Tribes in Ancient India c40: Chapter XXXVI. The Mūtibas
Tribes in Ancient India c40
- Language
- English
Chapter XXXVI. The Mūtibas
c40.2
The Mūtibas were a non-Aryan barbarian (Dasyu) tribe, mentioned in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 18) along with the Andhras, Pulindas and Śavaras. They are also probably referred to in the *Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra* (XV, 26, 6) under the name Mūcīpas or Mūvīpas.¹
c40.3
¹ ‘It is not altogether improbable that the Mūcīpas are the people who appear in the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* (57, 46) under the designation of Mūshika. A comparison of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* with the *Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra* betrays a good deal of confusion with regard to the second and third consonants of the name. It was, therefore, perfectly natural for later generations to introduce further variations. The Mūshikas were probably settled on the banks of the river Musi on which Hyderabad now stands’ (*P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., p. 80).
c40.4
The location of the Mūtibas is not definitely known, but as they are mentioned along with the Śavaras and Pulindas who, according to the Purāṇas² and the *Mahābhārata*,³ were ‘dakṣiṇāpathavāsinah’ or located in the south, it may be surmised that the Mūtibas also were a southern tribe. This is also indicated by the fact that the Andhras with whom they are associated were also a southern people.
c40.5
² *Vāyu P.*, 45, 126; *Matsya P.*, 114, 46-8.
c40.6
³ XII, 207, 42.
c40.7
The Mūtibas were probably the same as the Modubae of Pliny, who are said to have dwelt beyond the Modo-Galingae, a tribe occupying a large island in the Ganges; though it is difficult to account for the Mūtibas evidently a southern tribe, coming to occupy a region not very far from the Ganges.
c40.8
The Mūtibas do not seem to have been an important tribe; they are scarcely mentioned in the historical period.
Linked texts (7)
- Śāṅkhāyanaśrautasūtra — Śāṅkhāyana, Sanskrit
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin