Tribes in Ancient India c36.2

c36.2

The Kalingas as a tribe are almost always associated with the Aṅgas and Vaṅgas in ancient Indian literature. These three tribes along with the Puṇḍras and Suhmas are said to have been named after the five sons of Bali, Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Puṇḍra and Suhma who were called Bāleya Kṣatra and also Bāleya Brāhmaṇas.¹ These five tribes evidently then lived conterminously and had their distinct entities within respective geographical boundaries to which they gave the names of their respective tribes. The tradition referred to above is contained in the Purāṇas and the Great Epic, according to which, the sage Dīrghatamas had married King Bali’s Śūdra nurse and had Kakṣivant and other sons; and at Bali’s desire begot on the queen Sudeṣṇā the aforesaid five sons. According to the Great Epic again,² King Jarāsandha is said to have extended his supremacy over the Aṅgas, Vaṅgas, Kaliṅgas and the Puṇḍras. In the *Droṇaparvan*,³ Vāsudeva is said to have once routed in battle the Aṅgas, Vaṅgas, Kaliṅgas and the Pauṇḍras along with other peoples. A town named Kaliṅganagara, evidently one of the cities of the Kaliṅga people, is mentioned in the *Rāmāyaṇa*, on the west of the Gomatī and not far from it.⁴ A Kaliṅga tribe is also referred to in the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*⁵ as having their settlement on the Śatadru. Pargiter suggests that the reading is erroneous, for there seems to be no ground for thinking that the Kaliṅgas lived in N. India.⁶ Moreover, the *Vāyupurāṇa*⁷ in the same context reads Kulindas instead, which seems to be the correct reading. The *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*⁸ mentions another people named the Arkaliṅgas along with the Kuntalas, Kāśīs, Kośalas, Atharvas and the Malakas. Pargiter doubts this reading as well, because of the *Vāyupurāṇa* reading which is different in the same context.⁹ The *Matsyapurāṇa* reads Avantas and Kaliṅgas instead,¹⁰ but this is also hardly satisfactory in view of the fact that the Kaliṅgas are hardly known to have been associated with the Avantas and moreover that the Kaliṅgas are elsewhere described not only in the same Purāṇa but also in other Purāṇas as a people of the southern region. The Mārkaṇḍeya, for example, says that they dwelt in the southern region along with the Mahārāṣṭras, Mahiṣakas, Ābhīras, Vaiśikyas, Śavaras, Pulindas and others.¹ A number of famous Kaliṅga or Kaliṅga kings are mentioned in the Ādiparva of the Mahābhārata ² and they are credited with having contracted matrimonial relations with princesses of the Aryan royal families of the north (e.g. Ādiparvan, XCV, 3774-5, 3780; Droṇaparvan, LXX, 2436). According to epic evidence as contained in the Mahābhārata,³ the Kaliṅga country comprised the entire tract of country lying along the coast of Vaitaraṇī in Orissa to the borders of the Āndhra country.⁴