Tribes in Ancient India c28.15

c28.15

The Ambaṣṭhas are the same as the Abastanoi (Arrian), Sambastai (Diodoros), Sabarcae (Curtius) or Sabagrae (Orosius) of Alexander’s historians.⁶ In Alexander’s time the tribe was settled on the lower Akesines (Asiknī), and had a democratic government, and an army consisting of 60,000 foot, 60,000 cavalry and 500 chariots.⁷ The Ambaṣṭhas are referred to by Ptolemy as Ambastai, a tribe which is described as settled in the east of the country of the Paropanisadai,—Paropanisadai being ‘a collective name for the tribes that were located along the southern and eastern sides of the Hindukush’.⁸ Lassen⁹ thinks that the Ambastai may have been connected in some way with the Ambastai, another tribe mentioned by Ptolemy as dwelling ‘along the country of the Bettigoi’ and the mountain range of the same name (i.e. southern portion of the Western Ghats).