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Tribes in Ancient India c18: Chapter XIV. The Kekayas

Tribes in Ancient India c18

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Chapter XIV. The Kekayas

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The Kekayas were a well-known tribe of Ancient India, and played an important part not only in the events recorded in the *Rāmāyaṇa*, but also in the great Kurukṣetra war of the *Mahābhārata*. They were known as early as the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* and the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*, and continued for some considerable time to be one of the important tribes of the Punjab. The territory of the Kekayas, according to the *Rāmāyaṇa*,¹ lay beyond the river Vipāśā (Beas) and extended up to the borders of the ancient Gandhāra kingdom. According to the Puranic tradition,² the Kekayas were descended from the (non-Aryan) Anu tribe or the family known as the Anavas, who appear from the Rigveda (8, 74) to have dwelt in the same territory of the Punjab as that later occupied by the Kekayas (according to the *Rāmāyaṇa*). Rājaśekhara in his *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* places the Kekaya country in the northern division (Uttarāpatha) of India, along with the Śakas, Hūnas, Kāmbojas, Vāhlikas, etc. In the *Mahābhārata* they are associated with the Vāhlikas, while in the Purāṇas more emphasis seems to be laid on their association with the Madras.

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¹ II, 68, 19-22; VII, Chaps. 113-4.

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² Brahmāṇḍa P., III, 74; Vāyu P., Chap. 99; Brahma P., Chap. 13; Harivaṃśa (Chap. 31); Matsya P., Chap. 48; Viṣṇu P., IV, Chap. 18; Garuḍa P., I, Chap. 139; and Bhāgavata P., IX, Chap. 23.

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The earliest known king of the Kekayas was Aśvapati.³ He was a theologian who is said to have instructed a number of Brāhmaṇas. The name of a Kekaya king several times referred to in the *Rāmāyaṇa*⁴ was also Aśvapati; but it is difficult to say whether the two were identical. King Aśvapati of the *Rāmāyaṇa* was the father of Kaikeyī, second queen of Daśaratha, and maternal grandfather of Bharata (*Ayodhyākāṇḍa*, Chap. 70). The capital city of King Aśvapati, according to the *Rāmāyaṇa*, was Rājagṛha or Girivraja,⁵ identified by Cunningham with Jālālpur on the Jhelum (= Giryak: Cunningham’s *Arch. Sur. Rep.*, II). We learn from Jaina sources that one-half of the Kekaya kingdom was Aryan, and the Kekaya city was known as Seyaviya.¹

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³ Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, X, 6, 1, 2; Chāndogya Up., V, 11, 4 et seq.

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⁴ Ādikāṇḍa, Cantos XII, LXXIV, LXXXVII; Ayodhyākāṇḍa, Cantos II, XXXV, XXXVII, etc.

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⁵ Rām., II, 67, 7; II, 68, 22. This Girivraja or Rājagṛha is not to be confused with the Girivraja or Rājagṛha of Magadha (S.B.E., XIII, p. 150).

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, 1891, 375.

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The Kekayas fought on Duryodhana’s side in the Kurukṣetra war. They seem from the Purāṇas² to have been intimately related to the Uśīnaras and the Śivis, for they were traditionally descended from one of the four sons of Śivi Uśīnara. The latter is said to have originated the Śivis in Śivapura and extending his conquests westwards, to have founded through his four sons the kingdoms of the Vṛṣadarbhas, Madras, Kekayas or Kaikeyas, and Suvīras or Sauvīras.³ In the *Viṣṇupurāṇa* mention is made of a king of Kekaya or Kaikeya named Dhṛṣṭaketu (Bk., IV, Chap. XIV).

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² *Vāyu P.*, Chap. 99; *Matsya P.*, Chap. 48; *Viṣṇu P.*, IV, Chap. 18; *Agni P.*, Chap. 276, etc.

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³ Pargiter, *A.I.H.T.*, p. 264. See also Chap. on *Yaudheyas*, for further information about Śivi and his father Uśīnara.

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A branch of the Kekayas seems in later times to have migrated as far south as the Mysore country, where they established a settlement. They were probably an ancient ruling family of Mysore, and were connected by marriage with the Ikṣvākus, a famous royal dynasty, known from inscriptions discovered from the ruins of the Jagayyapeta stūpa in the Kṛṣṇā district,⁴ as well as from Nāgārjunikoṇḍa.⁵

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⁴ Dubreuil, *A.H.D.*, pp. 88, 101; see also *Archaeological Survey of South India*, Vol. I, pp. 110-111.

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⁵ Ed. Vogel, *Ep. Indica*, Vols. XX, XXI; *Annual Report of South Indian Epigraphy*, 1926, p. 92; 1927, pp. 71-74.

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