The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.110

v1.c17.110

It does not seem likely that Āryan civilisation had yet overstepped the Vindhya, which is not mentioned by name in the Vedic texts, though the Kaushītaki Upanishad refers to the northern and southern mountains, the latter of which must be the Vindhya. At the same time geographical knowledge of the north is wider: the Atharvaveda knows not only of the Mūjavants and the Gandhāris, but also of the Mahāvṛishas, and the name of a place in the Mahāvṛisha country, Raikvaparṇa, is preserved in the Chhāndogya Upanishad. Yāska in the *Nirukta*, a text of about 500 b.c. explaining with illustrations certain selected Vedic words, tells us that the speech of the Kambojas differed in certain respects from the ordinary Indian speech, referring doubtless to the tribes living north-west of the Indus who bore that name. Vidarbha, the modern Berār, is mentioned, but only in the late Jaiminīya Upanishad Brāhmaṇa, though a Bhīma of Vidarbha occurs in a late passage of the Aitareya.