Tribes in Ancient India c51.4

c51.4

According to Julius Eggeling, a confederacy of kindred peoples known as the Kośala-Videhas, occupying a position of no less importance than that of the Kuru-Pañcālas, lived to the east of the Madhyadeśa at the time of the redaction of the Brāhmaṇas. The legendary account is that these people claimed Videgha Māthava as their common ancestor, and the two branches are said to have been separated from each other by the river Sadānīrā (corresponding either to the Rāpti or to the Gandak). In Eggeling’s opinion, the Videha country in those days constituted the extreme east of the land of the Aryans.² Dr. Weber notes that the Aryans, led by Videgha Māthava and his priest, apparently pushed up the river Sarasvatī as far east as the river Sadānīrā which formed the western boundary of the Videhas, or more probably the Gandak (? = Sadānīrā) which was the boundary between the Kośalas and the Videhas.³