The Geography of the Puranas c11.s2: II. The North-Western Janapadas

The Geography of the Purāṇas c11.s2

Language: English

II. The North-Western Janapadas

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A glance at the list of north-western janapadas given in the Purāṇas would at once show that they intend to enumerate the sub-regions of the entire basin of the Indus as well as the regions of the Makran Coast, which are ethnically, politically and geographically associated with that basin.

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The Indus basin extends from the land drained by the Sutlej in the east to the catchment area of the Kabul river on the west and from the northernmost arc of the Indus to the Arabian Sea Coast. It also includes the mountain rim on its west, down which quite a few streams and rivers flow into the Indus, though some of them lose themselves in the sandy tract which intervenes between the main river and the mountains.

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A closer examination of the list reveals that the Purāṇic janapadas covered the following zones or sub-regions of the Indus region as defined above:

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i. The western mountainous zone. This included the present Makran, Baluchistan and Waziristan.

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ii. The northern and north-eastern mountain (or the Himālayan) zone drained by the affluents of the Kabul and the Indus rivers.

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iii. The western bank of the Indus from its confluence with the Kabul river to the delta of the Indus.

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iv. The eastern bank of the Indus from the Panjanād (where all the Punjab rivers meet) to the sea.

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v. The Punjab plains.

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vi. The delta.

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Before we attempt to locate the Purāṇic janapadas in each of the sub-regions of the Indus basin, it would be useful to reiterate the relationship between topography and population incidence which plays an important part in the whole of the basin.

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From the human point of view, the availability of water for drinking and irrigation is the primary factor in the location of settlements and human groups in regions of low rainfall. The basin of the Indus is one of the regions where rivers big and small control the concentration and distribution of population so forcefully that its population pattern is clearly reflected in its drainage pattern, in fact the two are practically identical. The drainage control is so emphatic that the size of a population group can be translated in terms of the magnitude of the river or stream which served it. From the functional point of view therefore we can divide the rivers into two classes:

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(1) Small rivers or streams, such as we find in the desert belt or in the mountainous belt to the west of the Indus, are lines of assimilation which attract population all around them. The river valley is therefore invariably associated with a human group which gets settled there, acquires distinct traits and forms a ‘tribe’ or community which in its turn organises itself into a janapada. These janapadas are obviously ‘river janapadas’, separated from each other by spurs of mountains or patches of desert sand.

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(2) Major, wide and deep rivers with extensive flood plains separate human groups. Here population groups occupy their high banks, settle as near the river as practicable but avoid its floodplain altogether. The river serves as a boundary line between the groups on its both sides and each population group and subsequently each janapada is limited to and defined by the ‘doab’ of two such adjoining rivers.

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This classification of rivers has a further significance. The tribes or communities living in isolated valleys of small streams or rivers in the northern or western mountain tracts, have always been able to retain their identity and individuality, but while tribes living on the banks of major rivers or in plains between them had better chances to expand, enlarge or consolidate their territories, they were vulnerable to forces from without which led to their expulsion or even extinction. Thus, historically the small cultural or territorial units in mountain valleys have been more ‘stable’ than the bigger units in the plains which may be termed ‘mobile’. It is for this reason that we find discrepancies in the location of the latter in the accounts of the Mahābhārata, Kāvyamīmāṃsa, or even in various Purāṇas as well as in the Greek and the Arab literature. On the other hand, there is a considerable amount of unanimity among the various ancient and medieval works regarding the districts or janapadas occupied by the tribes of the hilly regions in the north and west. We can legitimately doubt if the area indicated in the Mahābhārata as that occupied by the Śūdras or Abhīras is the same to which the Purāṇas refer or if it at all corresponds to the Sodrii or Abiria of Ptolemy, but we can safely assume that the land of the Darudas, Aurasas or Lampākas is the same as Dardrai, Arsa or Lambatai referred to in Greek works.

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In the light of the above observations we shall analyse the list of north-western janapadas of the Purāṇas and arrange them on a regional basis, i.e., according to the sub-regions of the Indus Basin, indicated in the preceding paragraphs.

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*The Janapadas of the Western Mountainous Zone*

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(a) The Makran Region. i. One of the regions of the Makran is the basin of the river Hingol, a winter torrent named Tomeros by the Greeks. Its principal town Hinglaz contained among others an important shrine of Siva which used to draw large crowds of pilgrims from India. The shrine appears to have been in existence even before the days of Alexander.

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In medieval times when Makran was under the Arabs, Hinglaz rose in importance and was one of the principal towns of those regions. The Purāṇas recognise it as a janapada under the name Aṅgaloka.

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ii. A region adjoining the Hingol valley is that of the Parikan river. Herodotus calls the inhabitants of this region as the Parikanoi. Parikanoi is a Greek transcript of the Persian form of Parikan, the plural of the Sanskrit Parva-ka or in other words the Ba-rohi or men of the hills. The Purāṇas appear to designate this janapada by the name Pallava (Pahlava or Palnava in some Purāṇas).

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iii. The valley of the Dasht river, though an insignificant river now, may have supported a comunity or tribe in ancient times. This valley and the adjoining valley of the Bahu river, on whose mouth Gwador is situated, gained considerable importance under the Arabs who considered Makran as the threshold of India and whose main routes from Bampur (south-eastern Persia) to Debel (Indus Delta) traversed these valleys behind the coastal ranges. Ibn-i-Haukal, Istakhri and Idrisi mention the grandeur of their towns, Kiz, Rasak and Faharpara, etc. The Purāṇas name these valleys the janapadas of Deśamaṅka (the valley of the Dasht) and Bahu Bhadra (the valley of the Bahu).

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iv. The next region in Makran towards the Indus Delta is that of the river Purabi known as Lasbela (the Arabil of the Greeks). The city of Armabel (or Armail or Karabel) is at present only an insignificant town, but picturesquely perched on the banks of the Purali river, it was an important centre during the Arab occupation and commanded for hundreds of years the coastal high-road to India. The whole of the valley is rich in ancient sites like Gondakahar (pre-Muslim) and Gondrani (Buddhist) and was part of a Buddhist kingdom which extended from Armabel to Gandava (near Kalat). The Purāṇic janapada named Hārabhūṣika or Hāramūrtika most probably corresponds to this valley.

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The mouth of the river Hab and the Churma islands which lie near it formed at one time a stage on the coastal sea-route from the Persian Gulf to the Indus Delta, and were mostly inhabited by seamen or pirates. The Carmakhaṇḍa of the Purāṇas may be identified with this region.

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(b) Baluchistan and Waziristan. i. Kālatoyaka of the Purāṇas is apparently the Kalāt region of Baluchistan. It practically coincides with the valley of the Malla river which almost touches the foot of the bounding ranges.

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ii. Vahlika, Vālhika or Bahlika. Balis was a well-known region of Baluchistan, south of Quetta and the Bolan Pass, whose rivers, though not reaching the Indus, drain its basin. It has been described as ‘a district in the desert. It is a place with much cultivation but with few amenities. It contains a few towns, such as Sfinjāi, Kūshk, Sivi of which Kūshk is the residence of the Amir.’ It was also known as Balistan. Vahlika of the Purāṇas evidently corresponds to the region covered by the valleys of the Bolon, Nari and Gokh rivers. It almost coincided with what was formerly known as British Baluchistan, the land of the Balochis.

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Vahlika has been identified by many scholars with Bactria which is obviously wrong. Bactria belonged to the basin of the Oxus which lies north of the Hindūkush and which according to the Purāṇas, as discussed in earlier chapters, was in the Ketumāla region of the Jambūdvīpa and not in Bhāratavarṣa. It was far beyond the limits of the latter. Besides, whenever the Purāṇas intend to mention regions or people outside the territorial limits of Bhāratavarṣa, they expressly mention this fact to avoid confusion.

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iii. North of the Vahlika region, we come to the valleys of the Zhob, the Kundar and the Gomal. The upper Gomal has always supported one of the most famous people of the region, the Waziris, who have retained their identity and independence even up to the present time. The Purāṇic Vāṭadhāna or Vāḍhadhāna can possibly be identified with this region.

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iv. Further north we come across the important valleys of the Kurram and its affluent, the Tochi. The upper Kurram irrigates the Thal region, one of the most beautiful spots in north Waziristan which is probably identical with the Talagāna janapada of the Purāṇas. The Tochi river has given its name to the tribe which occupies its valleys, the Tochis. The Toshara janapada of the Purāṇas most probably meant the land of the Tochis. The identification of Toshara with the Tokharistan region of northern Afghanistan is apparently incongruous when considered in the context of the regional division of the Indus Basin.

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v. North of the Talagāna and adjoining the Peshawar cul-de-sac is the land of a well-known tribe, the Afridis. It is certainly the same as the Aprytae of Scylax or the Aprita of the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata.

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The Janapadas of the Northern Mountain Zone of the Indus Basin

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(a) The basin of the Kabul river. Practically all the tributaries of the Kabul river which reach it from the northern mountains are associated with tribes or communities which are in most cases synonymous with the Purāṇic janapadas of the same name. Thus we have the following associations:

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*Gāndhāra* — associated with the lower Kabul valley.

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*Satadruja* — associated with the valley of the Swat river or the land of Swatis or Assakenians of the Greeks.

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*Dārva* — The valley of the Pañjkora, which meets the Swat river downstream, has been the home of another frontier tribe with its capital at Dir. It may be identified with the Dārva janapada of the Purāṇas.

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*Kāmboja* — associated with the valley of the Kunar river. It is to be noted that the Purāṇas do not mention Kāmboja as a part of the Indus basin. They merely say, ‘colonies of Kambojas’. This is true since their land Kāmadeśa or Kafiristan lies across the northern watershed of the Kunar river. However, they might have established colonies in the Kunar basin which have been noted by the Purāṇas.

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*Lampāka* — associated with the upper Kabul valley. The region is the same as the Lambagae of the Greeks and Lamghan of today.

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(b) *The Northern and North-Eastern Mountain (Himālayan) Zone.* The following intermontane valley region which are fairly well known have rightly been included by the Purāṇas in their list of the janapadas of the Indus Basin, since all of them lie on the affluents of the Indus which join it on its left or eastern bank.

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i. Aurasa is the same as ancient Urusa or the modern Hazara district of the North-Western Frontier Province of Pakistan.

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ii. Darada is still the land of an ancient tribe known as Daradas who live in the valley of river Kiṣengaṅgā in Kashmir. Shardi is its principal town.

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iii. Kaśmīra or the Kashmir valley drained by the Jhelum.

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*The Western Bank of the Indus from the Kabul River (Attock) to the Delta of the Indus (from North to South)*

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i. The lowland belt which runs parallel to the Indus along its western bank has always been an extremely dry and sandy tract. Ptolemy mentions only about a dozen towns of some importance from Amb (Embolina) to Karachi (Kolaka). There were, however, a few communities which occupied the valleys of western streams which could find their way into the Indus in spite of the intervening desert belt. One of such rivers is the Kurram whose valley was the territory of the Vātadhānas already mentioned. In the south of this there appears a town named Paradabathra in Ptolemy's list of stages on the route parallel to the west bank of the Indus. The name is indicative of a janapada mentioned in the Purāṇas as Pārada which from the Greek accounts appears to coincide with the Mithankot region of Dera Ghazi Khan district of the Punjab (Pakistan).

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ii. South of the Pārada and west of the Indus was the Sindhu janapada which extended along the bank of the river as far south as Sahwan, an important stage on the north-south route.

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*The Janapadas of the Eastern Bank of the Indus from the Pañjanad to the Delta*

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i. The Purāṇas mention two janapadas which, according to various references, appear to have occupied the eastern littoral of the Indus. One of them was the Sūdra (Xodraka of the Greeks, expressly mentioned by Ptolemy as a region on the left bank of the Indus). The Sūdras, according to the Mahābhārata occupied the region where the Saraswatī disappeared in the desert. If we take the dry bed of the Hakra as that of the Saraswatī, which is probable, we can identify the Sūdra janapada with the Uch-Khanpur region of Bahawalpur.

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ii. Further downstream was the land of Sauvīras who from all accounts occupied a territory contiguous to that of the Sindhus but on the opposite bank of the river. Sauvīra, therefore, coincides with the Rohri-Khairpur region of Sind.

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iii. To the south of Sauvīra, but again east of the Indus where it starts flowing in a number of deltaic streams, was the land of Abhīras. The janapada of Abhīra (Aberia of the Periplus) therefore practically covered the western part of the Hyderabad district of Sind.

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*The Janapadas of the Punjab Plains*

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The name Punjab or Pañjanad was applied originally only to the five great rivers east of the Salt range—in the days when the Beas did not join the Sutlej up to Bahawalpur. All of these rivers have always been of great importance, the distribution and movements of the people depended wholly and directly on them, and though their courses have been changing and still change within certain limits and their shoals shift, they carry a considerable amount of water and have always formed, with few exceptions, boundaries between the janapadas of ancient India and also the districts of today. But the boundaries have been largely related to the vagaries of the rivers which have been changing their courses all the time. For instance, in the extreme south of the Sind-Sāgar Doāb, the Indus changed its course over a canal dug from the Chenab to the Indus, and the Chenab had to make a new confluence with it about 60 miles further south. Multan once stood on an island in the 'Ravi,' and Tamerlane's men could work down the Ravi into the Chenab; but the Ravi joins the Chenab now above Multan—fully thirty miles above.

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Fig. 15

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BHĀRATAVARṢA JANAPADAS OR COMMUNITIES

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ABOVE 600 METRES

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300 - 600

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BELOW - 300

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MILES 50 0 50 100 150 200 MILES

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A characteristic of the doābs of the Punjab is the occurrence of 'high banks' between pairs of rivers. These not only provided excellent sites for towns and cities but also checked to some extent the shifting of the channels. Thus, the Jhelum and the Chenab could never swing west of the Jhelum bank (right bank) or east of the Chenab bank (left bank); and the same is true of the right bank of the old Beas and the left bank of the Sutlej. In fact, the high bank of the Jhelum runs the whole way along its western flank, isolating it wholly from the Indus.

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Before the irrigation canals came into existence, the population distribution in the doābs was always concentrated in the northern belt of a doāb, i.e., the piedmont zone of the mountains. It is no wonder therefore that in general the capital cities of the ancient janapadas of the Punjab were located on strategic sites at the foot of the mountains.

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The following is a brief analysis of the Purāṇic list of the janapadas of the Punjab and their relation to the major rivers and their doābs.

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i. Gāndhāra has already been mentioned along with the Trans-Indus janapadas. In fact, it extended across the upper Indus to the line of hills which radiate from Rawalpindi to the south-west, thus encircling the north-western corner of the Sind-Sāgar Doāb which faced towards the west rather than to the east.

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ii. Another sub-region of the Sind-Sāgar Doāb is the basin of the river Sohan which is completely enclosed by the Salt Range on the east and the valley of the Indus on the west. The northern part of this basin, i.e. the Rawalpindi and Pindi Gheb region appears to coincide with the Sainika or Piḍika janapada of the Purāṇas, while the southern basin, i.e. the Talagang-Minawali region was probably unpopulated on account of aridity.

Linked texts (3)

Kāvyamīmāṃsā — Rājaśekhara, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Purāṇa — Sanskrit