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Tribes in Ancient India c30: Chapter XXVI. The Niṣadhas

Tribes in Ancient India c30

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Chapter XXVI. The Niṣadhas

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The Niṣadhas were a different race from the Niṣādas with whom they are often confounded; and we may conclude that they belonged to the Aryan fold. According to the Epic and Paurāṇic tradition, the Niṣadhas are said to have sprung from the primeval King Pṛthu, son of Veṇa.¹ The tribe seems to have derived its name from Niṣadha who is described in the Purāṇas and *Bhagavadgītā* to have been the son of Atithi, grandson of Kuśa, and father of Nala.² According to the *Viṣṇupurāṇa* (IV, Chap. 24, 17), the ten kings of the Mekala country and nine of the Sapta Kośala country are said to have been succeeded by the nine kings of the Niṣadhas, while, according to the *Vāyupurāṇa*, the kings of the Niṣadha country held sway till the end of the days of Manu. They were all descendants of King Nala, and lived in the country of Niṣadha (*Vāyu* P., Chap. 99, 376). This King Nala of the Purāṇas must be identical with the King Nala whose story is referred to in the *Mahābhārata* (III).³

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¹ *Vāyu* P., 62, 137-48; *Brahmāṇḍa* P., II, 36, 158-73; *Kūrma* P., I, 1, 6; *Ibid.*, 14, 12; *Śiva* P., VII, 56, 30-1; *Mbh.*, XII, 59, 2233-4, etc.

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² *Kūrma* P., 21, 58; *Bhagavadgītā*, 9, 12, 1; *Saura* P., 30, 69; *Śiva* P., *Dharma*, 61-9; *Brahma* P., 8, 88.

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³ The Nala story itself seems to have been much older than the *Mahābhārata*, for it is referred to by Sītā in the *Rāmāyaṇa* (Ray Chaudhuri, *Studies in Indian Antiquities*, Chap. on *Interrelation of the two Epics*).

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But notwithstanding the celebrity of the Niṣadha country as the kingdom of Nala, it is difficult to ascertain exactly where it was situated. It is, perhaps, permissible to conjecture that it was not very far from Vidarbha, the country of Nala’s queen, Damayantī. From the directions given by Nala to Damayantī, Wilson thinks⁴ that it was near the Vindhyas and Payoṣṇī river, and that it was near the roads leading from it across the Ṛkṣa mountain to Avanti and the south, as well as to Vidarbha and to Kośala. Lassen places Niṣadha, the kingdom of Nala, along the Satpura hills to the north-west of Berar. Burgess also places it to the south of Malwa.⁵

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⁴ *Viṣṇupurāṇa*, Vol. II, pp. 156-90.

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⁵ *Antiquities of Kathiawar and Kacch*, p. 131.

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The Purāṇas locate the Niṣadhas in the upper and lower regions of the Vindhya ranges.⁶ According to the *Mahābhārata*, the capital of the Niṣadhas was Giriprastha (III, 324, 12).

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⁶ *Brahmāṇḍa* P., 49; *Vāyu* P., 45; *Vāmana* P., 13, etc.

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The Niṣadhas seem to have played a prominent part in the Kurukṣetra war in which they ranged themselves on the side of the Pāṇḍavas, along with the Mekalas, Kośalas, Madras and Daśārṇas.¹ They were at one time defeated by Karṇa.²

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¹ *Karṇaparvan*, Chap. 22, 3; *Bhīṣmaparvan*, Chap. 54, 8.

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² *Karṇaparvan*, Chap. 8, 19; *Droṇaparvan*, Chap. 4, 8.

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