Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c13.s2.120

c13.s2.120

⁴ *Cf.* Ptolemy, *Ind. Ant.*, XIII, 361; *Bṛihat Saṁhitā*; XIV. 7; *Mekhalā-mushṭa* of *Mārkaṇḍeya P.*, LVIII. 14, is a corruption of *Mekal-Ambashṭha*. *Cf.* also the Ambashṭha Kāyasthas of Bihār, the Gauḍa Ambashṭha of the *Surjan-Charita* (*DHNI*, II. 1061 n) of the time of Akbar, and the Vaidyas of Bengal whom Bharata Mallika classes as Ambashṭha. This is not the place to discuss the authenticity or otherwise of the tradition recorded by Bharata and some of the Purāṇas. The origin of the Vaidyas, or of any other caste in Bengal, is a thorny problem which requires separate treatment. What the author aims at in these pages is to put some available evidence, early or late, about the Abastanoi. That some Ambashṭhas, and Brāhmaṇas too, took to the medical profession is clear from the evidence of Manu and Atri (*Saṁhitā*, 378) and Bopadev. It is equally clear that the Vaidya problem cannot be solved in the way it has been sought to be done in some recent publications. Due attention should be given to historical evidence bearing on the point like that of Megasthenes and of certain early Chalukya, Pāṇḍya, and other epigraphs, *e.g.* the Talamañchi plates, *Ep. Ind.* IX 101; Bhandarker's List 1371, 2061, etc.