Tribes in Ancient India c46.7

c46.7

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