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Tribes in Ancient India c46: Chapter XLII. The Mūlakas

Tribes in Ancient India c46

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Chapter XLII. The Mūlakas

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The Mūlakas were a small tribe, very closely related with the Aśmakas of the South¹ (= Aśvakas of the *Mahābhārata*, Assakas of Pāli literature). They were perhaps situated to the south of Avanti, and according to Bhaṭṭasvāmī, the commentator of Kauṭilya’s *Arthaśāstra*, their country was identical with Mahārāṣṭra. The position of the Aśmakas and Mūlakas may be determined by two references in the *Suttanipāta*. From verse 977 we gather that the Assakas and Mūlakas² occupied the region on the banks of the Godāvarī; while in verse 1011 the capital of the Mūlakas is described as being located at Paṭiṭṭhāna (Sans. Pratiṣṭhāna), i.e. Paithan (= Baithan of Ptolemy) on the north bank of the Godāvarī in the Aurungabad district of the Nizam’s dominions.

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¹ As distinguished from the Aśmakas of N.W. India, identical with the Assakenoi of the Greeks.

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² It should be noted, however, that Mūlaka occurs only in the Burmese reading of the S.N. The Singhalese has ‘Aḷaka’, which seems to be identical with Mūlaka (Law, *Geography of Early Buddhism*, p. 21).

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Some scholars are of opinion that the Mūlakas occupied the same tract of country as that of the Aśmakas, and that the two tribes were identical.³ This is, however, doubtful. In the *Vāyu-purāṇa*, both Aśmakas and Mūlakas are no doubt stated to be scions of the Ikṣvāku family (Chap. 88, 177-8); and if we are to believe the Pauranic tradition as contained in the *Garuḍapurāṇa* (Chap. 142, 34), Mūlaka, the originator of the Mūlaka tribe, was the son of King Aśmaka, a descendant of Bhagīratha. The Aśmakas and the Mūlakas were thus intimately related, but that the two tribes were different and lived in separate regions is revealed not only by the Brahmanical sources of the Epics and Purāṇas, but by Buddhist sources as well.

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³ Dey, *Geographical Dictionary*, pp. 13 and 133.

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In early Pāli literature, Assaka is distinguished on the one hand from Mūlaka in the north and on the other from Kaliṅga in the east.⁴ According to the *Paramatthajotikā* (II, Pt. II, p. 581), the Godāvarī formed the border line between the territories of two Andhra kings (that is to say, between Assaka and Aḷaka). That the two countries were distinguished from each other is also upheld by the Pauranic tradition as contained in the *Viṣṇudharmottara* (Pt. I, Chap. 9). D. R. Bhandarkar, however, suggests that in later times Mūlaka came to be included in Assaka. In the *Sonadaṇḍa Jātaka*,¹ the Assaka country is associated with Avanti; this contiguity, according to Bhandarkar, can only be explained if it is assumed that Mūlaka was included in Assaka, and that the latter country was thus contiguous with Avanti.²

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⁴ Bhandarkar, *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, pp. 53-4.

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¹ *Jātaka* (Fausböll), V, p. 317.

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² *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, pp. 53-4.

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In giving the genealogy of the kings of Ayodhyā who belonged to the Ikṣvāku or ‘solar’ race, some of the Purāṇas³ mention the names of six kings, namely, Aśmaka, Mūlaka, Śataratha, Iḍaviḍa (with variations), Vṛddhaśarman and Viśvasaha, who came after King Saudāsa Kalmāṣapāda. The list differs from that given in the other Purāṇas, but Pargiter considers it more authentic (*Anc. Ind. Hist. Tradition*, pp. 94 and 147). King Mūlaka is referred to in the Purāṇas enumerated above as reigning contemporaneously with one King Rāma. Mūlaka was afraid of Rāma and lived protected by a guard of women (nārī-kavaca). A similar statement occurs in the *Mahābhārata*.⁴ In the historical period, Aśmaka and Mūlaka were no longer connected with Ayodhyā.⁵

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³ *Vāyu P.*, Chap. 88, 178-9; *Brahmāṇḍa P.*, Pt. III, Chap. 63, 178-9; *Liṅga P.*, Pt. I, Chap. 66, 29; *Kūrma P.*, Pt. I, Chap. 21, 14; *Bhāgavata P.*, Pt. IX, Chap. 9, 40.

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⁴ XII, Chap. 49, 1770-8 and 1792-3; for the historicity of these tales, see Pargiter, *op. cit.*, p. 152, f.n. 2.

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⁵ The country of the Mūlakas seems to have been mentioned as Maulika in Varāhamihira’s *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, XIV, 4.

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As late as the second quarter of the second century A.D., the Mūlakas are distinguished from the Aśmakas. The Nāsik Inscription of Gautamī, the Sātavāhana Queen, states that her son conquered the Śakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas, and that her dominions extended not only over Asika, Asaka (= Aśmaka) and Mūlaka, but also over Surattha, Kukkura, Aparānta, Anupa, Vidarbha and Ākara-Avanti.

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