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Tribes in Ancient India c23: Chapter XIX. Kulaṭas or Kulūṭas

Tribes in Ancient India c23

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Chapter XIX. Kulaṭas or Kulūṭas

c23.2

The Kūrmaniveśa section of the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* (LVII, 49) mentions a tribe called Kulaṭas, and another named Kuruṭas (LVII, 51). Both seem to be results of a confusion with the well-known tribe or people known in history as the Kulūṭas. The *Karṇaparvan* of the *Mahābhārata* refers to the latter which seems to be identical with the Kolūta or Kolūka of the *Kiṣkindhyā Kāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (XLIII, and annotations). Pargiter (*Mārk.*, p. 382, note) long ago identified the land of the Kulūṭas with the modern Kulu near the source of the Beas which is upheld by a reference to them in later literature of more reliable historical import.

c23.3

The Kulūṭas seem to have been a tribal republic. Inscriptions and coins testify to the existence of many such republics even in the days of Scythian invasions, among whom the Mālavas, Yaudheyas and Ārjunāyanas were the most important, the Audumbaras Kulūṭas, Kunindas and the Uttamabhadras being only second in rank (*Camb. Hist. of India*, Vol. I, pp. 528-9).

c23.4

Yuan Chwang, the celebrated Chinese pilgrim, refers to a country named Ku-lu-to (Watters, I, p. 298) which place he reached from Jālandhara after having travelled north-east, across mountains and ravines, by hazardous paths, for above 700 *li*. The region, says he, was entirely surrounded by mountains. Its capital was 14 or 15 *li* in circuit. It had a rich soil and yielded regular crops, and it had a rich vegetation. The climate grew gradually cold and there was little snow. There were in the country twenty Buddhist monasteries with above 1,000 brethren of whom the most were Mahāyānists, a few adhering to the Hīnayāna school. Of Deva temples, there were fifteen, and the professed non-Buddhists lived pell-mell. Cunningham long ago identified this Kiu-lu-to country of Yuan Chwang ‘with the position of the Kullu district in the Upper valley of Byās river’. The position is roughly identical with the modern Kangra district.

c23.5

Another important reference to the Kulūṭa people is also found in the introduction of *Bālabhārata* or *Pracaṇḍapāṇḍava* of Rājaśekhara wherein the poet describes the victories of Mahīpāla of the Pratihāra dynasty. Mahīpāla is there credited with having defeated the Kulūṭas along with the Muralas, Mekalas, Kaliṅgas, Keralas, Kuntalas and the Ramaṭhas (*Nirṇayasāgar Press Ed.* of *Bālabhārata*, I, 7-8).

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