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Tribes in Ancient India c20: Chapter XVI. The Śibis

Tribes in Ancient India c20

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Chapter XVI. The Śibis

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The Śibis (or Śivas) seem to have been a very ancient people. They were a petty tribe occupying some tract in the Western Punjab, whence they seem later to have migrated or sent offshoots southwards to Sind and Rajputana and southwards as far as the Chola country.

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They are probably alluded to for the first time in the *Rgveda* (VII, 18, 7) where the Śivas, doubtless the same people as the Śibis, are grouped together with four other minor tribes, viz. the Alinas, Pakhtas, Bhalānasas and Viśānins, who were all defeated by the combined army of King Sudās.¹ But whatever the fate of the other four tribes after their defeat, the Śivas seem to have maintained their independent existence for some considerable time, for they are referred to not only by the Greek geographers and historians of Alexander’s time, but also by the Scholiast on *Pāṇini* (IV, 2, 109). Their King Śivi, son of Uśīnara, is mentioned in *Baudhāyana’s Śrauta Sūtra* (III, 53, 22). There can hardly be any doubt as to the identity of the *Rgvedic* Śivas with the Sibai or Siboi of the Greeks ² who dwelt between the Indus and the Akesines (= Asiknī of the *R.V.*; mod. Chandrabhāgā or Chenab) in Alexander’s time.

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¹ The ‘war of the ten kings’ is sometimes interpreted as a struggle between the Aryans (under Sudās) and the pre-Aryans; in which case the Śivas or Śibis were not Aryans, but probably Sumerians.

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² Arrian, *Indica*, V, 12; Diodorus, XVII, 96.

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‘When the army of Alexander’, states Arrian, ‘came among the Sibai, an Indian tribe, and noticed that they wore skins, they declared that the Sibai were descended from those who belonged to the expedition of Herakles, and had been left behind; for besides being dressed in skins, the Sibai carry a cudgel, and brand on the backs of their oxen the representation of a club, wherein the Macedonians recognised a memorial of Herakles.’ (Arrian, *op. cit.*) He continues: ‘If any one believes all this, this must be another Herakles, not the Theban, but either the Tyrian or the Egyptian, or even some great King who belonged to the upper country which lies not far from India’. It seems reasonable to suppose, from the above description of their dress and weapons, that the tribe belonged to a racial group not distinctly Aryan. They are said to have had 40,000 foot-soldiers at the time of Alexander.

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An earlier reference to this people is found in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VIII, 23, 10), where mention is made of Amitratapana, a king of the Śibis. A place called Śivapura or ‘town of the Śivas’ is mentioned by the Scholiast on *Pāṇini*¹ as situated in the northern country. Śivapura must be identical with Śibipura, mentioned in a Shorkot Inscription (*Ep. Ind.*, 1921, p. 16); and Dr. Vogel takes the mound of Shorkot to be the site of the city of the Śibis. Another scholar points out that local tradition also connects Shorkot with Śiva.² Thus we may conclude that the Śivas or Śibis were a people inhabiting the Shorkot region in Jhang in the Punjab, lying between the Irāvatī and the Chandrabhāgā, and therefore included in the northern region or Uttarāpatha.

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¹ See *Patañjali*, IV, 2, 2; *Vedic Index*, II, pp. 381-2.

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² Mazumdar, *C.A.G.I.*, p. 669; Sivapura = Siaura = Shor. *C.A.S.R.*, V, pp. 97-103.

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The Śivas or Śibis seem to have migrated, or rather sent one or more of their offshoots southwards to Rajputana. It is difficult to say exactly when this movement took place, but early references to a geographical location of the tribe other than in the Punjab are found in the Jātakas and in the *Mahābhārata*. The Jātakas³ mention a Śivi king and his country with two of its cities, Aritthapura and Jetuttara. Aritthapura (Skt. Ariṣṭapura) is probably identical with Ptolemy’s Aristobothra in the north of the Punjab⁴ and may perhaps be the same as Dvārāvatī.⁵ Jetuttara or Jettuttara is identified by N. L. Dey with Nāgari, a locality 11 miles north of Chitore.⁶ It is evidently the Jattararur of Alberuni,⁷ the capital of Mewar. That the Śibis had a habitat near Chitore is attested by other sources as well; a number of coins inscribed with the legend *Majhamikāya Sivijanapadasa* have been discovered in the territory near Nāgari,—indicating that the janapada or country of the Śibis was located in Madhyamikā, near Chitore in Rajputana. On the testimony of these coins we also learn that the Śibis formed a gaṇa-rāṣṭra or some sort of republican state. This seems to have some support from the *Vessantara Jātaka*, where we read that the king of the Śibis⁸ was compelled to banish prince Vessantara in obedience to the demand of his people,—indicating that if not an absolute republic, this community at least had what we may call democratic institutions.

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³ *Śivi Jātaka*, No. 499; *Ummadantī Jātaka*, No. 527; *Vessantara Jātaka*, No. 547.

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⁴ N. L. Dey, *Geographical Dictionary*, p. 11.

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⁵ *Jātaka* (Fausböll), VI, p. 421; cf. Dey, p. 187.

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⁶ *Geographical Dictionary*, p. 81.

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⁷ Alberuni’s India, I, p. 202.

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⁸ Cf. also Sivikarāja, which was the Tathāgata’s name in a previous birth, referred to in Beal’s *Records of the Western World*, I, pp. xvi-cvii, 125.

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The Śivas or Śibis were intimately associated with the Uśīnaras, who are assigned by the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* to the Madhyadeśa or ‘Middle Country’, together with the Kurus, the Pañcālas, and the Vasas or Vatsas. The *Anukramaṇī* of the *Ṛgveda* ascribes one hymn (X, 119) to Śivi Auśīnara, i.e. the Śivi who is descended from Uśīnara; while the *Mahābhārata* refers not only to a king Uśīnara Śibi (*Mbh.*, *Śāntiparvan*, Chap. 29, 39) but also to a Śibi-rāṣtra or kingdom of the Śibis ruled by King Uśīnara (III, 130-1). It is, therefore, likely that the Uśīnara country was at one time the habitat of the Śibis. According to the tradition as recorded in the Epics and Purāṇas, Śivi was one of the five sons of King Uśīnara, each of whom founded a city. The city of Śivi was known as Śivapura. Śivi had four sons who came to be known as Śivis, giving their name to the tribe to which they belonged. According to Pargiter, Śivi Auśīnara not only originated the Śivis in Śivapura but, extending his conquests westwards, founded through his four sons (Vṛṣadarbha, Suvīra, Kekaya, and Madraka) the kingdoms of the Vṛṣadarbhas, Suvīras (or Sauviras), Kekayas, and Madras, thus occupying the whole of the Punjab except the north-western corner.¹

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¹ See Chap. on Uśīnaras; and Pargiter, *Ancient Indian Historical Tradition*, pp. 41 and 264.

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King Śivi Auśīnara bears a legendary name for piety and humanity. The well-known and very popular fable of the hawk and the pigeon immortalises this king’s spirit of self-sacrifice.²

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² *Mbh.*, III, Chap. 196; Chap. 207; XIII, Chap. 67; XIV, Chap. 90. In the *Droṇaparvan* version (Chaps. 130-131) Śivi’s father, Uśīnara, is the hero of the fable. Both Fā-Hien and Hsuan Tsang place the scene of the story in Udyāna now called the Swat Valley where a steatite relief (now in the British Museum) representing the fable as given in the *Mbh.* has been discovered. It is, therefore, probable that the present Swat Valley represents the ancient kingdom of Śivi. But according to the *Mahā-Ummaga Jātaka* the Śivi country was situated between the kingdoms of Videha and Pañcāla (Dey, *Geographical Dict.*, pp. 187-8).

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In the *Mahābhārata* description of the tribes, kings, and princes, who were ranged on Duryodhana’s side in the Kurukṣetra war, the Śivis are grouped with the foreign tribes, Śakas, Kirātas, Yavanas and Vasātis. As the Yavanas and Śakas did not appear in Indian history before the fifth and second centuries B.C. respectively, the passage in which the mention of these tribes occurs, must be regarded as a later interpolation; but however that may be, the fact that the Śivis are grouped with the ‘foreigners’ is significant, and it is not unlikely that the tradition has a historical foundation.

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Still later, the Śivis seem to have migrated to the extreme south of India. The *Daśakumāracaritam* (Madhya, Chap. VI) refers to a settlement of the Śivis on the banks of the Kāverī. The southern Śivis, according to Dr. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri,¹ are probably to be identified with the Chola ruling family.² The Śivi country of the south may be identical with the Śivikā country which is placed among the southern countries by Varāhamihira in his *Bṛhatsaṃhitā* (Chap. XIV, verse 12).

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¹ *Political History of Ancient India*, 4th Ed., p. 205, f.n. 5.

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² Keilhorn, *List of Southern Inscriptions*, No. 685.

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