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Tribes in Ancient India c41: Chapter XXXVII. The Pulindas

Tribes in Ancient India c41

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Chapter XXXVII. The Pulindas

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The Pulindas were a people belonging to the aboriginal stock, and have often been classed with such non-Aryan tribes as the Śabaras, Ābhīras, Pulkusas, etc. They are usually definitely stated to be a southern tribe, but there seems to have been a northern branch of the Pulindas as well.

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The association of the Pulindas with the Andhras and Śavaras, as also with the Puṇḍras and Mūtibas, is as old as the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 18), where it is stated that the elder sons of Viśvāmitra were cursed to become progenitors of such races as the Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śavaras, Pulindas and Mūtibas.¹

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¹ Roth, *Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda*, p. 133.

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The *Mahābhārata*² places the Pulindas in the Dakṣiṇāpatha (Deccan), along with the Andhras, Guhas, Śavaras, Cucukas and Madrakas. The *Matsya* and *Vāyu Purāṇas*³ also describe them as *Dakṣiṇāpatha-vāsinah* (dwelling in the Deccan), along with the Vaidarbhas, Daṇḍakas, Vindhyas and others. The *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*⁴ too places the Pulindas in the Deccan, and classes them with the Puṇḍrakas, Keralas, Kaliṅgas, Ābhīras, Andhras, Vidarbhas and Kuntalas. The *Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam* (2, 4, 18) associates them with the Kirātas, Hūṇas, Andhras, Pulkusas, Ābhīras, Suhmas, Yavanas and Khaśas, all of whom sought the protection of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

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² XII, 207, 42.

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³ *Teṣām pare janapadā Dakṣiṇāpatha-vāsinah* *Kārūṣāśca sahaiṣikā Ātavyāḥ Śavarāstathā* *Pulindā Vindhyapuṣikā Vaidarbhā Daṇḍakaiḥ saha* (Matsya, 114, 46-8). *Ābhīrāḥ saha caiṣikāḥ Ātavyāḥ Śavarāśca ye* *Pulindā Vindhyamulikā Vaidarbhā Daṇḍakaiḥ saha* (Vāyu, 45, 126).

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⁴ 57, 45-8. The Pulindas are also mentioned in the *Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa* (see Pūrva Bhāga, 16, 40ff.), Brahma P. (27, 41ff.), *Vāmana P.* (13, 35ff.), *Garuda P.* (55, 10ff.).

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In the Bengali recension of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (Kiṣkindhyā K., XLI, 17; XLIV, 12), the Pulindas appear both in the south and in the north. The northern recension knows only of the northern Pulindas (Kiṣkindhyā K., XLIII). The *Viṣṇupurāṇa*⁵ associates the Pulindakas (probably identical with the Pulindas) with the Sindhus: the two peoples are coupled in a compound—Sindhu- Pulindakas—and are mentioned together with the Kārūṣas, Bhojas, Daśārṇas, Mekalas, Utkalas and other tribes. The compound Sindhu-Pulindaka also occurs in the *Mahābhārata* (6, 346ff.) and *Padmapurāṇa* (III, 6, 4ff.). The Pulindas are alluded to in the *Raghuvamśa* as well (XVI, 32), but there is hardly any clue to their geographical location.

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⁵ See Wilson, *Viṣṇu P.* tr., Vol. 2 (1865), pp. 156ff.

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The capital of the (southern) Pulindas was Pulindanagara which lay to the south-east of Daśārṇa, i.e. in the Vidiśā or Bhilsa region, and may have been identical with Rupnāth, the find-spot of one recension of Minor Rock Edict I of Aśoka.¹

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¹ *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., pp. 79, 258.

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At the time of Aśoka, the Pulindas, together with the Andhras, Bhojas and Rāṣṭrikas, formed a group of vassal tribes within the Emperor’s dominions,² which extended as far south as the Pennar river in the Nellore district, just stopping short of the Tamil kingdoms, which are referred to as Pracamta or frontier states.

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² Rock Edict, V and XIII.

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Some interesting information about the Pulindas is supplied by Ptolemy. According to him, the Pulindas seem to have been located along the banks of the Narmadā, to the frontiers of Lārike or Lāṭa = Gujarat; for he describes them as occupying a region northward of Nasik, Ozene (= Ujjain), Minnagara, Lārika or Lāṭadeśa (= Gujarat), Barygaza (= Bharukaccha = Broach), etc. His epithet for the tribe is ‘Agriophagoi’,—a Greek word indicating that they were a tribe that subsisted on raw flesh and wild roots and fruits.

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Yule in his map locates the Pulindas to the north-east of the Gulf of Cutch.

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