Tribes in Ancient India c20.10

c20.10

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.