Tribes in Ancient India c10.41

c10.41

The Viṣṇudharmottara Mahāpurāṇa (Chap. 9) mentions Cedi as a janapada or country, and so does the Padmapurāṇa (3rd chapter). Cedi (Ceti) is also mentioned in the Jaina and Buddhist literatures as one of the sixteen mahājanapadas.⁷ The Cetis, says Rhys Davids, were probably the same tribe as that called Cedi in older documents, and had two distinct settlements. One, probably the older, was in the mountains in what is now called Nepal. The other, probably a later colony, was near Kauśāmbī to the east, and has been confused with the land of the Vaṃsa (Vatsa).⁸ S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar in his Ancient India ⁹ agrees with Rhys Davids that one branch of the Cedis had their local habitat in Bundelkhand, the other being located somewhere in Nepal. D. R. Bhandarkar says that Ceta or Cetiya corresponds roughly to the modern Bundelkhand ¹⁰; while Rapson says that in the post-Vedic period the Cedis occupied the northern portion of the Central Provinces.¹¹ In the Cambridge History of India (p. 84), we read that the Cedis dwelt in Bundelkhand to the north of the Vindhyas; while Pargiter says ¹² that Cedi lay along the south of the Jumna. The following is a summary given by N. L. Dey in his Geographical Dictionary (p. 14): According to Tod, Chanderi, a town in Malwa, was the capital of Śiśupāla who was killed by Kṛṣṇa. According to Dr. Führer, Dahala Maṇḍala was the ancient Cedi. Some are of opinion that Cedi comprised the southern portion of Bundelkhand and northern portion of Jabbalpur. Kālañjara was the capital of Cedi under the Gupta kings. Cedi was also called Tripuri.