Tribes in Ancient India c20.21

c20.21

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.