Tribes in Ancient India c32.48

c32.48

A few generations after Kuvalayāśva came the great monarch, Māndhātā, who became a cakravartin or emperor exercising suzerain sway. In Māndhātā’s dominions, it was said, the sun never set: ‘From where the sun rises to where it sets, all this is the land of Māndhātā, the son of Yuvanāśva.’⁴ As in the cases of Ikṣvāku and Kakutstha, fanciful stories based on a literal derivation of the name are narrated in the Purāṇas, which state that the name Māndhātā was due to what Indra said¹ when the prince was born. The *Bhāgavata-purāṇa* adds that Māndhātā acquired the designation of Trasadasyu on account of the fear that he struck into the minds of the Dasyus. Māndhātā’s daughters were given in marriage to the Ṛṣi Sauvari, and Purukutsa, one of the king’s sons, married a Nāga girl (evidently a girl of a non-Aryan tribe).