Tribes in Ancient India c15.8

c15.8

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