The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.74

v1.c30.74

But in addition to the powers which dominated the kingdoms on the great highways of communication, there were in less accessible regions numerous independent states; and of some of these the coins of this period have preserved a record. These communities were military clans or groups of clans; and they were governed sometimes by kings, but more often by tribal oligarchies. They were Kshatriyas; and by this name, the common designation of them all, they are known to the historians of Alexander the Great in two districts—in the north of the Punjab to the east of the Rāvi (p. 371), and in the south-west where the Indus and the Sutlej meet (Xathri, p. 376). They were the ancestors of the Rājputs who played a most important part in the history of Northern India at a later date, and their coins are found throughout the regions to which modern ethnologists trace the origin of the Rājputs: