[4] According to the Mahabharata, the hundred sons of the Madra king Ashvapati, the father of Savitri were known as the Malavas, after the name of their mother, Malavi.

[6] The location of the original homeland of the Malavas is not certain, but modern scholars generally connect them with the "Malli" or "Malloi" mentioned in the ancient Greek accounts, which describe Alexander's war against them.

[7][8] At the time of Alexander's invasion in the 4th century BCE, the Malloi lived in present-day Punjab region, in the area to the north of the confluence of the Ravi and the Chenab rivers.

[13] The account appears in an inscription at the Nashik Caves, made by Nahapana's viceroy Ushavadata: ... And by order of the Lord I went to release the chief of the Uttamabhadras, who had been besieged for the rainy season by the Malayas, and those Malayas fled at the mere roar (of my approaching) as it were, and were all made prisoners of the Uttamabhadra warriors.In the 4th century CE, during the reign of the Gupta emperor Samudragupta, the Malavas most probably lived in Rajasthan and western Malwa.

[8] The Allahabad Pillar inscription of Samudragupta names the Malavas among the tribes subjugated by him:[15] (Lines 22–23) (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 (tribes).

[11] Post-Gupta records attest to the Malava presence in multiple regions, including present-day Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

The 7th century Aihole inscription of the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II, who defeated the Malavas, also locates them in present-day Gujarat.

[20] The 9th century Rashtrakuta records state that their emperor Govinda III stationed governor Kakka in the Lata country (southern Gujarat) to check the advance of the Gurjara-Pratiharas into Malava.