Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s4.100

c9.s4.100

Gandhāra is a later form of the name of the people called Gandhāri in the *Ṛig-Veda* and *Atharva-Veda*. In the *Ṛig-Veda*³ the good wool of the sheep of these tribesmen is referred to. In the *Atharva-Veda*⁴ the Gandhāris are mentioned with the Mūjavats, apparently as a despised people. The *Brāhmaṇa* texts refer to Nagnajit, king of Gandhāra, and his son Svarjit. The former receives Brāhmaṇic consecration, but observations of the family on ritual are treated with contempt.⁵ In later times the ‘angle of vision’ of the men of the *Madhya-deśa* (Mid-India) changed, and Gandhāra became a resort of scholars of all classes who flocked to its capital for instruction in the three Vedas and the eighteen⁶ branches of knowledge.