Tribes in Ancient India c43: Chapter XXXIX. The Rāṣṭrikas
Tribes in Ancient India c43
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Chapter XXXIX. The Rāṣṭrikas
c43.2
The Rāṣṭrikas are mentioned for the first time in the Rock Edicts of Aśoka (V and XIII), along with the Andhras, Pulindas and Bhojas who were included as vassal tribes within Aśoka’s dominions. The Andhras, Pulindas and Bhojas were known as early as the time of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, but the Rāṣṭrikas find no mention there. The tribe had evidently not come into importance at that time.
c43.3
Even after Aśoka’s time the Rāṣṭrikas continued to be associated with the Bhojas. In the Hāthigumphā Inscriptions of King Khāravela (c. 150 B.C.), that monarch is said to have defeated the Bhojakas and Rāṭhikas (i.e. the Bhojas and Rāṣṭrikas of Aśokan inscriptions) in the fourth year of his reign, and to have compelled them to do him homage.
c43.4
The Sātavāhana records refer to two tribes, Mahābhojas and Mahāraṭhis (Smith, *Aśoka*, 4th Ed., p. 225), who were evidently identical with the earlier Bhojas and Rāṣṭrikas, and it is clear that the Rāṣṭrikas or Mahāraṭhis were the ancestors of the present Mahārāṣṭra people or Mārāṭhas (cf. R. G. Bhandarkar, *Anc. History of the Deccan*).
c43.5
The Bhojas were located in the Vidarbha or modern Berar region, which is included within modern Mārāṭhi-speaking districts. The Rāṣṭrikas who were so frequently associated with them must have occupied the adjoining tracts, and it may be assumed that they were located in the very region where the present Mārāṭhas dwell.
Linked texts (1)
- Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit