in Southern and western Saurashtra from the second half of the 10th century A.D their capital was vamanshtali, modern vanthali nine miles west of Junagadh.

But still many petty Abhira chieftains and kings continued to rule until the fourth century, roughly till 370 AD, in the Vidarbha and Khandesh region.

[19][1] According to the historian Yaaminey Mubayi, several such dynasties, like the Kalachuris, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and later the Seuna Yadavas trace their origin to Abhiras, which highlights the integration of politically strong pastoral groups into Brahmanical caste order.