Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s6.11

c9.s6.11

Vidarbha, therefore, existed as an independent kingdom in the time of Nimi. From the Purāṇic account of the Yadu family it appears that the eponymous hero of the Vidarbhas, was of Yadu lineage.³ The country is mentioned in the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa*.⁴ It was famous for its *Māchalas*, perhaps a species of dog, which killed tigers⁵—“*Vidarbheṣu mācalās sārameyā apīha śārdulān mārayanti.*” The *Praśna Upanishad*⁶ mentions a sage of Vidarbha named Bhārgava as a contemporary of Āśvalāyana. Another sage called Vidarbhī Kauṇḍinya is mentioned in the *Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad*.¹ The name Kauṇḍinya is apparently derived from the city of Kuṇḍina, the capital of Vidarbha,² represented by the modern Kauṇḍinya-pura on the banks of Wardhā in the Chāṇḍur tāluk of Amraoti.³ The association of Vidarbha with Kuṇḍina clearly suggests that Vidarbha of the Vedic texts lay in the Deccan, and not in some hitherto unknown region outside its boundaries as contended by a wellknown writer.⁴