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Tribes in Ancient India c29: Chapter XXV. The Niṣādas

Tribes in Ancient India c29

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Chapter XXV. The Niṣādas

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The Niṣādas are referred to for the first time in the later *Saṃhitās* and the *Brāhmaṇas*.¹ The word Niṣāda ‘seems to denote not so much a particular tribe, but to be the general term for the non-Aryan tribes who were not under Aryan control, as the Śūdras were . . .’ (*Vedic Index*, Vol. I, p. 453). This is supported by the evidence supplied by Aupamānyava² who distinguishes the Niṣādas from the other four varṇas or ‘colours’ (castes). The word Niṣada (Niṣāda) of the *Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā* (XVI, 27) is explained by the commentator Mahīdhara to mean a Bhīl or Bhilla, a tribe that still exists in the hills of Central India and the Vindhyan tracts. Macdonell and Keith point out that ‘a village of the Niṣādas is mentioned in the *Lāṭyāyana Śrauta Sūtra* (VIII, 2, 8), and a Niṣāda Sthapati, a leader of some kind of craft, is referred to in the *Kātyāyana Śrauta Sūtra* (I, I, 12; Weber, *Indische Studien*, 10, 13) and in a *Brāhmaṇa* cited by the scholiast on that passage’.³ According to Weber,⁴ the Niṣādas were settled aborigines. In the opinion of the authors of the *Vedic Index*, this view is supported ‘by the fact that the ritual of the Viśvajit Sacrifice (*Kauṣītaki B.*, XXV, 15; *Lāṭ. Ś.S.*, VIII, 2, 8; *Pañ. B.*, XVI, 6, 8, etc.) requires a temporary residence with the Niṣādas; for the Niṣādas who would permit an Aryan to reside temporarily amongst them must have been partially amenable to Aryan influence. But the name might easily be applied to the whole body of aborigines outside the Aryan organisation’ (*Vedic Index*, Vol. I, p. 454).⁵ The Law-giver, Manu, however, explains the origin of the Niṣādas as ‘the offspring of a Brāhmaṇa father and a Śūdra mother’.⁶ In his chapter on Mixed Castes, Manu says that the son of a Niṣāda by a Śūdra female becomes a Pulkasa by caste, but the son of a Śūdra by a Niṣāda female is declared to be a Kukkuṭaka.⁷ The social duty enjoined on the Niṣādas was to kill and provide fish for consumption by the people.¹ According to the Pāli texts as well, they were wild hunters and fishermen.² That they were a tribe ‘of rude culture or aboriginal stock’ (A.I.H.T., p. 290) and outside the Aryan organisation is also attested by the Rāmāyaṇa story of Guha, king of the Niṣādas who are described as a wild band.³

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¹ *Taittirīya S.*, IV, 5, 4, 2; *Kāṭhaka S.*, XVII, 13; *Maitrāyaṇī S.*, II, 9, 5; *Vājasaneyī S.*, XVI, 27; *Aitareya B.*, VIII, 11; *Pañcaviṃśa B.*, XVI, 6, 8, etc.

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² *Yāska’s Nirukta*, III, 8.

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³ *Vedic Index*, I, p. 454.

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⁴ *Indische Studien*, 9, 340. Cf. 10, 13, 16.

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⁵ Von Schroeder seeks to identify (*Indiens Literatur und Cultur*, p. 366) the Niṣādas with the Nysæana of Greek geographers. This, however, is doubtful. In this connection, see also ‘Indo-Aryan Races’ by Rainaprasad Chanda who says that the Niṣādas were a non-Aryan race.

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⁶ *Manu*, X, 8; *Muir’s Sanskrit Texts*, I, p. 481.

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⁷ X, 18.

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¹ Manu, X, 48.

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² Fick, Die Sociale Gliederung, 12, 160, 206, etc.; cf. Muir’s Sans. Texts, 301, 303, 366, n. 164, 403, 481.

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³ Ādikāṇḍa, Canto I; Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Canto 51.

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During the period represented by Epic and Paurāṇic traditions the Niṣādas seem to have had their habitat among the mountains that form the boundary of Jhalwar and Khandesh in the Vindhya and Satpura ranges.⁴ This is proved by a reference in the Mahābhārata⁵ to a Niṣāda rāṣṭra in the region of the Sarasvatī and the Western Vindhyas, not very far from Pāriyātra or Pāripātra.⁶ The Mahābhārata seems to connect the Niṣādas with the Vatsas and Bhargas or Bhaggas:

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⁴ Malcolm, Memoirs of Central India, Vol. I, p. 452.

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⁵ III, 130, 4.

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⁶ Ibid., XII, 135, 3-5.

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*Vatsabhūmiñca Kaunteyo vijigye balavān balāt*
*Bhargānāmadhipañcaiva Niṣādādhipatim tathā.*⁷

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⁷ II, 30, 10-11.

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The Niṣādas seem also to have had a settlement in the east. The Bṛhatsaṃhitā of Varāhamihira (XIV, 10) seems to recognise a kingdom or ‘rāṣṭra’ of the Niṣādas in the south-east of the Madhyadeśa. A Niṣāda kingdom whose capital was Śṛṅgaverapura (on the north side of the Ganges opposite Prayāga) is also referred to in the Rāmāyaṇa (II Canto, 50, 33 to Canto, 52, 11); and it is not improbable that this Niṣāda kingdom is identical with the one referred to in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā.

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The first epigraphic mention of the tribe is found in the Junāgaḍh Rock Inscription of the year 72 of Mahākṣatrapa Rudradāman (i.e. 150 A.D.). Rudradāman is there credited with having conquered the Niṣāda country along with E. and W. Malwa, the ancient Māhiṣmatī region, the district round Dwārkā in Gujrat, Surāṣṭra, Aparānta, Sindhu-Sauvīra and others. Thus the Niṣāda country in the middle of the second century A.D. was under the suzerainty of the Western Kṣatrapas.⁸

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⁸ The Chitorgarh Inscription of Mokala or Mewad of the Vikrama year 1485 (Ep. Ind., Vol. II, pp. 416ff.) states in a general way (verse 46) that Mokala subdued the Aṅgas, Kāmarūpas, Vaṅgas, Niṣādas, Cīnas and Turuṣkas; ‘but there can be no doubt that the verse has been put in solely for the sake of poetical ornamentation’.

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