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Tribes in Ancient India c15: Chapter XI. The Vāhlīkas

Tribes in Ancient India c15

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Chapter XI. The Vāhlīkas

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Vāhlīka, Vālhīka and Valhīka are variant names of a people who lived in the northern division of India from very early times. A king of the tribe, Bālhīka Prātīpya, is referred to in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (XII, 9, 3, 1-3 and 13), and is represented as having opposed the restoration of Duṣṭarītu, king of the Sṛñjayas (*Vedic Index*, II, pp. 470-1). Bālhīka (or Vāhlīka) Prātīpeya (or Prātipīya), son (or descendant) of this Pratīpa, as Pargiter points out (*A.I.H.T.*, p. 166, f.n. 2), is mentioned in the *Mahābhārata* (*Ādiparvan*, Chap. 95, verse 44; *Udyogaparvan*, Chap. 47, verse 6). In the *Sabhāparvan* (Chap. 27, verse 22), mention is made of Vālheka, which is evidently another name for Vāhlīka.

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According to the *Vāyupurāṇa* as well as the *Kāvya Mīmāṃsā* of Rājasekhara, the Vāhlīka country¹ is placed in the northern division. In the Bengal recension of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (see, e.g. *Kiṣkindhyā Kāṇḍa*, 44, verse 13) the Vāhlīkas are associated with the people of the north, and sometimes (e.g. *ibid.*, 43, verse 5) with those of the west. We may conclude, then, that the Vāhlīka country should be identified with some region beyond the Punjab. A reference in the *Udyogaparvan* to its having been famous for its horses seems to connect the Vāhlīka country with Kāmboja; this, together with the difficulty of approach to the country which is referred to in the account of Arjuna’s *digvijaya*² may perhaps justify us in assuming that the tribe had its habitat somewhere in the neighbourhood of Gandhāra and Kāmboja. That the Vāhlīkas were settled beyond the Indus is definitely proved by the Meharauli Iron Pillar Inscription of Chandra, where the mighty King Chandra³ is described as ‘one . . . by whom having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the Indus the Vāhlīkas were conquered’. Accordingly, the country of the Vāhlīkas may perhaps be identified with the region now known as Balkh; in other words, the Vāhlīkas should be identified with the ‘Baktrioi’ occupying the country near Arachosia in the time of the geographer Ptolemy.¹

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¹ Also mentioned in *Śiva Purāṇa*, VII, 60, 20.

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² *Sabhāparvan*.

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³ Chandra has been identified by some with Candravarman of the *Allahabad Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta*, as also with the king of the same name mentioned in the *Susunia Rock Inscription*.

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¹ Dr. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Edn., p. 449, f.n.; and *Ind. Ant.*, 1884, p. 408.

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The *Uttarakāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (Chap. 100, verse 3) refers to a dynasty of kings who are said to have descended from one Kārdama or Kardameya. They were related to the Aila race, and were associated with Vālhi or Vālhika over which they seem to have held sway. In another chapter of the *Uttarakāṇḍa* (103, verse 21) the Vāhli or Vahlika country is said to have been situated outside the Madhyadeśa, which must have extended as far as the Sarasvatī in the west. A Kārdamaka Vamśa or dynasty is referred to in the Kanheri Inscription of the minister (amātya) Śateraka. In his *Political History of Ancient India* (4th Edn., p. 423), Dr. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri makes the illuminating suggestion that this Kārdamaka Vamśa probably derived its name from the river Kārdama in Pārasīka or Persia.² In that case Vāhlika, the home of the Kārdama or Kārdamaka kings, should be sought for somewhere in Persia; and we have a further justification for identifying the country of the Vāhlīkas with Balkh in Iran.³

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² Comm. on *Arthaśāstra*, II, 11: *Pārasīkeṣu Karddama nāma nadī*.

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³ For fuller details of the Kārdamaka kings and their association with Vāhlika, see Ray Chaudhuri's paper on ‘The Kārddamaka kings’ in *I.H.Q.*, Vol. IX, No. 1, pp. 37-9.

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The Vāhlīkas or Vālhīkas should *not* be identified with the Vāhīkas, who seem to have lived between the Sutlej and the Indus. A passage in the *Karṇaparvan* (Chap. 44) seems to describe their position:

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‘*Śākalaṃ nāma nagaramāpagā nāma nimnagā*
*Jarttikā nāma Vāhīkāsteṣāṃ Vṛttaṃ suninditam*’ (verse 10).
‘*Śatadrukāṃ nadīṃ tīrtvā tāñca ramyāṃ Irāvatīm*’ (verse 17).

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This passage states that the Vāhīkas were also known as Jarttikas (= Jāt?) and Āraṭṭas,⁴ and that their capital was at Śākala,⁵ modern Sialkot, west of the Rāvi. Another portion of the same passage suggests that in the Āraṭṭa countries religion was in disrepute; it was thus an impure region, and the Aryans of Mid-India were forbidden to go there. This is also reflected in the Vārttikas of Pāṇini by Kātyāyana who derives the word Vāhīka from ‘vahi’ or ‘bahi’, meaning ‘outside’,—suggesting those who were outside the pale of Aryandom. According to Pāṇini and his scholiast Patañjali, Vāhīka was another name for the Punjab (IV, 2, 117; V, 3, 114;

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⁴ The Āraṭṭas were the Arattai of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, p. 41.

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⁵ It will be remembered that Śākala was King Milinda's capital.

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*Ind. Ant.*, I, 122). That the Vāhīkas were held in disrepute is also proved by verse 41 of the *Karṇaparvan*, which says:

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*Vahīśca nāma Hīkaśca Vipāśāyām Piśācakau*
*Tayorapatyam Vāhīkā naiṣā sṛṣṭiḥ prajāpateḥ.*

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According to this verse, Vahi and Hika were names of two Piśācas (demons) of the Vipāśā river (Beas). Their descendants, the Vāhīkas, were not (worthy of being called) ‘a creation of Prajāpati’ (the Creator).

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