Tribes in Ancient India c21.2

c21.2

The Daradas were a tribe of N.W. India, well-known both to indigenous and to foreign traditions. They are referred to in the *Mahābhārata* as having joined the Kaurava forces, and as having been defeated by Vāsudeva, along with the Khaśas, Śakas, Yavanas, Trigarttas, Mālavas and others.¹ The *Viṣṇupurāṇa* associates them with the Ābhīras and Kāśmīras ²; while in the *Matsyapurāṇa* ³ the country of the Daradas is linked with Gandhāra, Śivapura, Urja, Aurasa and other districts forming the basin of the Sindhu (= Indus). The Epic and Puranic traditions seem therefore to locate the Daradas in the north-west along the north-west frontier of Kashmīr, and contiguously with the realm of the Khasas in the upper Punjab. They were probably a mountainous tribe, for ‘mountain is the commonest meaning of the word *darad* from which they appear to have derived their name’.