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Tribes in Ancient India c42: Chapter XXXVIII. The Kuntalas

Tribes in Ancient India c42

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Chapter XXXVIII. The Kuntalas

c42.2

The Kuntalas are twice mentioned in the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* list of tribes, once in connection with the peoples of Kāśī and Kośala (LVII, 33), which means that they were a Madhyadeśa tribe, and elsewhere (LVII, 48) along with the Aśmakas, Bhogavardhanas, Naiṣikas, Andhras, etc., which suggests that they were a people of the Deccan. The *Bhīṣmaparvan* of the *Mahābhārata*, however, seems to locate the people in three different regions. One verse (IX, 347) seems to locate them in the Madhyadeśa, while another (IX, 367) in the Deccan which is also upheld by a reference apparently to the same people in the *Karṇaparvan* (XX, 779). A third reference in the *Bhīṣmaparvan* (IX, 359) suggests location of the tribe somewhere in the western region. Cunningham points out (*A.S.R.*, XI, 123) that the country of the Kuntalas of the Madhyadeśa should be identified with the region near Chunar which he calls Kuntila. Whatever be the merit of the identification, the Kuntalas of the Madhyadeśa do not seem to have attained to any historical eminence. The Kuntalas of the west also have hardly any place in history. But the Kuntalas of the Deccan appear to have risen to considerable importance in historical times as will be evident from subsequent details.

c42.3

Literary and epigraphic references have now proved beyond doubt that there were several families of the Śātakarṇis of the Deccan, and one or more of these families ruled over Kuntala of the Kanarese districts before the Kadambas (Ray Chaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., 339-40). One member mentioned in the *Matsyapurāṇa* list is actually called Kuntala Śātakarṇi, a name that is commented upon by the commentator of Vātsyāyana’s *Kāmasūtra*. He takes the word ‘Kuntala’ in the name Kuntala Śātakarṇi to mean ‘Kuntala-viṣaye jātatvāt tatsamākhyaḥ’. A Śātavahana of Kuntala is also referred to in the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* of Rājaśekhara. This king ordered the use of Prākrit to the exclusion of every other language by the ladies of his inner apartments. He has often been identified with king Hāla who hailed from Kuntala (*Kāvyamīmāṃsā* notes, p. 9).

c42.4

According to certain Mysore Inscriptions,¹ the Kuntala region included the southern part of the Bombay Presidency and the northern portion of Mysore, and it was ruled at one time by the kings of the Nanda dynasty.

c42.5

¹ Rice, *Mysore and Coorg from Inscriptions*, p. 3; Fleet, *Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts*, p. 284, f.n. 2.

c42.6

Kuntala figured in history also in later times. An Ajaṇtā Inscription credits the Vākāṭaka king Pṛthivīsena I with having conquered the lord of Kuntala. Another Vākāṭaka king Hariṣeṇa claimed victories over Kuntala along with Lāṭa, Avanti, Andhra, Kaliṅga, etc.

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