Tribes in Ancient India c46.5

c46.5

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.